As the holiday shopping season hits its fever pitch, here are our Top 5 stories from the past week that will help to bring a little sanity to your weekend. Enjoy!
- U.S. wireless users losing interest in buying ringtones, study says
In a study that should send shivers up the spines or wireless carrier CFOs everywhere, a new study from M:Metrics says that U.S. wireless users are bored with ringtone buying over their cellphones, even as Italian teens are leading their U.S. and Western European counterparts in consuming user-generated content and social networking applications. - Smartphones find greater acceptance in Europe than U.S. (for now)
Although we are seeing more smartphones enter the American marketplace, the devices have long been accepted by European consumers and it will take a while before the U.S. catches up. - High prices for mobile content hurting consumer adoption
In something I have preached for over a year, there is finally a study that says the high prices of mobile content is actually hurting consumer adoption. Data prices for mobile content like phone wallpapers, ringtones and downloadable music selections is still way too high. For some reasons, the carriers think they'll recoup their investments with higher content prices. Wrong. - Wireless 911 systems must be enhanced NOW!
Officials in Napa, California are planning to take steps to enhance its 911 dispatch center so that emergency calls from cellphones will go straight to responders. - Cell Broadcast testing is underway for emergency use
CellCast held a test last month that had the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) probably quite interested. In the test, CellCast tested the *Cell Broadcast* feature that lets an operator or authorized agency send out a text message to every phone on a cell, in an area or on the entire network at once.
