Verizon Wireless' music download service is now scheduled to begin in the first quarter of next year according to a report in Forbes. The original goal was to get the service up and running before the holiday season. Analysts believe...
T-Mobile USA has launched the Samsung e635, validating rumors that started last month. The e635 is a slider that is similar in design to the E800. Besides being a slider, the handset is super-light at just 2.78 ounces. Features of...
Aug 31 2005 - 01:39 PM ET | In The News
Victims of hurricane Katrina have found communication tough--both wired and wireless phones are down for the most part, especially for long distance. Text messages have been the saving grace because they work with less signal than voice and the recipient...
Smartphone Thoughts thinks that the Motorola Q, the super-thin Windows mobile handset that was announced last month, will ship on Verizon Wireless in the first quarter of 2006. While the handset was announced, details like if it would be GSM...
Aug 31 2005 - 01:20 PM ET | Data, T-Mobile
T-Mobile USA will finally launch its EDGE data service next month, according to an updated passage on their about page: By the end of September 2005, T-Mobile plans to launch EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution) service across its...
Aug 31 2005 - 01:00 PM ET | Motorola
The i870 has been launched. The Motorola i870, an upcoming high-end iDEN handset, showed up recently on the FCC website. The feature packed handset looks to be a replacement for the i860. Features of the i870 include: Music player (with...
Cingular will carry the upcoming iTunes phone from Motorola according to a report [sub req] in the Wall Street Journal this morning. The reliable paper noted that Apple has, "Reached an agreement with Cingular Wireless to offer a Motorola Inc....
Verizon Wireless and LG tonight announced the LG VX5200, a mid-range flip phone. Features of the VX5200 include: VGA camera Speakerphone with voice dialing Internal 65K Color STN, 128 × 160 Pixels External 65K Color STN, 96 × 64 Pixels...
Aug 29 2005 - 01:27 PM ET |
A mobile phone thief was spotted via pictures he took with the phone he stole, according to an interesting article at Wired News. The phone, a Sanyo 5500 with Sprint service, automatically stores photos online when they are emailed. The...
Verizon Wireless has expanded BroadbandAccess, its name for high-speed EV-DO service. Besides the new market, the price for existing Verizon Wireless voice customers has been cut 25% to $59.99 for unlimited monthly use. Rumors of the price drop leaked out...
Aug 29 2005 - 01:38 AM ET | Samsung
Samsung today announced some new high-capacity speedy MMC cards that should hit the market next month. Besides coming in sizes of up to 2GB, the cards are able to transfer at an impressive 52Mbytes/sec which is a 20x improvement. 1GB...
Aug 28 2005 - 02:52 PM ET | Samsung
The Samsung SGH-i300 has been approved by the FCC, according to documents posted on the FCC's website. The i300 is best known for having a 3GB hard drive onboard. The music phone sports a lot more than a hard drive...
Aug 28 2005 - 02:20 PM ET | Site News
We have activated comments for all new stories on MobileTracker. Thanks to better spam comment management in the latest version of MovableType (which is used to power this site) we won't have to worry about monitoring the site 24/7 for...
US wireless carriers are scrambling to brace their networks as superstorm hurricane Katrina approahces. Rated a 5 out of 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, Katrina packs winds of 175MPH. No matter where it hits, the storm is expected to cause...
UPDATE: It's true. BroadbandAccess is in new markets too. Reuters is reporting that Verizon Wireless will lower the cost of its unlimited EV-DO 3G data service. The package currently costs $79.99 per month. Sprint Nextel recently launched similar service is...
Aug 26 2005 - 03:08 PM ET | In The News
US wireless carriers are now bidding on being able to provide coverage inside of New York City's subway system. The 10-year contract which covers 277 of the city's 468 stations is expected to bring in $50-100 million. Bids by carriers...
Our friends at Engadget are reporting that T-Mobile USA will get both the HTC Tornado and Wizard, two hot Windows Mobile powered smartphones. Cingular is also expected to pick up the Wizard. Features of the Tornado include: WiFi EDGE Bluetooth...
Both Nokia and Motorola saw market share gains according to research compiled by Gartner for the second quarter. Motorola's growth again outpaced its closest competitor, Samsung. Here is the latest data: CompanyQ2 2005Q2 2004ChangeNokia31.9%29.6%+2.3%Motorola17.9%15.7%+2.2%Samsung12.8%12.1%+0.7%LG6.5%6.1%+.4%Sony Ericsson6.2%6.6%-0.4%Siemens4.7%6.9%-2.2%Others20.0%23.0%-3.0% Motorola held its top position...
Aug 25 2005 - 05:44 PM ET | Sprint Nextel
Nextel Partners has called for a shareholder vote to decide if the company will execute an option in its agreement with Sprint Nextel to force a buyout. Nextel Partners operates mobile phone service under the Nextel brand name in rural...
Aug 24 2005 - 04:13 PM ET | Motorola
Motorola's CEO Ed Zander noted to journalists Wednesday that his company plans on bringing out a mobile phone that will allow parents to keep close tabs on their children. While parents need to adapt to the emerging youth culture surrounding...
Aug 23 2005 - 11:29 AM ET | Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel today announced a location based services initiave aimed at business owners that want to keep track of their employees. Dubbed Sprint Precision Locator, the service offers real-time tracking based on the position of Sprint Nextel handsets (currently only...
Aug 23 2005 - 09:08 AM ET | Nokia
Matthew Lynn writes for Bloomberg that the incoming CEO for Nokia should focus on selling the company. His reasoning is that while Nokia has had a great past 20 years dominating the mobile phone industry, it would be better positioned...
Om Malik reviewed the upcoming HW 6500 and gave it positive marks overall. The Windows Mobile powered smartphone should ship from Cingular towards the end of the monthl. In the opening of his review, Om states: bq. Hewlett Packard’s Mobile...
According to CNBC, Research In Motion (maker of the popular BlackBerry) is close to entering into a deal with semiconductor giant Intel. RIM will use Intel's power saving chips in its handhelds and also support Intel's WiMAX push. Intel is...
Aug 22 2005 - 04:30 PM ET | Motorola
The FCC has approved the Motorola E790 which is one of the upcoming handsets that is rumored to include iTunes. Unlike the upcoming series of Motorola music phones that will use the ROKR branding, the E790 is based off the...
MobileTracker has posted a review of the Nokia 6682 Cingular Wireless is set to launch the Nokia 6682 (with it most likely replacing the aging 6620). A print advertising campaign for the Nokia 6682 with the note, "Available at Cingular"...
Aug 20 2005 - 02:47 AM ET | In The News
Universal Music Group will enter the MVNO race by partnering with SingleTouch Interactive. The MoveU Mobile phone will come packaged with pre-paid service from SingleTouch powered by the Sprint Nextel network. Interestingly, UMG will customize the phone for individual artists....
Verizon Wireless and Lucent have recently tested EV-DO Revision A, the next generation data technology that will replace EV-DO. The recent test included the industry's first live over-the-air call using 1xEV-DO Rev A technology. A more extensive trial has been...
Aug 18 2005 - 11:25 AM ET | Smartphone
Symbian's second quarter sales tripled with more than 7.8 million unit sales. The first half of 2005 has seen more sales than all of 2004. Some other interesting notes from Symbian: * There are 54 from 7 manufacturers currently shipping...
Aug 18 2005 - 02:19 AM ET | Nokia, Rumor
The Finnish daily Taloussanomat is reporting [link in Finnish, if you can translate please do so in the comments] today that Nokia will use iTunes to power the N91 music phone. Scheduled to ship in the fourth quarter, the N91...
By Jon Gales -- The Samsung P207 is a jet-black clamshell now available from Cingular Wireless. Despite the consumer level price ($99), the P207 is able to pack in a very nice screen and an interesting speech-to-text technology that we...
Aug 17 2005 - 11:36 AM ET | Data
According to BusinessWeek, Google recently bought Android, a secretive mobile startup. Earlier this year Google snapped up Dodgeball, a mobile focused social networking company. Little is known about Android other than that they make software for mobile phones. One of...
The FCC has posted approval documents (FCC ID A3LSPHA920) for a new music phone from Samsung, the SPH-A920. The flip phones sports music control buttons on the exterior. The jet black phone is known to include: * Bluetooth * Memory...
Aug 17 2005 - 01:46 AM ET | Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel is expected to launch a music download service during the fourth quarter, this according to a company executive. While downloads from desktop services like the iTunes Music Store have proven to be successful, it remains to be seen...
Aug 16 2005 - 03:43 PM ET | Motorola
UBS Investment Research raised its estimate for Motorola due to increasing subscriber additions worldwide. UBS believes the big three handset makers will all increase their share thanks to market consolidation. For Motorola, UBS increased the 2006 handset estimate to 156...
Aug 16 2005 - 12:11 PM ET | Smartphone
Qtek yesterday announced two Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphones, the 8300 8310 (shown at right). Both of the phones include WiFi (which is newly supported in Windows Mobile 5). Other features of the handsets include: * EDGE high-speed data * 1.3...
Aug 16 2005 - 12:05 PM ET | Staff Picks
NewScientist has a piece about a new battery technology developed recently in Singapore that uses urine to provide electric current. Only a drop or two is needed, but the urine powered battery could actually power your cell phone in a...
Aug 15 2005 - 02:36 PM ET | Samsung
Samsung today announced two Series 60 phones, the D720 and D730. Slated to begin in Germany later this month,they will become the first Series 60 phones shipped by Samsung. The D730 is a clamshell handset that weighs just 97g while...
Aug 15 2005 - 01:10 PM ET | Sprint Nextel
Sprint today announced a major content and sponsorship contract with the National Football League. Sprint is the official wireless sponsor of the NFL and now has the rights to broadcast clips of games to video-streaming capable mobile phones. Rumors of...
Aug 15 2005 - 11:29 AM ET | Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson's first Walkman phone, the W800i, has started to ship in Europe. The phone is simply a specialized K750i that comes with a slightly modified case, 512MB memory chip and a new cable that allows regular 3.5mm headphones to...
PCS Intel has some spyshots of a Sprint Nextel branded Samsung V740 which launched earlier this year in Korea. The site notes that Sprint Nextel will call it the "Samsung Blade" and it's likely that the phone only has a...
Aug 12 2005 - 05:46 PM ET | Sprint Nextel
Just under 8 months after the original announcement, Sprint and Nextel have finished their merger. Monday morning the two companies will begin trading under the combined ticker symbol 's'. Subscribers should not notice a change of service. Corporate owned stores...
Verizon Wireless announced today that is has fixed a bug in its website that made public some data from customers signed up with online billing. According to the Wall Street Journal [paid sub req] the error only allowed limited information...
Aug 11 2005 - 12:04 PM ET | Palm, Rumor
According to the DigiTimes, HTC has inked a deal to manufacturer the next generation Treo (which has so far been called the Treo 670 in rumors). This isn't a surprise since the company already makes the Treo 650 but it...
Aug 11 2005 - 11:42 AM ET | 3G, Data
Qualcomm this morning announced a $600 buyout of FLASH-OFDM inventor Flarion Technologies. If after two years Flarion meets certain milestones, there will be another payout of $205 million in stock and cash. Qualcomm noted that it plans to stick with...
Aug 11 2005 - 08:22 AM ET | T-Mobile
T-Mobile USA today announced its second-quarter results. While the company is profitable, net additions slowed slightly from the same period last year. Here are the figures: * 972,000 net new customers added in Q2 2005 - total customer base of...
Aug 10 2005 - 06:08 PM ET | Data
Opera today announced a version of its popular mobile web browser made for phones with Java (J2ME). This version will work on a much larger number of handsets than previous versions, not just smartphones (Windows Mobile, Symbian, etc). Dubbed Opera...
An article at Newsweek Online notes that Cingular is in talks with HBO over wireless video content. HBO is well known for its critically acclaimed original programming (Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Deadwood, etc) and the deal could be one of...
The FCC has approved (ID BEJVX1000) another phone that will be marketed to the parents of children, this time from LG. The VX-1000 is a simplified phone aimed to be given to children. Other recent entrants to this market include...
Aug 09 2005 - 02:41 PM ET | MVNO
Amp'd Mobile, an MVNO that expects to launch later this year, yesterday announced that it has raised $67 million in funding. This includes an investment from Universal Music Group which hints that Universal will be a major part of Amp'd...
Despite a myriad of lawsuits attempting to stop the merger, Sprint and Nextel have announced that the deal is expected to be completed on Friday. None of the suits has successfully won an injunction that could legally stop the merger....
Aug 08 2005 - 11:50 PM ET | Kyocera
Kyocera Wireless today announced the KX16, a low-end CDMA handset that will be out this fall. Features of the KX16 include: * VGA camera * Speakerphone * BREW 2.1 No carrier plans for the Kx16 have been announced so far....
Verizon Wireless today announced EasyPay, a monthly pre-paid service similar to offerings by Cingular and Virgin Mobile. Instead of buying service in blocks of minutes, EasyPay works more like a conventional plan--there is a set number of minutes per month....
Aug 08 2005 - 11:40 PM ET | Nokia
Nokia today announced a new application called Mobile Search that aims to simplify searching on the mobile web. It integrates several search services into one application. bq. The current service and content providers incorporated in the search application include Eniro,...
Aug 08 2005 - 12:01 PM ET | Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson today announced the W550i, another music phone that will be Walkman branded (it joins the W800i and W600). All of the W series phones feature extra memory and a music player. Here are the Specs for the W550i:...
By Larry Becker - After my article on my top 10 favorite Treo 650 accessories ran in this space, accessory makers seemed eager to provide their products for review. I absolutely love gadgets and I’m thrilled to report on some...
Aug 07 2005 - 08:21 AM ET | Nokia, Rumor
According to an article in Sunday Business (not currently online), a UK business weekly, Cisco Systems is considering buying Nokia. Earlier this month, Nokia's CEO announced that he would be retiring next year. The article notes that Cisco CEO John...
Aug 06 2005 - 07:45 AM ET | Camera, Unique
A startup called Scoopt recently launched with the idea that news organizations would be willing to pay normal people that witness (and capture) news events. Camera phones took some of the most seen photos of the recent London bombings. After...
Aug 05 2005 - 05:48 PM ET | Palm, Rumor
Images and videos of a mobile phone rumored to be the Treo 670 have leaked onto the web via HowardForums. The Treo 670 is shown running Windows Mobile 5.0, which is a big deal since Palm has never shipped a...
Aug 04 2005 - 05:00 PM ET | Rumor, Samsung
The Samsung SGH-X800 was approved by the FCC this week (ID A3LSGHX800). The front face of the X800 features music control buttons. Other features of the X800 include: * Bluetooth * Camera with flash * Memory expansion slot (type unknown)...
Aug 04 2005 - 03:49 PM ET | In The News
Educational company LeapFrog has announced plans to launch a mobile phone called that TicTalk that will be marketed for children ages six and up. LeapFrog will supply branding, the actual device is made by Enfora. The TicTalk joins a few...
Aug 04 2005 - 11:12 AM ET | Nokia
Nokia has started shipping its $800 Nokia 8800 fashion phone. A US version is planned and it will go by the model number 8801 and it should hit stores in a few months. The 8800 features a stainless steel case...
Aug 03 2005 - 10:10 PM ET | Sprint Nextel
Sprint and Nextel were today awarded approval by the FCC for the proposed merger. Shareholders of the two companies approved the merger last month. This marks all necessary approval and thus the merger is expected to close shortly. The deal...
Aug 02 2005 - 06:40 PM ET | Security
McAfee, the second largest security software maker, is on record saying that several deals are in the works with mobile device makers. McAfee president Gene Hodges noted at the RBC Capital Markets conference that, "We see several deals in the...
Research In Motion caught a break today when a U.S. appeals court scaled back a December ruling that was mostly in favor of its suitor NTP. Investors have pushed shares of RIM up [RIMM] because today's news reduces the chances...
Aug 02 2005 - 09:52 AM ET | In The News
According to the New York Times, a 27-year-old Briton accused of being apart of the bombing attack on July 21 was arrested in Rome Friday thanks to being tracked by his mobile phone. bq. The Italian police determined that Mr....
As rumored last week, T-Mobile USA today launched the Samsung X495. The phone is an update to the X475 which is still for sale on T-Mobile's webstore. Features of the Samsung X495 include: * Speakerphone * 128x160 pixel 65K color...
Aug 01 2005 - 10:28 AM ET | Motorola, Rumor
Tucked into an article about the ringtone industry, USA Today noted that the Motorola E790 is expected to launch this month. E790 is a model name that leaked recently though many expect Motorola will use a four letter word to...
Aug 01 2005 - 10:14 AM ET | Motorola
Nextel has launched the Motorola i760, an update to the i730. Nextel is selling the i760 for $149.99 with a new service agreement and a $50 mail-in rebate. The Motorola i760 features: * Direct Connect, Group Connect and Direct Talk...
Aug 01 2005 - 09:18 AM ET | Nokia
Nokia's CEO Jorma Ollila has announced that he will step down from his post in June 2006, giving the CEO title to Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo who currently heads the mobile phone unit. Ollilabut will remain as a nonexecutive chairman. Starting in...
Aug 01 2005 - 01:08 AM ET | Cingular
RadioShack announced today that it will stop selling mobile phones from Verizon Wireless and instead begin sales of phones from Cingular. Sprint will continued to be sold through RadioShack, though their contract is up next year. Terms of the agreement...
