WebProNews

Mobile Phone Market Shows Signs Of Improvement

The global mobile phone market saw slight growth in the third quarter, according to IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker. Year-on-year growth remained negative, but improved from the first half of 2009. Mobile shipments totaled 287.1 million units worldwide in Q3, down from 6 percent from the previous year, but up 5.6 percent from the second quarter.

Nokia Acquires Social Networking Site

Nokia announced today that it has acquired "certain assets" of Plum, a privately held company. Plum's tagline is "making websites social," and the company says it helps websites become social by powering Groups in the Travel, Education, Entertainment, Publishing and Not-for-Profit sectors.

Smartphone Sales Up 27%

Global mobile phone sales reached 286.1 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a 6.1 percent decrease from the second quarter of 2008, according to a new report from Gartner. Smartphone sales were a bright spot for the industry, surpassing 40 million units, a 27 percent increase from the same period last year, representing the fastest growing segment of the mobile devices market.

Microsoft And Nokia Strike Mobile Deal

Microsoft and Nokia announced an alliance on Wednesday to make Microsoft Office software available on Nokia's Symbian devices. The software and cell phone companies said Nokia will start offering Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones next year, followed by other Office applications and related software and services in the future.

Mobile Market Improves In 2Q

The global mobile phone market saw another quarter of year-over-year decline in the second quarter of 2009, shipping a total of 269.6 million units, down 10.8 percent from 302.2 million units in 2Q08, according to IDC. The second quarter results are an improvement from the 17.2 percent decrease in the first quarter, but challenges from the economic crisis remain a factor to watch.

LinkedIn Founder on the Future of Social Data

LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman is featured in a video from Nokia's IdeasProject.com. He talks about new products being created from the social data that is available on the Internet.

Smartphones See Solid First Quarter Growth

Global mobile phone sales totaled 269.1 million units in the first quarter of 2009, a 9.4 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2008, according to Gartner. Smartphone sales surpassed 36.4 million units, a 12.7 percent increase from the same period last year.

Global Smartphone Sales Up In 2008

In the fourth quarter of 2008, global sales of smartphones reached 38.1 million units, an increase of 3.7 percent over the fourth quarter of 2007, according to Gartner. Worldwide sales of smartphone for 2008 reached 139.3 million, up 13.9 percent compared to 2007.

Mobile Phone Sales Grew 6% In 2008

Global mobile phone sales increased 6 percent in 2008 over the previous year while sales declined 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter due to the economic downturn, according to Gartner. Worldwide mobile phone sales reached 1.22 billion in 2008, up from 1.15 billion in 2007.

Skype Making Mobile Deals

Nokia and eBay-owned VoIP service Skype announced a deal today. Skype will be integrated into Nokia devices, starting with the N97 series.