Verizon reports ‘strong’ Q1 earnings: $27 billion revenue, 2.2 million iPhone activations

Yesterday was AT&T’s turn, and today it’s Verizon revealing its earnings for the first quarter of 2011. The company has reported $27 billion in consolidated revenue from its wireless and wireline businesses, which is up 5.3 percent year over year (on a non-GAAP basis), while profits rose to $1.4 billion. Fueling that growth was 1.8 million net additions to its wireless customer base, which now totals 88.4 million customers (and 104 million connections). It also saw 207,000 net additions to its FiOS internet business and 192,000 net additions to FiOS TV, which bring those total customer bases to 4.3 million and 3.7 million, respectively. As for that little iPhone 4 launch, Verizon says it’s resulted in 2.2 million activations — that’s quite a bit less that AT&T’s 3.6 million iPhone activations for the same quarter, as you’ve no doubt noticed, although it does also have the benefit of a much cheaper iPhone 3GS in addition to the iPhone 4. Verizon also said that demand was “strong” for its new LTE devices (including 260,000 HTC Thunderbolt activations), and that deployment of its LTE network remains on track, with it expected to be available in more than 175 markets by the end of the year — in fact, that’s actually up a bit from the 147 figure we last heard. Head on past the break for the company’s full earnings report.

Continue reading Verizon reports ‘strong’ Q1 earnings: $27 billion revenue, 2.2 million iPhone activations

Verizon reports ‘strong’ Q1 earnings: $27 billion revenue, 2.2 million iPhone activations originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 10:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon brings out LTE-riding MiFi 4510L, asks for $100 on a two-year contract or $270 without

We saw this little guy back at CES in January and then last month heard it wouldn’t be long before it started retailing around the good old US of A. That day has now come, with Verizon officially kicking off sales of its first LTE MiFi device, the 4510L. It’s not cheap, at $100 on contract (with a $175 ETF, to boot) or $270 when bought by its lonesome. Still, if you can afford it, this Novatel-produced gadget will turn the nearest Verizon airwaves (4G or 3G, it can handle both) into familiar 802.11b, g or n WiFi signals, which your laptop, smartphone, tablet, or LAN rig can then gobble up with gay abandon. It’s capable of serving as a mobile hotspot for up to five devices at a time, and promised LTE speeds range between 5Mbps and 12Mbps on the downlink and 2Mbps to 5Mbps when uploading. Check out the press release after the break or the source link to get your own.

P.S. — Verizon has also tweeted a promise that it’ll be launching LTE service in “a mess of new cities and towns” on Thursday.

Continue reading Verizon brings out LTE-riding MiFi 4510L, asks for $100 on a two-year contract or $270 without

Verizon brings out LTE-riding MiFi 4510L, asks for $100 on a two-year contract or $270 without originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Droid Charge shows its colors in Verizon training docs, Droid Bionic gets killed off?

Samsung gave us the basic specs on day one, but Verizon’s sparing no detail this week, as it trains employees how to effectively sell the LTE-packed Droid Charge to those of us who live and die by how many devices we can connect to our hotspot (10) and size of our bundled microSD card (32GB). Droid-Life brings us those revelations, while Phone Arena has a rumor somewhat upsetting if true — that site’s anonymous tipsters claim that the Droid Bionic is no more. They say that the Atrix-alike’s Tegra 2 processor wasn’t playing nice with Verizon’s LTE baseband chips and had overheating issues too, and rather than expend more effort to fix the incompatibilities, Motorola simply gave it the boot. However, Phone Arena‘s quick to mention that the “Droid Bionic” name may live on, as Moto will allegedly be grooming the top-shelf Targa to replace it. We’re reaching out to Verizon right now, and expect we’ll have an official “we do not comment on rumors and speculation” before long.

Droid Charge shows its colors in Verizon training docs, Droid Bionic gets killed off? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Apr 2011 19:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceDroid-Life (1), (2), Phone Arena  | Email this | Comments

Skype with video calling leaks for HTC Thunderbolt, celebrations unsurprisingly erupt (update)

Verizon may have left it out from the get-go, but it looks as if eager HTC Thunderbolt owners needn’t wait another day to test out a video-enabled version of Skype. For those outside of The Loop, there was quite the back-and-forth going during the early days, with Verizon announcing at the 11th hour that its flagship LTE phone would be shipped sans Skype. It’s still unavailable in the bona firde Android Market, but a build has appeared from the ether and seems to be humming along just fine here at Engadget HQ. Hit the source link if you’re feeling froggy, and let us know in comments how things work out.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: So we just happened to have a Thunderbolt on hand, and gave Skype’s mobile video chat a try. We came away quite impressed — video is as good as can be expected from the handset’s 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, and the experience on WiFi and LTE is virtually indistinguishable. The app even worked on 3G, though that reduced the picture quality to the point of being almost unusable.

Michael Gorman contributed to this report.

Skype with video calling leaks for HTC Thunderbolt, celebrations unsurprisingly erupt (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Mobiputing  |  sourceDroid-Life  | Email this | Comments

HTC Thunderbolt gets an FCC-approved teardown

We’ve already seen the HTC Thunderbolt hit the FCC, but it’s just now getting to the good stuff now that the phone has actually been released. While it’s not exactly to iFixit levels of detail, the agency has now provided us with a reasonably good teardown of the device, which lets you see just what makes this speed demon of a phone tick. Hit up the link below for a few more pictures where this one came from.

HTC Thunderbolt gets an FCC-approved teardown originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s Droid Charge spotted in leaked promo material, multimedia dock in tow

Like it or not, it’s a Big Red kind of day. The latest VZW news to splash down in our inbox is the shot you see above — the first hint of promotional material surrounding Samsung’s Droid Charge. If you’ll recall, this phone began its (public) life at CES 2011 sans a name, but as a source correctly predicted, the name shown above will be the one that sticks. Proving that the Atrix 4G setup was more than just a fluke, Sammy’s also showcasing a must-have peripheral: the multimedia desktop dock. Said accessory ships with a built-in battery charger and spare cell, but with no apparent signs of a video output, we’re having a hard time getting too hot and bothered.

Samsung’s Droid Charge spotted in leaked promo material, multimedia dock in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Purported Verizon screenshot points to LTE-upgradable 16GB Motorola Xoom

The Motorola Xoom might be starting to look a bit pricey compared to some of its new competitors, but it seems that the company may have a solution in the offing. According to a leaked, supposedly authentic Verizon screenshot obtained by Droid Life, Motorola is apparently planning to launch an LTE-upgradable Xoom with just 16GB of storage instead of the current 32GB, which would presumably also open the door for a cheaper 16GB WiFi-only model. Of course, that’s still a long way from being official, but cutting the storage in half is certainly one sure way to make a (seemingly necessary) price drop a bit more bearable.

[Thanks, Josh S]

Purported Verizon screenshot points to LTE-upgradable 16GB Motorola Xoom originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Central  |  sourceDroid Life  | Email this | Comments

App gives HTC Thunderbolt an LTE on / off switch

Looking to save a bit of battery life on your Thunderbolt by dialing down those crazy LTE speeds from time to time? Then you now have a relatively easy way to do so courtesy of the new LTE OnOff app that’s just hit the Android Market. That’s apparently similar to a few other options available, but this one’s free, and it will let you switch from LTE to 3G only with just three taps. Sound good? Hit up the link below to download it straight to your Thunderbolt.

App gives HTC Thunderbolt an LTE on / off switch originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink BGR  |  sourceAndroid Market  | Email this | Comments

Alienware’s M14x revealed: classic middle-child overachiever, none of the simmering sibling resentment

First, Alienware’s M17x got a bit of spit and polish with a new Sandy Bridge CPU and a 3D display, then the M11x got Intel’s speedy new silicon too. Now, the middle alien child appears to have gotten a similar makeover. Christened the M14x, rumor has it that Alienware’s newest portable rig packs an Intel Core i7-2820QM 2.3 GHz CPU, up to a 750GB 7200RPM HDD, 256GB SATA2 or SATA3 SDD, a robust NVIDIA GT555M GPU, LTE or WiMAX connectivity, and your choice of 14-inch screens: either a 1366 x 768 display or a Full HD 1920 x 1080 LCD. Following its big brother’s lead, the M14x also rolls with a pair of Klipsch speakers for hi-fi fragging. No word on when this mothership lands, but with those specs, we wouldn’t mind making first contact — would you?

Alienware’s M14x revealed: classic middle-child overachiever, none of the simmering sibling resentment originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 04:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Geek  |  sourceDell News and more, ZOL  | Email this | Comments

Novatel’s USB551L 4G LTE modem hits Verizon March 31st

Samsung’s new LTE mobile hotspot may have managed to sneak out a bit early, but it looks like those opting for Novatel’s USB551L LTE modem instead will still have to wait a few days. Verizon has just confirmed today that the modem will be available on March 31st for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate (on a two-year contract). As expected, the modem packs both Windows and Mac support out of the box, and promises download speeds up to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 5 Mbps. Still no word on Novatel’s 4510L MiFi, though we presume it will be following shortly. Full press release is after the break.

Continue reading Novatel’s USB551L 4G LTE modem hits Verizon March 31st

Novatel’s USB551L 4G LTE modem hits Verizon March 31st originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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