Wireless carriers openly considering charging per service
That slide above is no joke -- it comes from a marketing webinar put on by two companies that count Verizon, AT&T and Vodafone as clients, and it describes a system that identifies customer internet activity and charges a different rate for using Facebook than watching YouTube, while allowing access to Vodafone services for free. Yes, that's basically the nightmare scenario for net neutrality advocates.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: allot communications, facebook, fcc, internet, joke, marketing, net neutrality, netneutrality, operator, techniques, the-application, two-companies, verizon, webinar
ITU capitulates, admits that the term ’4G’ could apply to LTE, WiMAX, and ‘evolved 3G technologies’
Though it's standing firm on the definition of its original 4G specification -- IMT-Advanced -- which only WiMAX 2 and LTE-Advanced are currently capable of meeting, the ITU is easing off its earlier rhetroic , admitting that the term "4G" realistically could apply "to the forerunners of these technologies, LTE and WiMAX, and to other evolved 3G technologies providing a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation systems now deployed." The whole dust-up started when carriers around the world deploying LTE and WiMAX networks ( ahem , Sprint and Verizon) were throwing the "4G" term around very, very loosely -- and to their credit, the networks are indisputably a generation beyond CDMA2000 and UMTS / HSPA, so if anything, we'd fault the ITU for leaving today's modern networks without a generation to call their own. The "evolved 3G technologies" verbiage in the ITU's statement would seemingly even leave room for T-Mobile USA's claim that its 21Mbps HSPA+ network constitutes 4G... so yeah, score one for marketing campaigns.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: itu, leaving, level, lte, lteadvanced, marketing, modern-networks, seemingly-even, sprint, the-definition, usa
Verizon gives Droid 2 Global a Facebook shout-out
We joked that the Droid 2 didn't need a marketing campaign , the leaks were getting so much press, and lo and behold, its Droid 2 Global refresh hit shelves without a single official word from Verizon. We figured the wireless carrier had taken our idea to heart and would rely entirely on word of mouth to sell the 1.2GHz worldphone, but if that's the case, Big Red's bending the rules -- it's given the handset a quick Facebook plug to speed that process along. At 215 characters, the status update is a little bit long to retweet, but you can Like it all you want..
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: bending, facebook, global, leaks, marketing, result, single-official, vzw, wordofmouth, world phone, worldphone
Clearwire reports Q4 earnings: staff, marketing, stores, and handset plans all scaled back
Though it reported record growth in both revenue and subscriber count, Clearwire's bad news outweighed the good as it announced its fourth quarter earnings today. Here's the meat of it: "The Company is actively pursuing a number of options to resolve its need for additional capital. The Company is in discussions with a number of its major shareholders and other third parties about a number of options, including potential strategic transactions, additional debt or equity financings and/or asset sales.
Categories: htc, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: clear, clearwire, conservation, marketing, measures, partnership, Reduction, result, sales, substantial
Palm Pre 2 and webOS 2.0 showcased in new commercial
It's hard to tell if the ad embedded after the break is purely official, but it definitely reeks of HP. In a good way, that is. Uploaded by the same fellow that gave us our first sneak peek at webOS 2.0, this "Sizzle" ad shows 34 solid seconds of Palm Pre 2 action, complete with a glimpse at Angry Birds, Facebook and all sorts of new 2.0 features
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: commercial, kudos, marketing, new-commercial, palm-pre, palmpre, pre 2, totally-digging
Microsoft to spend one billion dollars advertising Kinect and Windows Phone 7
Microsoft's serious about making Kinect a success. A $500 million kind of serious. That's the latest report, courtesy of the New York Post , on the change Steve Ballmer and company intend to drop to make sure that every living and breathing creature in the US knows about the controller-free controller this holiday season.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: ad budget, expenses, expensive, marketing, microsoft, nickelodeon, one billion dollar, pepsi, result, youtube
US Cellular teasing ‘The Belief Project,’ unbelievably
Hard to say exactly what these guys have in store, but mega-regional US Cellular is chatting up a grandiose new marketing campaign entitled "The Belief Project" this week, promising a full unveiling of the details on October 1. From what we can see on USCC's teaser site, it'd seem that the promotion is going to revolve around contract-free plans, possibly tied in somehow with fast and frequent discounted hardware upgrade pricing and unlimited data and texting...
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: campaign, details, marketing, mobile, polls, result, the belief project, unveiling, upgrade, uscellular
Nokia Charging Plate DT-600 hands-on: ‘charge in style’ is all you need to know
Nokia's official marketing documentation for the just-announced DT-600 says that you can "charge in style" and "enjoy the life with full battery." After checking it out here at Nokia World , we don't think we could say it any better ourselves. The device is basically a rubber tray for setting your battery-dependent gadgets with a squid-like array of charging cables coming out of the corners; there are very similar products to this on the market already, but Nokia's got a couple trump cards up its sleeve. Actually, one of them is less of a trump card and more of a Wild Draw Four: although one cable is micro-USB, two of the others are permanently connected 2mm Nokia jacks, an odd decision considering that modern Nokias are moving away from those to micro-USB -- as are most manufacturers -- so we guess they're expecting you to keep a few antiques juiced up.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: apple, charge, coffee, few-in-the-wild, life, marketing, mother-nature, nature, nokia, products, similar, squid, usb
‘The Shack’ downsizes, opens Bullseye Mobile kiosks in many Target stores
Radio Shack is at it again, expanding your perceptions of the place that once actually sold radio components. A year after that ill-received 'The Shack' marketing campaign the company is now making a rather more substantial move, securing an arrangement with Target stores to see the creation of so-called Bullseye Mobile kiosks. This has started with a 100-store pilot program but, throughout this year and into summer next, the expectation is to prop them up in 1,750 big box locations.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: big box retailer, bullseye mobile, campaign, components, creation, entry, kiosks, marketing, rather-more, sale, sales, target, the-expectation
EVO 4G shortages may hurt 4G adoption, Sprint gives customers in seven new cities the chance to be disappointed
It looks like Sprint's head start in the 4G service race may not be quite as big as the carrier would like. According to the Wall Street Journal , HTC EVO 4G handset shortages are mitigating whatever advantage the company should have, being first out of the gate with the technology
Categories: htc, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: entry, gives-customers, growth, handset, htc evo 4g, marketing, result, shortages-may, sprint, street, street-journal, technology, tentative-steps, verizonwireless, vzw