Apple and RIM to share more than half of cellphone industry profits this year
Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s Blackberry are on track to make up more than half of the mobile phone industry’s profits this year, according to Deutsche Bank.
The two companies may contribute 58 percent of the industry’s operating profits this year even though their handsets only account for 5 percent of the market, predicted Deutsche analyst Brian Modoff in The Wall Street Journal.
Last year the two companies captured 3 percent of the market, but accounted… Continue Reading
Paris Hilton’s lost BlackBerry needs a kill switch
She did it again! After having her phone’s address book cracked a few years ago, Famous-for-being-famous heiress Paris Hilton lost her BlackBerry Thursday night at this week’s Festival de Cannes film convention in the south of France.
With smartphones replacing laptops as easy-to-lose repositories of confidential information, I wish AT&T and Verizon would offer something like Absolute Software’s Computrace system, which can remotely order a BlackBerry or Windows phone to erase files the next time it… Continue Reading
BlackBerry apps four times as pricey as iPhone, Android software
BlackBerry users pay more for their apps. Lots more. That’s the finding of a new report from Skyhook Wireless, maker of location-based service software. Skyhook’s study found that BlackBerry apps average around $12 each, compared to the popular $2.99 price for an iPhone app and Android apps that average less than a dollar. Most Android apps are completely free.
Skyhook’s study also confirmed the conventional wisdom that users are cycling through apps, buying new ones and… Continue Reading
Roundup: Jobs misled, VoIP on Blackberry, Zude, Twitter grows, more
Apple’s Steve Jobs dealt setback — Former Apple finance chief Fred Anderson now says Apple chief executive Steve Jobs misled him about stock option accounting. Story here, and statement by Anderson here. Question: Will this bring down Jobs?
Ram Shriram weighs in on FCC vote on wireless rule changes — See the Google investor’s VentureBeat column, where he advocates the FCC should take the first step toward opening wireless standards and access when it meets later today (Wed)…. Continue Reading
Finally, Apple announces iPhone — vows to leapfrog other smart phones
Updated
Apple has not let us down.
Chief executive Steve Jobs said the company will launch its own phone, dubbed the iPhone, and that Cingular Wireless will provide the phone service, ending weeks of speculation.
It will do much more than make calls and play music. It aims to be a full-fledged smart phone, and is underpinned with some elements of Apple software, such as its Safari browser, which could expose mainstream users to Apple’s eco-system in more… Continue Reading