Crave

Consumer demand for smartphones seems to be unstoppable.

In the third quarter, vendors shipped a record 43.3 million devices, up 4.2 percent from last year's third quarter and up 3.2 percent from this year's second quarter, says a report released Thursday by market researcher IDC.

(Credit: IDC)

Among smartphone vendors, Nokia still enjoys the greatest market share, according to IDC, with a 37.9 percent slice for the third quarter. ... Read more

iPhone applications featuring particular musicians have been around for a while now--Nine Inch Nails was recently in the news when Apple rejected an update to its application, and tech companies like Melodeo and The Orchard have experimented with creating iPhone apps for their clients.

In the teaser video for the new U2 BlackBerry app, this map of a concert venue appears immediately after the text "Experience the tour from all angles." My guess: you'll be able to shoot and share concert videos.

(Credit: Research In Motion)

Soon, BlackBerry fans will be able to get in on the fun. Research In Motion, which is sponsoring the U2 360 tour, has posted a page on its Web site declaring the imminent arrival of the U2 "mobile album."

Although the video teaser is fairly cryptic, it looks like the app will let users listen to the latest U2 album "No Line on the Horizon," watch videos, and read news updates. A more interesting twist: it also looks like users will be able to share video clips from U2 concerts--a map will let you pick among BlackBerry-toting audience members with different stage angles.

U2 fans with BlackBerries can sign up here to be informed when the app's released. No word yet on timing or pricing. One possibility: the app might launch in conjunction with the Blackberry Tour 9630 on July 12.

Whether you're a U2 fan or not, it's great to see RIM getting serious about mobile music, and I think it'll help cement RIM's position alongside Apple at the top of the consumer smartphone heap.

Follow Matt on Twitter.

AT&T may slash the price of its iPhone service plan by $10 when a new version of the touchscreen smartphone is launched this summer, according to a story on TheStreet.com.

The article cited analyst Michael Cote of Cote Collaborative saying that there is a "strong possibility" that AT&T will drop the entry-level price of its service plan to $59 from $69. Apple is expected to unveil the latest iPhone on June 8 during the company's World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

(Credit: Apple)

AT&T declined to comment for this story, and Michael Cote did not respond to an e-mail request for an interview.

The price cut would likely help make the iPhone, which now retails for $200 with a two-year service plan with AT&T, more appealing to more mainstream customers. I've been saying for quite some time that the biggest hurdle to widescale adoption of the iPhone or any other smartphone in the mainstream market is the high price tag of the service contracts.

Consumers have shown that they are willing to pay anywhere between $100 and $200 for a sophisticated smartphone device. But the monthly service charge, which starts at $69 for the iPhone, is much harder to swallow.

It puts the real cost of the iPhone 3G over the life of the two-year contract at a whopping $1,856, which includes the price of the 8GB phone and 24 months of the most basic iPhone voice and data plan. It doesn't include the activation fee or taxes and other fees associated with the account. For subscribers who need more voice minutes or unlimited texting, the price tag is even higher.

Still, a $240 reduction in the overall cost of the phone over the life of the contract could entice some cost-conscious consumers.

The next BlackBerry Storm may have a new screen and Wi-Fi, according to reports.

(Credit: CNET)

Research in Motion's next BlackBerry Storm might come with a tweaked touchscreen in hopes of alleviating complaints about the first edition.

Several publications including Unwired View have picked up on an interview given by RIM's Alain Segond von Banchet, channel sales manager for BlackBerry in the Netherlands, in which the executive discusses a BlackBerry Storm 2 in frank terms. Google translations can be sketchy, but feel free to evaluate the original interview published by Tweakers.net.

The Storm 2 may not wind up being the final name for the new device, von Banchet said, but the device will come with a new way of entering data. That jibes with claims made by The Boy Genius Report on Tuesday that the next Storm will use a new screen in order to make typing easier.

The first BlackBerry Storm helped RIM enjoy an excellent quarter, but some reviewers and users were a bit put off by the touchscreen, as well as the lack of Wi-Fi, which will supposedly be addressed with the second iteration of the Storm.

The revamped device might be pretty far away from store shelves, however. KPN, a wireless carrier in the Netherlands, is expected to have the Storm 2 by the end of this year or the beginning of the next, and there's no indication when other carriers might be in line to start selling it on their networks.

We've barely unpacked our bags from GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, and we're on the road again to Las Vegas for CTIA Wireless, the U.S. trade show and conference held every spring where the biggest and most influential players in the U.S. mobile market gather.

While there will be some cell phones announced at this year's show, most of the excitement will center on software applications and the virtual storefronts that are popping up to distribute these new applications. Since the success of Apple's App Store, which provides easy access to third-party applications for iPhones, other companies have jumped on the bandwagon announcing their own application stores.

Everyone from Google to Microsoft to Nokia to Research In Motion has announced plans for a new application store. And at this year's CTIA, some of these new app stores will come to life. RIM is expected to announce that its BlackBerry AppWorld is open for business, and Microsoft will start showing off its Marketplace for the first time.

But application markets aren't the only thing that will be talked about. Carriers like Verizon and Clearwire will also be touting faster broadband wireless networks that will help make these applications a reality. And of course handset makers will be showing off new products, some of which have already been announced, such as the Palm Pre.

But this year's spring CTIA Wireless show will likely be smaller than in years past. The economic downturn has taken its toll on the mobile market. Even Nokia, the world's largest and strongest maker of cell phones, has slashed expectations for 2009. And the company has already begun laying off employees and closing facilities to cut costs.

Finnish manufacturer Nokia shipped the most smartphones in 2008, but its worldwide market share continues to decrease as rivals roll out popular, high-profile handsets, according to Gartner. It also said Apple and Research In Motion commanded some of the biggest year-over-year gains at Nokia's expense, with HTC showing a healthy increase as well.

According to the research firm, Nokia sold 60.9 million smartphones last year for a total market share of 43.7 percent. That's more than double the market share of its closest competitor, Research In Motion, which commanded 16.6 percent.

But even as Nokia continues to claim the biggest piece of cell phone pie, its outlook is mixed. From 2007, Nokia's smartphone sales grew by just 0.8 percent, and its market share dropped from 49.4 percent. While Gartner predicts that the company's low-end smartphones will continue to remain competitive, its higher-end N series handsets are facing stiff competition.

Thanks to devices like the BlackBerry Bold and the BlackBerry Storm, RIM's market share went from 9.6 percent in 2007 to 16.6 percent in 2008. It also boosted overall sales by 96.7 percent.

(Credit: Verizon Wireless)

Starting Friday, for every BlackBerry purchased, Verizon Wireless will throw in another for free.

It's a buy-one-get-one-free special that will run until March 31, and it applies to all BlackBerrys--including the brand new Storm. That's what makes this promotion kind of surprising: the touch-screen Storm is Verizon's supposed answer to AT&T and the iPhone and they're giving them away now?

Well, not entirely. The second piece of hardware will be free, but you still have to sign two-year contracts on each phone involved in the deal. And in the long run, Verizon extracts more money from customers through contracts than on hardware. Still, we won't see AT&T doing a two-for-one iPhone deal probably ever.

So why now? Perhaps Verizon just needs to clean out its inventory of BlackBerrys. But the Storm is barely 3 months old and has had its share of problems already. Many customers have complained vociferously about the device's buggy software and problems with the hardware.

Maybe it's not a coincidence then that the Storm software update rolls out March 31 (according to a report on the Boy Genius Report blog), the last day of the promotion?

Despite a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, the new BlackBerry Storm has gotten off to a shaky start, according to The Wall Street Journal.

(Credit: Verizon Wireless)

The Storm, which is Research In Motion's first touch-screen device, was supposed to be Verizon Wireless's iPhone killer. Verizon is the exclusive carrier for the Storm. Apple's iPhone is sold exclusively by AT&T. Verizon and RIM had supposedly been working on the device even before AT&T launched the original iPhone two and a half years ago.

The Storm launched in November, in time for the holiday-shopping season. And while it sold well initially with about 500,000 shipping the first month, the Journal reports that many customers who bought the device are complaining of buggy software and hardware glitches.

Specifically, consumers say that the software used to type on the touch screen, which requires you to press down on the face of the phone, is sluggish. I have used the device on and off since it was launched November 21, and I'd agree that it is clunky.

Other examples: the accelerometer that senses and changes the view on the screen when it's turned on its side is slow. And sometimes the "sure press" screen is difficult to use because it registers the wrong character.

Verizon and RIM rushed the device to market, perhaps before it was really ready, according to the Journal article. The newspaper notes that Jim Balsillie, RIM's co-CEO said the companies reached the Black Friday deadline "by the skin of their teeth," after they had missed a planned October debut.

President-elect Barack Obama is sure to face his share of hurdles over the course of his presidency. But when it comes to one of them--the possibility that he might have to give up his beloved BlackBerry--he is waxing optimistic that he will overcome.

In an interview with CNN on Friday, Obama expressed confidence that he would be able to keep his smartphone, despite well-publicized concerns over the possibility of eavesdropping by hackers and other digital snoops. While Research In Motion offers encryption, the U.S. government has stricter requirements for communications security.

As my colleague Declan McCullagh reported, some handheld devices, such as General Dynamics' Sectera Edge, have been officially blessed as secure enough to handle even classified documents, e-mail, and Web browsing.

But Obama seems determined to hang on to his device of choice.