• LG Electronics has hired Victoria Beckham and Eva Longoria Parker to promote the company's latest touchscreen mobile phones, the LG Lotus Elite and LG Rumor Touch. The integrated campaign, called LG Fashion Touch, promotes personal style and the idea that mobile phones have become the latest in fashion communication. The partnership includes a print and online campaign, series of MTV vignettes, consumer promotion and an event in Los Angeles to celebrate the integration of fashion and technology.
• IDC says spending on LTE will exceed WiMAX equipment spending by the end of 2011, with worldwide LTE infrastructure revenues falling just below $8 billion by 2014. IDC also said the LTE equipment race is experiencing a "land grab" between incumbent 3G market leader Ericsson and the fast rising Huawei, while Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent work hard to remain relevant.
• Sisvel says that 32 companies are now participating in its facilitation process to create an LTE/SAE patent pool. The group, which just concluded a general meeting in Hong Kong on April 21 and 22, joins LTE/SAE patent owners from the entire spectrum of relevant industries, including telecommunications companies, consumer electronics and integrated circuit manufacturers and research institutes. Based on declarations of essentiality to standardization bodies, such as ETSI and TTA, Sisvel estimates these 32 companies hold over 60 percent of the intellectual property relevant for the emerging LTE/SAE standard.
• LTE backhaul provider Ceragon Networks says its first-quarter sales reached an all-time high of $59.7 million, up 36 percent from $43.9 million for the first quarter of 2009. The company's net income was $3.0 million compared with $0.2 million in the first quarter of 2009. Cash and cash investments at the end of the quarter were $98.9 million.
• RFID company Mojix has promoted Christopher Jones to chief technology officer. Jones will lead Mojix research and product development initiatives with a focus on solutions for large scale deployments enabled by the Mojix technology portfolio. Jones first joined Mojix in 2006 as vice president, Advanced Technology, leading Mojix development initiatives in areas of passive real-time location (RTLS) eLocation technology, Mojix eGroup technology and the Mojix IP portfolio.
• Verizon retailer A Wireless will open its 100th retail store on April 30 in Waxhaw, N.C. In celebration of the milestone, A Wireless will offer Buy One Get One Free on every item in the Waxhaw retail location from April 30-May 2.A Wireless was founded as a partnership in October 1996 in Wilson, N.C. The company was incorporated as ABC Phones of North Carolina in 1999.