Huawei trademarks PhoPad name, could be another phablet in the works

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Huawei‘s CEO might have called it quits in the US market, but the Chinese company isn’t slowing down just yet. In fact, it has just applied for a trademark at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a rather funny-sounding PhoPad name.

Last week, Huawei’s top honcho publicly expressed his frustration at being caught in the middle of the squabble between the US and China. Several US officials have pointed out how Huawei could be easily used as a tool for spying by the Chinese government and have encouraged others to shun the company. While CEO Ren Zhengfei did say it wasn’t worth being involved in the issue, the company has yet to reveal a timeline for their departure. In the meantime, it seems that Huawei will continue to try to fill the US market with its mobile devices.

What the PhoPad truly is remains a mystery. There is speculation that it stands for a phone the size of a pad or tablet. In other words, a phablet. Huawei would hardly be the only one trying to push another name for the growing device form factor. Samsung has also been reported to be vying for an even sillier “fonblet” moniker. And Huawei is definitely no stranger to the device class. Both its current Ascend Mate and the Ascend Mate 2 clock at 6.1 inches. It is still unknown whether the PhoPad will simply be another bigger smartphone or if it will be taking on ASUS‘ budget FonePad line or even the curious PadFone phone/tablet hybrid.

Whatever the Huawei PhoPad really is, it’s likely we’ll get a peek early 2014. Huawei is slotted to still make an appearance at CES next month where we’ll probably get to see this PhoPad alongside other rumored smartphones such as the Ascend Mate 2 and the octa-core Glory/Honor 4 or G750.

SOURCE: USPTO
VIA: Phandroid

Verizon Q1 2013 earnings: another big quarter for big red

Verizon has just posted its Q1 2013 earnings, and while it reports both its wireless and wireline businesses in one release, we're going to break out the wireless parts separately. Let's hit the high points first:

$19.5 billion in revenue, up 6.8-percent year over year$16.2 billion of that revenue was related to selling service, up 6.9-percent y-o-yPostpaid ARPA (Average Revenue Per Account) was $150.27 per month, up 6.9-percent also677,000 net customer additions for the quarter98.9 million retail connections (93.2 million postpaid) in total at the end of the quarter, up 6.4-percentRetail postpaid churn was 1.01-percent, up 5 basis points

Overall, it seems like a solid quarter for the company, posting improvements and increases on nearly every company metric. Customers, accounts, revenues and earnings per account all went up in the quarter. Verizon has also pointed out that its LTE network now reaches 287 million people in a staggering 491 markets across the country. The continuous quarters where Verizon makes boatloads of money don't seem to be stopping any time soon.

Source: Verizon