• Nokia is looking at entering the laptop business, according to a Reuters report on an interview that Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo gave to Finnish national broadcaster YLE on Wednesday.
• Ericsson has been ranked at the top of the latest Vendor Matrix released by ABI Research. Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks claimed the second and third spots in the company's new evaluation of worldwide managed network services vendors.
• Alaska Airlines will launch a customer trial of its new satellite-based wireless Internet service. Named Alaska Airlines Inflight Wi-Fi, the service can be used inflight on any Wi-Fi enabled device such as a laptop, smartphone or portable media player.
• Storyz, an entertainment and marketing service that lets friends tell multimedia-rich stories online and while mobile, unveiled its cross-platform beta to the public. The Motorola Ventures-backed company has designed a service for consumers to post text, photos and video for stories and invite their friends to participate virally across the Web, social networks and mobile via a streamlined interface.
• iSkoot added support for the Twitter community to its Kalaida mobile services platform, which the company says can deliver real-time Internet functionality to almost any handset sold today.
• Bridgewater Systems reported 2008 revenue increased 13 percent compared with 2007. Migration of 3G to 4G networks contributed 20 percent of revenue compared with just 3 percent in 2007.
• Iridium Satellite LLC says it had about 320,000 subscribers worldwide as of Dec. 31, 2008, and a fourth-quarter net income of $1.5 million.