Ericsson

ST-Ericsson, a chip maker that got caught up with the wrong crowd, has announced sweeping changes in an effort to stay relevant in the mobile market.

The company, a joint venture between STMicroelectronics and Ericsson, today announced a new strategic direction that will see the firm focus its efforts on a "complete system solution" for smartphones and tablets. The company will focus on delivering application processors, modems, connectivity solutions, and a host of other components to vendors looking to compete in the mobile space. In addition, ST-Ericsson said that it could license the technology it develops to third-parties.… Read more

The consortium of companies who successfully bid on Nortel's patent portfolio last year today received the go-ahead from the U.S. Department of Justice to proceed with the acquisition.

That deal was struck last June by the Rockstar Bidco consortium--a group of companies led by Apple that sought ownership of some 6,000 patents and patent applications from the bankrupt Canadian telecom equipment maker.

The deal was put on hold following a DOJ investigation into the effects of the sale, which had a mandated waiting period that expired today.

"We are pleased to emerge from this review process, … Read more

Telecom geeks (like me) may know Ericsson as the mammoth company that supplies phone network equipment to carriers. But did you know it has a burgeoning app following as well?

That was news to me as I sat down with a few executives from Ericsson while at Mobile World Congress. But the company has long fostered a small, but healthy, community of developers, and actually offers application programming interface tools that allow better access to network capabilities.

While Ericsson's bread and butter remains telecom gear, the company has worked to spread its wings into different areas. It's all … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Today at Mobile World Congress, Ericsson CEO Hans Vestbeg, saunters over to a bicycle on the far edge of his keynote stage and touched a spoke. Instead of hopping on the bike, like many in the audience undoubtedly hoped he would, the leader of the Swedish network equipment giant announced that this particular bike is a connected device.

The Copenhagen Wheel, as he called it, is capable of uploading information as diverse as traffic, weather, and pollution details all from atop a set of rubber wheels.

Yes, the bike is a shining example of the innovation that lays in … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Stephen Sneeden, product marketing manager for Sony Mobile, told CNET Asia in an interview here at Mobile World Congress that he predicts the company will likely only release quad-core Sony smartphones in early 2013. He does, however, state that this is just his assumption--the company will make the official announcements when it's ready.

"We're going to join quad-core when we feel that the performance matches the battery efficiency," he said. "Because right now we don't feel that is there. What we are going to be doing in the second half of the year is moving to the Cortex A15 architecture, which we feel outperforms the current quad-core architecture.

"You'll see in 2013, as we're evaluating the quad-core performance where it makes sense, where you're not suffering in quality and the performance truly is there, and there really is something that demanding applications need," he contiuned." That's when we make the right move to quad-core." … Read more

Although we haven't reviewed this phone on C Spire's network, you can read CNET's Sony Ericsson Xperia Play review for Verizon Wireless.

Sony completed its buyout of the Sony Ericsson brand today and renamed the venture Sony Mobile Communications.

The new effort aims to "integrate the mobile phone business as a vital element of its electronics business, with the aim of accelerating convergence between Sony's lineup of network enabled consumer electronics products, including smart phones, tablets, TVs and PCs," the company said in a statement announcing the deal's closure.

The last major stumbling block to the acquisition was removed late last month when the European Commission gave its approval to the $1.47 billion deal, which was announced last October. … Read more

Apple won last year's smartphone wars, according to data released today by Gartner.

Other reports have pointed to Samsung as the leading vendor in 2011, but the research firm placed Apple on top with a 19 percent market share overall, barely half a point higher than Samsung's share.

Driven by the iPhone 4S, the fourth quarter was especially strong for Apple with a 23.8 percent share amid sales of 37 million iPhones. And many of those sales came outside the U.S., helping boost the industry as a whole.

"Western Europe and North America led most … Read more

Apple and Samsung together hoovered up more than 95 percent of mobile phone profits last quarter, leaving little left for other players, says Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley.

Actually, there wasn't a whole lot left for Samsung, either, once Apple was done with things.

With strong demand for the iPhone 4S, Apple alone took home around 80 percent of all mobile phone profits in the fourth quarter, up from just 56 percent in the third quarter, according to the analyst. Yet the company holds just 8.1 percent of the global mobile phone market.

At the same time, Samsung'… Read more