Napster announced on Wednesday the availability of its Napster To Go portable music subscription service for a number of cell phone models. The service is now available on smartphones and cell phones that run Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile 2003, including the forthcoming Motorola Moto Q, and certain models made by Audiovox, HP, HTC, i-Mate, Orange, Palm, Samsung, Siemens and Sierra. The mobile subscription service will allow for both unlimited streaming of songs and a la carte downloads to cell phones. Wireless carriers that support handset models compatible with Napster To Go include BellSouth, Cingular, O2, Orange, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and Vodafone.
The global smartphone market closed 2025 with a story less about recovery and more about transformation. Premium product, ecosystem lock-in, and manufacturing scale are now the forces shaping competition. For business and technology leaders, the latest IDC market study data confirms that smartphones remain a critical indicator of consumer demand, supply chain health, and AI commercialization at the edge. Smartphone Market Development Global smartphone shipments grew 2.3 percent year-over-year in Q4 2025, reaching 336.3 million units and bringing full-year volumes to 1.26 billion units — a modest 1.9 percent annual increase, according to IDC. This smartphone growth emerged despite a memory shortage crisis, tariff volatility, supply chain disruption, and macroeconomic headwinds. What stabilized demand? Two factors: sustained growth in premium devices and strong foldable momentum, combined with accelerated purchases as consumers bought ahead of anticipated price increases. Buyers weren...