Sprint Nextel Corp has decided to purchase its affiliate iPCS Inc. for $426 million, a move that will mark the final acquisition of Sprint’s last major independent affiliate and the end to a legal battle between the two companies. Sprint’s 2005 acquisition of Nextel has led it to acquire many of its affiliates as the companies complained about the merger’s anticompetitive qualities.
The deal will mostly allow Sprint to simplify certain parts of its business, as it will no longer have to separate the assets it held in iPCS markets. According to analysts, Sprint will now be able to focus on …read more

WiMax, Clearwire Corp.’s trump card wireless network, has been finding its way into a variety of new cities, a development that has reversed Clearwire’s sagging fortunes by providing a much-needed boost in revenue. Rolling out its high-demand wireless network, Clearwire hopes to be present in 25 markets by the end of the year compared to its current four markets.
 
Clearwire’s main partner is Sprint Nextel Corp., which has begun to implement Clearwire’s 4G WiMax technology into its cellular phones. Together with Sprint, Clearwire hopes to return to profitability, after posting a $73.4 million loss this quarter and $74.6 million in losses …read more

Nokia may be the world’s largest cell phone manufacturer, but they’ve recently reported the smallest quarterly profit since 1996 – over ten years ago and when the cell phone industry was still gaining steam. Despite the slump, the company is optimistic about their future and believes that the worst may be over.
CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo says that retailers have kept smaller inventories on hand, which means that there will be a stronger demand in the coming months. The Finnish company saw their sales fall by 27% from January to March, but in many places, cell phone sales in general were down …read more

Sigh. When will the world begin to behave the way I want it to?
I just returned a call and the person answered their phone… obviously a cell phone. I could tell from their voice that they were feeling stressed and I asked if this was a good time to talk.
“No,” she whispered. “I’m at the library and I’m not supposed to have my phone turned on, let alone use it.”
Double sigh… I wanted to shout “If you can’t talk why the ***** did you even answer the phone?”
Honestly, which is worse, being forced to listen to one side of …read more

We’ve talked about writing a novel using your phone’s keypad, and we’ve talked about cell phones as a platform for ebooks.
Book marketing expert John Kremer points to an article in the New York Times called Thumbs Race as Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular. At this point, the novels are those that have been written for cell phones with short sentences and lots of cell phone spelling.
What’s amazing is that the top seller (Love Sky by Mika) sold to 20 million folks, was printed as a print book and was made into a movie.
Obviously, cell phones are going to play a …read more

Bringing your book to market requires a whole lot more than just the writing. While it’s true, nothing happens if you don’t write, once you’ve got a completed manuscript, there are at least 10 things that need to be completed before your finished:
1. Addition of front and back matter – title page, copyright notices, index, acknowledgments, etc. Best source: Chicago Manual of Style
2. Professional copy edit – someone to make sure nothing has slipped through. Truly worth the effort.
3. Cover design – your book’s cover is it’s billboard… hard to understate it’s importance. You …read more

According to Publishers Weekly, publisher Houghton Mifflin has signed a deal to get at least some of its books on cell phones. Initially, the books will only be available on Embarq, Qwest, Orange UK and Bell Mobility (in Canada), but more carriers are said to be coming online soon.
Sigh – it looks like I’ll have to give up my position of trying to be the last person in the world to have get a cell phone… this sort of announcement makes the iPhone look good just because of its excellent screen.
Are any of you reading whole books on your phone? …read more

Last week I muttered about the lack of good ebook readers. Mary Emma Allen, who blogs at HomeBizNotes commented she thought younger folks would move into ebook readers easily.
Today, I’ve discovered that in Japan, not only are people reading books on their cellphones, they are actually writing whole novels on them. The post is Books Read (and Written) on Cell Phones which links to an article at the Wall Street Journal called Ring! Ring! Ring! In Japan, Novelists Find a New Medium.
Good grief I’m behind. I don’t even own a cell phone – I can’t imagine writing a book, …read more