Yankee Doodles

Motorola buys Good Technology

Sales of Motorola ‘s BlackBerry killer the Q have missed the company ‘s estimates by a long mark, but that hasn ‘t deterred the US ‘s largest handset manufacturer from wanting to compete with Research in Motion, BlackBerry ‘s parent firm.
The company announced that it would buy Good Technology, a privately held firm based in Santa Clara, California, that provides software for smartphones and handheld devices, including wireless messaging, data access and handheld security offerings. Motorola currently uses Good Technology ‘s software to power the e-mail messaging on the Q.
Ron Garriques, president of the mobile devices division, said Good Technology ‘s services, products and customers all complement its business and that the purchase would strengthen Motorola as a leading provider of mobility devices and solutions both for enterprise customers and consumers.
RIM has two competitors to contend with. Earlier this year, Nokia, the world ‘s number one handset manufacturer, purchased Intellisync, a wireless software firm for $430 million (£227m), to allow them to provide an e-mail messaging service on their smartphones.
However, if the Canadian launch of the E62 is any indicator, it may be more difficult than expected to integrate the technology with the device. Instead of rolling the E62 with Intellisync ‘s software, Nokia went with wireless technology from Visto, another mobile messaging software provider.

Verizon connects with YouTube

Carriers have been looking for a way to capitalise on Internet sites in which home grown content from consumers has proved extremely popular. The reported talks between Verizon Wireless and YouTube regarding permission for the carrier ‘s customers to watch YouTube footage on their mobiles are no exception.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the carrier ‘s customers would be able to view YouTube videos through the network ‘s mobile content V Cast Service.
Visitors to the site watch more than 100 million videos a day. If the two eventually do pair up, Verizon Wireless will have to figure out a way to reformat Internet video to handsets. Some analysts believe that Verizon ‘s offering will also have to be carefully censored.

T-Mobile USA ‘s mixed results

Deutsche Telekom ‘s chief executive Kai-Uwe Ricke may have been forced to step down amid growing unhappiness over the performance of the company in its home market of Germany, but company heads are still pleased with T-Mobile USA.
René Obermann, CEO of T-Mobile International and member of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom AG said, T-Mobile USA continues to be Deutsche Telekom ‘s key growth driver. The additional investments we ‘ve made in the AWS auction were essential to continue the profitable growth of T-Mobile USA for years to come. Also, we ‘re importing T-Mobile USA ‘s service models into our European operations because of their outstanding customer service, as recognized by numerous awards.
T-Mobile USA, the country ‘s fourth largest network, added 802,000 new customers in the third quarter, up from the 613,000 additions in the second quarter of 2006, but down from last year ‘s third quarter figure of 1.06 million.
The network pointed out however, that 773,000 of its new customers were lucrative contract customers, up from 507,000 in the second quarter of 2006, and 716,000 customers in the third quarter of 2005. Post-pay customers now make up 85 per cent of T-Mobile USA ‘s total customer base as of the end of the third quarter. Furthermore, 80 per cent of new post-pay customers opted for two-year contract terms in the third quarter.
The network reported a post-paid churn of 2.3 per cent in the third quarter, while pre-paid churn climbed to 6.9 per cent from 6.6 per cent in the year ago period. Blended churn, including both post-pay and pre-paid customers, was 3.0 per cent in the third quarter of 2006, up from 2.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2006 and the third quarter of 2005. T-Mobile blamed the increase in blended churn compared to the third quarter of 2005 on the higher proportion of pre-paid customers in the total customer base.

Cingular launches music service

Cingular, the US ‘s largest carrier, has finally launched a music service. Cingular Music runs on a new handset, the Samsung SGH-A707, or the Sync, and allows customers to transfer music from their computers to their phones.
The carrier also trumpeted the fact that it is the first and only US carrier to distribute subscription music to the handset, allowing consumers to extend their existing music libraries, not rebuild them.
While Sprint and Verizon offer downloads for sale, Cingular Music permits customers to transfer music from ܘall-you-can-eat ‘ online music subscription plans from Napster and Yahoo, as well as other stores. Songs from CDs or downloaded in MP3 or Windows Media formats can also be transferred to mobiles.
As part of the music service, Cingular is also offering MusicID, a ܘname-that-tune ‘ service, available on the SYNC and other Cingular music handsets. Subscribers who want to identify a song being played, can hold their handset up to the music. MusicID will identify the track and link them directly to Napster.