Roughly half a dozen new mobile operating systems will come to market over the next 6 to 12 months. Many of these look to be more sophisticated than the older ones controlled by Apple and Google, for whom serious competition could be just around the corner. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Intel and ZTE announced a strategic collaboration last month and already have a new product. The ZTE Geek smartphone uses Intel’s latest Atom chip promising more speeds and better battery life. With a foothold in China, Intel isn’t out of the mobile game yet. Read more »
Intel announced a slightly upgraded Atom chip at Mobile World Congress and ZTE has already decided to use it. That’s good news for Intel for a number of reasons. Read more »
Nvidia has scored a design win for its latest Tegra chip. ZTE will use both the Tegra 4 and Nvidia’s modem in its next smartphones due out in 2013. Read more »
IDC reported its smartphone sales data for the final quarter of 2012 and if I gave you three guesses as to who increased sales the most from the year ago quarter, you still might not guess right. Read more »
The Korean manufacturer’s supremacy in the smartphone business is now entrenched, while the demand it’s seeing in other lines provides a timely reminder of a wider shift from the desktop to mobile. Read more »
The U.S. Congress is set to release a report that tells U.S. firms not to buy gear from Chinese telecoms vendors Huawei and ZTE. But is the report a real assessment of a threat or just economic protectionism? Here’s how we might be able to tell. Read more »
Apple and Google still dominate the smartphone space, but look out for Microsoft, which finally has some muscle behind its mobile strategy. Meanwhile mobile-browser developers went head-to-head with native apps, and Facebook continued to buy mobile expertise via acquisition. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A security hole was found in the ZTE Score, a handset model sold on both by Metro PCS and Cricket in the U.S. The breach appears to be a “backdoor” put in by ZTE, which is already under U.S. scrutiny as a China-based company. Read more »
Eighty-five percent of the global population owns mobile phones. This report forecasts the global handset market, examining the Americas; Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and Asia-Pacific. Drivers include an increased number of subscribers in developing countries and the rollout of 3G and 4G wireless networks. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
ZTE and HTC are both reportedly planning large smartphones that double as small tablets, with at least one of the two expected to include a stylus with the device. The idea is to compete against Samsung’s Galaxy Note, a 5.3-inch Android smartphone with digital pen. Read more »
Sprint’s newest Android is a 3G phone that can be a mobile hotspot and uses a powerful processor. But the best spec is the price: $20 with contract. Slice is a must-have new Android app for digital shoppers, while one app maker is abandoning Android. Read more »
The industry has moved beyond starry-eyed soothsaying about a world of 50 billion connected devices to start talking about how these mammoth networks of objects and appliances would actually work and how they would be managed. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Mobile World Congress took place this week, and aside from a few Microsoft-related announcements, the show was all about Android. We saw new phones from all but Samsung, with many slated for Android 4.0. OnLive Desktop launched for Android, bringing Windows to tablets and smartphones. Read more »
Nvidia has landed its first deal to provide both mobile connectivity and app processing for a single handset, revealing that ZTE is sourcing both its Tegra 2 and Icera radio chips for its new Mimosa X Android phone. Nvidia isn’t Qualcomm yet, but it’s getting closer. Read more »
The new Galaxy Tab 7.7 with dual-core chip tests just as fast, if not faster, than a recent quad-core tablet. Sprint is selling a capable $99 Android slate from ZTE, while Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus looked like it was losing Google’s support as a true Nexus phone. Read more »
This year’s CES was the biggest in the show’s 44-year history. It boasted 15 miles of exhibit hall aisles, 3,100 booths and 153,000 attendees. It is easy to be jaded by the endlessly repetitive products, but the thousands of innovations point toward a future of connectivity. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Sprint will carry the Optik, a 7-inch 3G-enabled tablet built by ZTE, a China-based company. The Android 3.2 tablet has capable components and runs Android 3.2. The best feature may be the price: just $99 with a two-year Sprint contract or $349.99 without a commitment. Read more »
Apple’s huge iPhone sales numbers from its latest quarterly results helped it grow its mobile phone business by 128.4 percent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a new report. That makes it the third-largest mobile phone maker by volume. Read more »
Just three weeks after lowering sales and revenue expectations, HTC has reduced guidance again, and not by just a little. The holiday season in a growing market should bring about increased sales, not lower figures. So what’s the problem with HTC, and what can it do? Read more »
Smartphone adoption may be high in the U.S. but overall smartphone sales are highest in China, with Nokia and Samsung leading the pack. Combine subsidies and numerous Android devices with an expected billion mobile connections and I’d say you’ve got the recipe for another smartphone revolution. Read more »
Smartphone adoption in the U.S. continues to rise as the average cost of devices is down. According to the NPD Group, the average up-front cost is $135. Of consumers planning to spend between $200 and $250, 64 percent spend less because of cheaper but capable devices. Read more »
Taiwan-based smartphone maker HTC again posted record sales, revenues and profits, but the company expressed a flat forecast for the rest of this year. HTC continues to build excellent handsets but is just another Android phone maker in a growing sea of other Android phone makers. Read more »
It was pretty clear that Samsung would eventually overtake Apple in terms of smartphone sales, and this past quarter, that happened. But Apple also slipped in the overall phone sales category, beat by a rival that could be more of a long-term threat: China’s ZTE. Read more »
A look at some of the big stories in mobile today:
» Google has started to quietly distribute its own SIM cards with Nexus S devi… Read more at paidContent »
As the faster wireless broadband connections proliferate, we are going to need devices to access those networks. The demand for these kind of connections is only going to increase as we adapt to this new world. Signs of this change are reflected in this research report. Read more »
We’ve seen a storm of speculation about webOS in the wake of Hewlett-Packard’s decision to discontinue its line of smartphones and tablets running the platform. Some suggest that players like HTC, Samsung or even Amazon could license the technology, while others believe HP is looking to sell the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
First Huawei and now ZTE is poised to challenge in the U.S. The company has seen 300 percent sales growth in the U.S., and it’s just getting started. It plans to leverage Android, and even Windows Phone 7, with up to 30 new handsets this year. Read more »
Looks like Nokia and Siemens are stuck with their joint venture in a telecommunications equipment company. Nokia Siemens Networks Wednesday said it had completed its review of private equity bids and decided to recommit to each other. Read more »
Ericsson, the Swedish networking equipment maker, is buying Piscataway, N.J.-based telecom software provider Telcordia for $1.15 billion, the company announced this morning. Telcordia, which can trace it roots back to the old AT&T makes software for billing and operation support. Read more »
Chinese telecom ZTE filed a patent infringement suit against rival Huawei today, a clear response to the multiple international suits Huawei filed against ZTE yesterday. Read more »
Apple finally launched the white iPhone 4 yesterday, and despite being just a new look for phone that’s nearly a year old (in a market where the vast majority of smartphone users feel obsolescence sneaks up quick), it made quite the splash. Read more »
In a surprise attack against a fellow Chinese telecom, Huawei filed patent suits against ZTE in Germany, France and Hungary. The move isn’t just an attack on a rival, but a signal to the rest of the telecom world that Huawei plans to be a player. Read more »
Within the next five years, smartphones will account for more than one-third of all handsets sold worldwide, thanks largely to platforms like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. This research covers the global handset platforms market for the period between 2011 and 2015. We first examine the factors contributing to this worldwide growth, from a slowly recovering economy to the rise of technologies like 4G and LTE. Regional factors affect growth, too, and our research includes a forecast for the following areas: the Americas; Europe; the Middle East and Africa; and Asia-Pacific. Forecasts are on a global and regional basis for the most important platforms: Android, Apple iOS, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile. Companies mentioned in this report include Apple, Google, Nokia, Research in Motion and Microsoft. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
UCell, a wireless service provider in Uzbekistan, has deployed an LTE network, making the central Asia nation the first to offer two different LTE networks. The new high-speed network offers theoretical peak speeds of 100 Mbps and is powered by software and equipment from ZTE. Read more »
The Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard has been declared the victor over WiMAX in the war between radio technologies vying to dominate fourth-generation wireless networks. But the battlefield isn’t quiet yet, and a variation on the LTE standard known as TD-LTE is the latest frontline in ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
About a year after China issued 3G licenses to its three national carriers iSuppli predicts wireless data revenue in the country will rise to $19.3 billion in 2009, up from $16.3 billion in 2008. It’s a big opportunity for device makers, app companies and the carriers. Read more »
Ericsson said it will slash 950 jobs in addition to an existing restructuring effort aimed at securing savings of $1.4 billion by the middle of next year. Indeed, with Chinese upstarts Huawei and ZTE on the rise, the telecom sector isn’t out of the woods yet. Read more »
Telecom gear vendor ZTE will step up its game in the crowded smartphone space next year with an Android-based handset, and Google is rumored to be working on its own device. But as the smartphone market continues to heat up, manufacturers are learning the hard way […] Read more »
