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By Wailin Wong
| Motorola said Monday it is exploring potential locations for the
headquarters of its mobile phone and cable set-top box business, which
is slated to be split off from the rest of the company next year.
“If Mobile Devices and Home make the decision to relocate its
headquarters, this would affect less than 200 people and would not occur
in 2010,” the company said in a statement.
By Wailin Wong
| Sprint and Wal-Mart are launching a new prepaid wireless phone service this week aimed at “no-frills” customers who use cell phones infrequently.
The service, called Common Cents Mobile, will be available on Saturday in more than 700 Wal-Mart stores across the country. No stores in the Chicago area are part of the initial launch, but customers can order the handsets and activate service online at walmart.com or commoncentsmobile.com. The service runs on Sprint’s nationwide network.
By Wailin Wong |
PlatinumTel Wireless, a Chicago-based prepaid wireless provider, has won a federal court case against several local competitors over false advertising and unfair competition.
A U.S. District Court judge in the Northern District of Illinois awarded PlatinumTel a $15 million judgment in late April. The provider had first sued a number of related companies in February 2008, alleging that two competitors named EZ Stream and U.S. Mobile were misrepresenting the amount of minutes contained in its prepaid wireless plans. In its 2008 lawsuit, PlatinumTel said it posted “substantial, seven-figure losses in 2005 and 2006″ as a result of” their competitors’ “fraudulent advertising.”
Associated Press | Taiwanese cell phone maker HTC Corp. said it
filed a legal complaint against Apple Inc., saying its iPhone, iPod and
iPad devices infringe on HTC patents.
The move escalates a patent dispute between the two electronics
companies, as Apple tries to maintain the iPhone’s supremacy against
Android, the increasingly popular mobile software upstart from Google
Inc.
Associated Press | Twitter says it has fixed a glitch that has
allowed users to seem more popular by making it appear that celebrities
had subscribed to read their mini-blog postings known as tweets.
The flaw allowed some Twitter users to game the popularity contest. It
allowed users to add anyone else as a follower of their tweets.
Normally, the other person has to initiate such “following.”
By Wailin Wong
| Activist investor Carl Icahn has raised his stake in Schaumburg-based
Motorola Inc. to 8.75 percent, according to a Friday filing with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Icahn and his investment vehicles last disclosed their Motorola holdings
in May 2008, reporting a 7.6 percent stake.
By Wailin Wong |
Motorola Inc. is no longer one of the top five mobile phone makers
worldwide, according to a new ranking by research firm IDC.
The Schaumburg-based technology company has been in the top five since
IDC began its quarterly reports in 2004, and was in the No. 2 spot that
year. But Motorola’s well-documented woes of recent years — failing to
follow up the Razr with more hit products, and missing out on the
industry’s initial shift into sophisticated, Web-connected devices –
caused the company to slip in the rankings. Research In Motion, the
maker of the BlackBerry, replaced Motorola in the list for the first
quarter of 2010, according to IDC.
By Wailin Wong |
Motorola Inc.’s Droid smartphone accounted for the most traffic out of all mobile devices running Google’s Android operating platform worldwide, according to an industry snapshot released Tuesday.
AdMob, a California-based mobile advertising network, compiles monthly statistics on mobile Web traffic based on data it collects from its network of more than 18,000 mobile websites across platforms such as Android and the iPhone’s operating system. The company is able to pinpoint the handset model from which it receives an ad request.
From MarketWatch | Google Inc. said Monday its Nexus One service is not in the cards right now for Verizon Wireless customers.
Read the full story: MarketWatch.com
By Wailin Wong | Verizon Wireless began online pre-sales this week for the Droid Incredible, a new smartphone manufactured by Taiwanese company HTC Corp. If the Droid name sounds familiar, that’s because it’s already attached to two other phones at Verizon, including the Droid by Motorola, which was launched with a splashy marketing campaign late last year.
Verizon is using “Droid” to signify certain phones that run Google’s Android operating system, said spokesman David Clevenger. The carrier licenses the name “Droid” from Lucasfilm, the production company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas.
(AP Photo/Paul Beaty, File)
Associated Press | Israel has banned imports of Apple Inc.’s hottest new product, the iPad,
citing concerns that the strength of its wireless receivers and
transmitters are incompatible with national standards and could disrupt
other wireless devices.
Customs officials said Thursday they have already confiscated about 10
iPads since Israel announced the new regulations this week.
The blanket ban prevents anyone — even tourists — from bringing an iPad
into Israel until officials certify that the computers comply with local
transmitter standards.
