Archive for January, 2009:
Circuit City Gives Up
Circuit City, which sells mobile phones and other electronics, is going to permanently close its 567 stores and cease operations. The company was in bankruptcy and hoping to find another firm willing to buy it. No suitors emerged. It also couldn’t make suitable deals with its creditors. The company is seeking permission to liquidate all its assets. It expects to start the sale tomorrow and will run until March 31, the end of the first quarter.
Samsung to Split Into Two Major Divisions
Samsung announced a restructuring plan that has the company dividing operations in half. One half will focus on cell phones, TVs and other consumer products. It will be called the Digital Media and Communications division. The other half will focus on the manufacture of components such as displays and memory chips and will be called the Device Solution division. Samsung remains the world’s largest manufacturer of Flash memory chips and LCDs. The move is being made in response to softening demand for Samsung’s products.
Tags: Samsung
W. Virginia Senator Pushes for 3-Month DTV Delay
Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia proposed to congress yesterday that it delay the transition from analog to digital TV broadcasts by three months. The new proposed transition date would be June 12. Rockefeller says the delay is needed so the government can fill the backlog of consumer requests for the $40 coupons that will allow them to get converter boxes. He also said that the government and FCC need more time to better prepare for the change. AT&T and Verizon have together spent about $16 billion for the rights to use the spectrum that will be vacated once the transition takes place. Delaying the transition will almost certainly create negative consequences for those companies.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to Resign Jan. 20
Today Kevin Martin, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, announced that he will resign on January 20. He is expected to be replaced by President-Elect Barack Obama’s nominee, Julius Genachowski. The change in guard comes because the law states that the party controlling the White House (in this case, the Democrats) gets to pick the chairman and three of the commission’s five spots. Kevin Martin is a republican, and was expected to vacate the office.
Nuance Acquires IBM Speech Tech
Scientists working on a way to bend light waves in order to cloak objects have stumbled onto another use for the technology. Duke University’s David Smith, one of the researchers, said, “Cloaking technology could be used to make obstacles that impede communications signals ‘disappear.’” Simply put, this technology could help cell phone signals avoid solid objects that stand in their way and become more “visible” to antennas receiving the signal. The technology involved uses a man-made substance called a meta-material. Duke’s meta-material consists of 10,000 pieces of fiberglass arranged in a parallel pattern on a circuit board. The researchers said the technology is a long way from being able to actually make visible objects disappear.
Tags: Signal
Nuance Acquires IBM Speech Tech
Today Nuance Communications, maker of T9 software and speech-recognition tools, has agreed to acquire some of the patents and speech technology of IBM. Nuance and IBM have also entered into an agreement to share speech technology and jointly develop new speech recognition services for businesses and consumers. The companies expect their joint efforts to bear fruit by 2011.
Discover Card Offers Mobile Account Management
Credit card provider Discover Card has launched a new mobile Web site that allows cardholders to make payments, view recent transactions, view recent and pending payments, and view rewards activity. The site can be accessed for free by any mobile device that has a Web browser. Users must have a Discover.com username and password, which must be created via a standard Web browser first.
Tags: mobile
Boost to Offer Unlimited iDEN Plan
Sprint subsidiary Boost Mobile announced that it is offering a new $50 per month calling plan. The new plan, called Monthly Unlimited, will give customers unlimited voice minutes, SMS, wireless Web and PTT services for $50 per month. This new plan is specifically for the Boost’s iDEN network. The new plan will be available beginning January 22, and Boost plans to launch new handsets that will be compatible with the service, including at least one new bar-style phone. Boost hopes this new plan will better compete with MetroPCS and Leap.
Motorola Lays Off Thousands from Mobile Device Unit
Motorola announced that it is taking further steps to reduce costs and reorganize its business. As part of the reorganization, it is planning to eliminate 3,000 positions associated with the Mobile Devices business and approximately 1,000 positions associated with corporate functions and other business units. The job reductions will begin almost immediately. These layoffs, plus those already announced in December 2008, should save Motorola about $1.5 billion for the 2009 fiscal year. Additionally, Motorola reported its initial fourth-quarter results, which show that the company shipped about 19 million handsets with revenues ranging between $7.0 and $7.2 billion.
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Apple CEO Steve Jobs Takes Medical Leave of Absence
Today Apple announced that CEO Steve Jobs will take a medical leave of absence for health-related reasons until June. COO Tim Cook will assume the day-to-day management of Apple until Jobs’ return.