The Week in Review (Week of December 10)
Lots of action this week in the wireless world. In this entry: corruption, hot phones, more Sprint woes, and a ruling that could change the face of phone unlocking forever! Okay, maybe not…
There’s an corruption scandal currently going on at Siemens, the German telecommunications company working on a joint venture with Nokia. Apparently there was some funny money being passed around to certain Siemens employees in exchange for lucrative contracts. Siemens had to lower net profit for the past year after restated past earnings.
Forbes just did a “Hottest Cellphones of 2006″ compilation: Who made the list? Actually, the question is more Who Didn’t Make the List? Let’s take a look:
Motorola RAZR
Samsung SYNC
LG Chocolate
Sony Ericsson W810i
Samsung Slider
RIM Blackberry 8700
RIM Blackberry Pearl
Palm Treo 700
Motorola Q
Samsung Blackjack
Yep, no Nokia phones anywhere in sight. Not too much of a surprise though - just how many Nokia N93’s do you see around, anyway?
Shares of Sprint-Nextel dropped more than 1% after the company was downgraded by Cowen & Co. (who?) - from Overweight to Neutral. Not a good time to be in Sprint-Nextel. Then again, Verizon, Nokia, and Motorola shareholders aren’t exactly feeling too great either.
The U.S. Copyright Office ruled today that unlocking a mobile phone for use on another carrier’s network is perfectly legal under copyright law, provided that the consumer actually owns the phone. It’s a huge decision that, to be honest, doesn’t exactly have a huge effect right now - in no way does the ruling actually force carriers to provide unlock codes for GSM phones if a consumer switches companies. The good news is that we may see more unlocking services in the open than before, instead of those shady looking unlocking deals on eBay.
Looks like that’s it for this week. Be sure to tune in next week for another week in review!
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