mobile

Mobile apps outpace the Web and neck-in-neck with TV

It looks like a four-year-old industry is hijacking one that has been around for six decades.

According to mobile analytics firm Flurry, the time people spend on mobile apps is now nearly neck-in-neck with time spent watching television.

"With new content released via thousands of new apps each day, we expect this trend to continue," Flurry CEO Simon Khalaf wrote in a blog post today. "In fact, we ultimately expect apps on tablets and smartphones to challenge broadcast television as the dominant channel for media consumption."

Flurry's numbers, which are based on data from more … Read more

Blockbuster said to sell smartphones at its retail stores

When DVD rentals don't work, maybe sell... mobile phones? Rumor has it that Blockbuster is getting into the phone hawking business at its retail stores, according to Bloomberg.

What seems like a random choice might actually be a conscientious maneuver by Dish Network, which bought the struggling movie rental chain last year. Dish is primarily a provider of satellite-TV service, but over the past year it's been making moves to get into the wireless business.

Recently, Dish launched Blockbuster Mobile and started selling smartphones online. Blockbuster Mobile works with Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon and offers devices including Samsung'… Read more

T-Mobile could hike up 2013 smartphone insurance

The cost of insuring your T-Mobile handset could rise in the new year, according to what could be a leaked internal document.

If the image proves true, monthly premium rates will remain untouched when the new plans take effect. Deductibles, however, are largely set to rise.

Save for the carrier's low-end devices, the cost to replace your phone will go up by a minimum of $10. For most smartphones the standard deductible rate will jump from $130 to $150.

Although T-Mobile hasn't officially announced the pricing change, a carrier representative did confirm part of the rumor to CNET: … Read more

Nokia taps into China Mobile gold mine with Lumia 920T

Nokia said today that it would launch a variant of its flagship smartphone, the Lumia 920, specifically for China Mobile.

The Lumia 920T will be the first Windows Phone to run on China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network. The phone is expected to hit the market by the end of the year and sell for 4,599 yuan (about $740).

This latest Nokia phone is important because it should allow the company to tap into China Mobile's more than 700 million customers -- the largest subscriber base in the world. China is an increasingly important market as Nokia hopes to … Read more

Yahoo acquires tiny mobile video-chat startup OnTheAir

Continuing CEO Marissa Mayer's march toward all things mobile, Yahoo has acquired tiny mobile video-chat startup OnTheAir.

Yahoo snapped up the San Francisco-based startup today, the five-employee company announced on its Web site. Yahoo confirmed the acquisition, its second since Mayer took over as chief executive this past July.

"When we first met with the team at Yahoo, it was clear that everybody there is committed to making mobile products the backbone for the world's daily habits," the company wrote.

The mobile market is growing rapidly, and Mayer has said the space is integral to Yahoo'… Read more

Courts give smaller wireless carriers a gift

Smaller wireless carriers should be dancing in the streets tonight after a federal appeals court rejected Verizon's arguments against the Federal Communication Commission's wireless data roaming rules.

Earlier today, the U.S Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., upheld rules that the FCC had enacted a year ago that will require large wireless operators such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless to strike "commercially reasonable" roaming deals on their 4G LTE networks with any wireless operator interested in using a competitor's network to expand territory.

Verizon took issue with these rules, which are … Read more

eBay: Cyber Monday wasn't our biggest mobile day. Dec. 2 was

Turns out that Cyber Monday and Black Friday aren't the biggest online shopping days of the year, at least not for eBay.

The online auction site operator today revealed that Sunday, December 2 was the biggest mobile shopping day ever for eBay Marketplaces in the U.S. and PayPal globally.

That seems to defy conventional wisdom, but eBay says it actually makes a lot of sense.

Steve Yankovich, vice president of mobile at eBay, said that Sunday typically is a "day of relaxation," but because consumers always have their smartphones in hand, it's easy to shop … Read more

Mobile Internet traffic gaining fast on desktop Internet traffic

Mobile traffic is growing so fast globally that in some places it has already surpassed desktop traffic.

That was one of the key conclusions of a year-end Internet trends report delivered this evening at Stanford University by Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist Mary Meeker.

Once known as "Queen of the Net," Meeker reported that 13 percent of all Internet traffic is now executed from a mobile device, up from 4 percent just two years ago. In tech-savvy India, mobile Internet traffic has reached 60 percent, surpassing desktop Internet traffic, which has declined to 40 percent.

Monetization of the mobile … Read more

LG said to be switching to its own smartphone chip designs

Joining the battle to control as much of the production process as possible, LG has reportedly begun designing its own processors.

The South Korean electronics maker plans to unveil in-house designed mobile processors at the Consumer Electronics Show next month, according to the Korea Times. The company reportedly has more than 900 chip designers working on chips to be used in smartphones and Web-connected televisions.

LG is making the switch as part of Chief Executive Koo Bon-joon's focus on increased "independence and dignity," the newspaper reported. CNET has contacted LG for comment and will update this report … Read more