Michelle Maisto

Microsoft, preparing for the retirement of CEO Steve Ballmer, has narrowed its list of replacement candidates to “about five people,” Reuters reported Nov. 5, adding that the list had started with approximately 40 names. Still on the list are former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and Ford CEO Alan Mulally. At least three internal candidates are […]

Lenovo very seriously pursued a deal to purchase BlackBerry, but the Canadian government shut down the talks, The Globe and Mail reported Nov. 4, citing sources familiar with the situation. “Ottawa made it clear in high-level discussions with BlackBerry that it would not approve a Chinese company buying a company deeply tied into Canada’s telecom […]

Mobile games represent a tremendous opportunity for app developers, app stores, carriers and other wireless industry players. According to data from Distimo, the “vast majority” of the monthly revenue generated by Apple’s App store and Google Play comes from games. “Looking at the Top 400 Overall Grossing [apps], 48 percent of all apps … were […]

In a wireless market nearing saturation, new customers are key, and during the third quarter of 2013, T-Mobile added more than 1 million new customers—648,000 of who were postpaid phone additions. It was its second consecutive quarter of adding more than 1 million customers. “And we’re talking about phone net adds, that’s excluding tablets and […]

Apple CEO Tim Cook, a man of notoriously few words, when not presenting new products on a stage, penned an opinion piece, published Nov. 3 by The Wall Street Journal, in favor of equality in the workplace. People are happiest, and so their best, most creative selves, when they don’t have to check their sexual […]

Nokia and Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS are gaining traction in the highly competitive global smartphone market, according to the latest report from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Windows Phone was on one out of 10 smartphones that sold in five major European markets during the three months that ended in September, said the report. And in Italy, […]

BlackBerry backed away from a $4.7 billion sale to Fairfax Financial Holdings, its largest shareholder, announcing a new plan Nov. 4 that includes replacing CEO Thorsten Heins with John Chen, the former CEO of Sybase. Chen told Reuters the same day that he intends to stay in the smartphone business, despite the company’s dramatic losses […]

BlackBerry completed its 2013 portfolio with the Sept. 18 introduction of the BlackBerry Z30, a smartphone with a 5-inch—Samsung big—Super Active-Matrix Organic LED (Super AMOLED) display that Verizon exclusively will begin selling in November. It’s by far the largest display on any BlackBerry, and with it one gets the sense that the struggling phone maker […]

BlackBerry Z30 Isn’t for All BB Fans, but OS 10.2 Is By Michelle Maisto Meet the BlackBerry Z30 The BlackBerry Z30 is the fourth smartphone the company has introduced this year since launching its BlackBerry 10 operating system. BlackBerry now has two QWERTY keyboard-equipped phones, the Q10 and Q5, and two touch screen-focused phones, the […]

BlackBerry has announced a new strategy for moving ahead. It’s walking away from Fairfax Financial Holdings’ $4.7 billion offer to buy the company, it announced Nov. 4, and instead is accepting a $1 billion investment from Fairfax, its largest stakeholder, as well as other investors, in exchange for convertible notes. Fairfax will acquire $250 million […]

Google, Oracle and Red Hat are coming to the rescue of Healthcare.gov, the ailing government-hosted Website where Americans can sign up for the health care options created by the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, as it has become known. The site has been plagued by lags and other issues since its launch Oct. 1. While […]

Meet Sprint Spark, a technology with the potential to “surpass wireless speeds of any U.S. network provider,” Sprint announced in an Oct. 30 statement. Sprint, in recent quarters, has become something of an underdog, if not simply under-loved, a suggestion its most recent churn numbers back; the carrier lost 360,000 postpaid customers during its 2013 […]