smartphone

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Updated: Amid weak fiscal third-quarter results reported Thursday, Palm Chief Executive Edward Colligan said that the company is well positioned to launch the Pre and promised a road map of smartphones and an application ecosystem built on the company's new WebOS. Bottom line: Palm envisions an entire product line built on the WebOS.

Palm didn't put a date on the Pre launch, but said the device and its software were "being polished up" and being certified from Sprint as the company prepares to ramp up manufacturing. … Read more

Virgin Mobile's CEO said Tuesday that the Mobile Virtual Network Operator plans to introduce touch-screen handsets. Speaking at the Dow Jones Wireless Innovations conference, CEO Dan Schulman didn't give any specifics, but he said that the handsets would be part of a move to "smarter" phones.

As an MVNO carrier with a core prepaid business, Virgin Mobile focuses on low-end and basic models for making calls and sending messages. Over the past 18 months, and particularly after its acquisition of Helio, the operator has offered more multimedia handsets and messaging-centric devices with full keyboards. Yet, like … Read more

GSMA 2009 was clearly a snoozer, in terms of Google Android news, but with the CTIA Spring 2009 just a couple of weeks away, there's hope for some announcements at the show. While we can't say for sure, here's something that might interest you.

According to HTC Chief Executive Peter Chou, the smartphone manufacturer plans to release at least three Android devices in 2009. Keep in mind, this number includes the HTC Magic, which was announced at GSMA for the European market, so we're looking at a minimum of two more.

This information came to light … Read more

Mobile devices are becoming the virtual newspaper.

According to a report released Monday by market researcher comScore, the number of U.S. residents using mobile devices to access news and information more than doubled to 63.2 million in January over the previous year.

"Over the course of the past year, we have seen use of mobile Internet evolve from an occasional activity to being a daily part of their lives," Mark Donovan, comScore's senior vice president of mobile, said in a statement. "This underscores the growing importance of the mobile medium as consumers become more … Read more

Meet the new Blackberry "Tellor" edition, a limited-release version of the popular Bold smartphone. 205 ridiculously shiny diamonds are impeccably laced onto the bottom panel below the keyboard (QWERTY and AZERTY models available), and you can even bedazzle it with extra flair, including Celtic crosses, inlaid initials, and ostrich/stingray/lizard/alligator skins.

If you have any desire to get your hands on one of these, we suggest you set up your lemonade stand now--they're only making 50 units, and there's no word on pricing...yet.

On Thursday, Palm and Sprint hosted a Webcast to spotlight the Palm Pre and what makes it different from any other smartphone on the market. Watch the event unfold here.

10:52 a.m. PDT: We're about 7 minutes away from the start. I'm logged in and jamming to some ridiculous music. Scheduled speakers include David Owens, director of consumer acquisition for Sprint, and Matt Crowley, product line manager for Palm.

10:58 a.m.: I see some of you are asking where you can watch the Webcast. According to my Palm contact, this is an invite-only event … Read more

The global economic crisis is taking its toll on the cell phone business, with sales even in the hot smartphone category also expected to slow in 2009.

Two major market research firms published figures for the fourth quarter of 2008 this week. And they each have bleak news for the cell phone industry.

IDC said it expects the volume of all mobile handsets to decline by 8.3 percent in 2009. And it expects sales of hot smartphones, like Apple's iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry phones, to slow to about 3.4 percent growth. Smartphones have been … Read more

iSkoot is trying to make cheap cell phones smarter.

The company, which provides mobile Web services, announced Wednesday that it is offering a software development kit to mobile handset manufacturers so that they can turn their inexpensive feature-phones into Web-enabled devices that can access and get live updates for popular Web services like Facebook, IM, e-mail, Twitter and other social media sites.

The iSkoot KalaidaLive SDK will be available to any handset maker, such as LG, Samsung, Motorola or any other device maker. The purpose is to provide more Web services for these inexpensive devices at a low cost. The … Read more

Corporate software makers SAP and Sybase are teaming up to make it easier for business users to access SAP's software on mobile devices such as Apple's iPhone.

SAP, which is the world's biggest maker of business management software, is already working with Research In Motion to develop applications for the BlackBerry. But now SAP says it will extend its software to other devices like the iPhone.

Sybase, which provides database software to large companies, already sells programs that let users access corporate applications and information on their mobile devices. But now it says it will work closely … Read more