100 Most Influential Technology Vendors of 2008 Named

The top 3 technology vendors among software, hardware, and service providers are Microsoft, Oracle and SAP, reports the Aberdeen Group's Annual State of the Market Report, which for the first time includes a list of Top 100 firms, writes MarketingCharts. Technology vendors that are household names — IBM, Dell, HP, Cisco, Salesforce.com, EMC and Sun […]

Posted: Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

Mobile Social Networking Grows in UK, Facebook a Favorite

More than 4 in 10 UK mobile phone subscribers (44%) belong to an online social network. And 25% of those social networkers use their mobile phone for social-networking activities, according to (pdf) Nielsen Mobile, writes MarketingCharts. Around 812,000 Britons each month, or 1.7 percent of all UK mobile subscribers, visited a social-networking website using their mobile […]

Posted: Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

iPhone Users Satisfied, but Many Carry Second Mobile Phone

Users claim the iPhone lives up to the hype, in some cases even displacing laptops for on-the-go 'net browsing. Even so, many iPhone owners still carry a second phone, according to a Rubicon Consulting study, writes MarketingCharts. Rubicon conducted a survey of 460 iPhone users in the US to determine how the iPhone is being used […]

Posted: Monday, May 12th, 2008

Best Buy Forks $2.1B Over for 50% of The Carphone Warehouse

Best Buy has purchased a 50 percent stake in The Carphone Warehouse, a European mobile phone vendor, for $2.1 billion. The deal includes The Carphone Warehouse's 2400 stores, which span nine European countries, as well as its online and direct businesses, insurance operations and airtime reselling businesses, CNN reports. The Carphone Warehouse will maintain proprietary ownership of […]

Posted: Friday, May 9th, 2008

AT&T Mobile TV Goes Live — Really, This Time — On Sunday

AT&T has announced it will launch its mobile TV initiative this Sunday. After a handful of delays, last March the company conservatively arranged a May debut. The service is available on LG Vu and the Samsung Access, across 58 markets including New York, Las Vegas, Philadelphia and Chicago. Powered by Qualcomm's MediaFLO, the AT&T Mobile TV lineup includes […]

Posted: Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Time Warner to Shaft Cable Division

Time Warner, which owns an 84 percent stake in Time Warner Cable, has decided to separate it from other assets. "We just believe the two entities would be more valuable if separated rather than kept in the current structure," said CEO Jeffrey Bewkes. Time Warner's net income in Q1 was $771 million, down $3 percent from $1.2 […]

Posted: Thursday, May 1st, 2008

Mobile Phone Market to Grow Despite Downturn, Nokia Top Vendor Worldwide

Mobile phone vendors experienced a lull in 1Q08, shipping just 291.6 million units — an 11.6 percent downturn from the 330.8 million units shipped during the busy holiday quarter (4Q07), according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, writes MarketingCharts. However, first-quarter numbers were 14.3 percent more than the number of units (255.0 million) shipped […]

Posted: Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

Mobile IM Use May Overtake SMS, Mobile Email

SMS (texting) and mobile email may well be overtaken by mobile instant messaging (MIM), according to a TNS Global Telecoms Insight (GTI) survey of 17,000 consumers across 30 countries, MarketingCharts reports. Globally, 11 of 100 messages sent by mobile device or fixed PC are instant messages, the survey found. And 8 percent of all mobile […]

Posted: Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

8.5MM Broadband Subscriptions Added in '07, Fewest Since '03

The 19 largest cable and telephone providers in the US — accounting for about 94 percent of the market — acquired over 8.5 million net additional high-speed internet subscribers in 2007, according to Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG), MarketingCharts reports. Annual net broadband additions were down from a record 10.4 million in 2006 and 9.9 […]

Posted: Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

Wal-Mart Sits Pretty Atop Fortune 500 List

Wal-Mart Stores posted '07 revenues of $378.8 billion (up 7.9 percent from 2006) and profits of $12.7 billion. These figures again made it the No. 1 corporation in the Fortune 500, Fortune announced, MarketingCharts reports. Wal-Mart is also the biggest employer, employing more people (2 million) than the US armed forces (1.4 million). Below, the top 10 […]

Posted: Monday, April 28th, 2008

Time Warner Raises Verizon's Ire for False Ads About FiOS

Verizon has brought a false advertising suit against Time Warner Cable. The company alleges one of Time Warner's TV ads (falsely) suggest Verizon FiOS requires a satellite dish, and that it lacks phone, broadband and video capabilities, reports ZDNet. To compensate for "immediate and irreparable harm" to the reputation of its brand, Verizon demands an injunction […]

Posted: Friday, April 11th, 2008

In Wireless Carrier Choice, Price Outdoes Coverage; Mobile Web Use Grows

5-15 percent of customers (depending on the carrier) plan to switch carriers within the next six months. Lower price will be the primary reason for 19 percent of them, according to a comScore report on wireless consumer choices, MarketingCharts writes. Wireless Price vs. Coverage Coverage is still the strongest factor driving consumers' wireless purchasing decisions, with 22 […]

Posted: Monday, April 7th, 2008

Verizon Adds Social Mapping Service to Over 20 Handsets

Verizon Wireless is offering location services from social mapping provider Loopt on over 20 of its phones. The service was first offered to Sprint users last month, reports Information Week. Verizon hopes to net younger users by providing Loopt mapping for an additional $3.99 a month. Loopt users can set up private networks of mutual friends, which […]

Posted: Monday, March 31st, 2008

To Adopt Mobile P2P Payments, Consumers Want Speed and Security

Demand for high-speed mobile person-to-person (mobile P2P) payments and transfers is growing, with one in ten consumers saying they would likely use the service if it were available, according to a report by Javelin Strategy and Research, MarketingCharts writes. Still, 67 percent of consumers surveyed express clear hesitance using mobile P2P payment services, saying they […]

Posted: Friday, March 28th, 2008

Cellular South Digitizes Retail Store

Cellular South is updating its Ridgeland, MS retail store to push web offerings in an effort to emphasize its updated business strategy, reports DM News. The new store is designed to mirror the layout of the website. There will be a total of 26 computer terminals, and 23 employees will guide customers through the process of […]

Posted: Friday, March 21st, 2008

Consumer Attitudes toward Mobile Multimedia Shift; So Too Operator Roles

Mobile subscribers' perception of their mobile operators has shifted: 66 percent view them as data connectivity providers, but 20 percent view them as aggregators and providers of multimedia content and services, according to a 3-ple Media survey, writes MarketingCharts. Moreover, 14 percent of subscribers consider mobile operators trusted guardians of personal data and information, much like […]

Posted: Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

On-the-Go Mobile Purchases, Banking on the Rise

One in four cell phone users with mobile internet access use their devices to buy goods and services online. And nearly one in five say they would like to someday use cell phones as a "mobile wallet," finds a Harris Interactive study, MarketingCharts reports. Other findings: Smartphone or iPhone users are more likely to "occasionally" use their device […]

Posted: Monday, March 17th, 2008

Telecoms Delight: Nortel to Help Lift Bandwidth Load

Nortel Networks has prepared a technology that enables telecoms to quadruple the capacity of their networks. This would empower them to respond to the bandwidth demands of increased online video viewing and HD programming, reports Reuters. The optics-based solution delivers speeds of 40 gigabits per second (Gbps), four times faster than typical networking speeds of 10 […]

Posted: Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

6 in 10 Use Non-Voice Mobile Apps, Cellphones Hardest Tech to Give up

Some 62 percent of adult Americans have either accessed the internet with a wireless connection away from home or work, or used a non-voice data application like a cell phone or personal digital assistant (PDA), according to a Pew Internet Project study (via MediaPost) — writes MarketingCharts. The report, "Mobile Access to Data and Information" (pdf), […]

Posted: Friday, March 7th, 2008

Mobile Broadband Use Soars, Poised for Expansion

The number of computers using mobile broadband technology to access the internet increased 154 percent in Q4 of 2007 compared with the year-earlier period, according to a comScore study of US Internet usage via mobile broadband*, MarketingCharts reports. The number of computers using mobile broadband increased from 854,000 in 4Q06 to nearly 2.17 million in 4Q07, […]

Posted: Wednesday, March 5th, 2008