Nokia's App Store - Ovi -opens for business

Nokia officially launched the Ovi Store. This is the Finnish company's answer to services like the App Store for the iPhone and the Android Market for Android smartphones. The Ovi Store allows developers to list their programs in an online catalog so users can easily download or buy them.
More than 50 Nokia devices are compatible with the Ovi Store and it can be accessed by visiting store.ovi.com on the browser or downloading the standalone application to your phone. We tried it on our E71 and it worked on both the browser and through the application. The first game we successfully installed did crash our phone, but we'll put that down as the fault of the app rather than the Ovi Store. More...

Google and others to "experiment" with Clearwire

Google gets a wireless sandbox; cable companies eye mobile services. Corporate backers have so far received little for investing in upstart wireless broadband provider Clearwire Corp. apart from multi-million dollar charges that have kneecapped their financial results. Google Inc., Comcast Corp., Intel Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. helped pour $3.2 billion into Clearwire late last year - and not long afterward absorbed roughly $2 billion in related write-downs. But while the tumultuous stock market and Clearwire's stark challenges give it an uncertain equity value, one asset firmly locked up by the company's backers is spectrum; Clearwire boasts more of the invisible real estate than any U.S. wireless operator. "If there's one thing that Clearwire has in its favor, it's a boat load of spectrum," said Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin. More...

AT&T Chief Defends His Network

AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said U.S. wireless networks aren't prepared for the surge in smart phones use that has already shown signs of choking their networks. He defended his company's wireless network's performance, though, which has come under fire for not being prepared for the popularity of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, which the company sells on an exclusive basis in the U.S. For example, AT&T has begun to nearly double the speed of its wireless network in some areas, and it invested more than $9 billion last year to buy speedier, more efficient cellphone spectrum. The results can so far be found in the amount of customers leaving AT&T for other operators. AT&T's churn, as its known, is among the lowest in the industry in the last three months. "I feel like we are closing the gap on this, but we're not there yet," he said, at the D: All Things Digital conference hosted by The Wall Street Journal. "We are about to see these issues manifest themselves industry wide." Yet there's work to do, Mr. Stephenson said, both at AT&T and most other wireless operators that are now featuring smart phones. Smart phones, like the iPhone and BlackBerry, have significantly ramped up the amount of wireless Internet surfing that's been going on. In the next few weeks, for example, Sprint Nextel is expected to begin selling the Palm Inc.'s Pre. More...

Verizon's answer to WiFi: MiFi

Verizon Wireless will begin selling a device from Novatel Wireless that allows mobile users to connect multiple devices to a 3G connection. The MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot, uses Verizon's EV-DO Rev. A network to create a personal WiFi cloud that can connect up to five WiFi-enabled devices, such a digital cameras or an iPod Touch, to the Internet. The product appears to be a way for Verizon to keep devices on its 3G network rather than accessing public WiFi hotspots. WiFi access is becoming a critical feature in many smartphones. A recent ABI Research report on behalf of the WiFi Alliance shows consumers view WiFi as a "must-have" feature for mobile handsets. The firm found that 77 percent of mobile phone users want WiFi on their next handset and three-fourths of the people who have WiFi capability in their smartphones use it regularly. Devices such as the iPhone have created demand for WiFi access. To date, Verizon has shunned WiFi access on mobile devices. "With projected growth rates of over 30 percent for WiFi mobile phones, MiFi will be of great benefit to both business customers and consumers," said Mike Lanman, vice president with Verizon Wireless. More...

Little Laptops Could Drive Big Data Usage

The cutesy mini-laptops know as "netbooks" are becoming one of the elements set to drive up mobile broadband usage up in the coming years. A new report from Pyramid Research , called "Mobile Broadband for the Masses: The Case for Bundled Netbooks," finds that Webpads are just starting to hit a growth spurt, despite the economic crisis. About 13 million were sold worldwide in 2008, with 10 million of those sales coming in the second half of the year, notes report co-author Cristiano Laux. Pyramid believes the trend will continue and is recommending that operators do what they can to support netbook sales. "There is growing evidence that netbooks are catching on with the under-21 crowd; if that trend develops, the adoption rate for netbooks could accelerate even more, which means these cheap and approachable devices could have a huge impact on how network operators make money off their services," Laux adds. More...

Android on Steroids

2009 is going to be a banner year for Google’s Android mobile operating system. Strategy Analytics estimates shipments of handsets running the OS will grow 900 percent this year as more vendors adopt it. And at that rate, it will far outpace the growth of Apple’s iPhone, whose shipments the company expects to increase just 79 percent in 2009. “Android has fast been winning healthy support among operators, vendors and developers,” said Strategy Analytics director Neil Mawston. “A relatively low-cost licensing model, its semi-open-source structure and Google’s support for cloud services have encouraged companies such as HTC, Motorola, Samsung, T Mobile, Vodafone and others to support the Android operating system. Android is now in a good position to become a top-tier player in smartphones over the next two to three years.” More...

Twitter Proves Its Worth as a Killer App for Local Businesses

All those brands trying to figure the ROI of Twitter? They might do well to follow the lead of the local pizza joint. NAKED PIZZA: Recent Twitter promotion brought in 150% of a recent day's business. Naked Pizza, a New Orleans healthful-pizza shop that's hoping to go national -- Mark Cuban is a backer -- has been marketing itself via the microblogging service. And recently it has started to track Twitter-spurred sales at the register. In a test run April 23, an exclusive-to-Twitter promotion brought in 15% of the day's business. "Every phone call was tracked, every order was measured by where it came from, and it told us very quickly that Twitter is useful," said Jeff Leach, the restaurant's co-founder. "Sure, there's the brand marketing and getting-to-know-you stuff. ... But we wanted to know: Can it make the cash register ring?" More...

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