Motorola, the company that manufactured the first commercially available cell phone, saw its overall sales drop 21% in this year’s first-quarter. Sales dropped to $7.45 billion from last year’s first-quarter sales number of $9.43 billion. Motorola’s cellphone division dropped 39% compared to the sales numbers from first-quarter 2007. The mobile phone division lost $418 million during the… → Read More

Samsung Electronics announced today that its net profit was up 37% in the first-quarter of this year. Much of the increase came from sales of cell phones in emerging markets. Samsung earned 2.19 trillion won ($2.2 billion) in the three months that ended on March 31. Sales rose 19% to 17.11 trillion won ($17.19 billion). Samsung said that mobile sales “achieved similar volume” to last year’s… → Read More

The largest telecommunications company in the United States announced today that it will cut 4,600 jobs to facilitate a shift to growing sectors of its business. Most of the layoffs will be among managers in the wireline operation, which includes local phone service and service for large corporate customers. Jobs in finance will also be cut. ”Even with the reductions announced today, we… → Read More

Nokia posted a $1.9 billion profit in the first-quarter of this year, up 25% from last year’s $1.6 billon first-quarter. Revenue grew 28% to $20 billion from $15.6 billion a year earlier. Nokia saw strong growth in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Despite nearly $2 billion in profits, Nokia stock dropped 13.5% by the end of trading on Thursday. Analysts had predicted a 42% rise in profit for… → Read More

Motorola, a company that helped bring the cell phone to fruition, has been struggling lately. To recapture world market share, Motorola will name former AT&T chief executive David Dorman to the position of chairman next month. Dorman will be named to his new position on May 5 of this year, after Ed Zander retires at the company’s annual meeting. Dorman will have plenty of work to do. Besides… → Read More

When Nokia announced in January that it planned to close its manufacturing plant in Bochum Germany, many union leaders and politicians were upset with the world’s largest mobile phone maker. To make the closing easier on workers, Nokia will spend $314 million and set up a transfer company that it will help staff for one year. The agreement means the plant can close on June 30 of this year. Nokia… → Read More

As the mobile phone market in Europe and North America slows down the slack is being picked up by Africa and Asia. Handset manufactures sold 238 million phones in the first quarter of this year, up 10% from a year ago, but down 15% from 2007’s fourth quarter. Fourth Quarter sales are usually up because of Christmas sales. Texas Instruments, a large chip maker for the mobile industry, warned of a… → Read More

T-Mobile USA reported good numbers for the fourth-quarter of 2007. The company added 951,000 new customers and generated $4.4 billion in revenue. These numbers are up from 2006’s fourth-quarter, when T-Mobil USA added 901,000 customers and had $3.81 billion in revenue. By the end of 2007, T-Mobile was the fourth largest cell phone service provider in the United States with 28.7 million… → Read More

Nortel Networks, a telecommunications equipment maker, lost $957 million last year and announced another reorganization. To stop the bleeding, the company will cut 2,100 jobs and move another 1,000 jobs from North America to low-wage countries. News of the staff reduction sent shares down 13% to $9.93 a share in New York trading. Several analysts are questioning Nortel’s reliance on a fading… → Read More

Texas Instruments announced today that it will add new chip applications beyond the mobile phone market. The new chips will be used in everything from music players to medical equipment. The company, which faces stiff completion from Qualcomm in the wireless arena, will expand its OMAP product line. OMAP is currently used to support gaming and video in cell phones. “We’re basically… → Read More

Qwest Communications International announced today that it plans to deepen partnerships to offer better video, Internet and wireless services. The company plans on spending around $1.8 billion for capital improvements. Qwest forecast that revenue for 2008 will be flat or down slightly as improvements are made. Recent quarterly profits have been up, thanks to a tax benefit and an increase in… → Read More

Research in Motion, the BlackBerry manufacturer, announced today that it underestimated last year’s fourth-quarter subscription additions by 15 to 20 percent. Last December the company said net subscriber account additions would total 1.82 million, but a more accurate count shows 2.09 million to 2.18 million new subscriptions. Research in Motion credits the increase to the popularity of… → Read More

The Wall Street Journal Digital Network announced today a free, downloadable application for Windows Mobile phones that provides users access to WSJ.com, MarketWatch.com and Barrons.com. The service was developed with help from Action Engine Corporation, a mobile application platform provider. While on-the-go, users will be able to read financial news, mange their personal stock portfolio, track… → Read More

After the New York stock market closed yesterday, Motorola announced that it is considering ways to deal with its ailing mobile phone division. Some have speculated this means selling or spinning-off the division, but the statement’s language leaves open other possibilities. Motorola said it would consider separating the handset division from the company and that it is looking at ways to… → Read More

Stalinist North Korea has contracted with the Egyptian company Orascom Telecom to provide mobile phone service in the communist country. North Korea began mobile service in November 2002 but within 18 months banned the service for ordinary citizens and recalled handsets. It is believed the network is still available for government officials. The deal will give Orascom Telecom a 25-year lease… → Read More

Comstar UTS, a Russian land-line operator, announced today that it has started building a mobile broadband network using WiMax technology in Armenia. Comstar will buy base station equipment from Airspan Networks. “We intend to launch the network this year and, therefore, become the first and the largest wireless broadband Internet operator in Armenia,” Comstar’s president, Sergei… → Read More

Connectivity Scorecard, a system that ranks countries on around 30 indicators that measure how will a country boosts its social and economic prosperity through telecommunications technologies, puts the United States at the head of the list. The system was created by London Business School professor Leonard Waverman to examine how well countries utilize networks, cell phones and computers. The… → Read More

T-Mobile USA added 951,000 subscriptions between October and December of 2007. This gives the country’s fourth largest mobile phone company a subscription customer base of 28.7 million. T-Mobile’s sales were up 14.6% over 2006 numbers. Shareholders of Deutsche Telekom AG, the T-Mobile parent company, were asking for the sale of T-Mobile USA last year. Chief Executive Rene Obermann fended off… → Read More

The United State’s second largest telecommunications company, Verizon Communications, announced that fourth quarter profits were up 3.9% for October through December of 2007. The perceived economic slowdown in America hasn’t hurt company growth, with the exception of a marginal increase in nonpaying wireless subscribers. “We have not seen a change in our sales expectation through… → Read More

Yesterday Nokia issued a prediction that in 2008 its mobile phone shipments will increase by 10% and that the company’s worldwide market share will increase beyond the 40% it claimed in the fourth quarter. But these numbers may be too optimistic. Analysts at IDC predict annual growth in mobile phone sales will drop below 10% this year, making Nokia’s growth projection look unrealistic. IDC… → Read More

Motorola announced today that its profit fell 84% in the fourth quarter and that its handset division is struggling. CEO Greg Brown acknowledged that the No. 3 cellphone maker isn’t doing what needs to be done to keep and improve its global handset market share. At the end of 2006, Motorola had 23% worldwide market share. By the end of 2007 it dropped to 13%. “Demand for some of our… → Read More