Hewlett-Packard has had a change of heart regarding its TouchPad tablet, which to its great surprise prompted Apple-like lines and sold out at iPad-like speeds once it was reduced by 80%. (more…)
Unfiltered
Frank discussion with telecom's most experienced editors
Archive for the ‘Mobile Apps’ Category
Social networking growth — driven by mobile use — comes thanks to young women and older users
Women, the publishing industry has long known, are the largest contingent of book buyers. They’re apparently also a boon to wireless carriers and social networking sites, comprising the largest and most active user group — ”power users,” Pew Research announced in a new report — as overall user numbers slow their annual climb. Another power group? Surprise: senior citizens. (more…)
GroupMe, Beluga see millions in group messaging; Kik sees chance of a lifetime
Group messaging was designated the standout tech trend at March’s SXSW event. Beluga, Fast Society, GroupMe, Kik and Yobongo were — in the friendliest of ways — pitted against one another as attendees’ messaging app of choice. According to a TechCrunch graphic measured by Twitter mentions (highly scientific) GroupMe earned the crown, with more than 6,400 mentions, followed by Beluga and Kik. (more…)
RIM BBM Music may give music fans more to savor
RIM has blundered and bungled of late, hurrying to catch up to trends just as they’re on to the next thing. But its new BBM Music — a cloud-based music service linked to its popular BlackBerry Messenger app — may earn it a pat on the back from music fans. Eventually. (more…)
Quake shakes carriers to push SMS, wakes interest in D Block spectrum
The 5.8-magnitude earthquake that shook the East Coast yesterday knocked over beverages, felled lawn chairs, sent workers in skyscrapers walking down too many flights of stairs to stand idly on sidewalks, and still managed to drive up SMS traffic by 15%. (more…)
Vodafone and Google provide ‘frictionless’ mobile payment solution
According to a Vodafone developer blog, the mobile communications giant will soon begin offering customers in the UK and Germany the choice of paying for content purchased via Google’s Android market direct to their mobile phone bill or via their prepaid account.
Although it’s a relatively low-key announcement of a carrier billing launch, it is one that will be greeted with relief by the industry. Finally telcos – or at least this one – have decided to join the mobile eco-system that was developing around them.
Report: Verizon asking Obama to step into smartphone patent war
As the battles over smartphone intellectual property become more contentious, Verizon Wireless is asking the Obama administration to play referee. According to the Wall Street Journal’s Holman Jenkins, Verizon chief counsel Randall Milch is making the rounds in Washington warning about all of the devices that could be blocked from its networks and other operators’ networks if the patent war heats up any further. (more…)
A Sprint iPhone: Didn’t we see this coming?
According to the Wall Street Journal, Sprint will be among the operators to receive the next batch of iPhones. Citing unnamed sources, the Journal reported Sprint will start selling the iPhone 5 in mid-October, soon after Apple is expected to unveil the device in September.
Time for some chest thumping. We at Connected Planet have been predicting this for months, and we were even right on the timing (Unfiltered: Apple’s international expansion points to a Sprint iPhone), even while the industry was distracted by the idea of a T-Mobile iPhone (Unfiltered: A T-Mobile iPhone? Why not?). (Then again, we were dead wrong about Apple ever releasing a CDMA iPhone in the first place, so we’re not exactly seers.) To be fair, we weren’t the only ones to make that prediction. Ovum’s Jan Dawson tweeted as early as January–shortly after the VZW CDMA iPhone 4 was released—that Sprint would not only get the iPhone, but that it would have to wait until version 5’s release. (more…)
Lenovo intros $499 ThinkPad Tablet amid frenzy for $99 TouchPad
Lenovo announced today that its ThinkPad Tablet — an Android-based, “business class” device, not to be confused with the Lenovo LePad — is now on sale. (more…)
Has Microsoft found mobile strategy: Picking up the pieces of failed rivals?
If there’s one thing Microsoft is good at, it’s sticking things out and getting them right the second, third and fourth time. That’s really the story of Windows, the world’s most successful piece of software (not for long if Apple continues its streak). And now, Microsoft seems to be following that strategy again in mobile, hanging in there as would-be rivals disappear — first Nokia (or Symbian anyway); now HP and WebOS (CP: HP to cut WebOS, mobile business losses, hightail it to safer (enterprise) ground); and maybe someday RIM and Blackberry. To that end, Microsoft evangelists have already turned to Twitter to recruit former WebOS developers.