Once you’ve announced something on sports stadium scoreboard – like a wedding proposal or ditching the brand name of a company you’ve acquired – there’s no going back. That seems to be the case with CenturyLink, which recently started displaying electronic billboard-style messages in ballparks, including Denver’s Coors Field, stating that “Qwest is becoming CenturyLink.” (more…)
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Google’s mobile progress by the numbers
Google announced its earnings last night (revenues strong, profits a bit softer, price targets cut), offering a deeper look into how its mobile business is faring in the process. The verdict: it’s growing at the same scale and with the same impact to its business and the market that its search business did in the early years. Which of course is the point – and a major endorsement of its mobile strategy. (more…)
Windows Phone 7 updates coming…wait, wait…
Microsoft this week started delivering a long-awaited update for its Windows Phone 7, but the roll-out is coming slowly and Microsoft continues to push at least part of the blame to its operator partners. Or at least that’s what one can take away from a new weekly-updating Web page the software vendor launched week to let users know when to expect their phone updates. For most phones, those updates are in “testing” — code word for “the operator is holding this thing up.” (more…)
What’s an IPv4 address worth? About eleven bucks, former Nortel finds
Bankrupt Nortel has sold off its optical, wireless and IP businesses (but not its name, which is fading into history). Its latest sell-off: a block of 666,624 IPv4 addresses sold to Microsoft for $7.5 million, or about $11.25 a piece. That’s a lot of cash for what amounts to a dying resource, but of course that’s the point. Those addresses have value for vendors like Microsoft (and more to the point service providers) and their customers, many of whom aren’t quite ready to make the move to IPv6 quite yet. (more…)
Is Android fragmented? Depends how you look at it, who’s asking
With multiple operator partners and a fast-moving release schedule, Google’s Android platform has always faced concerns about fragmentation. Would operators be able to efficiently manage and developers effectively target the platform if users were spread across a huge range of “dot” releases of the mobile OS? So is fragmentation happening? It depends how you look at it (and maybe the point of view you bring to the question). (more…)
Verizon iPhone numbers start to roll in, 10 percent share by one estimate
Anecdotally at least (see the photo of one modest launch day line at right), Verizon’s iPhone launch wasn’t a blockbuster success. But the first real numbers are starting to roll in and they aren’t bad. Two mobile ad firms released estimates of Verizon iPhone adoption based on mobile ads served this week. And though they reach different conclusions, it appears Verizon may have already captured as much as 10% of the overall iPhone market in just a month.
Clearwire faces lawsuit for throttling ‘unlimited’ network — even as other operators move away from the idea altogether
Clearwire has had its share of problems lately (from funding problems and job layoffs to investor concerns). Now add another: a customer lawsuit that claims the wireless operator reneged on its advertised unlimited service plans by throttling customers’ home Internet access. The lawsuit (in PDF form, courtesy of Broadband Reports), not only claims that Clearwire is improperly limiting customer data speeds but is engaged in a Ponzi scheme, promoting unlimited or high-speed data services and swapping them out for a lower-speed reality. (more…)
Android, security and the app store: The perils of the open app ecosystem
One of the Android’s biggest differentiators is its openness – particularly when compared with Apple’s iPhone. The Android operating system is more customizable, its application model more open and its app distribution approach – including a lower approval bar in the Android Market while also allowing apps to be proliferated outside of the market – is much less restrictive. But that freedom also opens the door to potential abuse: this week, Google was forced to pull more than 50 Android apps that reportedly were not only infected with malware but stealing user data from devices as well.
Not all things cloud turn to gold: Cisco shuts down hosted email
Cisco announced this week it is shutting down its Cisco Mail hosted email service, a cloud-based offering it says was less interesting to customers than more advanced collaboration and conferencing offerings. (more…)