Smartphones and tablets are driving both in-store and online commerce, but their roles are distinct in many ways. Nielsen shed some light on how consumers are using both devices to aid their shopping. Overall, 79 percent of respondents have shopped using their smartphone or tablet. Read More »
April Fool’s day is Sunday and instead of highlighting corporate jokes or writing the traditional “gotcha” news item, we figured we’d compile a list of ways you can prank your friends. To make this really useful, feel free to add your own in comments. Read More »
European politicians have just voted up proposals to slash roaming charges for mobile users who stray across the continent’s borders. But it’s drawn a violent response from Vodafone boss Vittorio Colao who thinks it could create “hell” for operators. Read More »
Remember Crazy Frog? The bike-riding amphibian and his irritating, ubiquitous song symbolized the premium ringtone market a few years ago, before fading into obscurity. The frog has disappeared, but one startup thinks it has found a way to evolve the idea for the modern mobile user. Read More »
The era of cheap digital photography means it is easier than ever to take a good picture, but it also means we are drowning in photos, and pictures have become just another form of digital detritus. Where will those digital memories be when we need them? Read More »
Combine the gargantuan information flows from the web and apps available to us everywhere with the small screen and processing power of a smartphone and you get a pretty evident bottleneck. Startup CoreMobile hopes to solve this with its enterprise software. Read More »
TMNG Global , a consulting and strategy firm that works with all the major carriers, is introducing the first mobile device leasing program in the U.S., which will allow operators to offer no money down one-year leases for handsets to their best customers. Read More »
IBM is stepping up its mobile profile, buying up Israeli mobile app provider Worklight and releasing a new device management tool for enterprise customers. The moves help IBM capitalize on the push toward mobile by enterprises as they manage an exploding number of devices and apps. Read More »
The Pew Internet and American Life Project shed light on one of the biggest challenges for retailers: more than half of U.S. adult cell phone owners used their mobile phone during the recent holiday season to get in-store help for their purchases. Read More »
Research In Motion’s new CEO, Thorsten Heins, held his first conference call on Monday morning, reiterating his view that the company is not in need of a major shakeup but instead some improvements in processes, marketing and consumer focus. Read More »
RIM has announced it has replaced co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie with Thorsten Heins, the current COO. The change was necessary but Heins will have to make a clear break from RIM’s past performance, which at least initially he doesn’t appear anxious to do. Read More »
Yes, it’s possible for IT departments to manage the consumerization of IT without stopping it. Huddle’s Andy McLoughlin offers a simple approach that allows corporate IT departments the flexibility to give employees choices about mobile devices and the control to ensure that networks are safe. Read More »
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Aviary, a maker of mobile photo editing tools, is introducing an update to its four-month-old mobile software development kit today with more effects, better controls and high-resolution output. Can photo editing tools hasten the demise of point-and-shoot cameras? Aviary thinks so. Read More »
If the latest data is to be believed, the battle for high-end smartphones is essentially a tussle between Apple and Samsung. With China’s ZTE’s and Huawei’s aiming for the lower end of the business, is there is room for HTC, LG, Sony or Motorola? Read More »
The world is increasingly going mobile: mobile apps, to be more exact. New data out of app analytics firm Flurry finds mobile users are spending more time in mobile apps than mobile web browsing, widening a gap that began for the first time last summer. Read More »
The iPhone 4S, along with cheaper older models, has helped Apple close the distance on Google’s Android, drawing within a few percentage points in recent U.S. smartphone sales market share, according to the NPD Group. Android and iOS are very much in a two-horse race. Read More »
Increasingly, websites and services are getting a bigger chunk of their traffic through mobile with some pushing past the 50 percent mark. That’s setting up a world in which developers and publishers have to think mobile first as consumption shifts to smaller devices. Read More »
After the year RIM has had, it appears co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie may be losing their co-chairmen titles, according to a report in the Financial Post. But will such a move be enough to right RIM’s ship? Read More »
Next year millions of consumers use fitness devices and apps designed to help them count their steps, calories, sleep and other personal metrics. But in the emerging world of connected wellness tools will newly aware consumers be using apps or devices? Read More »
Camera-equipped smartphones are gaining on traditional cameras in the percentage of photos and videos taken with them. On Thursday, a new study out said smartphones took 27 percent of photos in 2011, up from 17 percent last year. Regular cameras account for 44 percent. Read More »
Global mobile advertising and marketing is expected to grow from $3.4 billion in 2010 at a compound annual growth rate of 37 percent to $22.5 billion in 2016. Berg Insight said that by 2016, mobile advertising worldwide will represent 15.2 percent of all online ad spending. Read More »
Are Google, Yelp and Facebook scared of Siri? If they aren’t they should be, as should any mobile website, service or app that depends on advertising. Siri is the first user interface that shifts our attention away from our phones’ screens, but it won’t be the … Read More »
More evidence, if it were needed, that Europe is increasingly becoming a mobile-centric culture, with figures showing that France’s smartphone market has grown 34 percent in the last year. Read More »
Republic Wireless, the division of Bandwidth.com that offers customers an Android phone with unlimited voice data and texts for $19 a month launches Tuesday. Here’s how it will work (there’s a $199 “membership” fee) and what it means for the wireless industry. Read More »
After turning down an acquisition offer, shopping assistant start-up ShopSavvy is moving ahead with plans to go it alone. It raised $7 million in a Series A round led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin. ShopSavvy is looking to ride the exploding mobile commerce market. Read More »
RIM responded to its worst outage ever by giving away $100 worth of apps. And it’s throwing in a month of free tech support. It’s an unsatisfactory gesture and another case of RIM not communicating well enough with consumers who need more reasons to stick around. Read More »
The Mango software update will roll out to existing Windows Phone 7 devices starting today and should get to all devices within a matter of weeks. It sets up Microsoft to finally get into the smartphone game in its second year with WP7. Read More »
Intel is very serious about low power chips, although it won’t have them until 2013. The company showed off the long-rumored Haswell chips at its developer forum on Tuesday, which it says can can run all day and offer a 20x reduction in power. Read More »
Connected consumer electronics are poised to surpass PC sales by 2013 as tablets, televisions, game consoles and Blu-ray players all latch on to the web, says iSuppli. All of these devices will add strain to wired and wireless networks for years to come as a result. Read More »
Mobile phone manufacturer HTC has purchased VIA Semiconductor’s graphics business. The deal is indicative of the need for compelling graphics on mobiles as well as an admission that mobile device makers may get an edge if they can bring some silicon capabilities in house. Read More »
The Android smartphone onslaught may have hit its peak, at least in the U.S., according to an analyst who thinks that the expanded rollout of the iPhone to other carriers will check the rise of Google’s OS. Cheaper iPhones will also help eat into Android’s lead. … Read More »
New figures from analytics firm Flurry suggest that mobile users across Europe’s biggest markets are ravenously hungry for apps — and that even despite high smartphone adoption around the continent, there is still plenty of room for further growth in the coming years. Read More »
Mobile workers just don’t put the phone down, according a new report from iPass, which provides Wi-Fi and 3G network access to enterprise clients for use by their employees. The results of the report are illuminating, if not also a little scary. Read More »
Intel has managed to keep pushing Moore’s Law by developing a 3-D transistor that allows the chipmaker to deliver ever smaller chips that will be more powerful, yet consume less energy. The new chip moves Intel ahead of the industry and positions it competitively against ARM. … Read More »
Microsoft unveiled a new set of tools for iOS developers to help them port their apps over to Windows Phone 7. But to really catch up in this game and significantly bump up developer support, Microsoft needs more than tools. It needs to sell more phones. Read More »
Android has been outselling the iPhone recently but Apple’s iPhone was still the most desired smartphone. Not anymore. According to Nielsen, 31 percent of respondents in March said they want their next smartphone to be an Android device, while 30 percent said they wanted an iPhone. Read More »
Life360, a family safety app, has been on a six-month tear, hitting 2 million families using the service. The growth highlights the work done to drive daily engagement, but more importantly, underscores the rise of smartphones and their increasing use as family utility tools. Read More »
Android in the U.S. pushed ahead of rivals iOS and RIM in January, according to Nielsen Wire, and is finding more popularity among younger consumers. HTC is also winning both the Android and Windows Phone 7 manufacturing race ahead of rivals Motorola and Samsung. Read More »
Microsoft is trying to carve out its own territory with Windows Phone 7, positioning it as a different phone that aims to be deeply personal for users. The new platform launches Nov. 8 in the U.S., but will it help Microsoft regain relevance in smartphones? Read More »
What happens when a hardware modder finds spare parts in his shop? He cobbles together an old-fashioned, hand-crank method to charge one of the latest and greatest 4G smartphones, of course. It’s not the low-tech solution that makes this video entertaining, it’s definitely the cackling joy. Read More »
Social networking has become the killer application for mobile broadband and possibly the adoption of smartphones. A survey out today from Allot Communications has measured a 310 percent increase in Twitter traffic from the first half of 2010 and a 200 percent increase in Facebook traffic. Read More »
Smartphones could be the most important diagnostic tool of the next century, according to Eric Topol, a cardiologist speaking at the TedMed conference last year. Maybe if the smartphone becomes useful for medical monitoring, perhaps those costly data plans will be reimbursed by insurance providers. Read More »
Smartphone traffic on the mobile web continues to ramp up dramatically, according to the mobile ad company. And much of that growth is being generated by iPhone and iPod touch users overseas. Read More »
Google’s Android OS-based phones and Apple’s iPhone maybe get all the media love, but one analyst firm believes that it will be RIM’s BlackBerry that will be the smartphone king of the U.S. market in five years. Pyramid Research expects the device to be the biggest … Read More »
Sony Ericsson today announced its Xperia X10 smartphone, based on Android, which features a customized software layer called UX built on top of the open-source operating system. It’s the first of a family of smartphones that the company plans to deliver in the first half … Read More »
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