BlackBerry Curve outsold iPhone 3G S in Q2
The latest smartphone market report from analysts IDC claims that despite all the buzz, attention and money thrown at iPhones and anything to do with iPhones, the new iPhone 3G S came in second to BlackBerry’s Curve as the phone most bought in America in the second quartery of 2009.
IDC’s top ten list looks like this:
1. BlackBerry Curve
2. iPhone 3G S
3. BlackBerry Pearl
4. iPhone 3G
5. BlackBerry Bold
6. BlackBerry Storm
7. HTC T-Mobile G1
8. Palm Pre
9. HTC… Continue Reading
Confirmed: Skype ready for the iPhone, Blackberry
The speculation, teasing, and waiting is over. Just as GigaOm predicted, Skype, the VoIP client that lets users make phone calls through the internet, is coming to the iPhone and Blackberry. News of Skype’s smartphone ambitions was released going into this week’s mobile-centric CTIA conference in Las Vegas. According to the Wall Street Journal, the VoIP client is due on the iPhone and iPod Touch as early as Tuesday, with the Blackberry version due in… Continue Reading
RIM’s rumored TV app will need shows. Fast.
Word on the street is Research In Motion is looking to bring some TV magic to its line of BlackBerry smartphones. According to NewTeeVee, multiple sources have hinted at RIM announcing a new TV download service at the upcoming CTIA conference.
Again, this info is considered unconfirmed (a RIM spokesperson said the company doesn’t comment on unannounced apps), but here’s the skinny so far: The RIM subscription service would allow users to download full-length television episodes… Continue Reading
While Apple and Palm bicker, U2 sides with . . . RIM
If you heard U2 was teaming up with a mobile phone maker for its latest tour, you probably thought that meant Apple or Palm. But neither are right. Instead, the company will be teaming up with BlackBerry maker RIM, according to CNBC.
This move is surprising given U2’s history with Apple. U2 has performed at Apple events, is the only band that has gotten its own branded iPod, and just this year launched its single “Get… Continue Reading
Want all 25,000 iPhone apps? That will be $71,442.69.
While RIM, Microsoft and Palm ready their mobile app stores for release this year, the one that inspired them all — Apple’s App Store — continues to chug along at an impressive pace. The store now features more than 25,000 applications, according to numbers from 148Apps. And after hitting 20,000 just a few weeks ago, the addition rate seems to still be accelerating, as Apple 2.0 points out.
I’m more interested in the monetary aspect of… Continue Reading
BlackBerry’s fart-app defense: $2.99 minimum price
By far, the most popular price for iPhone apps is $0.99. In many ways, it’s the perfect price. At under $1, it’s really a throw-away purchase — one that consumers don’t think twice about making. Do you think it’s coincidental that all the major fast food chains have $0.99 menus? But consumer comfort with the price has led to an issue in Apple’s App Store: The over-abundance of crap applications.
While, yes, plenty of the free… Continue Reading
Juicing the BlackBerry: RIM wants back-end money from new apps
Research In Motion (RIM) is set to launch its application store for the BlackBerry, now dubbed “App World,” at the end of this month. For third-party developers on the outside, it may sounds like a very enticing proposition: You get to develop on a very popular device and RIM is offering an 80/20 split — 80 percent of revenues from app sales go to the developers, 20 percent to RIM. That’s better than the 70/30… Continue Reading
Onset Technology may one day help the President use an iPhone
Maybe you heard about President Obama’s desire to continue to use his BlackBerry smartphone even after taking office. The problem was that the communication to and from the device was hard to secure, and it was difficult to maintain compliance with various laws surrounding the Presidential office.
One company, Onset Technology, offered the President a solution with its METAmessage Advanced Compliance Tool (ACT) for the BlackBerry. And although the President has yet to take the company… Continue Reading
Android’s tipping point: Paid apps launch this week?
Buried in a Wall Street Journal article about Microsoft’s mobile strategy, is an arguably more important nugget: That Google’s Android Market is opening its doors to paid applications this week for the first time — this according to “people familiar with the matter.” The report is in line with earlier rumors of the impending launch and Google’s stated goal of an “early Q1″ release.
This could be a watershed moment for the Market, which has so far… Continue Reading
Google brings cloud syncing to the iPhone and Windows Mobile
As more companies come out with smartphones, more of them are launching their own ways to sync data between computers and their devices wirelessly. Apple has its own such service (Mobile Me) and Microsoft is about to launch a new set of applications for such a task (Me Phone). But I have a problem with these applications: I use Google applications to store and sync all my data in the cloud already. But today, Google… Continue Reading
Windows Mobile 6.5 IE looks, well, awful
Word keeps circulating that Microsoft is poised to unveil its latest mobile operating system, WIndows Mobile 6.5, at the Mobile World Conference to be held in a few weeks in Spain. There are plenty of screenshots already out there, but the latest show the OS’s version of its web browser, Internet Explorer (IE). Quite frankly, it looks awful.
The other screenshots featuring the “honeycomb” look for Windows Mobile 6.5 have looked okay — not great, but… Continue Reading
Roundup: Zune prunes, tech gets part of the stimulus, Sprint cuts a lot of jobs and more
Here’s the latest action:
Zune prunes — Microsoft’s Zune portable media player saw its revenue decrease by over $100 million, or 54 percent, in the fourth quarter of 2008. Microsoft blames price cuts on the 30 gig model (you know, the one that had the massive failure) as well as a shrinking MP3 player market. Funny, iPod sales still went up during the same time period. mocoNews has more.
Yes. We (The tech industry). Can. – Looks like… Continue Reading
Supposed leaked Android G2 shots reveal no keyboard
After the launch of T-Mobile’s G1, the first phone running Google’s Android mobile platform, I trashed its keyboard, calling it a failed lesson in ergonomics. But the bigger picture is that physical keyboards, as much as some hate to admit it, are going to be a thing of the past in the not too distant future. Don’t believe me? Look at the newly leaked shots of the G2, HTC’s follow-up to the G1, which Gizmodo… Continue Reading
Microsoft to take to the “sky” with App Store, MobileMe competitors next month?
Earlier today, I joked that Microsoft may call the third-party application store for its Windows Mobile platform the “Microsoft Live Mobile App Emporium,” since so many obvious names are now taken with Apple controlling “App Store,” Google having its “Marketplace,” Palm laying claim to “App Catalog,” and now BlackBerry getting ready to launch its “Application Storefront.” Well, it looks like Microsoft may go in a slightly different direction for its app store name: SkyMarket, the… Continue Reading
BlackBerry “Application Storefront” opening its doors this spring
Research In Motion (RIM) has had third-party applications available for its BlackBerry phones for a while, but because they aren’t listed in something as sexy as Apple’s App Store, many go largely unnoticed. This makes developers more likely to create apps for the App Store and now Google’s new Marketplace for its Android platform. But coming this spring, RIM hopes to changes that with the launch of its App Store equivalent, which now apparently has… Continue Reading
Palm launches an app store that’s already half the size of the iPhone’s and ten times Android’s, but…
When Apple launched the App Store this past summer it became, if nothing else, the thought leader in mobile innovation. Now everyone’s playing follow the leader. BlackBerry, Symbian, Microsoft and Google Android have all built, announced or are at work on their own “app stores.” And today, another big name joins them: Palm.
On the plus side, Palm’s new app store is live right now. That puts it ahead of BlackBerry, Symbian and Microsoft’s native app… Continue Reading
PhoneTopp extends web conferencing to the iPhone
Today at Dealmaker Media’s Under the Radar conference, one presenting startup stood out from all others to win the audience choice award: PhoneTopp. I got a chance to sit down with company chief executive Tom Barsi earlier in the day to go over the online conference and collaboration tool built to use with select smartphones.
The company’s goal is “extending and enabling desktop conferencing on your smartphone,” Barsi said. It does this through a mobile application… Continue Reading
BlackBerry Partners Fund announces first three outside investments
Today, the BlackBerry venture fund is announcing its first three outside investments. The first three the fund found worthy are: Buzzd, a location-bases services (LBS) social network, Digby, a mobile commerce provider and WorldMate, a mobile travel service.
The BlackBerry Partners Fund is a $150 million fund set up by BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian bank RBC, Thomson Reuters and the venture firm JLA Ventures. It was set up in the wake of the… Continue Reading
Qik sweetens its mobile streaming video roster with BlackBerry support. iPhone coming soon
The mobile streaming video service Qik is on a roll. Back in June it added support for certain Windows Mobile devices, in July it added more phones and launched its public beta, in August, Netscape and Ning founder Marc Andreessen joined its board of advisors. Now it’s time to add another phone to greatly broaden its support again: BlackBerry.
The BlackBerry, made by Research In Motion (RIM), has long been one of the most popular smartphones… Continue Reading
Roundup: IBM sees earnings rise, possible MacBook specs, RIM ripe for a takeover and more
Here’s the latest action:
Stepping up the intervention? The U.S. and the United Kingdom are converging on a similar solution to save the global economy. The nations may begin working together to come up with a new plan to stave off a global economic meltdown.
Following the Dow’s fall, Asian markets reacted with panic: Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closed down 9.62 percent. Benchmark indices in other Asian countries were down 4 percent to 8 percent.
IBM sees earnings light in… Continue Reading