12 posts and columns on mobile platform

News Byte

PlayPhone Creates $10 Million Ad Budget to Promote Other Developers' Apps

in Commerce on February 8, 2011 at 5:30 am PT

PlayPhone says it will spend $10 million to promote other developers’ mobile games. In return, the San Jose, Calif.-based company is hoping to attract more game makers to its social platform, which provides developers tools to integrate community features and virtual goods into mobile applications, similar to offerings from Ngmoco and OpenFeint. The shift to social is important for the the eight-year-old company, which historically is known for selling ringtones and other mobile content.

Want to Be Relevant Again, Nokia? Buy Palm.

in News on December 3, 2009 at 2:48 pm PT

Over the past few years, Nokia’s dominance of the smartphone market has been steadily eroded by competition from the likes of Apple and Research In Motion. So what should it do? Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair has a suggestion: Nokia should buy Palm.
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Intel Inside Nokia Someday

in News on June 23, 2009 at 8:42 am PT

“We would love dearly to win one of the big guys, that really is the smartphone game, it really is a concentrated set of suppliers,” Intel CFO Stacy Smith told Bloomberg earlier this year. “We’re lurking behind every bush and showing them our product line.” Well, the ambushes to which Smith referred appear to have finally paid off: Intel has landed a deal to develop chips with Nokia.
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Does Android Dream of Developer Sheep, Redux

in News on October 21, 2008 at 11:02 am PT

With the release of the first device to support Google’s Android mobile operating system less than a day away and a second already in development at Motorola, Google is making good on a promise it made when Android debuted: to make the platform available under a progressive, developer-friendly open-source license.

Android Invasion

in News on September 23, 2008 at 12:00 pm PT

Devoid Android

in News on August 27, 2008 at 11:36 am PT

Google’s Android mobile platform will become commercially available before year end, just as the company promised. But with one caveat: It will lack some of the features Google first intended. Seems that in order to get Android out the door in time for the holiday shopping season, the company has been forced to defeature it.

FCC Greenlights First Ad-droid Phone

in News on August 18, 2008 at 11:14 am PT

The HTC Dream, the first handset based on Google’s Android mobile platform, has been given the Federal Communications Commission seal of approval. With that last hurdle cleared, the device is ready for market–though it looks like it may now arrive a bit later than expected.

Android Invasion

in News on August 15, 2008 at 8:24 am PT

T-Mobile will soon become the first carrier to offer a phone based on Google’s Android mobile platform. Well, that’s the rumor, anyway. Manufactured by HTC, the handset is said to feature a touchscreen, a three-megapixel camera and a full five-row keyboard just like the one seen in that YouTube video that’s been making the rounds.

Apple: Wham, Bam, Thank You Fanboi

in News on July 14, 2008 at 7:41 am PT

Holy cow! Despite some very unfortunate stumbles at launch, Apple sold one million iPhone 3Gs in its first three days on the market, according to a company press release this morning. “iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”