"smartphones" articles
The Sonos team sent out an update on their progress yesterday. From all counts, the business of selling high-quality multi-room networked audio systems is good for the company. Is the introduction of the Cisco Wireless Audio system a threat? Well, you have to admire the moxie of the Sonos team. They view Cisco's entry as "an opportunity to educate even more music lovers about the Sonos experience. With any nascent market, competition is a good thing as it exposes more consumers to a...
On January 27, 2009, Cisco announced that it was acquiring a company that provides middleware to bridge between the IT and building management systems. Cisco says that the acquisition of Richards-Zeta Building Intelligence can allow IT systems - including servers, phones, Telepresence, digital signage, and networking equipment - to be managed in much the same way as security, HVAC, and other building management systems.
CNET reported yesterday that this acquisition plays into...
T-Mobile USA announced that Google Android-based G1 smartphone is now available in all markets nationwide. Previously, it was only sold in T-Mobile’s 3G service markets. Although the carrier has not publicly discussed the G1’s sales figure, Morgan Stanley projected around 300,000 unit G1 sales in 4Q08 for the carrier. Contrasting this number, Taiwan’s HTC (G1’s maker) in early January said that G1’s 2008 shipments reached the company’s one million goal as first reported by...
Apple released its calendar year 4Q08 earnings this afternoon. Here is a quick recap of the numbers and growth I care most about:
iPod: 22.7 million units for the quarter, slightly higher than my projected 21.9 million units. This gives Apple total sales of 55.3 million units in 2008, up 5% year over year. Average selling price dropped slightly from $150 to $149, indicating that holiday sales did not help Apple sell more high-end models. As a result, iPod revenues in 2008 dropped...
Many manufacturers are developing apps that make Apple's ubiquitous mobile device a touchpanel controller for automation, lighting, distributed audio and more. Apple’s iPhone is doubling as a new type of touchpanel controller these days.
Apple has already sold more than 6 million iPhones, and many home control companies are capitalizing on that trend by engineering their systems to communicate directly with the mobile device, as well as with Apple’s iPod and iPod touch...
You may know tvCompass as the company that developed the ESPN Remote. At CES, I talked to them about several announcements, including a Widget publishing platform, bringing CBS content to devices like the ESPN remote, using Macrovision's guides to bring EPGs to new devices (like the iPhone), and turning the iPhone into a cool remote controller by partnering with Zilog.
There were several news headlines regarding the mobile phone industry in the past couple of days. First, Nokia launched its N97 touch-screen smartphone yesterday and touted as the most revolutionary mobile internet device. Indeed, the specs are quite impressive: 5-megapixel camera, 32GB internal memory, tri-band HSDPA 3G, flash in the browser, and a 3.5-inch touch screen, etc. The price tag is eye-popping too—around $700. Separately, news from the U.K said that T-Mobile UK started to...
Not a bad deal for the Austin company. Not a bad deal at all, especially considering the current market conditions. Back in the days when I was writing about Wi-Fi hotspots 4, 5 years ago, I predicted only a couple of companies would survive which seemed at a time an exploding market. On the list were Wayport and Boingo. Wayport was able to secure many strategic locations coveted by other companies interested in the hotspot market. Lately it also has been managing AT&T's Wi-Fi hotspot...
