Samsung T919 gets tagged by FCC on way to T-Mobile
[Via Phone Scoop]
2008 has generally treated Espoo pretty well, but every rose has its thorn -- and for Nokia, that thorn might just end up being the third quarter. The company has now revised its Q3 market share estimate downward, now predicting a slip from Q2 rather than the flat line it'd been suggesting before; cited reasons include a "tactical decision to not meet certain aggressive pricing of some competitors," generally fierce competition (particularly on the low end), and the delayed launch of an unnamed midrange handset. In justifying its failure to meet market pricing head-on in every market segment, Nokia says it's only going to play that game where it thinks it's profitable to do so, and for what it's worth, it still expects to ship about 10 percent more devices in 2008 than it did in 2007. What's more, they say they expect to meet the rest of their expected launch dates in '08 -- so it looks like every night has its dawn after all.
Cell towers have obviously always been a danger to aircraft and the occasional light changer or BASE jumper, but the FCC's been facing scrutiny from environmental groups for years over the risks towers pose to another group of fliers: birds. A February court battle brought against the feds by the American Bird Conservancy -- dealing specifically with the threat of so-called "tower kill" on migratory birds in the Gulf region -- saw a ruling demanding that the FCC finally get down to business and come up with a game plan for dealing with the threat that cell sites pose to birds, particularly at night. Naturally, there's still some hemming and hawing, legal wrangling, and wringing of hands going on amongst tower owners and their allies, largely over concerns that the ruling's going to lead to denied and delayed applications for new tower construction. Apparently no one's bothered to teach those little guys what the red lights mean?
Now that Uncle Walt has gone and opened the floodgates, details are starting to pour in on Sprint's imminent release of the Touch Diamond, a device that should actually manage to get the carrier damn close to the top of the Windows Mobile pile (for a short while, anyway). PC Magazine is now reporting that it'll be available on September 14 for $249.99 on a two-year contract after $100 rebate, a sum that would put it squarely in the "average" category for on-contract smartphone pricing in these parts. Of course, with the Touch Pro allegedly just around the corner, it remains to be seen just how much love this thing is going to get; nothing like a good, old-fashioned QWERTY-versus-touchscreen fight, is there?





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