Michelle Maisto

Nielsen, the venerable ratings company, has a message for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. In Nielsen-run surveys with U.S. consumers regarding smartphone use, the company found Google’s Android operating system to be the fastest growing in the last quarter-faster even than Apple iOS, running on the range of iPhones. Apple, nonetheless, had both the “most […]

Research In Motion, with carrier partner AT&T, introduced the BlackBerry Torch in New York Aug. 3. The honors of revealing the device went to AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega, who, pulling it from the breast pocket of his suit to hold aloft for the assembled audience, insisted it was, “The best BlackBerry ever.” The […]

Apple, HTC and Research In Motion each performed well during the second quarter, which saw a 64 percent increase in worldwide smartphone shipments, according to an Aug. 2 report from Canalys. However it was Android, Google’s open-source mobile operating system, that proved the true star of the quarter, posting growth of 886 percent. And the […]

AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile are planning to challenge Visa and MasterCard as the newest facilitators of quick-shopping dollars. The carriers-AT&T and Verizon most dominantly, with Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile in a supporting role-are planning to pilot a program that will allow consumers to pay for items using “contactless” technology on their mobile phones, Bloomberg reported […]

The tablet device that Samsung confirmed it will launch during the second half of the year will reportedly receive its formal introduction Aug. 11, according to multiple reports. In an Aug. 2 report, the International Business Times, which expects Samsung to fully launch the tablet mid-August, additionally offered the happy news that – unlike Hewlett-Packard, […]

The San Francisco Bay Area will be getting a 4G LTE network in early 2011. Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility Solutions business and the public safety agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area announced July 29 a plan to begin installing a 700MHz Long-Term Evolution system later in 2010 that will serve agencies across the Bay Area, […]

Nokia, Samsung and LG Electronics led the worldwide handset market through another growing quarter, Strategy Analytics said in a July 30 report. Handset shipments reached 308 million units, up 13 percent from 273 million units a year earlier. Driving this forward motion, said the firm, were high-end 3G touch phones in developed markets and lower-end […]

Like rival Motorola, HTC is finding that closely aligning its smartphone strategy with Google’s Android mobile operating system makes good business sense. When releasing HTC’s second-quarter results July 29, company officials said earnings rose 33 percent year over year, and they announced a number of promotions and new positions that have been created within the […]

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion appears to be the latest tablet-minded company to have given in to a device title emphasizing not “tablet” or “slate,” as such devices were once known, but “pad.” Apple, of course, started the whole “pad” business with the iPad-of which it sold 3.27 million during its fiscal third quarter, for […]

The HTC Droid Incredible has a BOM (bill of materials) that tallies $163.35, iSuppli announced July 29, following a teardown of the smartphone. Add nearly $9 in manufacturing costs, and that figure rises to $172.25-for a device Verizon sells for $199 with a two-year contract. Perhaps more striking, however, are the similarities that the firm’s […]

Motorola continues to align its smartphone business with Google’s Android operating system, and while the strategy is one that analysts, and the market, have encouraged, Motorola has yet to fully reap the results. In a July 29 announcement on its second-quarter earnings, Motorola showed a sixfold increase in profits-up to $162 million-though sales in its […]

On Dell’s Direct2Dell blog, company executives offered a few teaser details and clarifications about the Dell Streak, its tablet device that’s scheduled to launch this week for $500. Ron Garriques, president of Dell’s Communications Solutions business, has suggested that Dell may partner with a wireless carrier to offer the Streak, and in a July 26 […]