Mobile

To: Nokia CEO Stephen Elop Re: Nokia's turnaround

Dear Stephen:

It's clear from your "burning platform" memo--where you compared Nokia to a man on an oil platform in the North Sea who wakes to explosions and fire, but who survives after choosing to leap into the icy sea--that you're upset. And I don't blame you.

While Nokia is still the No.1 seller of mobile handsets in the world, its lead is quickly eroding, especially at the high end of the market. Research firm Gartner reported today that smartphone sales rose 72 percent … Read more

HP wasn't kidding when it said, "Think big. Think small. Think ahead. Think beyond."

As you've probably heard by now, the company unveiled three new WebOS products today in San Francisco: the HP TouchPad, HP Pre 3, and HP Veer--or, as HP called them, large, medium, and small.

Though we have more hands-on coverage coming soon, I thought now would be a good time to take a closer look at the WebOS smartphones and what they have to offer.

HP Pre 3 We'll start with the Pre 3. Though the Verizon Palm Pre 2 is … Read more

Hewlett-Packard today took the wraps off its long-anticipated tablet, a 9.7-inch device it's calling the TouchPad, along with the bombshell that its WebOS is headed to PCs.

The TouchPad will run the company's WebOS, which it acquired along with Palm as part of a $1.2 billion deal in April. Among its list of features are: a 1024x768 pixel display, a weight of 1.5 pounds, 13mm thickness, front-facing cameras for video chat, 16GB or 32GB of built-in memory, support for Adobe's Flash, Beats by Dre speakers, and a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor.

Initially the … Read more

Those looking to get their hands on the Verizon iPhone in stores tomorrow will have another place to go.

Big-box retailer Wal-Mart announced today that it will be carrying the Verizon iPhone in approximately 600 of its stores starting tomorrow. Wal-Mart will be selling the 16GB model for $199 and the 32GB offering for $299 with a two-year contract--the same price offered through Verizon and Apple.

By bringing the Verizon iPhone to its stores, Wal-Mart will round out a selection of smartphones it currently sells, including the Motorola Droid X, the HTC Droid Incredible, and the HTC Evo 4G, among … Read more

Smartphone users looking to sell their current devices to pick up a new Verizon iPhone will find eBay a willing buyer.

The auction site yesterday launched a special two-week promotion through its Instant Sale feature that offers cash to people willing to sell their current smartphones.

Running through February 22, people can receive at least $200 from eBay by sending in any one of a number of phones, including an AT&T iPhone 3GS, a Motorola Droid X, a Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant, or an HTC Evo 4G. Those willing to part with an AT&T 32GB iPhone … Read more

A surge in sales turned Android into the second biggest smartphone platform in the world last year, according to a new report from Gartner.

Unit sales of smartphones running Google's mobile OS grew 888.8 percent year over year, from 6.8 million in 2009 to 67.2 million in 2010. In terms of market share, that translates into major shift--from 3.9 percent in 2009 to 22.7 percent in 2010.

Sales received a strong kick in the fourth quarter due to demand for a number of high-end smartphones, including HTC's Evo 4G and Incredible, Samsung's Galaxy S series, … Read more

Consumers in the European Union will soon have a single charger standard for a slew of mobile phones.

DigitalEurope, the continent's largest digital tech organization, has delivered a sample of a universal mobile phone charger to European Commission vice president Antonio Tajani. The EU said that the sample now paves the way for consumers to get their hands on devices that support the universal charger in the very near future.

"I welcome the rollout of new chargers for mobile phones based on the new EU standard," Tajani said in a statement accompanying the announcement. "This is … Read more

Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop is reportedly preparing for a major shake-up at the company as he searches for a way to save the once mighty cell phone brand.

Elop is expected to unveil a new strategy for turning around the company at its investors' conference in London on Friday. Nokia has been slipping in terms of market share the last several quarters as it faces stiff competition at the high end of the market from Apple's iPhone as well as phones running Google's Android platform. And at the low end, the company is also facing competition from … Read more

Mobile software maker Myriad plans to launch software that lets non-Android-based smartphones run apps designed for Google's mobile operating system.

The software, known as Alien Dalvik, will allow non-Android OSes to run Android Package (APK) files with little modification, the company announced yesterday. "The proliferation of Android has been staggering, but there is still room for growth," Myriad CEO Simon Wilkinson said in a statement.

MeeGo will be the first OS to support Alien Dalvik--a relation of the Dalvik virtual machine that is included in stock Android software--and Myriad said it will announce further platform support in … Read more