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Nokia, the clear leader among mobile phone manufacturers, has seen its mobile marketshare reaching upwards of 40% of the global mobile phone market in Q2 2008. At that time, the Finnish cellphone giant announced that it expected its Q3 2008 market share to stay the same. Unfortunately, for Nokia and their shareholders, the company has announced today that they expect their market share to drop in Q3.

Nokia blames a weak global economy for the revision to their third-quarter outlook. The news sent Nokia shares tumbling 11% (as of 1443 GMT), leaving the world’s largest cellphone manufacturer trading at a three-year low.

On the upside, Nokia says that it expects to see its full-year 2008 market share increasing ever so slightly. At the end of the day, it’s all about how a company fairs in the long-term. Quarterly financial wobbles can be indicators of underlying corporate problems, but in Nokia’s case, we’ll see the Finns pull through.

[Via: Forbes]

It looks like our immature, underdeveloped 3G wireless network infrastructure hasn’t stopped the US from passing-up Western Europe  in terms of 3G subscribers. According to comScore, 28.4% of US wireless subscribers have hopped on board the 3G bandwagon. Compare that to the 28.3% of western European wireless customers with 3G handsets in tow, and it’s apparent that the US has edged past Europe in 3G market penetration.

The US has seen an 80% increases in 3G usage since last year, which is impressive to say the least. With 3G handsets like the iPhone 3G and the Samsung Instinct burning up the 3G networks of AT&T and Sprint alike, it makes sense that the US has one-upped Europe in the 3G-game. And, with all new worthwhile handsets sporting 3G radios, the US isn’t likely to see much decline in 3G usage.

Press release

O2 are currently advertising a SIM-only deal (which they call “simplicity”) on their website, which is £20/month, and includes 600 mins/unlimited texts. If that wasn’t enough, there isn’t a contract tie-in either. Obviously the deal isn’t unique as other Operators have this offering, but in a more general sense, I’d like to “open a question to the floor” if I may, with the IntoMobile readers….

Do you prefer a higher price, locked-in, contract period WITH a Mobile Device of your choosing, or, do you prefer the pretty much contract-less approach with the SIM-only deals being offered?

If you have a strong opinion on this (and I am sure our readers will!), then let us know by dropping a comment! If enough people respond, we’ll revisit the issue and see whether the lure of a new handset is enough to get you to tie-in to a (typically) 18 month contract at a higher monthly rate…..

Nokia’s road to establishing an open-source Symbian Foundation has just been cemented with Samsung’s reported acceptance of Nokia’s offer to buy-out Samsung’s shares in Symbian. Samsung is the last remaining share-holder in Symbian that stands between Nokia and their Symbian Foundation initiative. With their offer accepted by Samsung, Nokia will have ownership rights to the entire Symbian code-base, setting up the Finnish cellphone manufacturer to hand over the code-base to an open-source Symbian organization, the Symbian Foundation, that will allow any and all developers to jump on board the Symbian-ship.

With mounting pressure from Windows Mobile, the iPhone OS, and of course Google’s Android, Nokia’s move to bring Symbian to the open-source table is logical. Nokia will have put up about $410 million to buy out all Symbian shareholders, which is no small amount. So it’s clear that Nokia is going to be backing Symbian for the foreseeable future.

[Via: EETimes]

Apparently, Sony CEO Howard Stringer is disappointed with the performance of the Sony’s Mobile Phone JV with Ericsson. He has hinted that a re-org or break up or the JV was possible if things didn’t improve. This situation arose out of an interview with Die Welt online.

On a more positive note, Stringer talked about the company strategy to network-enable every CE (Consumer Electronics) device that is produced, with a target of 2011 to complete this. He cites standardisation as an issue to be solved, with different industries all having their own initiatives.

Crumbs, that all sounds a bit serious doesn’t it? Sony Ericsson has evolved from the embers of the singular Sony and Ericsson mobile divisons, to become a brand with a really strong identity, and some great handsets - but the financials always tell the real situation, and in this case maybe it isn’t so positive?

[via: EETimes.com]

In a move that should at least somewhat restore your faith in the US legal system and corporate accountability, U.S. District Judge James Selna found that Qualcomm violated (more like ignored) a previous injunction that barred the chip-maker from selling 3G chips in the US that infringed on Broadcom’s patents. This most recent ruling requires that Qualcomm fork over their profits from sales of its QChat push-to-talk technology for Sprint.

Court documents indicate that Qualcomm took in $93 million in revenue related to its QChat technology. Judge Selna has given Qualcomm 30 days to calculate just how much coin they will have to pay to Broadcom - when you’re dealing with this kind of money, it can take some time to get the numbers in order.

For it’s part, Qualcomm plans to appeal the order. “We respect the order and will immediately comply and at the same time we’ll move forward with an appeal,” said Alex Rogers, senior vice president and legal counsel for Qualcomm.

The court ruling is just another legal bump in Qualcomm’s litigation-strewn road. And, with $10 billion in projected revenue for 2008, we’re sure Qualcomm won’t have too hard a time going back and forth with Broadcom in court.

[Via: Reuters]

Lawsuits over patented technologies are nothing new in the mobile industry. And, with frivolous lawsuits popping up left and right, it’s hard to keep a straight face whenever we hear of patent-holding firms suing industry big-wigs. Except this time, there’s some serious precedent in favor of the plaintiff.

Verizon Wireless recently introduced their own Visual Voicemail solution on the refreshed LG Voyager, bringing Verizon’s voicemail offering up to speed with AT&T’s Visual Voicemail system available on the iPhone and iPhone 3G. And, that’s where Verizon and LG’s troubles began.

Klausner Technologies rose to litigation-fame as the patent-holding firm with the tenacity to go after the likes of AT&T and Apple, not to mention Sprint and SimulScribe, for infringing on patents related to Visual Voicemail technologies. It seems Verizon Wireless and LG didn’t take note of the much-publicized lawsuit when it decided to launch their own Visual Voicemail system.

Klausner has announced that it has filed suit against Verizon Wireless and LG for using Visual Voicemail technologies on the newly refreshed LG Voyager for Verizon. All defendants from the previous lawsuit have already settled with Klausner - which set up a licensing precedent that isn’t going to help Verizon of LG’s case.

We should see a settlement and subsequent licensing agreement in short order - if Verizon and LG know what’s good for them.

[Via: Businesswire]

Just over a month into the iPhone 3G’s global sales push, it seems that Apple is about to see their iPhone 3G fleet surpass the number of original iPhones out in the wild. Basically, it comes down to Apple selling more iPhone 3G units, in less than two months, than the number of iPhones sold in a year of sales.

Sometime next week, we’re expecting Apple to pass the 6 million-unit mark with iPhone 3G sales. The iPhone 3G needed just a single weekend to move a cool million units in to eager iPhone hopefuls’ hands, and with sales still blazing around the world, we’ll likely see the iPhone 3G smash through more sales goals as time goes by.

Interestingly, sales of the iPhone 3G are still mighty strong despite scattered reports of 3G connectivity issues. That, dear readers, is the power of a truly unique and appealing UI.

[Via: TechCrunch]

Chalk up another executive departure for Motorola. The embattled handset manufacturer has seen more than its fair share of executive defections of late, and it doesn’t look like things are getting any better.

With new handset division CEO Sanjay Jha taking the reigns of the company’s cellphone arm, things were expected to take a turn for the better. And following on the company’s slight profit earlier this year, Motorola was expected to finally see the light of day in the mobile phone manufacturing business.

Alas, another executive has jumped off the Good Ship Moto. Rob Shaddock, chief of Motorola’s handset division’s consumer product group, has officially ended his four-month old tenure as head of the consumer products group. You read that right, Shaddock has only been on the job for a quarter and has already given up hope on the company. And, to make matters worse, Motorola has bumped up John Cipolla to the newly vacant position - which means we’ll likely be seeing more of the same from Motorola. Not good.

[Via: RCR]

By now it’s evident that there is a good sampling of the iPhone 3G fleet that is experiencing 3G-network woes. From slow data connections to signal-strength flakiness, the iPhone 3G isn’t performing as promised for those affected by the 3G reception issues.

The problem has gotten so bad that Apple released their iPhone 2.0.2 OS shortly after releasing the iPhone 2.0.1 OS in an attempt to fix some of the iPhone 3G’s connectivity bugs. But, in their haste to release another iPhone OS update to fix bugs, Apple’s latest iPhone 2.0.2 OS has reportedly started causing more problematic network issues - most prominently, the inability to make voice calls on the 3G network.

So, in that vein, an Alabama woman has filed a lawsuit against Apple, saying that her “Defective iPhone 3G” has failed to deliver on Apple’s performance and reliability claims. In addition to slower-than-expected data speeds, the plaintiff, Jessica Alena Smith, says that she is only able to connect to the AT&T 3G network about a quarter of the time and has experienced an “inordinate amount of dropped calls.” The lack of 3G connectivity is puzzling given her Birmingham, Alabama hometown’s extensive 3G coverage.

Smith is pushing to have the lawsuit approved as a class-action lawsuit, claiming that the potential class could include tens of thousands of plaintiffs. The lawsuit seeks to have Apple replace or repair all defective iPhone 3G handsets and that Apple pay unspecified damages and attorney’s fees.

With the iPhone 3G continuing to have problems for some (although, to be fair, none of IntoMobile’s iPhone 3G handsets are exhibiting problems), and Apple failing to fix the problem with the iPhone 2.0.2 OS update, we could see this latest lawsuit get class-action approval. And, if Apple doesn’t find a solution right quick, they might be in for a one helluva legal ride.

[Via: ABCNews]