Ericsson pulls Bluetooth division
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One of the key developers of Bluetooth is shutting down the division that helped foster the personal area networking technology. Ericsson has already started to shut down its 125-worker Technology Licensing
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Beleaguered Swedish telecom infrastructure group Ericsson, hit hard by a slowdown in the telecom sector, announced on Friday a 17-percent fall in 2007 net profit and the shedding of 1,000 jobs in Sweden.
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(InfoWorld) - Qualcomm is making two acquisitions of Bluetooth and WLAN (wireless LAN) chip technologies, allowing it to further the integration of wireless networking capabilities in mobile phones. The company will buy Airgo Networks, which develops WLAN technologies used in access points and laptop computers, and it will buy most of the Bluetooth technology assets of RF Micro Devices. The acquisitions, announced Sunday, will allow Qualcomm to integrate the wireless technologies more tightly with chip sets that it sells to mobile phone makers. This should make it easier for phone makers to develop compact products with built-in Bluetooth and WLAN capabilities. Bluetooth allows phones to send data over short distances, connecting to a wireless headset or laptop computer, for example. Adding a WLAN connection to a phone allows it to connect to a LAN to use VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) and other services. The acquisitions will put Qualcomm in closer competition with other makers of wireless networking chips, including Intel and Broadcom. It could also bring Qualcomm new technology patents that would strengthen its hand in legal disputes. The company is in the midst of several patent disputes, including one with Broadcom that concerns Bluetooth technologies. Airgo, of Palo Alto, California, develops WLAN technologies based on IEEE 802.11a, b and g, as well as the proposed 802.11n standard. Qualcomm plans to integrate the technologies into its Mobile Station Modem and Snapdragon chip sets. It will also keep supporting Airgo's current WLAN business, it said. In the case of RF Micro, Qualcomm is buying its Bluetooth division in San Diego, which develops technologies for handsets and headsets. RF Micro is retaining other Bluetooth products, including its SiW3000 and SiW3500 system-on-chip families. It said the sale will allow it to focus on its higher-growth areas, including cellular transceivers and GPS components. RF Micro, which has headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina, said Qualcomm is paying $39 million for its technologies. Qualcomm didn't disclose the value of the Airgo deal, but it said the acquisitions combined would reduce its earnings for the current fiscal year by about $0.04 per share. It expects to close both deals by the end of December.
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An outage has disconnected BlackBerry smart phones across North America.
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Following Sony&#39;s surprising exit from the US PDA handheld market earlier this summer, three other companies have announced their intentions to withdraw from the US handheld market.
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Struggling cell-phone maker Motorola Inc. said Thursday it is considering separating the handset unit from its other businesses in an effort to snap a deep slump that has followed its meteoric success with the Razr.
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Handsets pulled to apply audio glitch fix, reports suggest
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The shake of things to come? Review Sony Ericsson takes moving to the music literally with its motion-sensor based âshake controlâ track-changing gadgetry. But thereâs far more to the HSDPA 3G-enabled Walkman W910i phone than slick moves.â¦
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Convergence took another step forward Thursday as mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson announced a partnership with watchmaker Fossil to produce watches that integrate with the company's phones through a Bluetooth connection.
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Don't tap the PM's phone... Ericsson has been hit with a â¬7.36m ($10m) fine for its role in tapping mobile phones belonging to the Greek prime minister and members of his Cabinet.â¦
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Omniscient entity seeks commercial backer Carphone Warehouse has pulled its sponsorship of Big Brother after the racism allegations which plagued the last series of the celebrity-obsessed voyeurfest.â¦
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STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- LM Ericsson shares plunged nearly 24 percent Tuesday as the wireless network company unexpectedly cut its third-quarter forecast, the latest cell phone technology company to feel the pinch of slowing sales worldwide.
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Bluetooth based Personal Mobile Gateway (PMG) devices developed by IXI Mobile are not exactly new, having been on the Italian market for some time as the NeoFone and NeoChat devices, but with AT&amp;T Wireless&#39; roll out of a new PMG device named OGO, you
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The news from BT that it plans to axe close to one-fifth of payphones in Scotland is the last phase of a rolling review that will eventually see around 10,000 payphones disappear across Britain in the coming 18 ...
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It's a phone. It's Walkman. It's a robot. Well, maybe not a robot... Review The new W960i may sit atop the Sony Ericsson music phone tree but is it supposed to be a smartphone or a music phone? Maybe a bit of both. The problem with the phrase 'a bit of both' is that it's seldom the harbinger of anything other than compromise or muddled thinking.â¦
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The consortium behind the Bluetooth wireless standard announced Tuesday that Nokia Corp., the world's largest maker of cell phones, is contributing a technology that promises to bring the wireless connections to devices that are too small for regular Bluetooth chips.
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Telecom equipment group Ericsson's  (ERICb.ST) chief financial officer has stepped down in the wake  of a shock profit warning last week which caused a massive  selloff in the company's shares.