mobile

Microsoft's Craig Mundie sees a way for the software giant to shift its largesse to the developing world. It's called the phone, and will challenge Microsoft's desktop-centric view of the world in its attempts to grow beyond its Western roots.

Interestingly, Microsoft is actually innovating here. Truly innovating:

Microsoft will increase its focus on making mobile phones part of its strategy to spread IT to people in developing nations, based partly on a prototype already developed for the purpose called Fone+....

The idea is to connect a low-to-mid-end smartphone based on the Windows Mobile OS to a TV via a docking station so data on the handset can be displayed on the TV screen. That way, people can use the computing power in the smartphone on a big screen.

Back in 2003, I looked at buying the intellectual property for Hancom Office's embedded Linux-based competitor to Microsoft Office to kickstart this market. A friend and I couldn't get venture funding for it, but that isn't a problem that plagues Microsoft. Cash is in abundance in Redmond. It has the resources to do this right.… Read more

Virtual cell phone operators Virgin Mobile USA and Helio are rumored to be in merger talks, a move that could bring a lot of benefits to both companies.

The tie-up between the two MVNOs, or mobile virtual network operators, was first reported Thursday by the wireless blog MocoNews. According to the blog, SK Telecom, one of Helio's parent companies, would buy out Virgin Mobile USA and then Virgin Mobile would buy Helio in an all-stock transaction.

As the economy tightens and other larger wireless carriers look to consolidate, it makes sense for these smaller players, who essentially resell service … Read more

Boldly going where few other tech journalists bother to travel, we at Crave UK make sure to check out as many new phone makers as possible--because you just never know. Only yesterday we plunged into the depths of sweaty London to see MWg's latest handset, the MWg Zinc II.

You're probably thinking who the potatoes is MWg? It stands for Mobile Wireless group, and it used to be O2 Asia--but O2 ditched it, so now it's gone solo and is coming up with some pretty interesting Windows Mobile handsets. The Zinc II is a compact handset that … Read more

OK, now it really is getting boring. T-Mobile announced today that it won yet another title from J.D. Power and Associates. This time the carrier took top honors in a survey of wireless retail sales satisfaction by hitting top marks in the four considered categories: sales staff, store display, store facility, and price/promotion. But T-Mobile wasn't alone at the top. Alltel trailed by two points to take second place while Verizon Wireless came in third. AT&T was rated as average and Sprint Nextel came in last with a below average rating in all four categories. … Read more

Windows Mobile users now have a green light to try Yahoo Go (video review) on their Windows Mobile phones.

The third version of Yahoo's all-in-one content application for smartphones debuted in January in beta form, and with it came tricks for greater customization. Users can add a variety of widgets to the carousel and quick links to the start page, and otherwise personalize the source of mobile content. The full list of supported Windows Mobile phones can be found here.

Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S., is getting into the European cell phone market by taking a stake in retailer Carphone Warehouse.

Best Buy, which operates 900 stores across the U.S., will pay $2.1 billion for half interest in Carphone Warehouse, the largest cell phone retailer in Europe.

Carphone Warehouse's 2,400 U.S. and European stores will be included in the new joint venture. Also included in the deal are Carphone Warehouse's Web, insurance, and airtime reselling businesses. But the company will retain full ownership of its traditional landline phone … Read more

Watch out, Nvidia is stalking the iPhone. The maker of fast graphics processors will apply its chip know-how to juice up the mobile internet device market and the Windows Mobile interface.

As reported back in February, after a decade of pumping up PC performance, Nvidia is betting a big part of its future on boosting graphics performance in fit-in-your-pocket mobile internet devices (MIDs).

CNET Video of APX 2500 prototype here.

iPhone-style devices with Nvdia's APX 2500 system-on-a-chip--due late this year and next year--incorporate most of the functionality of a PC. (See block diagram.) And it is important to note … Read more

For something so focused on navigation and geography, it's a bit ironic that location-based social networks have to work their way through such a jungle: carrier partnerships, handset compatibility, creepy privacy concerns, and what-have-you. But one small New York start-up, Socialight, says it's found a route: developers, developers, developers.

Socialight, which focuses on user-created city maps and whose founders insist that location-based mobile services can have functions other than stalking your friends, announced Wednesday that it has opened its application program interface (API). This will let developers mesh Socialight into applications for mobile platforms like Apple's iPhone, … Read more

"Do you have a Brightkite invite yet?"

I was asked that question at least three times at last month's Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, one of those gatherings where an invitation to the latest private-beta social network is a coveted status symbol. And at this iteration of the Web 2.0 Expo, the private beta of choice was Brightkite, a Denver-based start-up that uses both a Web interface and SMS text-messaging to log your location and broadcast it to your friends. It's a lot like a more feature-intensive version of Dodgeball, a mobile networking … Read more