The innovation arm of Spanish operator group Telefónica has announced a global direct carrier billing deal with Korean device maker Samsung. Under the terms of the agreement, Samsung will integrate BlueVia payment APIs into its handsets and tablets for Telefónica customers.
Canadian firm BlackBerry (formerly known as RIM) plans to make its popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) application available on iOS and Android platforms later this year.
In a push to generate momentum around its mobile operating system, open source software developer Mozilla is releasing free Firefox OS handsets to developers ahead of the commercial launch of the platform later this summer.
Korean manufacturer Samsung said that it has made headway in developing core technology for 5G networks with a view to bringing data services to market by 2020, according to local reports.
US open source house Canonical, the developer behind the popular and user-friendly Ubuntu Linux distribution hinted that the smartphone version of the OS, Ubuntu Touch, may be ready for release in the summer or autumn.
Spanish operator group Telefónica has signed a Europe-wide M2M deal with PC maker Dell, as the two set out to deliver pay-as-you-go mobile broadband services for notebooks and tablets.
Chip maker Intel has named COO Brian Krzanich as the successor to CEO Paul Otellini. Krzanich will assume his new role on May 16, 2013. In addition, Renée James has been appointed president of Intel and will assume her role on the same day.
Almost four in ten enterprises expect to stop providing devices to workers by 2016, according to research firm Gartner. Following a global survey of chief information officers (CIOs) the research firm found that 38 per cent of companies expect to stop providing devices to employees over the next three years, as bring your own device (BYOD) programmes continue to become commonplace.
Telefónic, Intel and Samsung’s investment units have each made a decision to invest undisclosed amounts in San Francisco start-up Expect Labs. The start-up is developing a platform to power a “new generation of intelligent digital assistants”, and has already benefitted from investments from Google and venture capital firm Greylock.
Korean device manufacturer Samsung Electronics has seen its quarterly net profit rise 42 per cent year on year, for the first three months of 2013. The firm made KRW7.15tn ($6.4bn) in 1Q13, up from KRW5.15tn in the same period last year. Revenue for the quarter was also up KRW7.6tn year on year, reaching KRW52.87tn.
The smartphone landscape has benefitted from an infusion of variety this week as handsets running on the Firefox OS appeared on the market, as well as a WhatsApp styled phone from Nokia.
Device giant Apple has posted its first quarterly drop in profit in ten years, with $9.5bn 2Q13 (January to March) net profit marking a more than 18 per cent decline on the $11.6bn generated in 2Q12. Quarterly revenue grew year on year however, to $43.6bn from $39.2bn a year ago. Gross margin was 37.5 per cent compared to 47.4 per cent in 2Q12.
Indian operator Tata Communications has launched a service offering international HD voice call termination to mobile operators that have launched HD voice in their domestic markets. Figures from the Global Mobile Suppliers Association show that HD voice had been launched by 61 operators in 45 countries by the end of January this year.
Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia has posted a €150m operating loss for 1Q13. Viewed in context this should be encouraging; the loss is a fraction of the €1.338bn the firm lost in the same quarter in 2012.
However, net sales for the same period dropped 20 per cent year on year to €5.85bn from €7.35bn in 1Q12.
Samsung has admitted paying students to post scathing reviews about Taiwanese rival HTC handsets on websites in Taiwan.
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