Author: tlc11c

LTE connections in North America rocketed to 22.3 million — adding almost 19 million subscriptions in 12 months and representing 51 percent of all 43.7 million LTE connections worldwide at the end of the third quarter of 2012, reported 4G Americas, according to data from Informa Telecoms & Media. Another “billion” milestone is expected by the end of 2012, with all 3GPP technologies, including GSM, HSPA and LTE, comprising a massive subscription base of 6 billion and more than 90 percent of the global cellular connections.

Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) today announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Atheros, Inc., introduced a new ultra-low power near field communication (NFC) solution that will enable mobile devices with contactless communications and data exchange, including next-generation mobile payments. The QCA1990 is the industry’s smallest, ultra-low power system-on-chip (SoC) with an overall footprint that is 50 percent smaller than current NFC chips available in the market. When paired with Qualcomm Atheros’ WCN3680 1-stream, dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi/Bluetooth 4.0/FM chip, the QCA1990 will enable seamless user experiences in the mobile, computing and consumer electronics markets.

The mobile operations support systems (OSS) market grew 8.6% in 2011 to reach US$9,079 million. Operations support systems are computer systems, software, procedures, and tools used by telecommunications service providers to ensure the smooth running of their networks.

Despite the economic climate, investment in the mobile OSS is expected to still sustain 3.3% growth in 2012 to US$9,376 million, as mobile operators seek efficiency gains and better oversight with their networks. “As mobile operators strive to simplify their legacy OSS architectures and procedures, 2011, 2012, and likely through 2015 should see the benefits of 4G deployments and upgrades. The forecast for 2017 is anticipated to surpass US$10,271 million,

On Thursday evening Apple quietly updated its online store to offer an unlocked GSM version of its latest iPhone, untethered from any carrier and contract.

A U.S. judge has ordered Apple Inc. to disclose to rival Samsung Electronics details of a legal settlement the iPhone maker reached with Taiwan’s HTC Corp, including terms of a 10-year patents licensing agreement.

A new report from Juniper Research forecasts that mobile data roaming revenues will grow by 21% per year between 2012 and 2017, reaching over $35 billion in 2017, driven by an increasing number of active data roamers using data services while abroad.

Samsung’s Galaxy S3 smartphone model shipped 18.0 million units worldwide during the third quarter of 2012. The Galaxy S3 captured an impressive 11 percent share of all smartphones shipped globally and it has become the world’s best-selling smartphone model for the first time ever. A large touchscreen design, extensive distribution across dozens of countries, and generous operator subsidies have been among the main causes of the Galaxy S3’s success. Apple shipped an estimated 16.2 million iPhone 4S units worldwide for second place, as consumers temporarily held off purchases in anticipation of a widely expected iPhone 5 upgrade at the end of the quarter.

AT&T* announced it will enable FaceTime over Cellular at no extra charge for iOS 6 customers with an LTE device on any tiered data plan. AT&T will also continue to offer FaceTime over Cellular to customers with any AT&T Mobile Share plan, as well as FaceTime over Wi-Fi, which has always been available for all customers. AT&T expects to roll out this functionality to customers over the next eight to ten weeks.

The worldwide mobile phone market grew 2.4% year over year in the third quarter of 2012 (3Q12), driven by heavyweights Samsung and Apple as Nokia dropped off the Top 5 list of smartphone vendors. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped a total of 444.5 million mobile phones in 3Q12 compared to 434.1 million units in the third quarter of 2011.

In the worldwide smartphone market vendors shipped 179.7 million units in 3Q12 compared to 123.7 million units in 3Q11. The 45.3% year-over-year growth was slightly above IDC’s forecast of 45.2% for the quarter.

Today, Verizon Wireless and Nokia announced the upcoming availability of the Nokia Lumia 822 – a powerful Windows Phone 8 smartphone exclusive to Verizon Wireless. With a unique design, enhanced camera, world class maps with turn-by-turn navigation and free unlimited music streaming, the Nokia Lumia 822 provides Verizon Wireless customers with high-end smartphone features on America’s largest 4G LTE network.

Apple has not yet even acknowledged the existence of the iPad Mini, but pricing and configuration information for the much-rumored tablet is allegedly already appearing in the inventory system of a consumer electronics giant.

An environmental standards group that rates electronics for their environmental friendliness cleared five ultrathin laptops as conforming to its “green” standards, including Apple’s MacBook Air.

Softbank Corp. (9984), Japan’s third- largest mobile phone company, is in talks to buy control of Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) for more than 1.5 trillion yen ($19 billion), the Nikkei newspaper reported on its website.

Softbank is seeking to buy two-thirds of Sprint Nextel’s shares, the Nikkei reported, without saying where it got the information. The Nikkei earlier reported the deal would be worth as much as 2 trillion yen.

Clobbered with a $1 billion jury verdict in August, Samsung got some relief in its legal feud with Apple on Thursday when a federal appeals court overturned an order that blocked the South Korean tech giant from selling the Galaxy Nexus smartphone in the United States.

FaceTime, which allows for video conferencing, was previously tethered to a Wi-Fi connection. But to the delight of users, the new iOS 6 supports FaceTime over cellular networks. This is great for users but stressful for carriers.

In addition to announcing an improved follow-up to its Kindle Fire tablet, Amazon is also releasing a bigger and better tablet known as the Kindle Fire HD. The Kindle Fire HD features an 8.9-inch screen with 1920×1200 resolution, delivering a high-quality 254ppi display. The HD theme continues as the tablet also has an HD front-facing camera for video chat and picture taking. The Kindle Fire HD also upgrades the internal specifications of the device. The tablet has a dual-core TI OMAP processor, 16GB of internal storage, dual-band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi, dual stereo speakers, MIMO radio technology, Bluetooth, and HDMI out. Amazon will release three versions of the Kindle Fire HD, which is now accepting pre-orders ahead of November 20th shipping date. All three models will have the same features with the exception of screen size and connectivity. A 7-inch Kindle Fire HD will cost $199, the 8.9-inch model will cost $299, and an 8.9-inch model with 4G LTE connectivity will sell for $499. Why buy the LTE model? Well, for $49.99 per year, users will get 250MB of data per month, 20GB of cloud storage, and a $10 Amazon credit.

Sprint has confirmed that it has started updating the Samsung Galaxy Nexus to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Though GSM variants of the device were updated to Jelly Bean in July, Sprint’s CDMA/LTE model is seeing the upgrade for the first time. The new software shortens load times, and reduces buffering for faster transitions when switching between apps. It also adds expandable notifications, better voice dictation and search, and the new search app that includes Google Now. Sprint has also confirmed that within the next week, all Sprint Nexus S 4G devices should be updated as well.