Amazon’s Appstore saw a fourteen-fold increase in app downloads in December 2011 when compared to two months earlier, driven by the launch of the Kindle Fire and the Christmas holiday sales period, according to figures from Distimo. This growth is providing developers with an alternative to Google’s own Android Market to reach consumers, the company said in an analysis of both stores’ performance in the US market. Read more...
IGN reports that games giant EA pulled its Battlefield 3: Aftershock app from the iOS App Store, after it was the subject of a raft of complaints. Read more...
PaymentOne announced its support for HTML5 through immediate availability of its PayOne HTML5 API, which it said offers “an HTML5-compliant web-based payment flow for developers of mobile games and applications looking to monetise their offerings across all platforms and devices with a highly secure and frictionless “charge it to my mobile phone bill” payment method.” Read more...
Enterprise mobility vendor Antenna Software has launched a cloud-based mobile business suite, which enables companies to design, build, deploy and manage native and web-based apps Read more...
Online special offers company Groupon has acquired Kima Labs, maker of the Barcode Hero barcode reading app and TapBuy mobile payment app Read more...
Mobile apps are the fastest growing content area for Barnes & Noble, the book retailer-turned hardware vendor that recently launched the Android-based Nook Tablet Read more...
UK operator Everything Everywhere will seek a bond issue to raise funds for the auction of 4G spectrum due to take place towards the end of 2012 Read more...
Japanese operator SoftBank is set to launch its 4G services this week, offering subscribers download speeds of up to 76Mbps, IDG News reports. Read more...
Telenor’s dispute with its Indian partner Unitech took another turn yesterday, when it was reported that the Nordic-based operator group is planning to form a new entity in India and migrate its existing business, including customers and employees, to the unit. Read more...
Proposed US wholesale LTE network LightSquared is to let 45 percent of its workforce go as it continues to battle for regulatory approval Read more...
France Telecom is to cut shareholder dividends and has delayed a planned share buyback as it seeks to stabilise its business in the face of rising domestic competition and the euro debt crisis. Orange separately released its “first assessment of the impact of Free Mobile’s launch on Orange France” this morning, revealing that its French mobile subscriber base had declined by 201,000 subscribers (net) as at 15 February. Read more...
Russian mobile market leader MTS and national fixed-line operator Rostelecom have struck a network-sharing agreement in Russia, reports the Moscow Times. Read more...
a’s Reliance Communications is reportedly in talks with four vendors over the award of a network managed services contract worth US$3 billion, notes Dow Jones Newswires. Read more...
LG will publicly unveil the Optimus 3D Max at Mobile World Congress next week, the firm has revealed Read more...
UK and US operators are missing out on billions of dollars in revenue by not tapping into consumers willing to pay in incremental amounts for a better mobile broadband. Read more...
Smartphone app monetisation platform metaps has secured an additional US$1.3 million in Series A funding to the US$4.2 million it raised in December last year Read more...
Turn-by-turn voice-guided GPS navigation app Sygic has passed the 5 million download mark in Android Market, making it the first Android GPS app to do so Read more...
SupaSounds allows developers for a range of mobile platforms to choose from hundreds of sound loops and music Read more...
Swedish network vendor Ericsson has confirmed speculation it is acquiring privately-held Canadian Wi-Fi company BelAir Networks. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close during the first half of 2012 and will see BelAir’s 120 employees join Ericsson. Read more...
Nokia Siemens Networks has unveiled a technology that improves HSPA+ network performance by allowing users to connect to two base stations at the same time Read more...