As the world continues abandoning fixed-line communications in most homes, the days of the traditional “wiretap” are fast drawing to a close. The term “wiretap” is rooted in the earliest of eavesdropping investigations – authorities would literally “tap,” or splice, into an existing telephone landline in order to listen in on suspects’ conversations. These days,…
ABI Research: 5.4 billion mobile subscribers in 2013
This year is set to end with 4.3 billion mobile subscribers, and ABI Research predicts that the number will further grow to nearly 5.4 billion by 2013. Among the key factors that will push the mobile phone adoption are changing distribution models, greater choice of connected devices, faster networks, and proliferation of mobile applications. The…
Analysts Ballpark Pre Pricetag at $150
Both Sprint and Palm have kept mum about how much the Pre will cost, but analysts at Credit Suisse have taken their best guess: $199 after subsidies, $150 if Sprint’s in a rush to move these phones, which they likely are. That would beat the iPhone’s price nicely, but there are still cheaper BlackBerrys out…
March Mobile Metrics Report Released by AdMob… Android Catches Palm OS in US Operating Systems Market Share
The latest version of the Mobile Metrics Report released by AdMob is now out and available for download. These reports are often very interesting to browse through, and this months’ edition is no exception. As you can clearly see in the chart above, Android OS has caught up with Palm OS in market share (at…
Related: 10 facts about Mobiles you might or might not know
Following from my last post about the Mobile Security Challenge launched in the UK, check out these interesting (and in some cases alarming) stats about Mobiles: 1. 4 billion mobile phones are in operation worldwide (source: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE51A2I820090211) 2. There are twice as many mobile phones as credit cards in the world (source: http://www.gizmag.com/orange-near-field-mobile-phone-payment/11216/ ) 3.…
US DoE awards Sprint $7.3M for hydrogen fuel-cell research
Quick! What’s the first thing that pops into your mind when you think government-funded research? Words like “university,” “NASA,” “military” or something along those lines are likely your top-picks. US wireless carrier Sprint is pretty much the last entity we’d expect to score a research grant from the US Department of Energy (DoE). And yet,…
/mobile/SQUARED: Apple to hit 1 billion app downloads on Thursday, April 23rd
A research firm /mobile/SQUARED says that at the current download rate of 5.1 million apps per day Apple will pass the announced 1 billion app downloads in the afternoon (GMT) of April 23rd. So if everything goes as planned, the Cupertino folks will reach 500 million apps downloaded in just 94 days. In comparison, the…
NFC Demoed on iPhone
iPhone RFID: object-based media from timo on Vimeo. Near-field communication is barely working its way into niche handsets, let alone the hottest ones out there, but a research project out of the Oslo School of Archietecture and Design has a working prototype of RFID working on an iPhone. With a simple wave, the iPhone screen…
Analyst Says iPhone is More Enterprise-Ready than BlackBerry
Sorry, it’s hard to not do a spit-take after reading that. Forrester Research analyst Ted Schadler has gone on record touting the iPhone as a superior enterprise mobility solution for a few reasons, primarily because appealing to end-user demand before management criteria results in greater gains. For example, if employees have their own handsets rather…
Study: Canadian Wireless Still Sucks
Older research had pitted Canadian activity in mobile tech against developing countries, and according to a more recent study, things haven’t changed. TNS has determined, after surveying 32 countries, Canadian penetration sits at around 70%, which places it somewhere between India, Vietnam and Mexico. Wow. The average purchaser was willing to shell out US$114 for…