AT&T's 4Q Numbers Bolstered by Cell Sales

Company posts 22% increase in net income for Q1 despite dip in landline earnings

(NEWSER) - AT&T posted a 22% increase in net income during the first quarter, thanks to strong growth in its wireless unit. Its wireless earnings nearly doubled, while landline earnings dropped 2.1%. The company’s net income was $3.46 billion (57 cents a share), compared to $2.85 billion (45 cents a share) a year ago, reports the Wall Street Journal. More»

Earnings nearly doubled from a year ago

(AP) - Apple, the world's most valuable company, is trumping skeptics once again by reporting blow-out iPhone sales. Apple says it sold 35 million iPhones in the quarter, almost twice as many as it sold a year ago and above analyst expectations. Company shares were down before the report because investors believed phone companies had reined in iPhone sales. More»

...and that's without any new product launches

(NEWSER) - Apple shocked analysts yesterday by posting a whopping 125% leap in its fiscal third-quarter profits—a feat it achieved without releasing any major new products in the past six months. And with a number of new products scheduled for the second half of 2011, this could be just the tip of the iceberg, the LA Times notes. “From now until the end of the year, I can't think of a time when they'll have a stronger few months of new products,” one analyst said. More»

Move to Android seen as real challenge to iPhone, BlackBerry

(NEWSER) - Google and Verizon will partner on a line of smartphones and software running the search giant’s Android OS and served by the carrier. Verizon is the largest-yet wireless network to back Google, and the announcement could complicate what was once a simple smartphone rivalry between Apple and BlackBerry, BusinessWeek reports. Analysts expect a handful of Android phones by the likes of Motorola and Samsung by month’s end. More»

(NEWSER) - Apple and AT&T rejected the Google Voice app for the iPhone, driving TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington to drop the mobile device entirely. Why are Apple and its carrier blocking an innovative program that has amazing call-forwarding features and transcribes voicemail into text? “Because they absolutely don’t want people doing exactly what I’m doing,” Arrington writes. “Moving their phone number to Google and using the carrier as a dumb pipe.” More»