Valleywag
rumormonger
Posts Tagged “
Smartphones
”
Palm hires Sidekick, Helio smartphone designer
Has Palm run out of Apple engineers to poach? Or has Steve Jobs's intimidation campaign proven effective? Whatever the reason, Palm's latest hire seems smart: Matias Duarte, the designer of the user interface for the Sidekick and Helio's Ocean.
rumormonger
apple
Vodafone to Steve Jobs: No hard feelings, right?
Late last fall, Vodafone successfully persuaded a German court to bar T-Mobile from selling locked iPhones in Germany, arguing that purchasers of Apple's smartphone should be able to choose any carrier. Don't expect the company to hold to those open-access beliefs now. Vodafone today announced it has signed an agreement to become the new service provider for Apple iPhones in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. No details on pricing or whether Vodafone will sell a long-rumored new version of the iPhone that will run on Vodafone's higher-speed 3G networks.
apple
Apple contractor Foxconn promises 3G iPhone by June, 25 million total
Chinese electronics manufacturer Foxconn will manufacture and ship the first batch of new, faster 3G-network enabled iPhones by June, according to reports from Taipei, Taiwan. 3 million should ship that month, and an estimated 25 million over the life of the product. Foxconn is the sole manufacturer of the current generation of iPhones. But it has also been known to break Chinese labor laws — not that such practices would stop your typical antiwar environmentalist here in the Bay Area from upgrading. After all, that Yes, We Can video will download so much faster from YouTube now! (Photo by AP/Jason DeCrow)
Microsoft pulls best April Fools' prank yet
"People want a single phone that's flexible enough to meet their needs throughout their day, whether it's connecting to work or your everyday life." — Microsoft executive Robbie Bach, on the iPhone [Microsoft.com]
wireless
Survey: 33 percent of iPhone owners cheating on Steve Jobs with another handset maker
In a survey of iPhone owners, Rubicon Consulting found that a third of iPhone users carry a second phone in addition to their iPhone. I'm one of those folks: I have a T-Mobile phone that I use for personal calls; I use my iPhone as a business phone and for mobile Web and email. I didn't want to break my T-Mobile contract and I'm happy paying for a second phone to keep work and home separate. I didn't think I was the only one with two phones, but 33 percent seems surprisingly high. Here's something the survey didn't tell you, but you might have guessed: iPhone users have lots of disposable income. More details from the study after the jump. More »
wireless
Palm misses earnings, despite Centro sales
Did I just buy my last Palm smartphone? My aging Treo 600 — yes, I hear your snickers already — died at SXSW, and I picked up a cheap Centro to replace it at a Sprint store. (A tip: Skip the $50 rebate and pay $149 instead of $99; the monthly data plan will be less expensive.) Chairman Jon Rubinstein is revamping the company's hardware and software, but does he have enough time? Until the former Apple exec's inventions hit the market, the company has to make do on Centro sales, which swell its unit sales but hit its profit margins. Palm sold a record 833,000 phones in the most recent quarter, but its $312 million in sales came in below Wall Street's hopes. For what it's worth, I love the Centro; if it hadn't locked up at just the wrong moment, I would have beaten Mashable's Pete Cashmore with his iPhone in a text-messaging duel.
deals
Double your money
Microsoft paid $500 million for Danger Research, maker of the popular Sidekick smartphone. Which sounds impressive, until you learn that investors poured $225 million into the company. 2x returns are not the kind of deals that line Sand Hill Road with Beemers. [GigaOm]
mike bell
With latest hire, Palm's poaching at Apple comes to a boil
Palm has hired Mike Bell, a 16-year Apple veteran, as its SVP of product development. But you'll never hear that from Palm. The hiring of an industry veteran for a top executive spot is something normally trumpeted as loudly as possible. But Palm is desperately trying to keep quiet the fact that it won over Bell shortly before Christmas. Why the silencing effort? Jon Rubinstein, Palm's chairman, was part of Steve Jobs's turnaround team before he left Apple in 2006. Since he joined Palm last year, the smartphone maker has been hiring a number of Apple engineers. There have been "screaming matches and threats of lawsuits," says a plugged-in source. More »
smartphones
Apple has sold 5 million iPhones
Apple will announce in January that it has sold 5 million iPhones, according to 9 to 5 Mac, an Apple rumor site. At the iPhone's launch, Steve Jobs set a public goal of selling 10 million iPhones — next year. With the iPhone only on sale for six months, that means Apple's already selling its sleek smartphones at 2008 speed. And that means Jobs could be set to beat his goal significantly next year. More »
scoop
Layoffs at Palm come in OS development
A anonymous tipster tells us Palm will lay off 250 employees, confirming our previous report. "The biggest cuts are from OS development," our source says. "[SVP Mark] Bercow wants the OS sold by April or worst case scenario — abandoned." Which seems strange, considering Palm went through some gymnastics just to get is old operating system back from the Japanese company, Access, which had bought it. The rumor, however, jibes with the Wall Street Journal's report last week on former Apple exec and current Palm executive chairman Jon Rubinstein's plans for the company. More »
palm
Jon Rubinstein inherits a fistful of fun
Former Apple exec Jon Rubinstein, who ushered in the iMac and iBook, was recruited by Palm in mid-July to help pull the company out from under Apple's Birkenstocks and RIM's wingtips. The flailing smartphone maker certainly needs someone to inject something into its product lineup that is, as CEO Ed Colligan concedes, perceived as stale. (Treo, Treo, Treo!) Too bad it didn't happen sooner. Yesterday it was confirmed Palm will have a wave of layoffs, rumored to be in the hundreds, in the next few weeks. Why? More »
stats
iPhone has 0.09 percent of Web usage -- yes, that's a lot
The browser wars continue — but no one cares. Unless, that is, you're in the wireless world, where industry observers avidly watch tiny scraps of Web activity, as if they're divining prophecies from the clouds. Computerworld notes an interesting trend. Apple's iPhone browser has grabbed a 0.09 percent share, which might not seem like much until you compare it to the competition. Windows CE, which encompasses every Windows Mobile device shipped, holds a 0.06 percent share; Danger Research's Sidekick product family holds a tiny 0.02 percent share; and the Symbian S60 smartphone platform, favored by Nokia, has 0.01 percent. More »
smartphones
BlackBerry users happier than you
A speedy operating system and long-lasting batteries top the reasons BlackBerry business users are more satisfied than working stiffs who lug Treo, Samsung and other smartphone brands. You say you and your iPhone weren't included in this J.D. Power survey of real businesspeople? Exactly.
smartphones
You're late, phonetard
Over the weekend, a large number of so-called smart phones set their clocks back an hour a week too soon, observing the old end of Daylight Saving Time. And you thought you were 55 minutes early today! I used the extra hour last spring to hunt down instructions for the most popular computers and phones. Summary for BlackBerry users: Set your phone to Mountain Time for the next week. To save you more time today, I've preposted the first three comments to this item from software engineers. More »
Some smartphone junkies are experiencing phantom vibrations — feeling the phone ring when it isn't in their pocket. Some users compare it to a phantom limb. It even has a name: "fauxcellarm." Is that a Blackberry in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? [AP]
stocks
Are smartphones driving GOOG, AAPL, and RIMM higher?
It's been a banner day for Apple, Google, and Research In Motion, as shares of all three companies hit all-time highs.- Apple closed at $161.45 with a market cap of $140.4 billion. That's just short of Nokia's $143.77 billion .
- Google shares ended the day at $594.05.
- Research In Motion rocketed up almost 13 percent to $113.37 after solidly beating expectations.
Apple and RIM already build smartphones; Google is widely rumored to be entering the market. Is there, so to speak, a wireless connection here? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
Palm says their new smartphone OS won't be released until the end of 2008. The new system is progressing "as well as possibly could be expected," executives say. Sounds like that plan to split off Palm's software division isn't working out that well. Shareholders, we hope you aren't still holding your breath. [The Register]
