Nokia Slashes Smartphone Prices

Nokia has lowered the price of smartphones across its entire portfolio in an attempt to slow the decline of its share in the higher-end of the cellphone market, two industry sources said on Tuesday.

One of the sources with direct knowledge of Nokia’s pricing said the company’s flagship model, the N8, the multimedia phone C7, as well as the business user-targeted E6, saw the steepest cuts of around 15 percent.

Other price cuts were smaller, both sources said. “There are no very big cuts per model, but the scale — across the portfolio — is unseen for a very, very long time,” said one of the sources, who works at a European telecom operator.

A Nokia spokesman declined to comment on specific prices and said changes were part of its normal business. “It’s business as usual,” he said.

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Verizon Ending Unlimited Data Plan In July

We are closer to reaching the end of Verizon Wireless’s limited-time offer of unlimited data, says the Wall Street Journal‘s AllThingsD. The website reports that the wireless carrier plans to introduce new tiered pricing plans next month for new smartphone customers — including those buying Apple’s iPhone 4.

If true, the report hardly comes as a surprise. Back in January, when Verizon became the second carrier in the U.S. to offer iPhone service, the company said it would offer subscribers a $30-a-month unlimited data plan for the iPhone’s launch, but highlighted the fact that the offer was for a limited time only.

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Verizon Adds LTE Network To More U.S. Cities

Verizon Wireless announced 19 more cities that will get its faster 4G wireless network service starting Thursday, bringing the total to 74 metropolitan areas.

San Francisco and Detroit, already on Verizon LTE since last December, will also see the existing LTE network in those cities expanded, Verizon said in a statement.

The new 19 LTE cities include several state capitals such as Sacramento, Calif., Hartford, Conn., Boise, Idaho, Harrisburg, Pa., Indianapolis, Ind., Salt Lake City (with Ogden), Utah; and Madison (with Milwaukee), Wis. The full list of cities is on Verizon’s website.

This news comes as competitor AT&T is scheduled to launch LTE 4G service in five cities in the U.S. this summer: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.

Rumors have also surfaced that Sprint will begin adding LTE service to its existing nationwide WiMax 4G capability, partly to support a future LTE-ready iPhone, although Sprint has not confirmed those reports.

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T.I. Blames Nokia For Lower Revenue

Texas Instruments has revised downward its revenue forecast for the second fiscal quarter due to a slackening in demand for its products from Nokia.

TI said its lower revenue projection is directly related to the market performance of Nokia, which has been experiencing its own troubles. The handset maker last week projected lower sales of devices and services due to lower average selling prices and fewer buyers of its phones.

TI is now forecasting revenue of $3.36 billion and $3.50 billion for the second fiscal quarter ending on June 30, down from $3.41 billion to $3.69 billion the company forecast on April 18 when reporting first quarter fiscal results.

“I would say characterizing as the bulk of it being Nokia is probably understating. Probably being closer to say all of the change in our … middle-of-the-range update versus what we were previously [projecting] was associated with that customer,” said Ron Slaymaker, vice president and head of investor relations at TI, during a revenue forecast conference call that was webcast on Wednesday.

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Apple’s iCloud Could Have A Secret Objective?

Many analysts have come to the conclusion that Apple’s iCloud may not be designed to appeal to new customers.  Apple’s iClouds service true objective is to keep existing customers locked into Apple’s iOS environment. Forester’s Charles Golvin went on to say that for people who own one or more iOS devices, they’re going to discover an even better experience.

Charles Govin also said Apple’s iCloud will keep customers because once they’ve used the service; they will hesitate to leave the Apple ecosystem because they will lose all the data they have stored. Since they do not have to worry about where their content is stored, it will make them feel that much more satisfied with their smartphone or tablet, and means that the next time they go to buy one, they’re more likely to buy from Apple.

Furthermore, Carolina Milanesi of Gartner told Computerworld, “The most important thing is that it is a complete cloud package.  It shows the benefit of living in the Apple ‘house. It will be a way for Apple to retain customers in the face of a rising tide of Android-based smartphones, and growing competition from media tablets that run Google’s operating system.”

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Cell Phones Can Be Dangerous

It appears that an Australian brain surgeon has called the latest report in reference to the report on the potential harmful effects of mobile phones as a wake-up call to users and the telecommunications industry.

Dr Teo, said he was “pleased” that at last there came conclusive proof that mobile phones caused brain tumours. He also went on to say that the report should serve as a ”wake up call’ that should alert both the public and the mobile phone industry to the link between mobile use and cancer.”

As you know a report was released by the World Health Organisation’s cancer research wing that said radio frequency electromagnetic fields generated by cell phones are “possibly carcinogenic to humans” and heavy usage could lead to a possible increased risk of glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer.

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Nokia Expects Windows Phone Before EOY

Nokia has “increased confidence” that the first of its smartphone devices to run on the Windows Phone platform will ship by the fourth quarter, the company said on Tuesday.

Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop is putting his full weight behind getting a Windows Phone-based product out for the important end-of-year holiday shopping season, in order to help turn around the company’s smartphone fortunes. The company’s teams are aligned around that goal, he said in a statement.

The company won’t reveal ship dates until closer to when the first phones arrive, but the pressure is on to deliver the devices this year, Elop said when the company announced its first quarter results.

Nokia will have several more opportunities to divulge more information shortly. On June 21, Elop will give a presentation at the Connection 2011 Conference, which is organized in conjunction with CommunicAsia 2011 in Singapore. He will give an update on the company’s partnership with Microsoft, and set the stage for a number of product and service launches, according to the program.

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Verizon Adds LG’s Revolution

Verizon Wireless announced the Revolution by LG, an LTE-ready smartphone, will become available for sale in stores and online Thursday for $249.99 with a two-year service plan.

The Revolution has a 4.3-in. touch screen and 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. It utilizes the Android 2.2 mobile operating system and comes preloaded with the Netflix application for access to movies and TV shows.

Verizon called the smartphone an “entertainment powerhouse” partly due to the Netflix capability, but the Revolution also runs the Adobe Flash player, provides Dolby Mobile sound and features high-definition video recording and playback.

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Verizon To End Unlimited Mobile Data Plan

If you have a smartphone with an unlimited data plan on the Verizon Wireless network, get ready to mourn the end of those good times.

Verizon will put the kabash on its unlimited smartphone data plan some time this summer, according to comments made by the carrier’s chief financial officer. Speaking at the Reuters Global Technology Summit on Thursday, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo stated the company will soon roll out new tiered pricing plans and altogether eliminate the current $30-a-month unlimited option.

According to Reuters, which reported the news, the move is designed to “force heavy data users to pay more for mobile data.”

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Google Moves Quickly To Plug Data Leaks

Google confirmed that it’s starting to roll out a server-side patch for a security vulnerability in most Android phones that could allow hackers to access important credentials at public Wi-Fi hotspots.

“Today we’re starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third party access to data available in Calendar and Contacts,” said a Google spokesman in an emailed statement. “This fix requires no action from users and will roll out globally over the next few days.”

Google will apparently apply the fix to its servers since it does not need to push out an over-the-air update to Android phones.

Experts applauded Google’s fast reaction.

“It’s impressive how quickly Google fixed this,” said Kevin Mahaffey, chief technology officer and a co-founder of San Francisco-based mobile security firm Lookout. “Google’s security team, especially on Android, is very, very quick to deal with issues.”

Whatever Google is implementing will shut the security hole that three German researchers publicized last week.

According to the University of Ulm researchers, who tested another researcher’s contention last February that Android phones sent authentication data in the clear, hackers could easily spoof a Wi-Fi hotspot — in a public setting such as an airport or coffee shop — then snatch information that users’ phones transmitted during synchronization.

In Android 2.3.3 and earlier, the phone’s Calendar and Contacts apps transmit information via unencrypted HTTP, then retrieve an authentication token from Google. Hackers could eavesdrop on the HTTP traffic at a public hotspot, lift authentication tokens and use them for up to two weeks to access users’ Web-based calendars, their contacts and also the Picasa photo storage and sharing service.

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