May 5, 2008

T-Mobile USA launched its first commercial high-speed wireless service in New York City, and plans to expand the service to 20 to 25 other major U.S. markets by the end of the year.

April 23, 2008

The battle over cell phones in schools ended with the state's appeals court voting to uphold a ban on cell phones in public schools in New York city.

April 15, 2008

Cuban government has eased restrictions on buying cellular phones for the first time and also allowed registering those they had held illegally.

April 10, 2008

The FCC has approved a new nationwide alert system that will send text messages to cell phones to alert Americans when an emergency, disaster or attack occurs. The plan itself will deliver three different types of charge-free text alerts to mobile phone users.

April 8, 2008

The European Union has approved in-flight cell phone use for all of its 27 member nations. An on-board base station will relay phone signals to either a satellite or ground towers.

April 2, 2008

AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega said that AT&T was expecting a 3G iPhone within the next few months., when asked about plans to sell a third-generation (3G) iPhone.

iPhone Outsold Windows Mobile in Q3

According to research firm NPD, US handset sales in Q3 had their largest increase and best quarter since the firm started keeping track in 2005. According to Bloomberg "U.S. customers shelled out 40 percent more for handsets last quarter than a year earlier, just as Apple Inc. put its Web-browsing iPhone on sale and Research In Motion Ltd. brought out BlackBerry e-mail phones with video features. Spending rose to a record and jumped the most since at least 2005."

New figures show Apple's iPhone captured 27 percent of the smartphone market in the third quarter of 2007, outselling all Windows Mobile devices combined. The figures put the iPhone ahead of everything except RIM's BlackBerry line.

The data shows that Americans are willing to spend a dollar for a dollar of what they perceive to be value. The iPhone and Blackberry are among the most expensive handsets with prices often well above $300.

The iPhone's impressive second place finish during the third quarter of 2007 (ending in September—the iPhone's first full quarter of availability) may be more impressive since the iPhone wasn't yet on sale in markets outside the United States. The device has since gone on sale in the UK, France, and Germany. Canalys's sales figures align closely with similar mobile device sales numbers published by the NPD Group.

(December 20, 2007)