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Apple's iPhone continues to drive customers to AT&T, two years after its release, according to a report from research firm ChangeWave.

Thirteen percent of the over 4,000 consumers surveyed by ChangeWave in March said they are "very or somewhat likely" to switch wireless carriers in the next six months. Thirty-three percent of those customers said they would go to AT&T, a move ChangeWave said it believes is directly related to consumers' desire for the iPhone.

It will probably come as no surprise that AT&T's main competition in the wireless … Read more

Nokia was forced to apologize to users Tuesday after the launch of its Ovi Store did not go as planned.

According to the statement posted on the company's Ovi Blog, the store suffered from performance issues due to a large spike in traffic. "We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused Ovi Store users," the statement said.

Though CNET was able to browse the Ovi Store on Tuesday evening without any issues, reports of major problems circulated earlier in the day. TechCrunch's Robin Wauters, who reported slow load times and complete outages, characterized the Ovi … Read more

Nokia on Tuesday officially launched the Ovi Store. This is the Finnish company's answer to services like the App Store for the iPhone and the Android Market for Android smartphones. The Ovi Store allows developers to list their programs in an online catalog so users can easily download or buy them.

More than 50 Nokia devices are compatible with the Ovi Store and it can be accessed by visiting store.ovi.com on the browser or downloading the standalone application to your phone. We tried it on our E71 and it worked on both the browser and through the … Read more

For a holiday, it's been an eventful day in the world of HTC-Android-phone news. First came those leaked internal AT&T documents that showed, among other things, a new HTC Android device called the Lancaster that's supposedly targeted for an August U.S. launch. Now comes word of HTC's plans, starting next month, to sell an Android-powered smartphone in China, the world's largest wireless market.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the new China-bound Android phone will be a version of HTC's Magic, the successor to the T-Mobile G1 (formerly known as the HTC Dream) that launched in February.

The phones will reportedly be customized with software from wireless carrier China Mobile and called OPhones (referring to Open Mobile System, the name for China Mobile's customized version of Google's mobile operating system). And yes, the name does bring to mind another little smartphone we've heard of, but at least, as far as we can tell, the "O" will be capitalized.

There's no final word on price yet, but the WSJ speculates that HTC's new China phone will retail for about 5,000 yuan, or about $730. … Read more

Orange, Apple's wireless partner in France, on Friday said it had sold its first million iPhones in that country.

Apple and Orange began selling iPhones in France in late-November 2007. The 1 million iPhone milestone is an important goal for the carrier and Apple's international market, pointing to the success of the device in countries other than the U.S.

In its second fiscal quarter, Apple reported selling 3.79 million iPhones. The company doesn't break out sales by country, so there is no way to tell what percentage were sold in the U.S. or any … Read more

Open-phone specialist Koolu says it is two weeks from shipping beta developer versions of the Neo FreeRunner mobile phone running Google's open-source Android 1.5 "Cupcake" operating system.

Full consumer versions should follow toward mid-July.

Toronto-based Koolu is using the GTA02 version of the Neo FreeRunner from Openmoko, which is entirely based on open-phone standards.

Speaking to ZDNet UK at this week's Cloud Expo Europe conference in London, Koolu Chief Technology Officer Jon Hall said the phone is aimed at small and midsize businesses and at developing countries. The phone will be available worldwide.

"We'… Read more

Virtualization company VMware says that its new platform to let organizations virtualize smartphones and mobile devices will show up in handsets next year.

The mobile phone is now as important to businesses at desktop computers, and acts as a mobile computer in many cases, said Stephen Herrod, VMware chief technology officer, speaking at the Interop industry conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Although Herrod said the project is still in its "early stages," researchers at VMware are working on a VMware Mobile Virtualization Platform, which will create a virtual machine for mobile devices, allowing users to move their … Read more

Among all the companies fighting to grab a piece of the brightest star in computing--the smartphone--Google seems the least interested in taking the spoils.

Android, Google's mobile operating system, doesn't generate revenue for the company, and likely never will--at least in the direct sense. But Andy Rubin, Google's director of mobile platforms, thinks Google and the world will benefit from any device created with the intent of getting more people onto the Internet, and isn't shy about explaining why the open-source approach chosen for Android holds the most promise of reaching that goal.

Android made its debut in 2007, … Read more

New Zealand cell phone carrier Telecom on Wednesday unveiled its new lineup of phones, and while the iPhone wasn't among the offerings, the company did have news about a possible iPhone release.

Telecom's Alan Gourdie said the carrier is in "discussions--deep discussions--with Apple," according to the country's National Business Review. While Gourdie's comments don't guarantee Apple will sign on a second carrier in New Zealand, the negotiations echo what's been happening in the U.S.

Speculation that Apple will open up AT&T's exclusivity deal in the U.S. has … Read more