Amazon.com will release a tablet product in the coming months running Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android platform, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, a move that would bring Amazon into closer competition with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and its iPad.

The report, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, said Amazon will release the as-yet-unnamed product before October. The device will sport a 9-inch display but will not have a camera, and will be designed by an Asian manufacturer. However, the report noted that Amazon is designing its own tablet model, which could be released next year. Consumers will be able to use the tablet to access videos, music and digital books they purchase from Amazon, which will allow Amazon to better compete with Apple’s iTunes and iBooks offerings.

Analysts said that the new tablet device could be a way for Amazon to get users to keep on buying digital content. “Mobility combined with online sales capability enables Amazon to be with the consumer at the time they want to purchase,” Gartner analyst Gene Alvarez told Reuters. “Prior to mobile commerce, Amazon had to wait until you got in front of a computer.”

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It’s unclear if the device will feature built-in wireless connections. Amazon is closely tied to the wireless industry; the company’s first Kindle ereader launched with built-in support for Sprint Nextel’s (NYSE:S) network. ABI Research recently reported that 25 percent of Apple’s iPads in the first quarter shipped with built-in cellular wireless connections.

An Amazon spokesman cold not immediately be reached for comment, the Journal said.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos strongly hinted in May that his company will release a tablet based on Android. In an interview with Consumer Reports, Bezos said to “stay tuned” on the company’s plans for a multipurpose tablet product. He suggested that such a device would supplement but not replace the popular Kindle.

Although there has been some speculation that Amazon might license webOS from Hewlett-Packard, Amazon has given multiple indications this year that it is backing Android. Amazon formally launched its Amazon Appstore for Android in late March, offering consumers a new channel to download applications optimized for Android smartphones and tablets. Shortly after the Appstore launched, Amazon unveiled a cloud-based music service called Cloud Drive that initially targeted Android devices.

Interestingly, the WSJ report also said Amazon will release two updated versions of its popular Kindle electronic reader in the third quarter. One will have a touchscreen display and the other will not, but will be an improved and cheaper version of the current Kindle.

AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) said on Wednesday it will supply mobile broadband service to a $139 Kindle 3G, which will come with AT&T-sponsored ads and screensavers. The regular Kindle 3G will remain $189. 

For more:
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)
- see this Reuters article
- see this separate Reuters article

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Read more: Report: Amazon to release Android-powered tablet in Q3 – FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/report-amazon-release-android-powered-tablet-q3/2011-07-13#ixzz1S84za16i
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Boston Wireless Editor Henry Vigeant

603988-5057

SOURCE: Frost & Sullivan

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA–(Marketwire – Jun 22, 2011) – Based on Frost & Sullivan’s recent independent research surveying 1,003 U.S. consumers, Sprint receives the 2011 North American Wireless Consumers’ Choice Award for Customer Value Enhancement for being the cellular telephone service provider that rates highest on customer value enhancement variables, such as overall quality and price.

Frost & Sullivan estimates the U.S. wireless market to have 295.2 million prepaid and postpaid subscribers at the end of 2010; a 4.7 percent year-over-year increase. The more popular mobile wireless services become, the more challenges the market faces, compelling providers to leverage customer value to succeed in the market. With the top-two mobile wireless providers, Verizon and AT&T, controlling over 55 percent of the total market share, competing providers have to work extra hard to gain customers.

“Sprint edges out its major competitors on customer value enhancement, receiving an average rating of 5.33 on a seven-point scale from its customers, compared to the average ratings of 5.05 to 5.29 for its major competitors,” says Frost & Sullivan Senior Research Analyst, Joerg Ditmer. “In particular, Sprint earns this award on the basis of its strong rating on price relative to its top competitors.”

Sprint ranks first in price, receiving 0.37 points more than its top competitor. In today’s market, price is important when choosing a consumer service. More consumers are leaning toward smartphones, which come at a higher price. However, Sprint provides smartphones such as Androids and BlackBerrys for a more reasonable price than its competitors do.

The company ranks second in overall quality compared to its top-four competitors. Sprint’s CDMA network allows it to provide services to all 50 states along with Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Furthermore, Sprint began offering 4G service in 2008 and currently covers 130 million people across the U.S.

“Sprint further adds to its customer value based on the improvements it has been making; notably in its network,” adds Gina Villanueva. “Faster broadband speeds are what customers demand and through its 4G network, Sprint will be able to meet those demands.”

Based on these factors, Frost & Sullivan is proud to present the 2011 North American Consumers’ Choice Award for best cellular telephone service provider for customer value enhancement in the wireless market to Sprint.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in implementing strategies that proactively create value for its customers with a focus on improving the return on the investment that customers make in its services or products. The award recognizes the company’s focus on enhancing the value that its customers receive, beyond simply good customer service, leading to improved customer retention and ultimately customer base expansion.

Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company’s Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO’s Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation, and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.awards.frost.com.

Henry Vigeant

Boston Wireless Editor/ 603-988-5057

See the Sprint  wholesale Partner, Lightyear Wireless

http://mybiztour.info

Lightyear Joins Hosted VoIP Fray

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Boston mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger was captured near Los Angeles 16 years after his run from the law sparked an international manhunt and served as a major embarrassment to the FBI as their onetime informant eluded authorities.

FBI

The FBI finally caught the 81-year-old Bulger at a residence in Santa Monica along with his longtime girlfriend Catherine Greig on Wednesday, just days after the government launched a publicity campaign to locate the fugitive mobster, said Steven Martinez, FBI’s assistant director in charge in Los Angeles. The arrest was based on a tip from the campaign, he said. Bulger, who was an inspiration for the 2006 Martin Scorsese film, “The Departed,” is wanted for his alleged role in 19 murders. One victim was shot between the eyes in a parking lot at his country club in Oklahoma. Another was gunned down in broad daylight on a South Boston street to prevent him from talking about the killing in Oklahoma. Others were taken out for running afoul of Bulger’s gambling enterprises.

Whitey Bulger Timeline
Images: Bulger Through The Years
Who’s Left On FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List

“He left a trail of bodies,” said Tom Duffy, a retired state police major who was one of the lead investigators in the criminal case against Bulger. “You did not double-cross him. If you did, you were dead.”

FBI

Bulger provided information on a rival gang to the FBI, then fled in January 1995 when a former agent told him he was about to be indicted. The FBI had been conducting surveillance in the area where Bulger was arrested, said police Sgt. Rudy Flores, who gave no details of the arrest. Agents swarmed around Bulger’s building late Wednesday, hours after the arrests in a neighborhood of two and three-story apartment buildings. Bulger lived on the third floor of The Princess Eugenia, a three-story, 28-unit building of one and two-bedroom apartments three blocks from a bluff that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Neighbors said the couple did not stand out. Barbara Gluck, who lives on the same floor as Bulger and Greig, said she didn’t know their names but recognized them from photos on the Internet after she heard about their arrest. Gluck described Greig as “sweet and lovely” and said they would have “girl talk” when they ran into each other in the building. Bulger became angry whenever he saw the two of them talking, and would say, “Stop talking to her,” Gluck said. “He was nasty,” she added. “At one point, (Greig) said (Bulger) has a rage issue.” Bulger and Greig were scheduled to appear in Los Angeles federal court Thursday. He faces a series of federal charges including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, narcotics distribution, extortion and money laundering, while the 60-year-old Greig is charged with harboring a fugitive.

The arrest brings an end to a manhunt that received worldwide attention as the FBI received reported sightings of Bulger and Greig from all over the United States and parts of Europe. In many of those sightings, investigators could not confirm whether it was Bulger who was spotted or a lookalike. The investigation touched the highest level of Massachusetts politics. Bulger’s younger brother, William, was one of the most powerful politicians in the state, leading the Massachusetts Senate for 17 years and later serving as president of the University of Massachusetts for seven years. He resigned his post in August 2003 amid pressure from then-Gov. Mitt Romney and Attorney General Thomas Reilly. William Bulger told a congressional committee that he spoke to his brother shortly after he went on the run in 1995 but had no idea about his whereabouts. He declined to comment to the Boston Globe about his brother’s arrest. For many years, William Bulger was able to avoid any tarnish from his brother’s alleged crimes. But in August 2003, he resigned his post as president of UMass amid pressure from then-Gov. Mitt Romney and Attorney General Thomas Reilly. Bulger, nicknamed “Whitey” for his shock of bright platinum hair, grew up in a gritty South Boston housing project, and went on to become Boston’s most notorious gangster. Along with Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, he led the violent Winter Hill Gang, a largely Irish mob that ran loan-sharking, gambling and drug rackets in the Boston area. U.S. Attorney Donald K. Stern said in 2000 that the two were “responsible for a reign of intimidation and murder that spanned 25 years.” Prosecutors said he went on the run after being warned by John Connolly Jr., an FBI agent in Boston who had made Bulger an informant 20 years earlier. Connolly was convicted of racketeering in May 2002 for protecting Bulger and Flemmi, also an FBI informant. Bulger provided the Boston FBI with information on his gang’s main rival, the New England Mob, in an era when bringing down the Mafia was one of the FBI’s top national priorities. But the Boston FBI office was sharply criticized when the extent of Bulger’s alleged crimes and his cozy relationship with the FBI became public in the late 1990s. A congressional committee, in a draft report issued in 2003, blasted the FBI for its use of Bulger and other criminals as informants, calling it “one of the greatest failures in the history of federal law enforcement.” After he fled, Bulger became one of the nation’s most-hunted fugitives. With a place next to Osama bin Laden on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, he had a $2 million reward on his head. In September 2002, the FBI received the most reliable tip in three years when a British businessman who had met Bulger eight years earlier said he spotted Bulger on a London street. After the sighting, the FBI’s multiagency violent fugitive task force in Boston and inspectors from New Scotland Yard scoured London hotels, Internet cafes and gyms in search of Bulger. The FBI also released an updated sketch, using the businessman’s description of Bulger as tan, white-haired and sporting a gray goatee. On Monday, the FBI announced a new publicity campaign and accompanying public service ad that asked people, particularly women, to be on the lookout for Greig. The 30-second ad started running Tuesday in 14 television markets to which Bulger may have ties and was to air during programs popular with women roughly Greig’s age. The new campaign pointed out that Greig had several plastic surgeries before going on the lam and was known to frequent beauty salons. On Thursday, Bulger’s picture on the Ten Most Wanted list was spanned by a red banner that said “Captured.” Greig’s photo, with the same banner, was displayed prominently. John Weiskopf, who lives across the street from Bulger’s Santa Monica building, said he recognized Bulger when he saw his photo on the Internet. “I recognized him. I said `Holy Smokes,”‘ he said. “From what I understand, these were really gracious easy-going people,” Weiskopf said. “They don’t come out with fangs, they just blended in.”

Top 12 Small Business Marketing Blogs

If you own a small business, you confront a unique set of Internet marketing challenges to  create a innovative small business marketing plan. You may not have a large marketing budget, a substantial marketing staff, or expansive knowledge of the industry’s best practices. Luckily, there are blogs out there focused on helping small business owners market their product or service online.

1. Small Business Mavericks

1. The Marketing Spot

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1. Charlie Cook’s Marketing for Success Blog

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1. AllBusiness.com (Marketing and advertising section)

1. Web Marketing Strategies for Small Business

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This blog is a roundup of the latest small business marketing news and articles. It’s not uncommon for around 10 posts to be made each day. Recent topics addressed include how narrowly one should geo-target for local PPC advertising, why a GigaOM Network writer doesn’t like Google Buzz, and the top 10 ways to drive traffic to your blog using LinkedIn.

By reading these Top Small Business Marketing Blogs, you’ll quickly learn how to implement your own Small Business Marketing Strategy!

For more information on how to get on top of Google in your keyword search, call me.

Henry Vigeant

603-988-5057

Example about my ratings#1

go to Google type in Lightyear Wireless Boston

What do you see?                                                                                

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