Smartphones may be hot in the U.S. and U.K, but feature phones dominate in such countries as India and Russia, according to the folks at Nielsen. Released today, Nielsen’s “2013 Mobile Consumer Report” found that smartphone owners make up the majority of mobile phone users in nations such as the U.S., the U.K., South Korea, …

Sprint subsidiaries Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile finally joined the LTE wave today by acquiring their first devices compatible with Sprint’s growing network. Though both carriers carry WiMax handsets, Sprint began phasing out that network in favor of LTE last year. Virgin’s Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE is another member of the company’s ever-expanding Galaxy family. Its feature set shows …

BARCELONA, Spain–Samsung’s next flagship smartphone will play a key role in Visa’s mobile payment ambitions. The two companies unveiled a partnership today in which Samsung would incorporate Visa’s PayWave mobile payment applet in its future devices, as well as use Visa to make it easier for customers to tie their Samsung phones to a financial institution and Visa account. While …

BARCELONA, Spain–Asus has taken the wrapper off its new FonePad device, a 7-inch Android tablet that contains all the necessary tech to make phone calls. It also costs a mere $249, or £179. If Asus can sell what is basically a giant phone at half the cost of a high-end smartphone, why are smartphones so expensive in the first place? …

BARCELONA, Spain–Sit Nokia CEO Stephen Elop down for a few moments, and one thing becomes immediately clear: Nokia is all about differentiating. Ever since the beginning of the company’s resurgence two years ago when it reshaped itself as a maker of Windows phones, Nokia has celebrated its difference, its European heritage, and even a level of quirkiness. Today, Elop reinforced …

Android has pulled ahead of Apple’s iOS in U.S. smartphone sales, according to data out today from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. During the three months ending with January, Android scored 49.9 percent of all U.S. smartphone sales, a 6.4 percent gain from the same period last year. Over the same time, iOS took second place with a 45.9 percent cut of …

Lumia 820 and 520 owners can now print their own customer cases using a 3D Development Kit on MakerBot’s Thingiverse. MakerBot’s customiser will allow users to create their own design flourishes. (Credit: MakerBot) Back when the Nokia 3310 was king of the mobile phones, custom cases became a cottage industry, with front and back cases available to declare your love …

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Mobile World Congress 2013 officially kicks off today in sunny Spain, but a whole bunch of goodies were unveiled yesterday by the likes of Samsung, Huawei, HP, and Mozilla. Samsung got the fiesta off to a flying start by lifting the lid on the Galaxy Note 8, an Android tablet to rival Apple’s iPad Mini. It’ll launch with Android 4.2.1 …

BARCELONA, Spain–AT&T has cracked open the door to Mozilla’s recently unveiled Firefox mobile operating system. “I think there is room for more” operating systems, said Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility, in an interview with CNET. When asked whether the industry could support multiple operating systems, de la Vega affirmed the sentiment: “absolutely.” Ultimately, it comes down to …