year - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Apr

PSA: Take It Easy, AT&T Isn't Targeting Unauthorized Android Tethering (And May Never)

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, AT&T, Editorials, News, Tips & Tutorials

There's been a lot of talk about AT&T's crusade against rogue tethering lately, and it all comes back to this AT&T text message sent to some poor iPhone customer(s):

AT&T Free Msg: We’ve noticed you’re continuing to enjoy the tethering feature with your smartphone service. Remember, you need a tethering plan ($45/mo, incl. 4GB) to use this feature, so we’re planning to update your line with the required plan soon.

Yes, the carrier everyone loves to hate is cracking down on unauthorized tethering - and they are automatically switching violators onto AT&T's 4GB data plan with tethering access, at a steep $45 a month.

Apr

Updated: AT&T Raising Smartphone Prices For 1-Year Contracts, Full Retail, And Early Upgrades

Posted by David Ruddock in AT&T, Carriers, News, Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: April 4th, 2011

Update: BGR just confirmed with AT&T that the early upgrade price bump listed for iPhones applies to all smartphones - that means early upgrade pricing for 2-year agreement customers will go up by 50 bucks on all Android phones.

Well, there's not a lot of ways to spin this positively, and it's pretty clear what's going on - AT&T is disincentivizing its 1-year and no contract plans in order to goad customers into making more economical 2-year agreements. Customer retention method much?

If you want to go month to month (no contract) on AT&T, the full retail price of your smartphone of choice will shoot up by $50, for no apparent reason other than to discourage you from making that decision.

Sep

August Quantcast Numbers: Android Gaining Ground In Mobile Web Battlefield, Stealing Share From Every Other Platform

Posted by Brad Ganley in News

The mobile industry is a very competitive, complicated, fast changing world. The name of the game, though, is simple: get your product out there, get people using it, and do it fast. Quantcast, a company that specializes in the world of internet usage trends, recently released some information showing how well the players in the mobile OS and software game are doing. The information is intriguing, to say the least.

There are several things we can take away from this information, the number one being that Android is definitely stepping its game. In the past year, the number of mobile internet users toting Android devices has increased by 18.6%, bringing Android's consumption share to an impressive 25%.