Mobile, Cell Phone | featured news

Early sales of the BlackBerry Z10 phone are off to a "strong start," Jefferies analyst Peter Misek asserted in a research note this morning.

The launch of the iPhone 5 and the declining popularity of non-smartphones have made Apple the biggest seller of phones in the U.S. for the first time, research firm Strategy Analytics said Friday.

A conversation with two passengers landed an Orange City, Fla., tow truck driver in jail after his cell phone pocket-dialed 911 and dispatchers listened in, police say.

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday rejected Apple Inc's request to revive its bid for a sales ban on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone, dashing the iPhone maker's attempt to recover crucial leverage in the global patent wars.

After lengthy delays, Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled its first two phones with the new BlackBerry 10 system. The Q10 will have a physical keyboard, while the Z10 has only a touch-screen keyboard. RIM also announced a company name change to BlackBerry to maintain a single brand.

The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company....

The clock to unlock a new mobile phone is running out.
In October 2012, the Librarian of Congress, who determines exemptions to a strict anti-hacking law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), decided that unlocking mobile phones would no longer be allowed. But the librarian provided a 90-day window during which people could still buy a phone and unlock it. That window closes on January 26.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of Global Marketing, said in an interview to a Chinese newspaper that “cheap smart phones will not be developed in order to grab market share away”. There have been a number of analysts, especially over the past few days, and the Wall Street Journal who have speculated that Apple will come out with a lower priced iPhone in potentially a smaller format.

Samsung went for commercial flash at the international Consumer Electronics Show this week with bendable screens, kitchen appliances controlled by smartphones and razor-thin televisions. But just as important was a less-glamorous announcement that the world’s largest smartphone maker is turning its attention to a new pocket of lucrative potential customers: corporations and government agencies.

Although smartphone ownership percentages continue to climb, western markets are clearly approaching saturation. At the same time, there are markets within those markets which do not so much resist the incursion of smartness as simply have little interest or opportunity to enjoy it.