It seems that the venerable iPhone 3G has been overtaken by the RIM BlackBerry Curve (in all of its “83xx” variants) in the first quarter of the 2009 US smartphone popularity contest. According to NPD, RIM’s US smartphone market share increased some 15% to give the BlackBerry-maker a 50% smartphone market share, knocking the iPhone…
Mobile phones more dangerous than smoking?
File this under “suspicious,” but when an award winning neurosurgeon is saying this, people do listen. According to cancer expert Dr. Vini Khurana, who did a study on the harmful effects of mobile phone use, mobile phones could become the number one killer of people, coming in ahead of smoking and asbestos. Apparently, if a…
ABI Research: Handset makers shipped 258 million phones in Q1 2009
Despite tough economic conditions, the mobile phone buyers did not head to the hills during Q1 2009. As a matter of fact, handset vendors had shipped 258 million phone by the end of the quarter. And while the number represents an 11% year-over-year decline, the result exceeded the previous forecast of 253.5 million. From ABI’s…
IMS Research: Market Dynamics Benefit Uptake of Netbooks & MIDs
Ultra-mobile devices that include netbooks, mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) are forecast to see considerable uptake in 2009 and 2010, albeit the slow economy. Based on a recent study, IMS Research is forecasting that over 50 million connected ultra-mobile devices will ship in 2009, excluding smartphones. A new study, Emerging Ultra-mobile Device…
Palm Pre will be “DOA”, says Analyst
Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar has done some number crunching and deduced that Palm has drastically cut down their production on their upcoming Pre handset, and combined with the fact that they’re running with America’s third-largest (or second-smallest, depending how you look at it) carrier, Palm would likely not meet the million sales sales mark…
Juniper Research: Person-to-person mobile messaging to reach $106 billion by 2014
Mobile messaging (SMS, MMS, mobile email and instant messaging) use will keep growing, but the revenues will not follow due to such factors as IP revolution, increased competition, and commoditization of established services. According to Juniper Research’s new mobile messaging report, the move from per-transaction to per-month billing models will see total P2P revenues in…
JD Power: Apple iPhone Tops in Consumer Smartphone Satisfaction!
JD Power, and their mysterious associates, has just released their 2009 Consumer Smartphone Satisfaction Survey results. The winner? Apple and their iPhone/iPhone 3G. No contest, game over, thanks for playing. The iPhone recently topped JD Power’s 2008 Business Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study, so it doesn’t surprise us that Apple took top-billing again, thanks to…
ABI Research: Personalized services to make $2.9 billion for carriers in 2011
Personalized mobile services are potentially a new revenue stream for carriers, according to a new ABI Research study. In 2008, service customization returned only about $806 million to operators, but by the end of 2011 it will deliver about $2.9 billion in annual operators revenue. Moreover, ABI argues this market will continue to grow strongly…
MySpace sees 450% growth in mobile users!
Mention any sort of double-digit growth figures and you’ll get passing approval. Talk about growth figures at or near triple-digits and you’ll be the talk of the town. MySpace, the behemoth social network that started it all, has just announced that 2008 saw 450% growth in mobile usage! Champagne will be flowing tonight. MySpace says…
Study: Apple iPhone more playful than productive
Love and hate. Those are pretty much the only two emotions tied to Apple’s iconic iPhone. Those that love it will praise the UI, web browser, huge display and multi-touch. Those that hate it will lament all day about the iPhone’s lack of physical keyboard, quality camera and feature-lacking iPhone OS. Whatever camp you happen…