Cablevision Corporation And GroupM Signs An Adressable Ad Deal

GroupM's advanced TV business, Modi Media, has come to an agreement with Cablevision to use its application in order to boost business.

Cablevision Systems Corporation has been making a lot of acquisitions recently. The company did not seem to be much active recently however in the past months, it has been in a lot of news when it comes to acquisitions and making deals with other companies. Similarly, GroupM and Cablevision have embraced a massive breakthrough where both the parties have signed a long term addressable deal. The idea behind this collaboration is to simplify the rigorous process so that the addressable television advertisements can be bought.

It is believed that the advanced TV business of GroupM which is known as Modi Media will get to access the Total Audience Application of the company as mentioned in the deal. It is a specific audience planning tool by Cablevision that assists agencies and companies to strengthen and improve their targeted, impressions based TV buys.

It is believed that the deal will prove to be beneficial for both parties. The deal was made especially so that the procedure of buying addressable ads become more automated using the Total Audience Application. It will further be removing the barriers that were making it difficult for the agencies and well as the marketers to enter and experiment such things.

According to the President of Modi Media, Michael Bologna stated “Addressable is complicated. There is a lot of data, technology and manual labor that goes into doing these deals. What we have done here is set the parameters and done as much of the leg work upfront as possible to allow us to execute quickly and as real-time as possible.”

Mr. Michael Bologna further added that his business and Cablevision already discussed in a type of pre planning meeting regarding how to go about this deal in the future. According to the discussion, it can be said that both companies are already done with their setting of cards per segment rate in order to execute it as early as possible for their clients.

The president of media sales at Cablevision Corporation, Ben Tatta, stated in an interview “By making ad operations, data and analytic more turnkey, we hope to streamline the entire campaign process for Modi and their clients.”

Furthermore, it was decided during the agreement of this deal that Modi Media will be spending an ‘undisclosed’ amount on the Cablevision’s addressable ad product. This will help both parties to boost each other’s businesses within no time. However, Modi Media is also in talks with other providers in order to sign similar deal to boost its business.

Verizon Extends Cell Phone Network Into Minecraft

Players of Minecraft will now get three bars on their cell phones, thanks to Verizon Wireless.

With the extraordinary innovations that circle around one, have people ever thought that they would be able to use their phones, actually use it, in an actual game? Well, it is safe to say that thanks to Verizon Communication now one can use their cell phone in the Minecraft. Now the players of Minecraft, a blocky game, will be able to make phone calls to their friends from within the game. The telecommunication giant, in collaboration with Wieden + Kennedy, an advertising agency and Blockwork, Minecraft’s advertising agency, started working on a cell phone that will be able to work within the game itself. Through this innovation, the players will be able to make video and phone calls to their friends; the only downside to this is that they will be pixelated video calls. Along with a video and call option, there is an option of a selfie stick as well; this feature allows a user to take a selfie and even send it to a friend as the cell phone is also able to send text messages and MMS. The most attractive part of this is the video calls option as a player can dial a call to anyone of their friends and will be able to see them in block form while the people on the other side of the call will be able to see the avatar of the person from the world of Minecraft. Another attractive yet not so useful feature that the cell phones of the Minecraft world have is that of web browsing. The websites in the game will also be blocked and pixelated, it would be difficult for one to read them. This whole thing came into being through a lot of hard work from Verizon company and the advertising agency. Along with its partners, they built a customized application by the name of Boxel. This specific custom application takes websites and videos and turns them into block form. It takes these options and turns them into a form in which the game can understand them. This project’s code is made available on GitHub, a software website. Currently there are two largest telecommunication carriers in the United States, Verizon Wireless and AT&T, along with smaller rivals by the name of Sprint and T-Mobile US. The first two most popular networks are the most strong and reputable networks in America. Verizon stock has been trading at a share price of $44.93 with a decrease in stock price of 1.43%. The earnings per share reported by the telecom company are 2.51.

Blackberry Decides To Pull Out Priv Smartphone From Pakistani Market

The Canadian smartphone company is quite popular for its mobile security due to which it cannot fulfill the request of the Pakistani government.

According to Android Authority, Blackberry Ltd has decided to pull its newest addition to the Blackberry family, the Priv. Since Priv has mainly been designed around extreme privacy, the government had a number of concerns and was asking the company to grant a backdoor access to the encrypted network. The reason for the Pakistani government to ask for such a favor was so it could ‘spy’ on its citizens to keep a check on their activities. The smartphone company could have approved this request of the government and would have gotten a chance to increase its sales in the country and earn revenue but it chose to announce the exact opposite. Apart from announcing its pull of Priv smartphone from the country’s market, it also told the reason for this act, which was the country’s political condition. Blackberry’s reputation has always circled around having the most secure mobile network and mobile security. It has managed to gain an excellent reputation in all the markets and just to settle in the Pakistani market, it could not let go of that reputation that it has built in years. In order to keep its brand reputation, the Canadian smartphone company is not ready to compromise on anything. The new Priv smartphone has been lagging in the United States in comparison to other places. Since the new smartphone’s release, it is in such high demands that it is always out of stock in mobile stores. The Android powered smartphone soon after its release was sold out from most of the store in the United States. Due to the shortage of the smartphones in most of the stores in the country, the company had to delay a number of orders for a number of its customers. Priv is priced $699 and has amazing specifications that have managed to attract a huge amount of customers to buy the product and test it. Along with having amazing specifications, the device also has a good storage space of 32GB with a 5.4 dual curved screen. The biggest specification that was leaked of the devices was its battery life. It can last up to 22.5 hours with its 3410 mAh battery. Additionally, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority announced a ban on Blackberry Enterprise Service in summer 2015, which was supposed to be executed on November 20, 2015. The sole reason for this ban was as usual the ‘security concerns’ of the government. Privacy International, just before this announcement was made by the Canada based company, issued a report to warn the ISI, Pakistan Inter-services agency.

Verizon Communication Tell Its Customers To Put Their Phones Down

In the new advertisement that aired on Thanksgiving, the company wants you to put your phones down and live in the moment. Telecommunication companies all around the globe would their business to grow, would want higher sales, even higher profits and would want more and more customers to use their cell phones as well as consume as much internet as possible but one such telecom company had done the exact opposite, the company being Verizon Communication. It is quite an unconventional approach that company has opted for as the holiday season arrives. A new television commercial was aired on Thanksgiving in an attempt to promote the telecommunication company but did the exact opposite. Instead of trying to get more consumers to use their smartphones and increase their internet usage over the holidays, the company promoted that people should spend as much time with their families and loved ones as possible. The aim of the commercial was to remind the people that family and giving them time is more important than spending most of their time on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media website. The advertisement ended with a slogan that said ‘Better Matters.’ The telecom giant is urging its customers to put their phones down itself, even though it is merely a publicity stunt by Verizon but it speaks for the larger audience. The message that the company has tried to send through it advertisement is definitely meaningful and will help a lot of people realize the importance of family. According to Verizon news, the company’s aim was to help people get to their loved one and after they have arrived to meet their families they put their phones down and spend time with them. Melissa Garlick, the head of Verizon’s creative brand team, stated that Verizon will bring people to their friends and family but once they are there the company wants them to be fully available. She added the point of this is to make the audience realize that Verizon is America’s most reliable network that can get them to their families even at such a busy time of the year. This is not the first time the telecom company has opted for such a campaign and encouraged people to put their phones down. Back in 2009, the telecom company released a campaign ‘Don’t Text and Drive’ which was aimed at safety of driving and supported the laws based on that. Even though the telecom company has put forward a very simple message for their audience, today’s consumer is much for skeptical and it would probably take much for than a holiday ad to get their attention and furthermore to even change their beliefs, as per Allen Adamson who is a brand expert along with being the former chairman for North America of WPP’s Landor Associates.

No Transparency To Be Expected From BlackBerry Ltd

The software giant has informed the market that it will not be providing them with transparency on its security business like the other companies in the industry.

BlackBerry Ltd has been under the critical eyes of analysts and investors in the tech industry for a long time now, and that too for all the right reasons. The giant has been experiencing some serious falls in the hardware business with the increasing competition coming in from rivals like Google, Apple and Microsoft and has failed to meet the expectations of its fans on a lot of levels. Only recently, the software giant has yet again been threatened with competition in the only market feels strong in and that is the software industry, in which the Canadian company has been contributing in many different ways. The security and cloud services that BlackBerry business provides to its users are considered to be of the best kind by analysts, and the security sector is believed to be the biggest strength of the company, considering how it has been experiencing serious failures in its smart phone business since the initiation and expansion of Android, the operating system coming from rival Google and the success that Apple’s iPhones have received in a very short period of time. However, the software giant was still being considered to have a strong presence in the industry; until now. BlackBerry software sector has clearly indicated that it has no plans whatsoever to provide the customers with transparency of any kind in the security business, which has affected the sentiments of the already bearish investors in the company. Companies like Google an Apple has been working towards the provision of a see-through image of the activities of the company where the user information and its distribution is concerned which has regained trust of the users in a lot of different ways. This step was deemed as an important one after the whole Snowden episode that took place and showed the ugly picture of how companies in the industry were selling off information of the users to the government without the prior permission, which upset a large number of users. According to a BlackBerry spokesperson, it was confirmed that the company is not looking towards making things transparent for its users and will not be following footsteps of its rivals to support the idea. News from comScore suggests that the mobile phone making company has actually lost a large space in the mobile market of the country in the past two to three years, from having a presence of 13.4% to 1.2% now, which shows the fall its smart phones have taken and how customers have switched to other cell phone companies due to unsatisfactory results from the giant’s products.

BlackBerry Priv: The Reviews Are In

The software company seems to be hitting it off with the Priv, its new smart phone in the tech market.

BlackBerry Ltd has released its new smart phone in the market last week, and the most exciting factor about the gadget is that it is powered by Android operating system. This is the first time that this OS is being used by the giant to incorporate in its mobile phones, and this act has been deemed by the analysts as another effort, and probably the last one, to make a comeback in the hardware industry. The giant has been experiencing some extremely low sales and revenue generation for the past couple of quarters and this has turned out some highly negative comments about what the giant should further do with its idea of carrying forward the hardware business. Analysts have constantly suggested the giant to wrap up its non-lucrative hardware business as it continues to go into loss, but John Chen has some other ideas. The Priv, which is the new smart phone of the BlackBerry business, has been welcomed by the industry with mixed emotions. The fact that the giant has finally surrendered to the most used OS in the mobile phone market has only made its fans happy and the reviews which have come out of the phone have focused on multiple features of the device that are being appreciated on the whole. The mobile phone has some specs on the latest phone which is sure to bring about more customers to it than before. As promised by the CEO, the Priv has a huge 5.4 inch screen along with a back cover which has been given a classic look by the designers with a material that looks very much like glass. The cell phone has also been provided with the traditional QWERTY keyboard, for what the Canadian company has always been famous for. This keyboard, however, can be used by simply sliding it open on the device and has been deemed quite durable by analysts. As for the 18MP camera which has been provided on the Priv, analysts believe that the fact that the camera takes great pictures even when there isn’t abundance of light in the area is something good enough to bring a lot of audience to buy the new phone. Furthermore, the battery life of the device has also been recognized as that of a much durable one as it goes on for 3,410 mAh, which is much more than what the rivals in the industry have to offer. Other than that, the giant has also brought some improvements on the software side as well.

Verizon To Carry Out New Plans For Better Sales

The wireless company has finally decided to sell off all of its assets which are not giving the giant profit as much as expected and to now focus on wireless segment only.

Verizon Communications has brought about some massive changes in its wireless business and analysts have been wondering where this giant now might be headed. The most recent news about the wireless giant is about how it has announced of its plans to carry out a major selling of its assets which are worth $10 billion in a transaction that will soon be held by the giant. This is majorly being carried out for the purpose of making its focus come right back to where it was previously and to get rid of all the excessively expanded business activities which were not bringing as much profit to the company as planned to. One of the major names in the asset-selling program to be carried out will be of MCI, which is one of those businesses which were offering the simple internet and landline services to special clients along with some major companies. However, all of such smaller businesses have been facing some serious competition from other projects and programs launched by companies like Amazon and Alphabet Inc, which is why the wireless company has finally thought of selling these off in order to maximize its profit. The giant has indeed put up struggles to fight against the ever increasing competition but now it has decided against it, as all of these businesses will be sold off in the major sell-off plan that is to be carried out by the wireless business. Analysts at Bidness ETC have turned out to be very bullish towards the Verizon stock now that the giant has announced it will be implementing a new strategy to make things better within the company’s sales. The analysts are of the opinion that in order to stay strong in the wireless communication industry, such steps are mandatory for the giant. Verizon wireless has also decided to give all of its attention to the wireless segment of the company, which is believed to increase sales in all the right ways according to the analysts. In a press release, the giant was seen informing the industry of how much of a hassle it will be start selling off its assets as the biggest problem that will be faced in the initial stages is of departmentalization of all the assets which will take some time before the selloff finally takes place. The company is currently putting off the load it had previously taken and to put that as an investment in its wireless business to make it even better than it already is. The stock of the company closed at a share price of $45.78 on Friday, which showed a downside activity by around 0.91%.

Verizon Communication Inc. Stock Update

The stock of the telecommunication company went up by 0.72% in the last trading session.

During the last trading session, Verizon Communication’s stock went up by 0.72% and was trading at a share price of $46.74. In the past seven days, the stock of the telecommunications company went up by 1.56%; additionally outperforming the S&P 500 estimates by 1.35%. In a month’s time, the company’s stock went up by 9.43% and outperformed the S&P 500’s estimate by an increase of 2.69%. On the trading session that took place on Friday, October 30, 2015, the shares of the telecommunication company rose by 1.03% due to which it entered as one of the gainers of the day. The trading commenced with a share price of $46.53 on Friday. On the higher end the share price was witnessed at $46.98 and on the lower end it was observed at $46.28; ultimately ending on $46.88. At the end of the session the shares were soaring at 14,753,237 shares. By the end of the trade, the shares were being traded at a price of $46.28. The one year high was witnessed at $51.73 and the one year low was observed at $38.06. The current market capital of the telecom company is at $190.75 billion. The earnings per share reported by the company were 2.51 and the price per earnings ratio is at 18.65. Insider trading was witnessed in the company. Verizon Communications disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission that there was insider buying and selling. The executive vice president of Verizon, Walden Marni unloaded 8,229 shares on August 7, 2015. The share price of the shares unloaded by the EVP is $46.26. The total transaction was worth $380,674 and was disclosed on a Form 4 Filing to the SEC. A number of analysts have commented on Verizon’s shares. Major brokerage firm Citigroup covers the shares of Verizon and has maintained a rating of Neutral on Verizon’s stock. The brokerage firm has decreased the price target to $49 per share from an initial share price of $51. This rating by Citigroup was issued on October 21, 2015. In other news, the company has also made an announcement that it will be laying off an undisclosed number of employees as well. The employees who will be laid off will be from the wireless division; employees from sales and stores will not be affected by this decision. By the end of the third quarter of the current fiscal year, Verizon had a total number of 177,900 employees. This lay off is happening because the company has decided to reduce the number of its regional offices. From 20 regional offices, its bringing it down to six; this change is taking because the company wants to reduce its costs. Verizon Stores landline contributes 27% to the company’s revenue. The company also invests in Verizon wireless and internet products; along with it the company also released a free mobile video service earlier in September.

Verizon Communications, Inc. Plans on Improving The Internet of Things.

The telecommunication recently announced that it is allowing these sensor embedded devices at a reduced cost, maybe half price till next year.


In hopes of improving the Internet of Everything, Verizon Communications has presently announced that it will be making sensor embedded devices at a low cost. The telecommunication provider network has planned to make devices for cheaper and will also reduce the cost of connecting and accessing these devices from a 4G LTE network, as stated by the senior vice president of Internet of Things at Verizon, Mr. Mike Lanman. ThingSpace was also launched by Verizon Communications, Inc. which is an integrated internet of things platform on which developers design and create applications. As for the users, they can manage their devices through it. At the event that was held on Wednesday at Verizon’s Innovation Center in San Francisco, the Senior Vice President announced that to cut of the cost of Verizon 4G LTE network chipsets designed by Sequans Communications are available. Furthermore he said that users will, in 2016, observed the company reduce this current price to half for a number of its modules that the company has planned on eventually launching. He says that through this the telecommunications company will be making 4G LTE networks and WAN networks more reachable and handy for users as well as developers. Mike Lanman said in a statement at the conference that bringing continuous innovations in smart and metropolitan cities that are connect to cars and wearables clearly shows that the future belongs to Internet of Things and people, through IoT will live and work in the coming years but despite of being the future, at this point in time, it is still believed to be quite expensive, complex and also difficult to scale. So for the future of IoT to be successful, a genius or a true leader might be able to make it less complex and maybe even change the model of IoT while Verizon is one who is making efforts to improve it and making it available to millions and billions of users. In other news, Verizon has also made announcements that it will cut some of the management positions as it wants the employees and customers to work closely together. Currently, the number of layoffs has not been announced. Bloomberg stated that the telecommunication company told its employees that it will be reorganizing Verizon’s wireless operations. From 20 it is going to bring the regional offices down to 6, according to Jim Gerace and further stated that some jobs will be cut in the process but he did not mention the numbers. The company itself said that even though management positions will be cut, no such change will be made for sales and retail store employees.

Blackberry Priv Now Available For Pr-Order

The first Blackberry Secure smartphone will be available in the market soon.

Blackberry Phones were the last ones who were left to adopt the Android software and the market. The Canadian tech company is now finally offering its smartphone Blackberry PRIV, which will run Google’s Android in place of the Blackberry OS. It is now available for pre-order at a price of $649. Right after the announcement of the new BB model, an online stimulator popped up on the internet which showed a number of features which will be found in the new smartphone. There are selective carriers in Canada that will be offering the new cell phone, one of which is Telus. So it is believed that the online stimulator might have been originated from it. Although the online stimulator has been taken down from the internet, there were a few members of the CrackBerry Forums who took screenshot of the leaked. On paper this looks like an impressive attempt by the once smartphone star company with a HD AMOLED display, a QWERTY keyboard and a QUALCOMM Snapdagon 808 processor. In order to regain the popularity of a premium smartphone, which it once was, the company makes yet another attempt with this new device. A number of people are expecting it be a commercial failure by Blackberry, but we are yet to find that out. Blackberry PRIV is expected to be in the market on November 6, 2015. Last week the company started taking pre orders for the device and had priced it close to iPhone line and Samsung Galaxy S series. The smartphone will be made available on that date in Canada, United Kingdom and the United States. In the U.S. the phone will be available for $699 and $899 in Canada. It is been marketed as the most secure smartphone that runs on Android. Despite of the fact that many others have introduced their products with secure systems but this will be a first for Blackberry who has always talked about being the main smartphone with device security. The CEO of Blackberry, John Chen stated that what he is doing by bringing this new device in the market is that its taking advantage of what the industry is offering but by doing so it will not move away from its core strength. From the comments that can be observed after the announcement of the new device is that there are not a lot of people in the market who will be willing to pay that high a price for this phone especially because of the fact that it has not been in the market for a while now.

Qualcomm Aspires To Embed Snapdragon In Smart Home Cameras

Qualcomm wants the next security home cameras to have a Snapdragon 618 processor and LTE technology.

The trend of smart devices is constantly increasing with the advancement in technology. And all tech giants are trying to get an early lead in this sector. Qualcomm, Inc. is one of them which want to make an impact in this sector. According to news it is believed that the company is interested to make contributions in the manufacturing of smart home cameras in the coming times. The wireless telecommunication company wants to make the smart home cameras more capable in the process. To be precise, it wants the next smart home cameras to include Snapdragon and LTE. The Snapdragon 618 processor is selected to give it additional power that will allow the smart home cameras to work faster and efficiently. Qualcomm stated the security camera that are installed currently in many homes now do all of their processing in the cloud. The company further added, “By putting a 618 inside of a camera, the camera should be able to do all image analysis locally, meaning far less delay between when an event happens — like someone opening a door — and when you get a notification about it. Processing can happen on the camera, rather than in the cloud.” It is said that the core of the new smart home monitoring cameras will be the powerful Snapdragon 618 processor. It is not as powerful as other processors of the company nor is it one of the best products. But Qualcomm suggest that it is capable to do way more than what an average existing home camera can do now. Furthermore, it will be possible to run two cameras at one time. Qualcomm believes that the processing in cloud wastes a lot of time as it has to transfer huge data. The installation of processor also means that the new smart home security cameras will have WiFi as well as LTE technology embedded. The mobile computing head of Qualcomm, Raj Talluri, stated that the company has previously worked a lot in optimizing the vision and utilization of cameras and computer within smartphones. However it is not possible with the current generation of smartphones. He added, “Typically it's harder in the phone space — a phone has a pinhole camera and is always moving — but now we're bringing that technology into this space where the application is a little different, but the technology we built applies perfectly.”

Verizon Promises Smooth Experience For Unlimited Data Users

Verizon will not restrict data usage for unlimited data subscribers.

Verizon Communications customers that are using the unlimited wireless data can now rejoice since the company is giving them reasons to celebrate. Unlimited plans that are subscribed by some of the Verizon users will not suffer any slowdown even if they go extremely aggressive whilst using their data. Fran Shammo, the chief financial officer at Verizon mentioned this during an interview. Verizon Communications has the honor of being the largest wireless operator that has a sound history where clients have never been satisfied with its unlimited plan. However, now it has been the last resort for users who like using a lot of data. The previous week competitors like Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T have joined the league where they will “throttle” users or slow the speed of their connection in case they cross a particular threshold set by them. The policies for throttling take away the jest of unlimited data plans that are priced heftily. However, Verizon will not stoop low to make money. VZ recently increased the prices of its data plan by $20 for a month but Shammo is certain that the company will not follow the legacy of its competitors and slow the speed or restrict usage in any way possible. According to Shammo, "For a customer who signed up for unlimited, they come on get to get unlimited.” He further added. "But we are increasing the price. These customers are consuming a lot of data. But we're not in the habit of throttling customers." Verizon has so far not offered their unlimited data plan to customers who have started to use the service over the past four years. So, all those who were initial customers and using the plan since inception are the ones enjoying the service. However, Verizon in no way has made it easy for consumers to stick to the service since they have created various hurdles encouraging them to leave these plans. Verizon has been pushing these subscribers to actually pay the full price when they are upgrading to a new device. Moreover, the prices were further increased by $20 which will now make the service for $100 for a month. The idea behind making these policies crucial was to force the customers to switch to the tiered plans that have a limitation on the data that can be consumed. So now the company’s hard work has actually benefited them since only 1% of subscriber are still using the plan where the rest have switched.

BlackBerry Geared Up To Make The Perfect Android Smartphone

BlackBerry Priv can change the game for the smartphone company.

BlackBerry Ltd., was once considered to be an uncrowned king of the smart phone industry. However, soon with the popularity of Apple Inc. and Samsung lost its charm. Over the passage of time the company simply lost its niche and is no more a top notch competitor as it used to be in the past. The company is now targeting to make a comeback where they are now making efforts to redeem themselves by targeting the corporate sector and focusing on the things that initially resulted in their popularity. BlackBerry CEO, Mr. John Chen is thus trying his best to pave his way to redemption Recently it was heard that the company was all set to come up with its BlackBerry Venice smart phone. However, soon it will be said that the company is now calling Venice as their new phone BlackBerry Priv. So now the company has decided to join the bandwagon where they have finally decided to bid farewell to their own mobile platform where now BlackBerry smart phones will have Google’s Android as its operating system. So now it won’t be wrong to say that the company’s hardware business on the verge of collapse where the stakeholders have given up all hopes for its revival. But the good thing about the company’s upcoming smart phone is that it certainly has all those features that are likely to increase sales and popularity in the smart phone market The company is now concentrating on customer experience more than anything. For any good smart phone the first thing is to have a good battery life. BBRY at this point of time is trying every way to ensure that the battery life of the smart phone is smooth and are working towards addressing the problems if any. Moreover, the smart phone will also encompass quick charging and power saving mode so that the device can be used to its utmost capacity. At this point, all the claims made by the company are just mere claims. So users are still waiting to obtain their hands on this device. The only thing that can help the company to redeem itself is if it comes up with a secure platform. No other company can do it better when it now comes to security. So those who have highly sensitive emails and messages along with a gallery that needs protection than Priv is certainly your last resort. If the company actually delivers and caters to all the claims then this will be a new era of redemption for them.

BlackBerry Teams Up With Tata To Develop Mobile Communications System

BlackBerry has announced a pact with Tata to jointly establish a secure mobile communications system.

BlackBerry Ltd. is constantly trying hard to make a comeback where the Canadian smartphone manufacturer’s software wing known as “Secusmart” and the Power Strategic Engineering Department of Tata have joined hands and signed a pact to collaborate and work together to develop a secure communication system for mobile devices. Since a relatively long span of time, BBRY is working towards making communications secure, thus for the same reason the company also launched Secusmart that is aimed towards ensuring the security of consumers using the wireless networks. The company has collaborated with various big names to bring them a step closer to their target thus joining hands with Tata will help them make their niche in the Indian market. The company at this point of time is not really targeting consumers but with this venture, BlackBerry services wishes to provide security solutions for high-end and extremely sensitive communications such as government and other institutions. According to the chief executive officer of Tata Power SED, Mr. Rahul Chaudhry mentioned in his statement, “"In the era of increasing incidents of espionage in State establishments and corporates with cyber security breaches and data theft, the envisaged association with BlackBerry will increase opportunities to accelerate innovation for high-end secure communication solutions.” The Secusmart division of BlackBerry is based in Germany that implements and develops various solutions that assist private businesses and public authorities from preventing eavesdropping electronically. This collaboration will turn out to be a game changer for both the companies. Tata Power SED has a lot of expertise when it comes to software, hardware design, software, as well as manufacturing. On the other hand, Secusmart also has expertise in security and software that will ensure that the client has secure and highly capable solutions that are designed in a manner to meet the evolving and stringent needs of the governmental institutions. The chief executive officer of Secusmart, Dr. Hans Christoph Quelle stated, "I am proud of our continued success in delivering world-class security solutions, and am delighted that our cooperation with Tata Power SED will play such a crucial role in securing mobile communications for the Indian market.” As it has been reported, the governmental institutes are already looking for a system that has been designed in a manner that ensures the safety of highly sensitive information. BlackBerry has taken a great decision to expand its market and collaborate with Tata who does not only have expertise in software, hardware etc. but also is a top notch company.

Verizon Feels Over Shadowed By Apple Inc New Upgrade Plan for iPhone 6s

The wireless giant has managed to make an offer to its customers following a similar plan presented by the iPhone maker to its users.

Apple Inc has just announced a new upgrade plan to make sales of the new iPhone 6s better in the market, which apparently has been giving Verizon, the largest wireless company in the United States a tough time to maintain good sales of the packages they are offering to their customers. According to news, it was seen that the software giant introduced a new upgrade plan for customers that use wireless plans offered by Sprint and T-Mobile, which has naturally put Verizon is a difficult position. The sales package that is offered to the customers allows them to change their mobile sets only when they have completed a time period of around 18 months, which covers up an average time for the payment of the installments that they sign up for. The software giant, however has come up with some new plans for its wireless retailers, which has made it easier for its customers to change their mobile sets without spending as much as they were through the installments. Verizon business, on the other hand, works with the rule of a payment done up to 75 percent, before the customer even thinks of switching to a newer version of the phone or to a new model available in the market. Following the much easier plans provided by the tech company to bring more customers to its new phones, the wireless giant has thought better of losing itself a little with the rules it follows for obtaining an upgrade. News suggests that now Verizon wireless will be allowing its customers to upgrade to a newer version of the iOS phone series without giving a 75 percent installment, which usually takes up 18 months to get completed and can instead get a new phone in just a period of 12 months only. The reason that the wireless company has brought about an abrupt change in its policy is being taken by the analysts in the industry as an attempt not fall behind in the sales department, where its rivals race up on selling the iPhone 6s gadgets to the interested customers. The ’12 month’ time period is also because of Apple’s new plan offered to the Sprint and T-Mobile customers, where the wireless giant of the country has decided on not lagging behind, by making sure that if not better, then at least equal offerings are made to its own customers to upgrade as compared to the ones being offered by its rivals.

Merrill Lynch Iterates A Buy Rating For Qualcomm

Analysts from Merrill Lynch reiterated a Buy rating for Qualcomm stocks while maintaining a bullish stance.

Qualcomm Inc. is one of the most popular companies in the chip-making industry. The company’s popularity spreads everywhere where its Snapdragon processor has become a hot cake and a sought after processor for smartphones and other devices. The company is doing fairly well and now has another buy rating by Merrill Lynch. Analysts at Merrill Lynch have now been reiterated a BUY rating for Qualcomm’s stock. The average price target for the company’s stock is $80. The reason behind the company’s stock rating is that its focus on region and key consumers. Apart from this, the analytical firm also indicated that the contribution of tech giants like Samsung Group and Apple Inc. has added positively to the semiconductor and license business of Qualcomm. As reported by Merrill Lynch, the department of QCOMs CDMA Technologies has grown to the point where big companies in the tech world like Samsung, Xiaomi and Samsung accumulatively have governed a profit of 6.8%. Apart from this, the analyst also believes that the few loopholes that the company has been dealing with give investors a good chance since they can make a lucrative investment. Moreover, they also believe that if investments are made at this point then there are good chances for growth recovery that will be possible through smart and tactful restructuring. Merrill Lynch believes that Qualcomm is relatively overexposed when it comes to Samsung and Apple. The semiconductor giant can expect a contribution of 23% and 15% respectively that is likely to accelerate further. This is in comparison to the company’s revenues for the fiscal year of 2015, which is paired with a 33% and 24% rise in terms of profits. Apart from this, the exposure is said to be contributed by the revenues of Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL) that will remain stable in the times to come. Apart from this, the analysts at Merrill Lynch have also brought down their estimates since the demand for China made smartphones has decreased. Qualcomm was expected to raise 22% of its revenues from China but now things do not seem much in favor unless the demand for smartphones increases. Qualcomm despite has been doing quite well with several big tech companies on board; it still needs to put in more effort to gain stability. As for now, it is a good time for investors to invest in Qualcomm stocks with good growth recovery in the times to come.

Verizon Communications Inc. Announced Its New 5G Technology

Wireless communication giant, Verizon Communication, has announced its future plan regarding its upgrade of internet technology, which will be introduced by the next year.

There is good news for the users who want high-speed internet after the 4G LTE cellular internet. Once again, the wireless telecommunication giant, Verizon Communication, is looking forward to introduce its fastest internet service or “5G” internet technology by the upcoming year, with some implementation expected by 2017. For the all wireless companies and the rivals of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), this announcement puts high pressure because these companies were not expecting the announcement for much faster internet so early. They were expecting that 5G internet would take at least 3 to 4 years more to come. Some of its competitors are still believing that the company is just showing its upper hand on other telecommunication firms by just disclosing their plan regarding the technology that is not ready yet. As the time is passing, requirements of users are increasing day by day. High-speed internet or any upgrade in internet speed attracts the users. Verizon Internet is following the same trend in order to facilitate its followers and to increase the ratio of its followership. It is upgrading its internet technology and now, it is going to introduce 5G in place of 4G LTE but it does not mean that the users will not use 4G LTE. LTE technology is also appreciated by users and would be used further but some of its users are expecting that the 5G will represent the next escalation forward with signal strengths, immediate response times, and more bandwidth, which allows a number of users to connect at once. According to the report which discloses that the advance technology is way faster than 4G LTE, It is expected that the 5G will put forward 30 times faster internet as compared to its previous LTE technology. Keeping in consideration the escalation in speed, whole movies at high quality could be loaded in few seconds, and it would not take even a minute on cellular connections. This speedy downloading is one of its main characteristic that will attract the users, but it contains a number of upgraded aspects. Moreover, it is also expected that 5G network will receive much faster response. Verizon assured that this technology will put the remarkable impact in the internet market, and the technology could be further observed in terms of road sensors sending real-time data to driverless car in order to indicate them to be slow in case of emergency situation. People and business corporations are ambitiously looking forward to this advancement.

Shopify Inc. And Google Inc. Strengthen Their Position Against BlackBerry

Shopify Inc. and the giant tech organization, Google Inc., is looking forward to make their position strong in BlackBerry’s hometown.

Toronto-based multinational tech organization, Google, followed the same strategy like Shopify Inc. in order to make their position strong in an area, which is hometown of smartphone company BlackBerry in Waterloo even the mobile company decreased its number of teams regulating the market. The dearest fellow in the tech field ‘Shopify’, which is new in the technology market Canada, joined the tech market this year and worth at $2.75 billion. It is expected that the organization will soon disclose a significant growth in the entire region with respect to the sources aware of the matter. The sources, who asked not to be revealed due to the strategies, have not been disclosed for the time being, as the e-commerce coordinator has just rented out space in Waterloo that would help it to empower its existence from around 20 people to probably a few hundred in the region. A representative from Shopify slumped to comment over the strategy. The company that has approximately 800 workers spread around to cover its hometown in Ottawa as well as its satellite agencies in Toronto. The linking cities of Kitchener Waterloo and Montreal witnessed its shares going through the ceiling by 23% on Thursday just after announcement of its collaboration with the Amazon.com. The e-commerce organization, “Shopify”, named so because it’s selected partner influencing the organization regarding the smaller dealers to collaborate if they want to market their products via Amazon.com and need to accommodate backlog and payment criteria with the e-commerce website. Sources acknowledge that new space in the Waterloo city will be chiefly used for the enlargement of sales team and Shopify Plus developer. The company’s superior product targeted at larger merchants is Shopify Plus. The step comes after the Larry Page organization, Google, stood to move into a new 185,000 square foot space in Kitchener this fall. The office area is three times larger than its current working place that will provide the feasibility to the search engine firm to expand vastly its 300 workers labor in the region. Moreover, one representative for Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) stated that the organization has not put forward any kind of development targets and the new place is being refined in a phase manner. On the other hand, another spokeswoman typed in an email for BlackBerry, “Our intention is to reallocate resources in ways that will best enable us to capitalize on growth opportunities while driving toward sustainable profitability across all facets of our business.”

Wireless Executive Caught Red Handed And Arrested After BlackBerry Leak

BlackBerry's former retail executive was arrested and imprisoned for selling the confidential insider trading information to another company.

A former retail execute from BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY) was imprisoned for 5 months because he sold the confidential and private data related to the company to a market expert whose consequent analysis report over 2013 sales for the company’s brand new and advance cellphone affected its stock price to a decline. In Boston, Douglas Woodlock, the Judge of United States District, commanded James Dunham, 60, to give five months of house captivity following his custodial term and to fulfill the penalty with the amount worth $76,000, after his earnest and emotional appeal in June to wire fraud. In Boston, US Attorney Carmen Ortiz put forward the confirmation regarding the judgment, and appeared in the first case spilling out of its inquiries into the black market for confidential information and data that remained outside the insider selling and purchasing activities. US Advocate Carmen Ortiz stated some lines in order show aggressive attitude in order to sue the one who is involved in illegal activities to leak the company’s insider information. The attorney affirmed that they would not show any kind of hesitation or did not even wait to litigate the one who is corrupt or seems to be involved in selling or buying private corporate data, regardless of whether there is evident connection related to insider transaction. Dunham was the Chief Operating Officer of wireless telecommunication firm, Wireless Zone, which operates around 400 outlets of Verizon Wireless association. With respect to the involved litigations and court documents, Dunham was involved in a secret cooperation with a stock specialist who worked for a Boston-based financial investment organization, named as Detwiler Fenton, in 2010, in order to provide insider information to the wireless firm, for which he got the monthly salary of around $2000. The legal representatives stated that the information received by the analysts acknowledged them about the affairs at the company’s stores and was used for research analysis provided to financial investors. The game plan was caught red handed during the month of April in 2013, as Dunham leaked the information about BlackBerry’s new mobile phone. During the time, which was not identified in the court documents, the company matched the details of smart phones companies, whose release of Z10 mobile was critical to the distressed company. According to the sources, BlackBerry stock showed a declined by 7%. The company disregarded that news and praised regulators to investigate properly. This news created a wind of excitement among stakeholders in the market. 

Qualcomm Inc. Shows Improvement After Disclosing Drone Platform

Multinational semiconductor firm, Qualcomm's shares are showing upward trend and more stability as it released its new Drone platform.

According to the report by TheStreet, a global semiconductor company, known as QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) shares are improving by 1.32% to $55.04 on Thursday as the company released a new platform for consumer drones, named as Qualcom Snapdragon Flight.

Senior Vice President of Qualcomm technologies, Raj Talluri, affirmed some line regarding their new release. He said that the Snapdragon Flight is delivering technologies that have delineate the mobile industry over a single board, empowering OEMs to build drones that have less weight, easy to operate, and economical with long battery backup and superior configurations.

Moreover, the platform also put forward some advanced aspects, such as 4K camera for video, couple of cameras for depth, and one camera for indoor balance, according to Fast Company. The company acknowledged that its first customer is Chinese drone maker Yuneec.

Individually, TheStreet Ratings team recommended a hold rating to the Qualcom stock and put forward the grade C+ to the company. The stock specialist team from TheStreet gave a brief account regarding their suggested rating.

They concluded a hold rate for the organization. The basic factor that have affected their rating are mixed, some mentioned potential, few indicating weaknesses, with few documentations to justify the anticipation of negative or positive progress for this stock parallel to other stocks. The association’s potential can be observed in many areas including its highly strong financial position with justifiable credit levels by most evaluations, increasing profit ranges and eminent return on equity. However to overcome these potentials, they also find instabilities as well as decreasing net income, weak executing cash flow, and a typically displeasing progress in the stock itself.

TheStreet Rating team concluded some recommendation and estimations over the company based on their analysis, which includes the following:

The company’s EPS showed a downward steep by 44.3% during the most recent quarter against the same quarter last year. The semiconductor company has stated unstable earnings lately. However, it stood for the earnings per growth in the upcoming year. In the past budgetary year, the organization raised its bottom line by making $4.40 compared to the $3.91 during the last year. It is expected that these earnings will show an improvement in earnings; i.e., $4.60 against $4.40.

Currently, the company’s debt to equity ratio stands at 0.33, which is below the industry average, indicating that there has been fortunate management of credit levels. With respect to this, it maintains a rapid ratio around 3.83, which describes the capability to cover cash requirements.

BlackBerry Might Be Working On Two Android-Powered Phones

BlackBerry Ltd. is determined to launch Android-powered cellphones. Analysts anticipated that introducing Android phones would empower the company to retain itself in handsets business.

BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY) is looking forward to introduce new gadgets at the ending of this year perhaps, as it is focusing on these two smart phones. Although it is not confirmed that both the phones will run on either Android configurations or only one of it will follow Android.

BlackBerry news stated that the company is working on a smartphone, named as Venice, which is expected to come with a slider. According to some sources, the mobile is based on Android operating system and it will run on the Android Lollipop version, which will show considerably fast processing. The slider in the body design is implemented for both the options – physical keypad and the touch keypad.

The inclusion of slider is anticipated for the physical keyboard to bring the versatility and variety of options in the smartphone, as the Chief Executive Officer of BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY) had hinted before regarding cellphone at the Mobile World Congress.

According to the leaked photos, it is observed that the company is going to release the cellphone with the 18-megapixel camera, curved and furnished edges, and the most important aspect, the Android interface based on Lollipop processor.

It is also heard that the Snapdragon 808 chip, the processor with the speed of 1.8 gigahertz, will power the device and it also contains a 5 megapixel front camera – one the most improved front camera among all the Blackberry mobiles. Moreover, other rumors state that the new version has a display screen of more than 5.3 inches and 3GB of Random Access Memory.

On the other hand, apart from Venice, there is another report about company’s progress towards the invention of another phone, known as Prague, on which it is working. This further creates a confliction that either it is adoption by Blackberry or not.

Both smartphones, Venice and Prague, will be released in future, it is difficult to predict which one of these phones will be the Android runner. This set will resemble with the model Z3 and will not contain the touch and physical keypad together, as the rumor reports. The physical keypad is the main attraction for the android users. Excluding the physical keyboard from the phone might not amaze the users.

The time will decide the fate of these smartphones, but the expectations are high. The company remains positive about the progress of these products. The corporate giant holds a significant brand name in market, which makes it a center of attraction for the smartphone competitors.

Verizon Crowned As The Best Network Carrier By RootMetrics

Verizon ranked no.1 network carrier by RootMetrics for the fourth consecutive year.

Verizon Communications Inc. has embraced a new turning point where it has now been ranked as number 1 by the RootMetrics. RootMetrics is a popular company in the United States that is known for testing the performance of networks. Verizon succeeded in getting this ranking after it was successful in beating core rivals in terms of reliability, rating, speed, call, text and data.

Apart from Verizon, several other big names in wireless network communication like T-Mobile US inc., Sprint Corporation and AT&T Inc. were tested as well. These tests were conducted by RootMetrics by the start of the fiscal year of 2015 and came to an end in June. On the basis of performance; this is not the first time when Verizon has topped the list but it has been successful in banging first position for the past four years.

According to the score board, VZ succeeded in getting an accumulative score of 94.5 out of 100. On the other hand AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile scored 91.8, 87.5 and 82.0. Almost 7,323 indoor locations were chosen and 6 million tests were conducted covering a span of 237,506 miles throughout United States.

The reason behind Verizon’s substantial growth is that the company has working on its network operations since the previous year. Almost $10 billion were invested by the company during FY14 in order to enhance the network quality. At this point of time, the core focus of Verizon Communications is to work on new technology.

Verizon at this point is not only interested in making its network operations better but it also seeks to make it customer service better by offering quality services. These rating will be a positive catalyst for Verizon and will help them in expanding their clientele in the present trimestral. The company experienced a massive boom where it has succeeded in adding 1.1 million users in retail post-paid connectivity and 1 million in retail connectivity.

These ratings are likely to affect the Verizon stock price after trade today. A 0.08 per cent increase was in the trade where the stocks were trading at $47.53. Despite the company has been doing relatively well but the stock slump has affected its performance.

Verizon has potential to grow and with such positive rating, their future seems stable. The company needs to now focus and derive ways to overcome the stock slump to embrace stability in the long run.