In-app advertising — or “appvertising” — has quickly matured from a novel new marketing platform into a bona fide strategy for delivering pitches directly to consumers on their mobile devices, and the ever-increasing supply of apps on the market is giving advertisers endless opportunities to reach consumers. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The new Nokia N8 has the dubious distinction of being both the first and the last N-series handset to run Symbian^3 — new high-end devices will run on MeeGo. A product strategy in constant transition isn’t one that will attract developers or customers to Nokia. Read more »
Apple’s iPhone 4 officially launches today as both pre-order customers and those hoping to walk up and grab the new device are lined up around the country. Just like the original Apple iPhone, this model is sure to influence the features on future smartphones from competitors. Read more »
Near Field Communications, a point-to-point communications technology that can send data a few inches, is back. Yesterday Nokia said it would embed NFC chips in all of its phones and Broadcom said it would spend $47.5 million on a company with NFC expertise. Read more »
One would think that owning the largest smartphone market share in the world ought to attract the most high-quality mobile software developers developers, but doesn’t seem to the case for Nokia. Too many products on too many permutations of platforms and a sub-par store aren’t helping. Read more »
Yahoo and Nokia — two venerable names in the web and mobile markets — are joining forces to power mail, chat and maps services worldwide. The alliance sounds good on paper, but in the real world, it’s more of a last-ditch effort to stave off obsolescence. Read more »
General Motors moved this week to link its upcoming Chevrolet Volt and in-vehicle communications system, OnStar, with Google navigation tools and smartphones based on the search giant’s Android platform. This marks a key intersection in the trajectories of automakers and Internet giants and could pave the way to much more comprehensive partnerships across previously disconnected industries and systems. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Research firm Gartner has published the latest quarterly smartphone numbers, and it’s easy to see why the honchos at Google are all smiles at the I/O conference this week. Android grew an impressive 8% of smartphone market share this year, moving it into fourth place overall. Read more »
Join James, Matt and Kevin live for this week’s audio podcast where they’ll cover this week’s mobile technology news and share experiences with the latest software, hardware and web services. If you missed the live show, you can grab an MP3 audio recording. Read more »
Nokia today is restructuring itself — for the fourth time in nearly as many years. Through all of the reorganizations and new handset models, Nokia continues to fall short in stopping worldwide market share growth Apple’s iPhone. Each attempt is a step or two behind. Read more »
Nokia Chairman, CEO and President Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo has the second-toughest job in the mobile industry — that of turning the decades-old, set-in-its-ways, $58-billion-a-year mobile handset maker into a services-driven, Internet-oriented monster that not only catches up to but surpasses new upstart rivals Apple and Google. The […] Read more »
Fox is releasing a so-called hypertrailer for its hit show Glee today that allows viewers to friend characters of the show on Facebook right within the video player while watching a preview for an upcoming episode. The key to this integration of additional web content within […] Read more »
In February, Intel and Nokia melded their respective mobile operating systems. Moblin and Maemo have joined forces to become MeeGo, and the first build of the new open-source platform is now available for download. Read more »
Nokia said today that it has purchased Novarra, a company that delivers a faster browsing experience on feature phones. There are only 400 million smartphones among 4.6 billion total mobile subscribers, so buying a firm to boost browsing for the rest of the world makes sense. Read more »
With Palm living on borrowed time after posting yet another horrendous quarter and warning that results for the current fiscal period will also fall short of expectations, we take a look at some of the companies that might sweep in and pick up the beleaguered firm. Read more »
Skype and Nokia this morning announced the addition of Skype for Symbian to Ovi Store, which is picking up traction with Nokia users around the world. It’s a huge win for Skype in terms of distribution and brand awareness, and a major threat to carriers. Read more »
Nokia’s N900 offers one place for all types of communications, aptly named “Conversations.” This catch-all bucket now supports Twitter as a method, but you’ll have to walk on the wild side — the repository for this update holds alpha and beta code. Read more »
Adoption of smartphones by consumers has pushed them to tremendous growth. In spite of the number of smartphones in the marketplace, until yesterday you could count the number of significant OSes using a few fingers. The smartphone playing field has changed, and not just a little. Read more »
Nokia and Intel have joined to merge the Maemo and Moblin platforms. The merged OS will be known as Meego, and is intended to power pocketable computers, smartphones, tablets and netbooks. It will be hosted by the Linux Foundation, and is an open source platform. Read more »
The Symbian Foundation has (almost) launched its much awaited Symbian 3 mobile operating system, and from the looks of it, it is an OS desperately trying to catch up its nemesis, the iPhone. The phones powered by Symbian 3 will launch later in 2010. Read more »
Intel and Nokia are merging their respective mobile Linux Operating Systems — Mobilin and Maemo — to form a new OS called MeeGo. It will be hosted by the Linux Foundation and target connected devices. And it will be fighting for increasingly limited developer attention. Read more »
Over the last few years Mobile World Congress, the mobile phone industry trade show, has experienced a shift from being about mobile phones to being about always-on connectivity. Mobile broadband has changed the value of the mobile ecosystem and thus the players who care about it. Read more »
Nimbuzz, a mobile VoIP service and social networking services integrator, says that its Symbian app has been downloaded more than a million time from the Ovi Store by Nokia. In other words, Nimbuzz is benefiting handsomely from increased usage of the Ovi Store. Read more »
What do you get when pairing three Nokia N900 users and Skype? Various viewpoints on the latest and greatest Nokia smartphone in the form of an audio podcast. This roundtable covers the device from software to hardware and everything in between. Read more »
Location, a fundamental enabler of new mobile services, is at the epicenter of an extraordinary wave of mobile innovation. While location-based services have been the subject of much hype for years, location now occupies a critical, pervasive role in the mobile industry. This report outlines the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
WorldMate has teamed up with LinkedIn to bring network integration onto the BlackBerry. WorldMate members can now tap into the LinkedIn network from within the new BlackBerry app. It is now easy to share travel plans with the LinkedIn network from right on the phone. Read more »
The change in the mobile phone market caused by the introduction of Apple’s iPhone has slightly cut the profits for the handset industry overall, but has most severely affected Nokia and Sony Ericsson, while boosting Research in Motion, according to data released today from Deutsche Bank. Read more »
James uses both the Pre Plus and the Pixi Plus. Which suits him better? Kevin’s happy with the Google Nexus One update while Matt starts surfing in Overdrive with both 3G and 4G. Read more »
Symbian is targeting a wide variety of connected devices in the wake of its transition to an open-source mobile operating system. It’s a smart move for an aging OS that has consistently lost market share to Apple, RIM and Android. Read more »
Since its launch on Jan. 21, Ovi Maps has been download about 1.5 million times, Nokia says. A million Ovi Maps apps were downloaded in the first week alone and the top countries for the app are China, Italy, the UK, Germany and Spain. Read more »
Evernote, a Mountain View, Calif.-based startup, says that Nokia has developed a version of its web service that allows users to capture and store information using the built-in sharing functionality of the N900. It is made possible using a plug-in using the Evernote API. Read more »
Nokia’s Ovi Store has overtaken Apple’s App Store as the storefront of choice for mobile developers in emerging mobile markets. But can Nokia leverage its traction in developing economies as Apple and Android build on their momentum in Western markets? Read more »
Although Nokia has lost smartphone market share over the past few years, 2009 showed signs of a turn-around. Add in 2010 plans for a major Symbian revamp, cross-platform Qt apps and multitouch and you just might see perfect timing for Nokia. Read more »
Has Mozilla truly brought a desktop browser to the small screen? The not-so-easy answer is yes and no. But this first version of Firefox for Maemo looks promising for an initial release. And Weave brings desktop data to your phone — even open tabs. Read more »
Mozilla’s Firefox for Maemo isn’t quite ready for its already expected debut. A third Release Candidate just hit for Nokia tablets and while performance is marginally better, plug-ins were pulled out. That means no Adobe Flash just yet for this otherwise solid web browsing client. Read more »
