RIM now the 4th largest phone maker

According to research firm IDC, RIM has earned bragging rights as one of the world’s top 5 phone makers. With 10.6 million devices sold during the months of January to March, RIM managed to narrowly beat out fifth place Sony Ericsson by 100,000 phones. Nokia, Samsung and LG finished first, second and third with 107.8 million, 64.3 million and 27.1 million devices sold. Back in the U.S., Apple, which sold 8.75 million iPhones, secured the title of the number one U.S. handset maker by beating Motorola’s 8.5 million phones. Overall, some 294.9 million phones were sold by the top five companies during the past three months which represents a 21.7% increase YoY. Analysts are predicting that phone sales will grow 11% in 2010.

Apple jumps into the mobile search business with its acquisition of Siri

Apple is on a shopping spree, scooping up everything from chip manufacturers to personal mobile assistants. Several days ago, an FTC filing revealed that Apple is acquiring Siri, creator of a mobile application that serves as your personal search assistant. Similar to Android’s voice search, Siri allows you to ask it a question like “nearest gas station” and it will provide a personal, localized answer. The key to the service is its voice recognition and its vast array of back-end APIs that include Yahoo Local, Yelp, Flightsats, WeatherBug, and more. No word on what Apple intends to do with this newly acquired property, but the possibility of a personal concierge on an iPhone or iPad is quite appealing.

AT&T gets ready for your iPad, new iPhone with micro-SIMs

If you’ve never seen a micro-SIM before, you’ll probably be pretty shocked to learn that it’s simply just a smaller SIM card… just like the name implies. What’s interesting, however, is that the SIM isn’t actually different as the chip is exactly the same, the only difference is that the plastic surrounding it is minimized. In any case, just in time for the Apple iPad 3G launch and upcoming next generation iPhone launch, AT&T stores have started receiving new SIM cards which have cutouts for both the regular SIM standard, and the new micro-SIM all in one. A pretty cleaver move, don’t you say?

Sprint announces Q1 results, sheds 75,000 additional customers

The results for Q1 2010 are in for the #3 wireless carrier in the U.S., and the results are more of the same. Sprint shed 75,000 additional customers and posted operating revenues of $8.1 billion, a $865 million loss. The company’s churn rate was at 2.15%, an improvement from Q1 2009 (2.25%), but slightly up from Q4 2009 (2.09%). Average revenue per user, or ARPU, stayed the same at $55 but was down $1 YoY. Sprint CEO, Dan Hesse, had the following to say after the company’s earnings announcement, “…results, including increased net operating revenues and significant year-over-year net post-paid subscriber improvements show we continue to make progress in improving the business.” What’s the consensus? Anyone going to switch over to Sprint for the EVO 4G and help Sprint lower that churn rate?

T-Mobile ditches 5GB data plan cap…sort of

FierceWireless is reporting that U.S. cellular provider T-Mobile will no longer be hitting smartphone users with overage charges if they go over the 5GB monthly quota set on most data plans. However…the company did say it would, “throttle users’ speeds if they exceed that limit.” Details on the what a “throttled” user can expect to see for speeds where not divulged; although, we think wireless data at slower speeds beats the heck out of an astronomical phone bill. T-Mo also announced that those users with a 250MB monthly data plan will now be charged $0.10/MB for overages of their monthly allowance, a 50% reduction from the previous rate of $0.20/MB. Not earth shattering stuff, but definitely something that earns a little consumer karma for the #4 carrier in the States. Let us know what you think about the move in the comments.

Android 2.2 to include full support for Adobe Flash

In an interview with the New York Times, Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering at Google, put to rest all the rumors and confirmed that the upcoming Android 2.2 release known as “Froyo” will include support for Adobe Flash. Flash for Android was first demonstrated on the T-Mobile G1 back in November 2008 and the Android community has been waiting with growing impatience for this feature to launch on their open source mobile platform. Though Rubin was generous in sharing the Adobe Flash information, he failed to disclose even a tentative launch date for Android 2.2. Android fans are now left in the unenviable position of knowing that Flash support is coming in the next release but still relying on the rumor mill to predict when the release might rollout. For those who are keeping track, the latest guesstimate points to a May unveiling.