Two dozen of the world’s largest mobile-phone companies, including Verizon Wireless, AT&T (NYSE: T), NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM), Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT), China Mobile and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), are teaming up to create an “open international applications platform,” which is obviously in direct response to Apple’s success with its own…

Sprint (NYSE: S) is partnering with GetJar, an independent Lithuania-based application store, to offer thousands of free applications on a variety of its handsets. Release. The partnership with Sprint marks GetJar’s highest profile agreement in the the U.S. to date, however, the relatively under-the-radar company has signed up others worldwide…

Big league advertisers and agencies are banking on the football World Cup in South Africa next summer—and the Olympics in 2012—to give a welcome boost to revenues. But increasingly brands are using social networking sites and one-to-one fan engagement, instead of big TV and billboard campaigns, to get their message…

—Racing Post: The racing bible has launched a free iPhone app with racing form, tips, video and news and it’s clocked up 2,500 downloads since going live on the App Store last week. The the company claims that currently makes it the fourth most popular free sports app in the…

Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson’s flagship smartphone, the Satio, has been pulled from the shelves of two British retailers after consumers complained of several problems, including the device freezing, the ringtone volume fluctuating and problems with phone numbers syncing with the address book. Both Phones 4U and Carphone Warehouse has stopped…

Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) has approved its first swath of applications for its new PlayNow Arena app store, which it launched just last month. Clearly, it’s still early days with most of the 40 applications targeting the UK market coming from Handmark, a mobile application developer. Handmark’s offerings…

One of the strongest underlining themes at Mobile World Congress this year is the impact of the economic crisis. Industry leaders, such as Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC), have been vocal about how sales may be less than stellar this year based on struggling consumer…

Telecom equipment giant Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) reported a 31 percent drop in Q4 profit today, blaming its mobile-phone joint venture Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson, which faces restructuring charges and quarterly losses, Dow Jones reports. And, even though Ericsson saw its own sales increase by 23 percent, the Swedish company unveiled…

Italian operator 3 Italia and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) are introducing a YouTube phone this week—the W595—which will allow users to upload video directly to the online site in three clicks. Once a user shoots a video, the option appears to “send” it. Users can then click ”…

Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) won’t be outdone by Nokia (NYSE: NOK). The struggling handset maker is launching an all-you-can eat mobile music service in the next few weeks, in an attempt to boost flagging handset sales. Sony Ericsson’s Play Now Plus service will only be available through mobile…

At the London Calling music conference on Thursday, there was little doubt among the panel assembled to discuss the value of music on mobiles that cell phones would one day be the sole device that consumers used to access and listen to music. But what was in question was how…

—Spike Milligan: The work of quintessential Goon Spike Milligan has been made available for mobile, including mobile wallpapers of his cartoons and character sketches, ringtones of Goon quotes and audio books of his war diaries. The content is available on the Spike Milligan website and is run by Rok Global…

Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) is preparing a big push for M-Buzz, its global unsigned bands site, with a major cross-promotional marketing strategy and a series of developments on the website. “M-Buzz is available online and as a mobile-specific version reached via a bookmark that’s embedded in Sony Ericsson…

Fortune Magazine (via CNN Money) has a rumors-are-rife story that Nokia (NYSE:NOK) is planning an online music service to rival iTunes. While there’s no confirmation on this from the company, it’s a move that is expected from Nokia and wouldn’t be the first time it had moved into the content…

With Apple planning to launch its iPhone in the region at the end of the year, Orange and Sony Ericsson, makers of the Walkman phone, are taking to the stage to give their brand of mobile music another push, today launching a new programme in the UK called mobileAct Unsigned.…

GPS-enabled handsets are touted as perfect for applications that give directions, while this Reuters cites industry execs arguing that a bigger application will be social networking: “finding friends and meeting new ones”. I like this comment from Miles Flint, head of mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson: “GPS tells me that…