Carriers & Vendors
Tablets with Windows RT See Slow Sales, IDC Says
May 2, 2013 8:37 am | by Peter Svensson, AP Technology Writer | News | CommentsMicrosoft is seeing slow sales of a version of Windows designed for thin and light tablets, even as the tablet market as a whole is growing, a research firm reported Wednesday. Researchers at IDC said manufacturers shipped 200,000 tablets running...
T-Mo's Merger with MetroPCS Complete, Now Trading on NYSE
May 1, 2013 9:59 am | by Andrew Berg | News | CommentsDeutsche Telekom today announced the completion of the merger of T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS Communications. T-Mobile will also debut this morning on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TMUS. As previously announced, the company's board will have 11 members, including...
Apple Sells $17 Billion in Bonds in Record Deal
May 1, 2013 9:06 am | by Associated Press | News | CommentsApple Inc. sold $17 billion in bonds Tuesday in a record deal spurred by the company's plan to placate its frustrated shareholders. The Cupertino, Calif., company sold the bonds in its first debt issue since the 1990s to raise money to pass along to shareholders through dividend payments...
Softbank Claims Its Sprint Bid Represents 21 Percent Premium over Dish Bid
April 30, 2013 10:22 am | by Andrew Berg | News | CommentsSoftbank today went on the offensive as it sought to defend the benefits of its $20.1 billion offer to acquire a 70 percent stake of Sprint Nextel. SoftBank Corp. said it has presented an analysis of its agreed transaction with Sprint and explained to investors why its transaction is superior to what it called...
How Siri, Google Now Respond to 5 Questions
April 30, 2013 9:29 am | by Associated Press | News | CommentsWith Google's voice assistant now available on iPhones and iPads, The Associated Press used an iPad Mini to throw five test questions at Google Now and Siri on Monday afternoon in New York. Here's what the two digital assistants had to say for themselves...
Clearwire Draws Sprint Funding for Third Straight Month
April 30, 2013 8:55 am | by Ben Munson | News | CommentsAfter declining funding from Sprint in January and February, Clearwire has elected to take the funding for May, making it three straight months of $80 million draws for a grand total of $240 million. The initial offer from Sprint totaled $800 million to be lent...
SoftBank Allows Sprint to Conduct Talks with Dish
April 29, 2013 10:49 am | by Associated Press | News | CommentsSprint Nextel says SoftBank is allowing it to seek more information from Dish Network related to its rival bid for the third-largest U.S. cellphone company. Sprint has agreed to sell 70 percent of itself to Japan's Softbank Corp. for $20.1 billion. But it recently got a competing...
Google Now Update Hits iOS App
April 29, 2013 10:43 am | by Andrew Berg | News | CommentsGoogle continues to make inroads on iOS today with the launch of an update to its Google Search app. The company today announced it was adding Google Now functionality to its iOS app. Google Now is a kind of virtual assistant akin to Apple's Siri...
Report: Investors Pan Rumored $100B Verizon Bid for Vodafone's Share in VZW
April 29, 2013 10:12 am | by Andrew Berg | News | CommentsA Reuters report from Wednesday that claimed Verizon had hired advisers to prepare a $100 billion bid for Vodafone's 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless was apparently credible enough to provoke a response from major Vodafone investors...
First News Briefs for April 26, 2013
April 26, 2013 10:29 am | by Wireless Week Staff | News | CommentsNexmo announced it has been selected by Line Corporation as an SMS API provider for its mobile service platform, LINE. With this announcement, Nexmo added LINE to its growing list of global messaging app customers, including Viber, KakaoTalk and ICQ.
Samsung to Block Access to App Store in Iran
April 26, 2013 10:04 am | by Associated Press | News | CommentsIranian users of Samsung mobile applications said Thursday that the company had notified them that they will no longer have access to the company's online store as of May 22. The move is seen as part of international sanctions on the country over its disputed nuclear program...
Samsung Posts $6.5 Billion Profit
April 26, 2013 10:00 am | by Ben Munson | News | CommentsSamsung posted a gigantic $6.5 billion in profits for the first quarter of its fiscal 2013, up significantly from the same quarter last year when the company posted $4.5 billion. Overall sales for the quarter tallied $47.6 billion, down quarterly after the holidays but up from the $40.7 billion it posted in the first quarter of 2012.
AT&T Digital Life Launches in 15 Markets
April 26, 2013 9:54 am | by Andrew Berg | News | CommentsAT&T has officially launched its IP-based Digital Life home automation service in 15 markets, with plans to introduce the service in up to 50 markets by the end of 2013. The new service, which was announced last spring and has been trialing in Dallas and Atlanta, will be served up a la carte, depending on which aspects of their...
Qualcomm Sees Big 2Q Revenues, Raises 2013 Guidance
April 25, 2013 10:35 am | by Ben Munson | News | CommentsQualcomm reported $6.1 billion in revenue on $1.06 EPS for the second quarter of its 2013 fiscal year. The jump is revenue represents a 24 percent increase annually and had led the chipset giant to raise revenue and earnings guidance for 2013.
Report: Android Tablets Gaining on iPad
April 25, 2013 10:07 am | by Ben Munson | News | CommentsAndroid tablets are closing the gap on Apple. A new study from Strategy Analytics indicates 17.6 million Android tablets shipped worldwide in the first quarter of 2013 compared with 6.4 million shipped in the same quarter last year. Apple shipped 19.5 million iPads worldwide in the first quarter, compared to 11.8 million in the same quarter last year.
Approved: MetroPCS Shareholders OK T-Mobile Merger
April 24, 2013 10:54 am | by Ben Munson | News | CommentsMetroPCS shareholders have voted to approve a merger with T-Mobile. The approval comes after T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom (DT) sweetened the offer by reducing the amount of debt the combined company would shoulder. In a statement, DT CEO René Obermann said “The merger with MetroPCS is extremely important, since it enables us to be more aggressive in the USA.”
Sprint, T-Mo Delay S4 Launch on Inventory Problems
April 24, 2013 10:47 am | by Andrew Berg | News | CommentsSprint and T-Mobile, which had previously announced their customers would get first dibs on the Samsung Galaxy S4, have now said the device will be delayed. In a statement, Sprint said that while it had planned to launch the phone on Saturday, April 27, Sprint was dealing with...
Ericsson Q1 Profits Dive on Restructuring Costs
April 24, 2013 10:26 am | News | CommentsWireless equipment maker Ericsson said Wednesday that a 2 percent gain in sales in the first quarter was not enough to prevent an 86 percent slump in net profit as it booked costs connected with downsizing its Swedish operations. Sales rose to 52 billion kronor...
Sprint’s 1Q Losses Narrow, While Customers Jump Ship
April 24, 2013 10:14 am | by Andrew Berg | News | CommentsSprint today reported shrinking first-quarter losses of $643 million, down from $863 million in the same period last year. Revenues from the Sprint platform were up 9 percent annually to $7.1 billion. Subscribers continued to jump ship however, perhaps as they wait to see how the pending merger...
LG Electronics Profit Plunges on Slow TV Sales
April 24, 2013 9:54 am | by Youkyung Lee, AP Technology Writer | News | CommentsLG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday its first quarter earnings shrank to less than one tenth of the year-earlier quarter as its TV business languished, masking a recovery in mobile phone sales. It forecast higher profit for the current quarter as new smartphone models and a revamped lineup of TVs hit shelves in global markets.
FreedomPop Goes Nationwide With Freemium Internet on Sprint’s 3G
April 24, 2013 9:38 am | by Ben Munson | News | CommentsFreedomPop today announced it has jumped onto Sprint’s CDMA airwaves and expanded its potential coverage by more than 220,000 Americans. The freemium mobile broadband provider, which guarantees customers 500 MB free per month, had previously only operated on Clearwire’s WiMax service.
AT&T Grows Margins Despite Record 1Q Smarpthone Sales
April 23, 2013 5:52 pm | by Andrew Berg | News | CommentsAT&T Mobility managed to grow its margins even as it reported a first-quarter record of 6 million smartphone sales. On $16.6 billion in total wireless revenues, $5.1 billion of which was from mobile data, AT&T Mobility managed wireless operating income margins of 28 percent...
Apple’s 2Q Beats Street With Revenues Up, But Profits Down Annually
April 23, 2013 5:48 pm | by Ben Munson | News | CommentsEven coming off the most profitable quarter in tech company history, Apple still has earned a crooked gaze from Wall Street thanks to Apple’s stock falling 43 percent from its all-time high from September 2012. But Apple’s 2013 second quarter managed to beat the street with $43.6 billion in revenue on $10.09 EPS. That’s compared with estimates of $42.3 billion in revenue in $9.97 EPS, according to FactSet.
First News Briefs for April 23, 2013
April 23, 2013 10:28 am | by Wireless Week Staff | News | CommentsT-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced the appointment of Drew Kelton to the newly created role of executive vice president of Business Markets, reporting to president and CEO John Legere; Openwave Messaging, Inc. has joined the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), an industry forum for developing market driven, interoperable mobile service enablers; and more.
Sprint Launches New Enterprise Services
April 23, 2013 10:14 am | by Ben Munson | News | CommentsSprint today launched a number of new services geared toward the enterprise, addressing WAN limitations and BYOD. Data Link rolls out on Sprint 3G and LTE networks and provides enterprises with private network coverage. The 99.9-percent service level agreement Data Link supports smartphones, tablets, laptops, M2M applications, hotspots and mobile broadband cards.
