muve

Cricket Wireless has one word to describe the inaugural year of its Muve Music rate plan for wireless customers: success.

In the calendar year since the plan launched in Las Vegas on the Samsung Suede feature phone, Cricket has expanded the unique unlimited phone plan to three Android handsets.

What's more, the carrier signed on more than 500,000 Muve Music unique customers, or about 10 percent of its almost 6-million-person customer base (including broadband customers), and attributes much of its growth to luring in new subscribers interested in the unlimited voice, texting, Web, and music download service.… Read more

It's shaping up to be a merry holiday for prepaid wireless service providers MetroPCS and Leap Wireless.

MetroPCS has been successful at drawing in customers with its lower priced family plan promotion, which costs $100 for four lines. Leap, which sells its service under the Cricket Wireless brand, has benefited from its Muve Music service, as well as expanded distribution. Both are expected to exceed expectations, according to Michael Nelson, an analyst at Mizuho Securities.

"Sales appear to be gaining momentum," Nelson said in a research note.

The success of MetroPCS and Leap underscore the shake-up going … Read more

Leap Wireless saw its third-quarter loss narrow as the tide continues to turn for the better on customer growth.

The prepaid wireless provider, which sells its service under the brand Cricket Wireless, posted a quarterly loss of $68.8 million, or 90 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $536.3 million, or $7.06 a share, when it recorded a charge of $477.3 million for the write-off of assets. Revenue, meanwhile, rose nearly 20 percent to $763.3 million.

Analysts, on average, forecast a loss of 79 cents a share and revenue of $764 million, according … Read more

Even as we lick our lips over Google's upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich update to Android, I'm impressed that even the more modest new Android phones are on board with Gingerbread.

The ZTE Score is one of them. First introduced exclusively through Best Buy, the Score is also Cricket's latest Muve Music phone.… Read more

Cricket Wireless isn't wasting any more time turning up the volume on its Muve Music service, which adds all-you-can-eat music downloads to its talk, text, and data plan rates.

Almost two weeks after introducing the Samsung Vitality, its first Muve Music smartphone, Cricket is announcing the launch its second Android act, the ZTE Score. But this time Cricket won't be orchestrating the sales; Best Buy will.

In an effort to acquaint a greater audience to the Cricket brand, the prepaid carrier has partnered with national retailer Best Buy to exclusively sell the ZTE Score later this month, as … Read more

Leap Wireless and its Cricket prepaid wireless service are ready to take the national stage.

Starting Sunday, Best Buy will begin selling Cricket in 1,300 stores around the country, and not just within Leap's region.

This marks the first major step for Leap in its effort to turn into a national brand. The company previously operated its network and served customers in select markets as a regional player, but last year signed a reseller agreement with Sprint Nextel to use its network around the country.

The expansion allows Leap to tap into a much wider audience of consumers hungry for more affordable wireless service. But it also puts the company in direct competition with other national players that offer similarly attractive prepaid plans, including T-Mobile USA, Virgin Mobile, and Boost Mobile. These brands are found in both their own stores and at major retailers such as Best Buy as well.

"This was a chance to build national retail into a larger role for us," Leap Chief Executive Doug Hutchinson said in a recent interview with CNET. "I'm looking forward to building that channel."

But with competition already stiff, it's unclear if Leap can keep up. The company is in the midst of turning itself around by focusing more on smartphone customers and truly flat-rate plans, much like fellow regional prepaid provider MetroPCS. But the company is still early in its turnaround, having lost more than 100,000 customers in the last quarter. … Read more

Think about all that video sitting on your hard drive, all those clips of the kids, the vacations, the graduations, your karaoke parties. Now imagine actually doing something with it.

Enter the Web-based video-editing service Magisto, which today announced its public rollout, along with $5.5 million in a series B funding round led by Horizons Ventures, the private venture firm of Li Ka-shing, the world's 11th richest man.

Li, who has an estimated net worth of $26 billion, is known for making smart early-stage investments in companies like Facebook and Spotify. Magma Venture Partners, an original investor in … Read more

Cricket's Muve Music service may still be largely unknown, but the release of the Samsung Vitality could help turn the tide in favor of the service, which offers unlimited access to music downloads, ringtones, and ringback tones in addition to Cricket's rate for all-inclusive talk, text, and Web.

The candy apple red Vitality, a repurposed Samsung Admire, runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and has a 3.5-inch touch screen and a 3.2-megapixel camera. Compared with the thick, clumsy, and unremarkable Samsung Suede that headed up Muve Music's launch, the Vitality--which will be available online and in … Read more

Leap Wireless apparently has a hit on its hands with its fledgling Muve Music service.

The company, which sells prepaid wireless service under the Cricket brand, said its music download service has surpassed 100,000 customers and 100 million song downloads after five months.

Muve's milestone is a positive for a company that has been attempting to catch up with the smartphone and 4G craze. The company has hoped that Muve, which is a music download and rental service, would draw in customers as it began rolling out its lineup of smartphones.

In comparison, Apple's iTunes took 15 … Read more