As 2006 drew to a close, T-Mobile -- the fourth largest wireless carrier in the U.S. -- saw subscriptions drop from the same period in 2005, although growth was still quite good all things considered (what with Cingular adding 2.4 million customers in the same period).
T-Mobile USA said it added 901,000 net new subscribers during the fourth quarter of 2006, fewer than the 1.39 million it added during the same time in 2005.
Looks like Nokia -- the world leader in wireless handset sales but lagging here in the U.S. -- is looking for a new global ad agency.
The company probably wants to grow back its mojo after being so popular in the U.S. marketplace (and elsewhere) just five years ago when Nokia was "the phone" to have.
Recently, Motorola, Samsung and LG have beaten up on Nokia here in the American market quite badly with newer styles, higher-end phones and more selection -- and Nokia has become "not the brand" it used to be.
The prevalence over the last few years of letting customers here in the U.S. "port" their wireless telephone numbers form one carrier to another has been a very nice success from all accounts. Personally, I've used this and found the value to be quite good (i.e., not losing my number).
How about the rest of the world? According to this article, failed implementation has meant that customers are not using number portability in the numbers that were expected in many markets across the globe. Here in the U.S., though, the process is quite smooth after the initial kinks were ironed out.
When a company is making profit margins in the area of 40% or more, you know some money -- quite a bit of money -- is being made.
Verizon Communications -- which runs the second-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. -- said that it expects to maintain wireless gross margins of 43% to 45% for the coming years.
That is pretty bold considering Verizon Wireless wants to take more marketshare over the next few years -- which generally means deflated margins at the expense of more share.
It seems there are a billion smartphones and Pocket PC phones (remember, two different OSes there) running on Windows Mobile.
Years ago, the Palm OS seemed to be a 'favorite' in the wireless handset world -- that mantra, though, is up between Windows Mobile and Symbian now in a "Rocky Balboa vs. Apollo Creed" style of fight.
With that, check out a review of the new "Hermes" Pocket PC device (from HTC, of course) over at MobileBurn.
That headline begs for responses from all corners. What is a good cellphone design all about? Purely physical aspects like size, weight and curves?
How about software design and user interface (UI) aspects like speed, intuitiveness and "prettyness"? These software and hardware aspects -- plus much more -- makes for a well-designed wireless handset.
For all of you who can't stand being limited to Cingular's existing 1.8Mbps HSDPA handsets or Sprint Nextel's 800Kbps EV-DO handsets, Cingular just upped the bar in the "theoretical" wireless speed department.
The new Motorola V3xx is the first HSDPA handset in this hemisphere that supports HSDPA speeds up to 3.6Mbps, which is all nice and good -- but real-world speeds are...quite different most likely.
Still, this handset's pretty sweet to look at (and use, I'll bet). It's available at Cingular now.
Although I haven't experienced a single problem in my area with Sprint Nextel and Cingular (the two subscriptions I carry), apparently many subscribers using the older Nextel iDEN network are having, umm, issues.
This article sheds a little light on what may be going on at Sprint Nextel in terms of network performance, although I've heard the same complaints from customers of T-Mobile, Verizon, Cingulr and Alltel as well. In other words, things like this are highly subjective.
The Motorola RAZR became so popular over the last two years because it broke the mold in terms of handset design. All of a sudden, the "thin is in" mantra took over the popular wireless handset marketplace.
In terms of success, the RAZR has it -- over 50 million units sold in its history (and still counting). In addition, there are tons of copycats now and every manufacturer is making "slim" phones from entry-level phones to smartphones.
Nokia saw a 19% gain in handset shipments last quarter from growing markets in India and China -- for its cell phones in India and China, the world's fastest-growing emerging markets.
But, growth in the U.S. slowed in terms of shipments. Along with Motorola and Samsung -- which both said that lower profits would happen in 2007, are shipments to the U.S. slowing down? As the cellphone market matures, sure it is -- and look for all the handset makers to go to growing markets for their sales (and profits).
With China becoming a pre-eminent player in 3G mobile and wireless technologies, CDC Mobile wants to partially cash in on that by investing in BBMF Group.
Why a Japanese company? Well, BBMF is standing first in line to be able and participate in the 3G content market in China. CDC Mobile, meanwhile, will be drawing on a $100 million fund and will invest $20 million in BBMF Group.
The venerable "Palm OS" is no longer going to be called "Palm" in any way, as Access, Ltd. -- the company that bought the Palm OS some time ago -- will be renaming the mobile operating system "Garnet".
Why Garnet? Probably because that was the codename for the latest version of the rapidly-aging operating system (I guess). Want "Garnet" in your new smartphone? You can soon get it. Or not.
With Cingular Wireless, Sprint Nextel and now Verizon Wireless raising the text messaging rate for customers (without a monthly texting plan) to 15 cents per message sent or received, are smaller carriers following that trend?
T-Mobile USA -- the fourth-largest carrier here in the U.S. -- is staying put (for now) with 10 cents per message sent or received (on a "pay per use" basis).
But, will T-Mobile and even Alltel raise their SMS rates to 15 cents soon? Hey, everyone else is doing it.
NextPhase Wireless is moving into the Caifornia market as it rolls out its nationwide expansion plans.
But, its first stab at the California marketplace won't deal with wireless introduction at the start.
Initially, NextPhase will be offering dial-up, DSL and T1 lines to customers, and then will move into the realm of offering a full portfolio of broadband connectivity services -- like integrated Internet, voice and data communications.
Kyocera Wireless -- known in the U.S. for its CDMA-based wireless handsets -- is planning to develop new consumer electronic devices that make use of mobile WiMAX technology.
Kyocera is teaming with Runcom to provide the WiMAX marketplace with its expertise in OFDMA (orthagonal frequency-division multiplexing) and mobile WiMAX technology.
Kyocera has stated publicly with this announcement that with WiMAX delivering high-speed broadband wirelessly to larger areas, it thinkgs some companies will end up choosing WiMAX because it will outshine current 3G data networks.
As 2006 drew to a close, T-Mobile -- the fourth largest wireless carrier in the U.S. -- saw subscriptions drop from the same period in 2005, although growth was still quite good all things considered (what with Cingular adding 2.4 million customers in the same period).
Looks like Nokia -- the world leader in wireless handset sales but lagging here in the U.S. -- is looking for a new global ad agency.
The prevalence over the last few years of letting customers here in the U.S. "port" their wireless telephone numbers form one carrier to another has been a very nice success from all accounts. Personally, I've used this and found the value to be quite good (i.e., not losing my number).
When a company is making profit margins in the area of 40% or more, you know some money -- quite a bit of money -- is being made.
It seems there are a billion smartphones and Pocket PC phones (remember, two different OSes there) running on Windows Mobile. 
That headline begs for responses from all corners. What is a good cellphone design all about? Purely physical aspects like size, weight and curves?
For all of you who can't stand being limited to Cingular's existing 1.8Mbps HSDPA handsets or Sprint Nextel's 800Kbps EV-DO handsets, Cingular just upped the bar in the "theoretical" wireless speed department.
Although I haven't experienced a single problem in my area with Sprint Nextel and Cingular (the two subscriptions I carry), apparently many subscribers using the older Nextel iDEN network are having, umm, issues.
The Motorola RAZR became so popular over the last two years because it broke the mold in terms of handset design. All of a sudden, the "thin is in" mantra took over the popular wireless handset marketplace.
Nokia saw a 19% gain in handset shipments last quarter from growing markets in India and China -- for its cell phones in India and China, the world's fastest-growing emerging markets.
With China becoming a pre-eminent player in 3G mobile and wireless technologies, CDC Mobile wants to partially cash in on that by investing in BBMF Group.
The venerable "Palm OS" is no longer going to be called "Palm" in any way, as Access, Ltd. -- the company that bought the Palm OS some time ago -- will be renaming the mobile operating system "Garnet".
With Cingular Wireless, Sprint Nextel and now Verizon Wireless raising the text messaging rate for customers (without a monthly texting plan) to 15 cents per message sent or received, are smaller carriers following that trend?
NextPhase Wireless is moving into the Caifornia market as it rolls out its nationwide expansion plans.
Kyocera Wireless -- known in the U.S. for its CDMA-based wireless handsets -- is planning to develop new consumer electronic devices that make use of mobile WiMAX technology.
