BlackBerry maker RIM’s official line has been that it is not for sale, but this week, persistent rumors that it could get bought anyway got another fillip, in the form of a report that the handset maker has hired Goldman Sachs to advise it.

More than two-thirds of the Android phones sold on the U.S. market are now contributing to Microsoft’s bottom line. The company signed yet another mobile patent licensing deal Thursday, this time with LG.

Unlike its local rival Samsung, the Korean handset maker LG (SEO: 066570) has lately had more of a mixed bag when it’s come to Android devices and its mobile growth. Now it’s looking for Mr Right: a partner to help it grow and remain competitive in an ever-crowded market.

The tablet market is still in its relative infancy and has been largely dominated up to now—both in sales and basic concept—by the iPad from Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). But that could be changing in the year ahead, and those making tablets are thinking about what might be the best form…

The first day of CES 2012 was a mobile one: dozens of new smartphones and tablets were announced as traditional PC companies and rising smartphone powers showed off some of their best ideas for the first half of 2012. The Windows Phone crowd probably stole the show with Nokia’s Lumia…

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) at the moment is not leading the rankings of smartphone vendors when it comes to shipments, but when it comes to mindshare, especially in North America, the company continues to blow away the competition, according to a new survey. Meanwhile, a separate piece of research—which did not…

The biggest spectacle in the tech industry kicks off Sunday evening, when an estimated 150,000 people will flood into Las Vegas not to place a wager on Monday night’s national championship game between LSU and Alabama (I’m taking LSU +1) but to gear up for the 2012 International Consumer Electronics…

Correction: An earlier version of this article noted Motorola (NYSE: MMI) Mobility’s revenue in “millions” not “billions”. It has now been corrected. We regret the error. Not brilliant news for Motorola Mobility and its would-be buyer, Google: the handset maker today issued preliminary Q4 results that will fall short of…

This is the third in a series of posts this week that will highlight key people, companies and trends to watch in 2012 in the sectors we cover most, from publishing to legal, and from mobile to advertising. 2012 may be the year when internet TV’s promise becomes a mainstream…

A report out today, taking its cue from the new Timeline feature that is now getting rolled out to Facebook’s 800-million-plus users, alleges that Facebook will be using its new homepage format as a new vehicle for selling advertising. The question, however, is whether this is actually a development beyond…

One superstore step forward for Android in Australia, but another step back for Android-maker Samsung. Today saw what could be Google’s answer to the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) Store retail phenomenon, the unveiling of an Android retail operation, in Melbourne. Meanwhile, Samsung got dealt one more blow in Sydney’s courtrooms, as…

Some heartening news for Android device makers today from the mouth of Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt: Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will continue to back those of them facing legal disputes over patents. But that’s not stopping those device makers from shoring up their patent licensing deals, just in case. The latest…

Ever wondered whether Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has plans to tack more revenue-generating services on to Android? If it does, one of them doesn’t look like it will be a licensing fee. Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Google, yesterday reiterated to an audience that Google has no plans to charge for…

Some interesting stats out today from the NPD Group underscore just how fast-moving the evolution is in devices today. Although fast mobile networks built on technologies like LTE are far from ubiquitous, 4G-capable smartphones accounted for more than one in every five smartphone purchases—22 percent—in the last quarter in the…

Some interesting stats out today from the NPD Group underscore just how fast-moving the evolution is in devices today. Although fast mobile networks built on technologies like LTE are far from ubiquitous, 4G-capable smartphones accounted for more than one in every five smartphone purchases—22 percent—in the last quarter in the…

Here’s an acquisition that has come unexpectedly, but not surprisingly: BlackBerry and PlayBook maker RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) has bought New Bay, an Ireland-based mobile social networking and cloud-services specialist NewBay for a sum believed to be in the region of $100 million.

Quite a few commentators expressed a sense of deflation when Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) finally announced its newest device yesterday, the iPhone 4S. Now some analysts are weighing in with their prospects on how the new device might sell.

Major names in the mobile industry continue to line up behind mobile-payments strategies, but Google (NSDQ: GOOG) may be perturbed to see a number of friends joining up with a rival. Isis, the mobile-payments venture run by three wireless carriers, added a number of Android handset makers to its list…

The stock market loves Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), and so, it seems, do consumers falling over themselves to get news about the latest iPhone. But it appears that Apple device usage may be a different story. Millennial Media, one of the bigger mobile ad networks, notes that ad impression growth, on…