RIM avoided an outside CEO because they’re all children or morons, says director

As if Research in Motion needed more controversy surrounding its appointment of new CEO Thorston Heins, now a RIM director is arguing that it simply couldn’t have chosen a new CEO from outside the company because the only available choices (at that time) were idiots.

“So we’re supposed to hand it over to children, or morons from the outside who will destroy the company?” RIM director Roger Martin told the Globe and Mail in an … Continue Reading

SNL on Verizon’s 4G marketing: “It’s an old person’s nightmare”

While it’s pretty much hit-or-miss these days, when Saturday Night Live scores, it still does so with a vengeance.

Last night the sketch comedy show aired a segment that ripped apart Verizon’s 4G LTE marketing confusion, bringing to light the biggest problems facing the smartphone market today when it comes to general consumers.

In short, there are too many devices vying for your attention (many with terrible names), and the advantages of 4G LTE seems … Continue Reading

Apples to oranges: Google and Amazon are too timid to copy Apple’s retail success

There is a strange duality in the world of brick and mortar tech stores today. In the last four years CompUSA, Borders, and Circuit City all went out of business. Many expect Best Buy to follow in the near future. At the same time, Apple has opened over 300 retail outlets worldwide. And recent reports indicate that Microsoft, Amazon, and Google plan to follow Apple’s lead.

The new Google store, which Bloomberg reported on yesterday, … Continue Reading

Google’s Motorola bid set for approval, but it won’t be the end of patent wars

Google’s $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility will likely be approved by the U.S. Department of Justice next week, sources tell Bloomberg, but don’t expect Google to backtrack on Motorola’s contentious patent litigation tactics.

Purchasing Motorola will grant Google over 17,000 mobile patents in addition to the phone maker’s handset assets. Many had expected Google, which has historically argued against the trend of patent litigation from the likes of Apple and Microsoft, to use its … Continue Reading

Sprint sells 1.8M iPhones, reports smaller loss than expected

If the fourth quarter earnings are any indication, Sprint executives are probably sending a gift basket to Cupertino about now.

In its first quarter of selling the iPhone, Sprint has managed to lose less money than analysts expected it would. It has also added more subscribers than it has in any quarter since 2005 — (Thank you Apple).

The company reported operating income (before depreciation) of $842 million for the fourth quarter on revenues of … Continue Reading

Another 4,000 production jobs axed at Nokia

Nokia may have some hot new smartphone models coming this year, but its financial turmoil isn’t over. The Finnish phone giant said Wedneday morning that it plans to cut around 4,000 jobs.

The company is reducing production at plants in Hungary, Mexico and Salo, Finland. The three plants make smartphones now and Nokia is now shifting a lot of that work to Asia to be closer to its suppliers. Nokia wants to speed the time … Continue Reading

The “app economy” created 466K jobs, counting your developer’s favorite barista

Apps are everywhere these days, with founders from Instagram and Shazam starring in Super Bowl commercials. According to a new study from the non-partisan group TechNet, apps have created 466,000 American jobs since they arrived with the modern day smartphone in 2007. Dig into the data, however, and you’ll find only about a third of those are actual tech jobs.

It turns out that there were really only about 155,000 developer and tech support positions … Continue Reading

Siri makes up 25% of all Wolfram Alpha searches

Apple’s virtual assistant Siri has found a good match in Wolfram Alpha, the computational search engine from Mathematica creator Stephen Wolfram.

Siri now accounts for 25 percent of all searches made on Wolfram Alpha, the New York Times reports in a profile of Alpha’s upcoming premium service.

The figure shows that there’s a lot for average users to get out of Wolfram Alpha, especially when they don’t even realize they’re using the service. Siri taps … Continue Reading

Razr-like Motorola Droid 4 lands on Verizon Feb. 10 for $200

Motorola’s fourth-generation Droid smartphone with 4G LTE data speeds will launch on Verizon Wireless Friday, Feb. 10 for $200 on a 2-year contract, the company announced today.

The first Motorola Droid smartphone was one of the earliest great Android devices when it was released in November 2009. The Droid 4 closely resembles the Droid RAZR, except the Droid 4 features a full QWERTY keyboard. The Droid RAZR was released to much hype in November, but … Continue Reading

After a drop in profits, HTC forecasts cloudy quarter ahead

The next quarter will be tough-going for HTC as it tries to recover from its first big profit drop in two years.

HTC reported revenues of NT$101.42 billion (New Taiwanese dollars) for the fourth quarter, but the company projects revenues of up to 36 percent less in the first quarter, from NT$65 billion to NT$70 billion ($2.20-$2.37 billion U.S.).

HTC previously announced that its profits fell in the fourth quarter, so this news is basically … Continue Reading

Samsung’s Galaxy S III may be just 7mm thick, making it world’s thinnest phone

At some point, the mad quest to create the thinnest phone on the market will end — but not today.

Samsung is reportedly aiming to make its upcoming Galaxy S III flagship device just 7 millimeters thick, a full 1.49mm thinner than the Galaxy S II and 2.3mm thinner than the iPhone 4S, according to the Korean site ETNews.

The phone could debut as soon as this May, the site says, though as is always … Continue Reading

iPhone tops US handset sales, Android attracts more newbies, says NPD

Corroborating what just about every other research firm has noted by this pointed, the NPD Group announced today in its latest report that the iPhone has become the best-selling handset in the U.S. during the fourth quarter.

No big surprises there, but the group also pointed out another interesting statistic: Despite the iPhone’s dominance, first-time smartphone buyers still overwhelmingly jump to Android.

In the fourth quarter, Apple overtook LG and Samsung with the iPhone 4S, … Continue Reading

The free ride is over: Facebook likely adding mobile ads “within weeks”

With Facebook’s financial situation firmly in the spotlight after its IPO filing, the company will finally address the problem of generating revenues from mobile users by introducing mobile ads in the next few weeks.

One of Facebook’s biggest risks Facebook listed in last week’s IPO filing was “mobile,” and the company said it generates no “meaningful revenue from the use of Facebook mobile products.” One solution would be to launch a Facebook-branded phone that would … Continue Reading

VentureBeat’s 2012 Mobile Summit: Great minds tackle 5 key mobile issues

VentureBeat is proud to announce our second annual Mobile Summit, where we are once again inviting 180 top mobile executives, investors, and policymakers to discuss five significant issues facing the mobile industry.

The event will be held at the beautiful Cavallo Point Resort (just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco) on April 2-3. The Mobile Summit is an invitation only event, but you can request an invite here.

We decided to host the … Continue Reading

As it abandons U.S. devices, Peek raises $15M for Asian expansion (exclusive)

Gadget blogs pounced on mobile-internet device maker Peek yesterday when the company announced it was killing off service for its devices running on T-Mobile. What they missed was a $15 million fund raise from Peek, confirmed by chief executive Amol Sarva to VentureBeat, as the company expands its business aggressively in Asia.

On January 30 users who had paid $299 for “lifelong service” on the companies bare bones email and Twitter devices were surprised to … Continue Reading

IDC: Apple now the world’s third-largest phone manufacturer

Apple has moved up two spots in the world phone manufacturer rankings, with LG and ZTE dropping down a rank and Nokia and Samsung taking the top two slots, according to new IDC research.

IDC’s latest report on the state of the worldwide phone market says it grew by 6.1 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2011. But that growth is actually quite a bit weaker than the 9.3 percent year-over-year gain for Q3, … Continue Reading

Samsung: No Galaxy III smartphone at Mobile World Congress

Despite numerous rumors to the contrary, Samsung has confirmed that it will not debut its much-anticipated Galaxy S III smartphone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month.

“Samsung is looking forward to introducing and demonstrating exciting new mobile products at Mobile World Congress 2012,” Samsung told The Verge. “The successor to the Galaxy S II smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to … Continue Reading

Japan’s DeNa moves into Chinese smartphone game market in deal with Baidu

Japan’s DeNA is bent on being a global powerhouse in social games on mobile platforms. Today, the company announced it will put its Mobage mobile gaming social network on Baidu-Yi smartphones in China.

As the market for games becomes global and more competitive, game companies are spreading out and moving into emerging markets such as China in a race to make social and mobile games ubiquitous.

Baidu, China’s leading internet search provider, has formed an … Continue Reading

Got big pockets? Samsung’s Galaxy Note headed to AT&T on Feb. 19 for $300

Skinny jeans wearers need not apply. AT&T announced Tuesday that Samsung’s massive 5.3-inch Galaxy Note — which was one of the most intriguing devices at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show — will be available in the U.S. on February 19 for $300 with contract.

The Galaxy Note occupies a weird space between a smartphones and a tablets, but for some it may just be the perfect balance of the two form factors. Pre-orders for the … Continue Reading