AT&T Now Selling BlackBerry Curve

The BlackBerry Curve is now available from AT&T. The Curve has been given the distinction of being the lightest and slimmest full QWERTY BlackBerry device. It is RIM's second consumer oriented device, with the Pearl being the first, and comes with a 2 megapixels camera. It is available for $199 with contract and rebates.

Phonepotential.com first reviewed the device back in April. (Read Article)

Did You Know: Motorola a Japanese Firm??

Young consumers tend to know little about the brands behind the products they use, including wireless brands, according to a study from market-research firm Anderson Analytics. Cellphones topped the list of products for which students misidentified the manufacturers' country of origin, said the company. More than half of college students surveyed by the company believed Nokia is a Japanese company, with only 4.4% correctly identifying the company as Finnish. Forty-two percent of students believed Motorola Inc. is Japanese. Motorola is based in Schaumburg, Ill.

Verizon Now Selling BlackBerry 8830

The BlackBerry 8830 is now available from Verizon. This is the first global CDMA device from BlackBerry. It retails for $399, but is available for either $299 or $199 based on rebates and plans chosen. The device is expected to be available from Sprint sometime in June/July.

Phonepotential.com first reviewed the device back in April. (Read Article)

Motorola Announces RAZR Successor, the RAZR2

Motorola is taking the RAZR brand to the next level with its announcement of the RAZR2, available in July 2007. Motorola was able to make the device even slimmer, while packing in more power and features. Processing speed of the RAZR2 is 10 times faster than the original RAZR. It has 2 GB of internal It sports a 2" external display, with features allowing you to view text messages and reply with pre-set text messages and listen to music with virtual music keys, all without opening the phone.

iPhone Gets Approval From FCC

Apple has finally received FCC approval for the much anticipated and much hyped iPhone, stating they still plan to start selling the iPhone in late June.

For those who haven't heard about the new device, the iPhone is a combination of a smartphone and an iPod. It is expected to retail in two versions - 4G ($499) and 8G ($599).

Apple is still being secretive about the device. They've asked the FCC to keep diagrams and descriptionss of the phone confidential for 45 days, giving them plenty of time to launch the device without information being leaked.

Sprint Launches New Samsung Clamshell Phones - M300, M510

The M300 (not pictured) is an entry level device. It measures 3.6" x 1.9" x 0.7" and weighs only 2.7 oz. It's best features are Bluetooth support and a VGA camera. Being an entry level phone, it works with Sprint's 1xRTT data network versus the higher speed EVDO network. The M300 is avaialable in two colors (red and silver) for $29.99 with a two-year service agreement.

The M510 (pictured in pink) is a mid-range phone. It measures 3.6" x 2.0" x 0.6" and weighs only 2.9 oz. The phone may be tiny, but it packs a lot of punch. It comes with stereo Bluetooth support, a 1.3 megapixels camera that takes pictures and videos, a web browser, a media player, GPS, and a microSD slot for extra storage. The phone also operates on Sprint's high speed Mobile Broadband (EVDO) network allowing over-the-air music downloads, Sprint TV, and PAM (Phone As a Modem). The M510 is a available in two colors (black and pink) for $129.99 with a two-year service agreement.

Get Episodes of "Lost" and "Grey's" on Your Sprint Phone

Sprint and ABC just inked a deal where episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Ugly Betty will be available on certain Sprint handsets. Programming will also be available from ABC's other stations such as the Disney Channel's Hannah Montana and ABC News' Nightline.

Subscribers of a Sprint Power Vision TV Pack ($20) will be able to view the last four episodes of each series. The shows do not have to be downloaded and can be viewed on demand. This is seen as a benefit over the iPhone, where users will first have to download each show to their PC from iTunes and then sync their phone to their PC.

SoundID Innovative Bluetooth Headset

SoundID may have topped all of the Bluetooth headsets on the market with their innovative new product, the SM100 EarModule. The headset is loaded with features.

The NoiseNavigation System™ feature automatically detects the noise around you and can adapt to cancel out and counter background noise such as a crowded restaurant and wind.

The PersonalSound feature allows the user to choose from three different configurations that increase clarity without raising volume.

The headset operates in three modes to allow you to talk to others (Phone Mode), hear out of both ears while you are not on the phone (Environmental Listening Mode), and communicate via Bluetooth with another SM100 EarModule (One2One Mode).

The Sound ID SM100 is available for a MSRP of $129.99. It is currently available at Airport Wireless locations and featured online at www.soundid.com.

Did You Know: Cellphones and Driving

Cellphones and Driving: There has been driver distraction legislation—most involving cell phones—in all 50 states during the past five years. In 2006 alone, 43 states entertained distracted driver legislation. Many measures seek to outlaw driver use of hand-held phones, with other bills designed to keep cellphones out of the hands of teens and school bus drivers.

T-Mobile 1st Quarter Results

T-Mobile reported their 1st quarter results. Overall, the numbers showed growth and were higher than analysts' estimates.

Net Additions = 980,000(down from 1.04 million a yr ago, but up from 901,000 in 4Q)
Total Churn = 2.6% (drop from 2.7% this quarter last year)
Post-Paid Churn = 1.9% (drop from 2.1% this quarter last year)
ARPU (Avg. Revenue Per User) = $52 (51% increase year over year)
Data ARPU = $7.50 (increase from $6.50 in 1Q06)

74% of the net additions were post-paid subscribers. Currently 84% of T-Mobile's customers are post-paid subscribers.

Sprint Launches Palm Treo 755p

Sprint has announced that the Palm Treo 755p will be available this month. The price tag will be $279.99 with a new two year service agreement and a $100 mail-in rebate. The Treo 755p is the first CDMA Treo with an internal antenna, so it has a smaller form factor than the Treo 700. The phone will be available in two colors - midnight blue and burgundy.

Data Network: EV-DO Rev 0
Operating System: Palm OS 5.4.9
Memory: 128 MB
Processor: Intel XScale 312MHz Processor
Camera: 1.3 megapixels with 2x digital zoom
Expansion Slot: MiniSD

The 755p will offer the same functionality of the 700p. Some key differences are:
1. No external antenna sticking out
2. MiniSD slot on the 755p is different from the SD slot on the 700p. Another key difference here is the 755p's slot is on the side, which makes theft and accidental ejection of the card more difficult.
3. The 755p will launch with the Maintenance Release that is scheduled to be available for the 700p sometime around May 28th. The Maintenance Release is suppose to fix issues with speed to launch applications, Bluetooth, SMS send/receive performance, and MP3 playback.
4. The 755p will come in different colors

Pros of the new device are the no antenna and the miniSD slot.
Cons of the new device are no EV-DO Rev A support and the camera is still only 1.3 megapixels.

Did You Know: Google.com Most Popular Mobile Site

Google.com topped the list of the most popular mobile Web sites in the both United States and the United Kingdom for the second month in a row, according to M:Metrics. Search, news and social networking sites dominated the list during March. In the U.S., Yahoo.com, MSN.com, Microsoft.com and Live.com rounded out the top five domains, while in the U.K. BBC.co.uk, Orange.co.uk, Three.co.uk and O2.co.uk garnered the most hits.

The Next Consumer BlackBerry - The Curve

Research In Motion is planning to release it's newest consumer device, named "The Curve", later this quarter. The phone will be exclusive to AT&T (Cingular). It will have most of the features seen in the Pearl, but will have a full QWERTY keyboard.

Some of the features of the new device are
- speaker independent voice recognition for dialing
- a media player and manager
- HTML browser with RSS
- trackball navigation
- 2 mega-pixel camera
- stereo Bluetooth support
- MicroSD slot that supports 4 GB cards
- 3.5 mm jack for standard stereo headsets

See the device at www.blackberrycurve.com

Sprint 1st Quarter Results

Sprint reported a net income loss of $211 million for the first quarter. The company saw positive subscriber growth, but still reported a loss for post-paid subscribers.

Net Additions = 600,000 (had a loss of 220,000 post-paid subscribers)
Total Churn = 2.3% (unchanged from 4th quarter, but up from 2.1% reported in 1Q06)
Post-Paid ARPU (Avg. Revenue Per User) = $59 (5% decrease year over year)
Data ARPU = $9.25(industry high - 44% increase year over year)
Wireless Revenues = $10.1 billion

Sprint ended the quarter with 53.6 million total subscribers.

Verizon 1st Quarter Results

Verizon reported their 1st quarter results, again outpacing the competition in subscriber additions and keeping an industry low churn.

Net Additions = 1.7 million (1.6 million of which are direct customers)
Total Churn = 1.08% (drop from 1.2% this quarter last year)
ARPU (Avg. Revenue Per User) = $50.73 (4.2% increase year over year)
Data ARPU = $8.95 (54% increase year over year)
Wireless Revenues = $10.3 billion (increase of 17%)

Verizon ended the quarter with 60.7 million subscribers, just shy of Cingular's 62.2 million subscribers.

ATT (Cingular) 1st Quarter Results

ATT reported their 1st quarter results for their wireless division Cingular. Overall, the numbers were good, but ATT did not meet analysts' estimates.

Net Additions = 1.2 million (short of analysts' estimates of 1.3 million)
Total Churn = 1.7% (drop from 1.9% this quarter last year)
Post-Paid Churn = 1.3% (drop from 1.6% this quarter last year)
ARPU (Avg. Revenue Per User) = $49.21 (1.5% increase year over year)
Data ARPU = $7.88 (51% increase year over year)
Wireless Revenues = $10 billion (increase of 11%)

Wireless revenue represented one-third of ATT's total revenue for the first quarter.