Nokia has bought Zurich and Berlin-based social networking service Plazes. It will become part of Nokia’s Services & Software unit.
Plazes provides a location-based social activity service that people can use to plan, record, and share their social activities: why they are at a given location at a given time, whether in the past, present or future. Nokia will integrate this service into its own handsets.
Nokia has been expanding its presence in social media via a slew of acquisitions such as social networking and media services over the last year such as Twango, Enpocket, More»

Labels: Mobile, nokia, social media

Smart-phone sales in North America of 7.3 million units represented a whopping 106 percent increase from the first quarter of last year. Gartner also reported that RIM, makers of the Blackberry, have 42 percent of this new phone market.
Hugues De La Vergne, a Garter mobile market analyst, said:
“Despite economic concerns, the smart-phone market continued to expand in the United States, driven by heavy advertising and strong marketing promotions as more devices reached mass-market price points,”
He also noted that smart phone fees tend to be higher than regular subscriptions and that this fact should continue to fuel More»

Labels: Mobile

Two recent studies indicate how social networking over mobile devices is going to grow into one of the online world’s most significant activities.
Opera’s research about the use of their mobile browser is a bit misleading however because it appears to be from those who use the browser on their phones - obviously a group much more likely than others to participate in social networking:
Select global highlights from the first quarter report:
Social networking consumes almost 41% of traffic: The United States, South Africa and Indonesia have more than 60% of their traffic going to social More»

Labels: Facebook, Mobile, mobile web, Social Networking

Even as broadband penetration in the USA increases, many users are still frustrated with the lack of enough data transmisson speed to bring really great internet functionality to all the devices in your life.
Ralph de la Vega, COO of ATT, says that things are going to change fast and get faster. Speaking at a Morgan Stanley event he said that sometime in 2009 ATT would be able to deliver speed in excess of 20 megabits per second. That is fast enough to allow some spectacular streaming of data and video content, provide downloadable movies to More»

Labels: ATT, broadband, Mobile, mobile web

Morgan Stanley has made available their Internet Trends report for 2008. The 72 page report covers:1) Usage Patterns2) Social Networking3) Widgetization4) Measureability5) Monetization6) Facebook Apps7) Online Ad Spend Online Video9) Mobile Outlook10) Emerging Trends11) Recession Impact
Click to view report on Internet Trends
More»

Labels: Facebook, internet trends, Mobile, Online Advertising, social media, social networks, video, widgets

ATT will be laying off another 4650 people, mostly in the residential phone portion of the ATT empire. This is a large number although it represents only about 1.5% of the total ATT global workforce. In December of 2006 ATT purchased Bell South for 86 Billion and announced 10,000 layoffs at that time.
ATT appears to be hurting as customers switch away from residential lines towards mobile offerings, and Verizon’s new dominance in the mobile space as a result of taking away much of the 700 MHZ spectrum in the recent auction may be More»

Labels: ATT, Mobile, phone, VOIP

Yahoo announced a new mobile search strategy for Yahoo OneSearch at the CTIA Wireless trade show.
Marco Boerries, executive vice president of Yahoo OneSearch said users will get “instant answers to any query, not just web links.” This means that search results will expand from traditional hyperlinks into other media. A search for “New York” could yield subway schedules, for example, or a search for local sushi restaurants could bring up available reservations.
OneSearch will be incorporating voice-enabled technology similar to GOOG411. “Consumers can search for anything, including flight numbers, locations, Web site names, local restaurants, and more, by simply speaking,” More»

Labels: Mobile, Search, Yahoo

Many phones now come equipped with the ability to find their location pretty much anywhere in the country using one of two common geolocation methods. The first is to triangulate off of pings on cell towers - using the phone network itself to figure out where the phone is in relation to various towers.
The second method is for the device to detect a wireless signals and send this back to the network computer which compares these to the signal’s “IP and Mac addresses” and then uses a database of these locations to get an More»

Labels: geolocation, loopt, Mobile, Mobile Advertising

Garrett at ZDnet is reporting on what appears to be a neat mobile application from Google that will allow you to browse listings without typing. It does not appear to have launched yet but Garrett suggests:
The new feature, that from what I can tell is new, lets you browse through categories of businesses without you having to type a word on your mobile device.Some of the most promising Mashups are in the mobile space, and thanks to the fact that many phones will soon be able to geolocate we should soon see mobile enhancements like More»

Labels: google mobile, Mobile, zdnet

Yahoo announced today the impending launch in Q2′08 of onePlace, a mobile content management tool to enable consumers to better manage the wide selection of content available across the Internet. Yahoo! onePlace is expected to become available across hundreds of devices and mobile browsers globally.
“Yahoo! onePlace(TM) will bring together a consumer’s interests, passions and important information into a single location - creating a rich and highly personalized experience. Everything is instantly organized, dynamically kept current, and served to them the way they want. So now, the content they consume and the way they consume it will be hyper-customized to More»

Labels: Mobile, web 2.0, Yahoo