Why?

They’re far too worried about what would happen to their customer-retention rates if they did so.

“We continue to believe carriers would lower iPhone subsidies if they collectively felt that competing devices would drive the same economics as iPhones,” says BMO Capital’s Keith Bachman. But right now, they don’t. And with no other hero handset to mitigate the risks of the spike in customer churn that might follow a reduction in iPhone subsidy, we’re unlikely to see one in the near term.

There are other reasons, as well, one being the presumed launch of a new LTE iPhone. That device will likely inspire a strong surge of upgrades late in the year. And with carriers looking to move subscribers onto their LTE networks, they’re probably not going to mess with a device that will surely be instrumental in helping them do it.

Finally, as we’ve noted here before, Apple’s multiyear agreements with its carrier partners very likely prevents them from changing iPhone subsidy pricing. These deals are said to have most-favored-nation clauses, so that any reduction in subsidy offered to one carrier would have to be offered to the others. And with Verizon and Sprint both newly locked into their contracts for some time, Apple has no cause whatsoever to even entertain the idea of a lower iPhone subsdidy.

The scrutiny is the result of an exclusion order obtained by Apple in its patent dispute with HTC. As a result of the International Trade Commission order, HTC is prohibited from importing certain products found to infringe on an Apple patent.

U.S. Customs is responsible for inspecting HTC’s shipments to the U.S., and the company said last week that the inspections would delay the launch of Sprint’s HTC Evo 4G LTE and also slow shipments of the HTC One X, a phone already on sale through AT&T.

“Each imported HTC model must be reviewed by customs and will be released once customs officials have completed the inspection,” HTC said in a statement on Sunday that was posted on its investor relations site. “Some models have gone through inspection and been released to our carriers customers. We don’t have the status of each specific device model at this time, but we are working closely with customs. We remain confident that this issue will be resolved soon.”

The question, however, is what impact the holdup will have, both in terms of lost sales and as a potential blow to HTC’s momentum. The company had been counting on the HTC One and its variants to help the company return to growth.

After seeing its quarterly sales double year-over-year levels through the first half of last year, HTC sales hit a wall in the second half, amid heightened competition from Samsung and others.

Mardini, a 22-year-old entrepreneur and New York University student, is reselling devices and services from Sprint. In fact, Sprint is handling most facets of the business, aside from sales and marketing.

That’s a good thing, since Voyager Mobile consists of about seven employees, mostly family and friends. But though Mardini is only 22, this is already his third start-up, having already built up businesses in music equipment and IT services.

Mardini says the goal with Voyager is to offer customers low monthly prices. Voyager is pitching $19 (plus taxes) a month for unlimited talking and texting, and $39 (plus taxes) for talking, texting and Web use.

“I pay so much for my cellphone,” Mardini said in an interview last week. “I was thinking there has to be a better way to make it cheaper for everyone.”

The company was all set to start taking orders on Tuesday, but the Web-site issues forced a few days’ delay.

Things are up and running now, with Voyager offering a range of prepaid devices, including a pair of Android phones at $219 and Samsung’s Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch for $549.

Google, a Silicon Valley giant that built its business on Web services, startled the tech industry last August by saying it would buy the company, a much older, Illinois-based maker of mobile devices and other hardware.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

For a limited time, customers can bring their iPhones, regardless of carrier, to any Sprint store and receive $100 off the purchase of an iPhone 4S with the activation of a new line (upgrades are not included in this promotion).

New customers can receive their discount in two ways. You can either reserve the smartphone online and receive an instant $100 discount when you pick it up in the store and bring in your old iPhone, or you can purchase the phone online and then fill out a trade-in form to receive a credit to your account.

More than the discount, though, it may be Sprint’s unlimited data plans that attract new customers. Just this week, a Verizon executive suggested that subscribers who have existing unlimited data plans might not be able to keep them if they decide to upgrade their phone once the carrier’s new shared data plans arrive later this summer. Meanwhile, Sprint gives existing and new customers unlimited access to data on their smartphones.

Sprint’s iPhone 4S promotion begins today for a limited time, but the carrier did not reveal when the offer will end.

This patent dispute, one of several between the companies, centers on Microsoft’s ActiveSync technology. Ultimately, the ruling could lead to the ban of imports of Motorola products that infringe on the patent in question.

“Microsoft sued Motorola in the ITC only after Motorola chose to refuse Microsoft’s efforts to renew a patent license for well over a year,” Microsoft deputy general counsel David Howard said in a statement. “We’re pleased the full Commission agreed that Motorola has infringed Microsoft’s intellectual property, and we hope that now Motorola will be willing to join the vast majority of Android device makers selling phones in the U.S. by taking a license to our patents.”

The ITC issued an initial finding of infringement in this case back in December.

Motorola, for its part, notes that it can continue shipping products during a 60-day presidential review process and said it will ponder its options. It also noted that Microsoft had originally sought a ruling that Motorola had infringed on nine patents.

“Although we are disappointed by the Commission’s ruling that certain Motorola Mobility products violated one patent, we look forward to reading the full opinion to understand its reasoning,” Motorola said in a statement. “We will explore all options including appeal.”

Motorola said it will be required to post a 33-cents-per-unit bond for products it ships during the 60-day review period.

This dispute is separate from other conflicts between the two companies, including one related to Microsoft’s Xbox. Motorola has won an initial ruling it its favor from the ITC in that case.

After raising upward of $15 billion dollars in its first day as a public company, Facebook has acquired social gifting app Karma and all 16 of its employees.

The app is designed to help Facebook users find reasons to give one another gifts, identifying birthdays and special occasions.

It’s an acquisition, not an “acqhire.” So, interestingly enough, the service will stay up and functioning, Karma said on its company blog. As Karma put it, “The service that Karma provides will continue to operate in full force.”

Facebook makes acquisitions all the time, but it’s rare that it keeps the service up and running afterward. Instagram is the only previous example. Some services like FriendFeed are still alive, but only in maintenance mode.

It’s also yet another mobile acquisition, coming directly after the acquisitions of Glancee and Lightbox. As many have pointed out, Facebook has a weak mobile experience; it seems the company is wasting no time in beefing it up.

“We’ve been really impressed with the Karma team and all they accomplished in such a short time,” a Facebook spokesperson told AllThingsD in a statement. “This acquisition combines Karma’s passion and innovative mobile app with Facebook’s platform to help people connect and share in new and meaningful ways.”

Snapped up relatively quickly after being founded in June of last year by the creators of Tapjoy, Karma’s background is well-pedigreed; the app was funded by Kleiner Perkins, Obvious Corporation, Sequoia Capital and Felicis Ventures.

In a blog post on Friday, the No. 4 carrier rejected the idea that pooled data plans will end up being a better value.

“Do families really want to keep track of each others’ data consumption?” T-Mobile said. “We don’t think so. Just imagine mom’s email is suddenly unavailable because her teenage son watched an HD movie on his phone, consuming the family’s data allotment.”

Verizon has said it will offer tiered data plans starting in midsummer, while AT&T has said it is working on a family data plan of its own. Sprint, meanwhile, is keeping its focus on unlimited plans as well.

T-Mobile acknowledges that bandwidth is a limited resource, but says that shared data is not the way to go.

It’s the first major redesign of the app since 2009, and brings a sleeker design and more personalization and social features.

The changes are apparent as soon as you open the app, where you’re presented with a more visual representation of the current weather. For example, if it’s sunny, the background image shows blue skies; if it’s rainy, the image displays raindrops. You can also customize the background with a favorite photo.

In addition to the visual improvements, the main page now features controls for quicker access to more detailed weather information and the ability to search for other locations. If you have more than one location saved to the app, you can simply swipe left or right on the screen to see the forecast for the other cities.

Finally, a new camera button on the front page allows you take a snapshot of the weather at your location and then share it via Facebook, Twitter, or the Weather Channel.

The updated version of the free, ad-supported Weather Channel app for the iPhone and iPod Touch is available now through the App Store.

Most of the documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission were kept confidential, but the limited information posted to the agency’s Web site suggests that the tablet contains support for several flavors of wireless connectivity, including Wi-Fi and LTE. The filing also makes reference to Bluetooth and near field communications capabilities.

The move isn’t a shock, given that RIM has promised that an LTE-capable PlayBook would be out later this year.

Whether buyers will be interested in the device is an open question, however.

It’s here.

Facebook, the 900-million-strong social network that knows more about us than even our closest friends, will become a publicly traded company within the next hour.

Private equity dealmakers will celebrate alongside cadres of newly minted millionaire engineers in Menlo Park, Calif., while retail investors the world around will clamor amongst themselves, tooth and claw, for the chance to share in a mere fraction of the riches.

And yet, after a year of watching tech IPOs — Zynga, Groupon, LinkedIn, Yelp — let’s all admit that it kind of borders on anticlimactic.

We know we’ll most likely see a nice pop in the share price after Mark Zuckerberg rings in the Nasdaq bell remotely from Facebook’s spanking-new HQ in Silicon Valley.

From there, like a floating jump ball up for grabs, the social networking giant’s closing stock price is anyone’s guess — and by the looks of my Twitter feed, everyone’s guess. There’s already a site dedicated to tracking what price Facebook’s stock will settle at when the markets close, a page peppered with numbers posited by the digital elite.

Today is about the money. And yet it is also more than just sitting and watching the ticker tape roll by. For the first time, Zuckerberg’s vision of making the world a more open place will finally apply to his own company.

We got our first taste of it when the company filed its S-1. It’s where we saw that more than half of Facebook’s 900 million monthly visitors are visiting the site via mobile devices, a channel in which the company has yet to figure out a coherent or viable monetization strategy.

We saw that Zuckerberg retains a tight grip on the company’s future — tighter than most CEOs, akin to the likes of Google’s co-founders — holding voting rights on 57.1 percent of Facebook’s mighty class-B shares. He is so tied to his company that he is cited as a risk factor in Facebook’s S-1, of course.

And now we’re witnessing the first defectors from Facebook’s nacent advertising strategy, as with General Motors pulling its $10 million dollars in advertising on Facebook earlier this week, citing it as an ineffective use of the company’s massive marketing budget.

What we’ll soon see is Facebook’s less-pretty public profile, so to speak, with Zuckerberg holding court over earnings calls every quarter, taking heat from investors who expect returns. We’ll be given insight into how the company plans to monetize its different products, and how they actually fare.

Just as Facebook knows so very much about each of us, we, too, will begin to learn a lot more about Facebook.

And yet, through all of this, no matter what grim forecast Wall Street projects, no matter what executive decisions or company road maps the media decries, Zuckerberg’s message is clear — so much so that he made it the poster for the pre-IPO all-night hackathon:

“Stay focused and keep hacking.”

Good luck with that.

(Images: (top) Morin Uwole/Facebook; (bottom) Victor Luu/Facebook)

Last week, the U.S. Department of Defense approved RIM’s BlackBerry 7 devices for agencywide use. And now the device has won similar approvals in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

CESG, the National Technical Authority for Information Assurance in the U.K., on Thursday certified BlackBerry 7 as fit for government and law enforcement use. And the Defense Signals Directorate of the Australian Government did the same for Australia and New Zealand. The reason: Those industry-leading security features RIM is so fond of talking up. Consumers may not pay them much mind, but in government they clearly matter a great deal.

Which is great for RIM’s business, but not quite central to its long-term success. While government sales will certainly help keep RIM afloat, it’s the enterprise and consumer markets where the company really needs some wins. RIM insists that BlackBerry 10 will deliver them, but it won’t launch until later this year.

The company, which first debuted its touchscreen e-reader at D7, is shuttering its U.S. operations in Mountain View, Calif., and scrapping entirely its latest e-reader plan, which saw it peddling its devices in the Russian education market. Rather than continue to develop hardware, Plastic Logic will focus on licensing its flexible display technology to other companies.

So what will come of that $700 million factory Plastic Logic had planned for Zelenograd, Russia? Evidently, plans for that facility have been scaled back — substantially. Rather than a manufacturing plant, that operation will now be an “R&D center of excellence.”

A wise move for Plastic Logic, exiting a market it really never had a chance in. The company’s $800 Que was far too pricey for a stand-alone e-reader, even one targeted at enterprise. And Plastic Logic wasn’t nearly nimble enough to negotiate the rapidly changing e-reader market.

But there are others who are, and who might put Plastic Logic’s flexible, but rugged, screen technology to good use. And according to Plastic Logic CEO Indro Mukerjee, the company is already in talks with several potential customers. He says the first products using the company’s technology could arrive at market by the end of this year. Though given the company’s history, that window’s probably as flexible as one of its displays.

Below, Plastic Logic shows off a Que prototype at D7.

The Wait for Plastic Logic’s Que E-Reader Will Last Forever

Que? That’s Spanish for “Where the Hell Is My E-Reader,” Right?

You Still Can’t Buy Plastic Logic’s Que E-Reader. Want to Buy Plastic Logic?

Plastic Logic (Finally) Shows Off The Que, Its (Very Expensive) Kindle Competitor

Plastic Logic Offers a (Quick) Look at Its Kindle Killer: Meet the Que

Plastic Logic: The Full D7 Demo

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120517/plastic-logic-exits-e-reader-business-it-never-really-managed-to-enter/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120517/hey-mickey-youre-so-fine-meet-the-man-who-landed-silicon-valleys-hottest-funding-deal-in-pinterest/ http://allthingsd.com/20120517/hey-mickey-youre-so-fine-meet-the-man-who-landed-silicon-valleys-hottest-funding-deal-in-pinterest/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 16:29:15 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=209298

There’s no question that every venture capitalist within 100 miles of Silicon Valley wanted to squeeze their khaki-clad selves into what had become tech’s hottest deal of late.

That would be to get a piece of the new round of funding for start-up phenom Pinterest.

But while piles of VCs and other investors tried to work every angle possible to noodge into the action, the iconoclastic CEO and co-founder Ben Silbermann decided to go big and go global by hooking up with a Tokyo-based Internet giant.

Japan’s Rakuten will invest upwards of $50 million in a $100 million round that values the social bookmarking site at $1.5 billion.

Rakuten is one of the largest online commerce companies in the world, with a flagship site Rakuten Ichiba, among others. It was founded in 1997 and had revenue of $4.7 billion in 2011.

Most important in Pinterest’s calculation was apparently the link with its CEO Hiroshi Mikitani, whose nickname is Mickey. One the richest men in Japan, Mikitani is one of the best known entrepreneurs there where he’s been described as “Richard Branson meets Jeff Bezos.”

I briefly chatted with Mikitani last night about why he decided on the Pinterest deal, in a conversation where he focused a bit on Rakuten’s famed “omotenashi” or “empowerment” philosophy. Simply put, the concept is that — unlike an Amazon — Rakuten is a facilitator of commerce, much like its shopping mall metaphor beginnings. The approach is to aid merchants rather than compete with them.

It’s a little eBay, a little Alibaba, some Etsy and even a little Amazon Web Services mixed in. It’s also a place that can move retail globally, which is presumably the attraction to it by Pinterest.

ATD: Why did Pinterest pick you?

Mikitani: We are not a venture capitalist. We got together and talked about our story and our history.

We agreed that we shared a vision of the future of Internet e-commerce.

ATD: Why make an investment?

Mikitani: When we started to talk about being involved in the round of investment, we wanted to invest as much as possible.

We were very impressed by their business model and also the management style.

ATD: What made Pinterest so attractive in comparsion to other similar companies?

Everyone is talking about social commerce and best solution to social commerce, but Pinterest really was the first to use graphics that well to connect with people.

Facebook has used connected ways to reach friends, but Pinterest had a totally different approach to using more graphical ways to connect interests.

Rarely have we seen such a powerful media and we were seeing huge traffic coming from Pinterest [to Rakuten sites]. It was much higher than anyone else.

ATD: What do you bring to the table?

Mikitani: I think there are some things we think we can do with our expertise. Ben and his team have an extremely strong commitment to make their products as attractive as possible.

I did not think we could compete with Pinterest at all.

But we have 40,000 stores in Japan and we can give them access to our customers and do aggregation to engage in everything. And we have sites in many other countries too.

ATD: How are you going to work together?

Mikitani: We are not going to stop them from doing dealings with other e-commerce companies. But we can have more constructive input on how to make their site more effective from e-commerce point of view.

We can drive revenue. We have strong experience in mobile. We can combine their apps with our apps.

This is a long-term arrangement and we have a strong committment and attachment to this business. We truly understand their business and respect their management.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120517/hey-mickey-youre-so-fine-meet-the-man-who-landed-silicon-valleys-hottest-funding-deal-in-pinterest/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120517/mobile-gaming-is-hot-but-pocket-gems-wont-sell-out/ http://allthingsd.com/20120517/mobile-gaming-is-hot-but-pocket-gems-wont-sell-out/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 16:26:13 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=209143 Pocket Gems, which routinely hits the top of the charts with its mobile games, says it isn’t for sale, even though it must be tempting right now.

Recently, Funzio sold to Japan’s Gree for $210 million, and Zynga acquired OMGPOP for $180 million; not too long before that, Electronic Arts paid $750 million for PopCap.

In an interview, Pocket Gem’s COO Ben Liu said that mobile game companies are hot commodities right now, but to sell is shortsighted.

“We feel like it’s the early days of mobile,” Liu said. “There’s a decade-long shift occurring from PC and the Web to mobile, and games is only the first vertical to take off. There’s so much opportunity. We need all of our attention on that to be successful.”

Liu would not disclose the company’s revenue, but said that it has been growing extremely fast. Over the past year and a half, the company has moved its offices five times to accommodate the growth of its staff — from 10 to 120 employees.

And as of a few months ago, the company recorded 60 million app downloads since its founding in 2009. Its hit title Tap Zoo generated 20 million downloads alone.

Pocket Gems’ games fall into the “casual” genre, and are focused on building products that have fairly addicting play; they attract a predominantly adult female audience. The games normally have “tap” in the name — Tap Zoo, Tap Pet Hotel and Tap Jungle allow players to build, respectively, their own zoo, pet hotel and mystical rain forest.

Last week, Pocket Gems released its first game exclusively for Android, called Tap Dragon Park, which allows players to train dragons to defend their kingdoms.

Pocket Gems has been able to rise in the rankings without having to tap investors too much. (Maybe their next game will be Tap Bank?) It has raised $5 million in capital from Sequoia Capital and a handful of angel investors, and is profitable.

Here are Liu’s thoughts on some of the issues facing the mobile games industry.

On making acquisitions versus being acquired:

Liu says Pocket Gems isn’t entertaining offers at this time, but will consider making acquisitions of its own. “We’ve been completely focused on organic expansion, but I think as we continue to grow, something we’ll look at is acquisitions, as well. We are focused on building a great team organically, and are opportunistic.”

How many games can you release in a year?

“Last year, we launched 10 games total. Some of them are new IP that requires a larger team and can be franchise-sustaining, and others are seasonal titles or extensions.”

Is there an issue with copycats in the space?

“Yes, all of our games have been cloned extensively by most of our competitors. But that’s one of the prices of success. We’ve always prided ourselves on being an innovator. The thing that is difficult to clone is creativity. … We have a saying: Pocket Gems is a leader and not a follower. And many of our competitors have a fast-follower strategy.”

What are your thoughts about third-party distribution platforms, like Gree and DeNA, which are trying to create mobile social networks?

“We haven’t opened our games to third parties. It’s in our interest to develop our own platform. Their businesses are really compelling, but there’s no winning platform yet in the mobile space. We have our own loyal community, which is a powerful game engine. We don’t want to be dependent on someone else’s platform. Our own great platform is a powerful source of marketing, and it is good at letting our users know about the games. That’s the most effective.”

Is summer a good time for people to play and discover new mobile games?

“It’s a good time. People are on vacation and in transit, and it’s a natural device to use during those times. And people have more downtime and free time. We’ve found historically for it to be good. Holidays are another.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120517/mobile-gaming-is-hot-but-pocket-gems-wont-sell-out/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120517/verizon-unlimited-users-plans-not-going-away-but-options-likely-to-narrow/ http://allthingsd.com/20120517/verizon-unlimited-users-plans-not-going-away-but-options-likely-to-narrow/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 15:28:30 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=209378 Verizon hasn’t offered unlimited data plans for a while now, but it has lots and lots of customers still on them.

So, naturally, there was much kerfuffle on Wednesday after reports that Verizon was planning to ax plans, even for those grandfathered in. The reports stemmed from comments made by Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo at an investor conference.

Thing is, he didn’t actually say that those on plans would lose them. However, he did suggest that those looking to upgrade to a 4G LTE smartphone would soon be unable to take their plan on to a new phone.

Until now, Verizon has been letting those with unlimited plans move to 4G and keep their plan. Shammo said that will come to an end once the company introduces shared data plans this summer.

“So when you think about our 3G base, a lot of our 3G base is unlimited,” Shammo said. “As they start to migrate into 4G, they will have to come off of unlimited and go into the data share plan.”

But those who have unlimited plans and are okay with keeping their 3G phones are likely to be able to keep their plan. My understanding is that there are Verizon customers on 10-year-old rate plans and, so long as they are happy with their phone, no one will force them to change plans.

In a statement on Thursday, Verizon Wireless didn’t exactly clear things up entirely, but suggested that there will be fair warning before anything changes.

As we have stated publicly, Verizon Wireless has been re-evaluating its data pricing structure for some time, Customers have told us that they want to share data, similar to how they share minutes today. We are working on plans to provide customers with that option later this year.

We will share specific details of the plans and any related policy changes well in advance of their introduction, so customers will have time to evaluate their choices and make the best decisions for their wireless service. It is our goal and commitment to continue to provide customers with the same high value service they have come to expect from Verizon Wireless.

That said, if you have an unlimited plan and think you might want to move to 4G, it’s probably best to do so now.

Update: I got a few more details on how this will be rolled out. First of all, Verizon is saying definitively that customers that are on an unlimited plan and want to keep it with their existing phone can do so.

What will happen is that once shared data plans arrive, unlimited data customers won’t be able to upgrade to a new phone at a discount and keep their unlimited plan. Should they want to, customers could opt to pay the full unsubsidized price for a new phone (3G or 4G) and keep their unlimited data plan.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120517/verizon-unlimited-users-plans-not-going-away-but-options-likely-to-narrow/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120517/battle-of-the-boom-boxes/ http://allthingsd.com/20120517/battle-of-the-boom-boxes/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 13:00:56 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=208481 Summer is just around the corner, and a great way to kick off the season is with a backyard barbeque or pool party full of good friends, good food and, of course, good tunes.

Thanks to portable wireless speakers, bringing the entertainment outdoors is easier than ever, and the Jawbone Big Jambox and Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile Speaker are two such solutions. Both speakers connect to a variety of Bluetooth-enabled devices, including the iPhone, Android tablets and laptops.

At $299 each, the two devices are more expensive than some of the speaker systems out there, such as the $99 Soundfreaq Sound Kick, but you get a richer audio experience and advanced functions for the money.

I tested both speakers — in my apartment and at a party — and while the Bose SoundLink has a more travel-friendly design and cranks out an impressive level of volume, I found the sound quality to be better on the Big Jambox. Plus, it offers a few extra features over the Bose, including a two-way speakerphone and better battery life.

Set-up for both systems was easy. I paired each with an iPhone 4, an Android tablet and a laptop, and listened to music from my personal library, streaming services, movies and games.

The Big Jambox and SoundLink pump out an impressive amount of sound for their size. They filled my one-bedroom apartment at mid-volume levels, and also worked well at a friend’s backyard birthday party, with the speaker volume at 75 percent. I played a variety of genres, including classical, hip-hop and rock.

Bose’s system provided deep and rich audio, and there wasn’t any distortion at higher volumes. However, I often thought the treble took a back seat to the bass, so vocals and higher notes weren’t as pronounced and sounded muddy, while the percussion and bass instruments dominated.

Meanwhile, the Big Jambox offered a nice combination of both. The treble was clear and bright; the bass thumped without being overpowering. The overall sound was also fuller, though there was a little distortion at high volume levels. I asked a few partygoers for their opinion, and a majority preferred the Jambox’s sound.

Released just this week, the Big Jambox is a larger version of the original Jambox, measuring 3.6 inches tall by 10 inches wide by 3.1 inches deep, and weighing 2.7 pounds. The rectangular speaker isn’t as easy to tote around as its smaller sibling, but I didn’t have any problems storing it in a backpack. (Jawbone offers a carrying case for an additional $49.95.)

The Big Jambox has an attractive modern design with a wraparound metal grille. The white model is particularly eye-catching, but you can also get it in black or red. I appreciate that Jawbone added rubber pads on the bottom of the speaker so that it doesn’t move around or vibrate when played at higher volume levels.

On top of the speaker, there are six rubber buttons for controlling the player and volume. A Talk button activates the speakerphone whenever you get a call on a Bluetooth-connected phone, and you can also press it to hear the remaining battery life.

The controls are easy to use, and I like that the Jambox provides audio feedback for numerous functions. For example, when you power the speaker on or off, you hear a whooshing noise. I didn’t think much of this audio feedback until I started testing the Bose unit, which primarily uses visual cues on a small LED screen that is easy to overlook.

Some other features that make the Big Jambox different from the Bose are its speakerphone capabilities and Live Audio technology. The built-in microphone allows you to conduct hands-free calls. If you’re listening to music, the track will automatically pause whenever you make or receive a call, and then resume where it left off once you’re done.

In my tests, the speakerphone’s audio quality was clear, with minimal background noise. The results were a bit mixed for my callers. Some friends said I sounded fine, though they could tell I was on a speakerphone, but a couple of people said there was a bit of voice distortion.

Meanwhile, Live Audio technology simulates the effect of hearing music live, and provides a more three-dimensional sound, but I chose to keep it turned off most of the time. Though Live Audio makes it sound like you’re listening to music in a large amphitheater, I thought the vocals got drowned out in the process, so the fact that the SoundLink didn’t have a similar feature wasn’t a deal breaker for me.

The Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile Speaker’s strongest attribute is portability. The whole unit measures 5.1 inches tall by 9.6 inches wide by 1.9 inches deep, and weighs 2.9 pounds. It’s taller than the Big Jambox, but its slimmer profile makes it easier to slip into a bag or carry by hand.

It’s also durable. When I accidentally dropped the speaker, I was relieved to see there wasn’t any damage. And Bose did a smart thing by integrating a protective nylon grille cover, which doubles as the speaker’s stand.

Bose said it chose to concentrate on durability, sound and mobility when designing the SoundLink, so speakerphone capabilities weren’t a priority at the time. The company would not comment on whether it would integrate a microphone in its next product.

One final thing to consider with these speakers is battery life. Bose’s estimated battery life for the SoundLink is eight hours; the Big Jambox gets 15 hours. With volume set at two-thirds, in my tests the SoundLink came in at eight hours and the Jambox lasted an impressive 13 hours.

If you’re looking for portable wireless speakers, the Bose SoundLink Wireless Speaker and Jawbone Big Jambox are both great-sounding units. The SoundLink is more travel-friendly and durable than the Jambox. But if you’re willing to spend $300 on a system, you’ll get more features from the Jambox, plus longer battery life, and slightly better audio quality that’s perfect for home and outdoors.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120517/battle-of-the-boom-boxes/feed/ 5 http://allthingsd.com/20120517/a-look-at-android-fragmentation-the-good-the-bad-and-the-pretty-charts/ http://allthingsd.com/20120517/a-look-at-android-fragmentation-the-good-the-bad-and-the-pretty-charts/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 12:00:40 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=209276 There’s no doubt that there is a great deal of diversity when it comes to Android.

There are a half-dozen flavors of the operating system, with products made by dozens of manufacturers and literally thousands of individual designs. Whether this is good or bad depends on one’s perspective.

But the sheer number of different products is mind-boggling. In a report this week, OpenSignalMaps looked at data from 600,000 users who downloaded its signal-measuring software. The company found that its software has been downloaded by nearly 4,000 different devices. Some of these are actually standard devices running custom software. But even factoring those out, there are still upward of 2,000 different Android products in the wild.

Of the nearly 600 different brands, Samsung rules the roost with nearly 40 percent market share, followed by HTC, SEMC, Motorola and LG. At the bottom end of the market-share battle, the company spotted a pair of the ill-fated Fusion Garage tablets and a handful of Polaroid’s smart cameras.

For its part, OpenSignalMaps notes the downsides of so many makes and models, but says that the opportunities outweigh the challenges.

“Developers tend to bemoan Android fragmentation yet there’s much here to be celebrated,” the company said in its report. “While the number of different models running Android will continue to increase we’ve seen Samsung take the lion’s share of the Android market, most of that due to the Galaxy product line. Testing on the most popular Samsung & HTC devices will get you a long way.”

Besides, Android means reaching to all corners of the globe. OpenSignalMaps says it has collected data from nearly 200 countries, with the most popular being the U.S., Brazil, China, Russia and Mexico.

“One of the joys of developing for Android is you have no idea who’ll end up using your app,” it said.

The report is chock full of interesting numbers and charts, and is well worth a read.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120517/a-look-at-android-fragmentation-the-good-the-bad-and-the-pretty-charts/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120516/verizon-cfo-arrival-of-shared-data-plans-this-summer-is-a-game-changer/ http://allthingsd.com/20120516/verizon-cfo-arrival-of-shared-data-plans-this-summer-is-a-game-changer/#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 20:12:30 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=209051 Despite the convenience of having a tablet with a built-in cellular connection, most customers so far have opted to stick with Wi-Fi. One of the big reasons has been that, for the most part, such devices have required smartphone customers to sign up for another data plan.

The industry’s answer to that — shared data plans that spread a pool of gigabytes across devices — has been promised for a while now. Though France Telecom and a few others have tried them outside the U.S., the domestic carriers have taken their time in readying such plans.

Now, however, Verizon Wireless says it is nearly ready with a “family data plan” and will launch the first ones in midsummer.

“We think we have something that is very different, very innovative, something that really hasn’t been tried before in the industry and you will see that this midsummer,” Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo said, speaking Wednesday at a J.P. Morgan investor conference.

AT&T has also said it is working on a plan, but has yet to detail timing. T-Mobile and Sprint have said their energy is focused more around per-device unlimited plans.

Shammo said that the move to shared data plans should help the carrier persuade more tablet buyers to go cellular.

“I think as we go into data share plans and get folks to be able to share that data across all of their devices, I think you’re going to see the industry start to pick up a lot of that activation that hasn’t been there before,” Shammo said.

However, the shift to 4G and shared data plans could be bad news for those clinging on to unlimited data plans.

“So when you think about our 3G base, a lot of our 3G base is unlimited,” Shammo said. “As they start to migrate into 4G, they will have to come off of unlimited and go into the data share plan. And that is beneficial for us for many reasons, obviously.”

Just how agressive Verizon will be in pushing customers versus waiting for them to upgrade is unclear.

A Verizon Wireless spokesperson declined to elaborate on Shammo’s comments.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120516/verizon-cfo-arrival-of-shared-data-plans-this-summer-is-a-game-changer/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120516/samsung-rides-android-past-nokia-to-take-sales-lead/ http://allthingsd.com/20120516/samsung-rides-android-past-nokia-to-take-sales-lead/#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 18:55:44 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=208998 A 2 percent decline in mobile phone shipments during the first quarter of 2012 may have hurt some handset vendors, but it did little to slow Samsung, which was the world’s largest mobile handset vendor for the first three months of the year.

According to the latest metrics from Gartner — which measure sales of handsets to customers, not shipments into the channel — Samsung sold 86.6 million mobile phones in the first quarter, 25.9 percent more than it sold during the same period a year ago. That was enough to give it a 20.7 percent share of the market, and to seize the title of “world’s largest mobile handset vendor” from Nokia, which sold 83.2 million cellphones during the quarter, as its market share slipped to 19.8 percent from 25.1 percent a year ago.

Unfortunate news for Nokia, which had been the market’s leader since 1998, but inevitable given the company’s recent decline and, perhaps, its choice of Windows Phone as an OS for its newest handsets.

Because what’s driving Samsung’s growth is Android. According to Gartner’s sales data, Samsung was by far the largest Android smartphone vendor, claiming nearly 44 percent of Android-based smartphone sales. Interestingly, no other Android phone manufacturer captured more than 10 percent of the market.

So, if Samsung commandeered the handset market’s top spot in the first quarter, and Nokia its second, who claimed third? Apple, which sold enough iPhones to capture 7.9 percent of the total mobile phone market.

As for mobile OS market share, Android continues to rule the market — 56 percent of smartphones sold to end users globally in the first quarter of 2012 run the OS, far more than the 22.9 percent running Apple’s iOS.

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