Mobile

A new report from analyst ComScore says that the Verizon iPhone was the "most acquired" handset during the month of February.

ComScore's sampling, which consisted of more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers, notes that the surge of handset buyers responding to the phone's launch earlier this year helped give Apple the strongest gain of market share in the OEM category. That gain amounts to an additional 0.9 percent between November 2010 and the end of February 2011.

Nonetheless, Apple remains below competitors at 7.5 percent overall in terms of OEM market share. … Read more

San Francisco's board of supervisors has agreed to put its Right-to-Know Ordinance under further review after the wireless industry's lobbying arm claimed the legislation infringes on the First Amendment rights of cell phone retailers.

In an interview with CNET, CTIA spokesman John Walls said the city cannot force retailers to distribute materials that warn consumers about the possible negative effects of cell phone radiation. "You can't compel speech," he said. "Telling retailers to give out that information violates the First Amendment."

The free speech argument is just the latest in a series of … Read more

From the moment AT&T announced a $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile almost two weeks ago, many industry watchers agreed that the deal would face close scrutiny from federal regulators. The deal would, after all, lump an estimated 130 million subscribers under one carrier and make AT&T the only major GSM provider in the country.

AT&T has yet to file the official merger documents with the Federal Communications Commission, but one agency official already has said the deal may face a "very steep climb." In an interview with C-Span that will air today, … Read more

A lawsuit filed by H-W Technology earlier this week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Dallas Division claims Apple, Research In Motion, Google, and 29 other major technology companies are infringing on a patent it was granted in April 2009.

U.S. patent number 7,525,955, which had first been filed in March 2005, is described as an "Internet protocol (IP) phone with search and advertising capability."

In its filing from Wednesday, which was picked up by The Loop, H-W Technology says the patent deals with smartphones that can plug into … Read more

The $39 billion proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA won't close for at least a year, but some T-Mobile customers are worried about what the potential changes might mean for them.

In this week's Ask Maggie column, I clear up confusion around whether T-Mobile USA customers will be forced to upgrade their handsets after AT&T completes its acquisition. I also offer my prediction on whether new LTE smartphones that will be introduced later this year will have similar battery life issues to the HTC Thunderbolt. And I offer some advice to new iPad2 … Read more

Yet another company looks to be testing the waters of near-field communication for mobile payments.

This time it's Amazon.com, who in a report by Bloomberg today, is said to be exploring the possibility of enabling such a service for smartphones. The report cites sources who asked not to be named. The report goes on to say that Amazon will decide whether or not to pursue the project in the next three to five months.

Amazon already has a business division that enables mobile payments. But incorporating near-field communications, or NFC, chips would allow users to wave their phone … Read more

Android sold well last year and will easily dominate the smartphone market in five years, ABI Research says.

The research firm said today that a total of 302 million smartphones were shipped around the world in 2010, representing a 71 percent gain year over year. Android was running on about 23 percent of the smartphones that shipped in 2010, putting it behind only Symbian, which tallied 36 percent market share last year. RIM captured 16 percent market share in 2010, while Apple's iOS held 15 percent of the market. Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 share was just 0.6 … Read more

AT&T announced a new equipment protection plan today that bundles insurance, support, and phone location services for $9.99 per month. Most of the carrier's current handsets (PDF) will be compatible with the AT&T Mobile Protection Pack, though iPhone and iPad users will have to resort to other solutions like Apple's MobileMe and Find My iPhone/iPad.

Customers who sign up for the service will get:

Mobile Insurance (formerly called Wireless Phone Insurance) will replace handsets that disappear through loss or theft, become inoperable through accidental or liquid damage, or suffer from mechanical and … Read more

Samsung and Visa are joining forces to offer smartphone users the ability to make mobile payments through NFC technology in London next year as part of the 2012 Olympic games.

Using special Samsung Olympic and Paralympic Games mobile phones, attendees in London before and during the games will be able to buy items on the go through near-field communications, an emerging technology that lets people send payments by phone directly from their bank accounts to special terminals.

Samsung and Visa join a growing number of companies hopping onto the NFC bandwagon. Dangling the lure of wallet-free purchases, an array of … Read more