In comments just before Chinese telecom firm Huawei introduces its new high-end smartphone, the Ascend P6, the company would consider an acquisition of Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) to help Huawei become a global leader in smartphone manufacturing.
A report in the Financial Times cites Richard Yu, the chairman of the company’s consumer business group, said:

We are considering these sorts of acquisitions; maybe the combination has some synergies but depends on the willingness of Nokia. We are open-minded.

Yu expects the smartphone market to consolidate around three or four companies, and he wants his firm to be one of them. Obvious leaders are Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) on the hardware side, and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) on the operating system side. Huawei is the third largest maker of smartphones when measured by volume.

Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) “very small market share” makes its eventual success questionable, according to Yu. And the fact that Microsoft charges for Windows Phone, while Android is free, doesn’t help matters.

The Chinese firm tried to buy the assets of a bankrupt U.S. networking startup, and was denied permission to do so by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which was concerned about having a Chinese firm selling critical networking components in the U.S. And with the current issues around phone call monitoring by the U.S. and other governments, it is questionable that Huawei would get permission to acquire Nokia.

Nokia’s shares are reacting positively, as you might expect, up about 5.5% at $3.89 after peaking at up about 11% at $4.12. The stock’s 52-week range is $1.63 to $4.90.

The AT&T online page set to promote the Samsung phone says “Pre-Order Now” and:

This item isn’t available for online purchase with in-store pickup, but it may still be available for purchase at the store.

There is also a way to check in store availability.

The Samsung Galaxy S 4 Active is priced at $199 with a two-year subscription plan.

The new smartphone has several features for people who want to batter their phones without harming them:

The Samsung Galaxy S 4 Active™ is water- and dust-resistant and is IP67 certified. Needless to say,
it shakes off water and debris without a second thought. Not to mention, the screen is made with
Gorilla® glass, which is built to be tough and scratch-resistant. Whether you’re going out with
the family, out of town, or out exploring the world — it’s the perfect travel partner.

So much for worrying about a protective case.

When the bond was issued, SoftBank was prevented from selling it without permission from Sprint. The agreement was amended this week, according to Bloomberg, and it now permits SoftBank to sell the bond back to Sprint if Dish prevails in acquiring the wireless carrier.

The bond is convertible into 590.5 million Sprint shares.That would cost Sprint approximately $1.2 billion, the difference between the agreed conversion price of $5.25 and Sprint’s current trailing price of about $7.30.

For former professional gambler Charlie Ergen, currently chairman of Dish Network, the price of poker just went up.

Sprint’s shares are up 0.2% in early afternoon trading, at $7.34 in a 52-week range of $3.01 to $7.50.

Dish Network’s shares are up 2.6% at $39.45 in a 52-week range of $26.12 to $40.95.

Sprint, which already owns a slim majority of Clearwire’s shares, is not likely to give up too easily. The wireless carrier has already raised questions about the legal possibility of a Dish acquisition of Clearwire.

Sprint’s claims that Dish’s demand for three seats on Clearwire’s board and other governance rights cannot be legally agreed to by Clearwire without Sprint’s consent and the consent of some of Clearwire’s other shareholders. Sprint says it will enforce its legal and contractual rights, which makes Dish’s offer for Clearwire “not actionable.” Dish has responded to Sprint’s claims, rebutting each.

Just a few days ago, Sprint accepted a higher offer from Japan’s Softbank Corp., against which Dish Network is also bidding for the purchase of Sprint. The ball in this game appears to be in Dish’s court now.

Dish has raised its bid for Clearwire to $4.40 a share, topping Sprint’s top bid of $3.40 made last month. The bidding interest in Clearwire is in its vast wireless spectrum holdings. Dish is seeking a 25% stake in Clearwire, along with three board seats. What that will give the satellite TV provider — which will still be at the mercy of Sprint — is a little difficult to discern. But acquiring Sprint and control of Clearwire makes a lot of sense.

The first reason the move is brilliant is that some customers probably do not keep careful track of when they can upgrade to new devices. In many cases that is because they are satisfied with what they have.

Many customers also are used to paying extra when a new smartphone comes out. Often these are introduced in the midst of a subscription cycle, so the assumption is that to get the latest smartphone is part of being a wireless subscriber on any of the major wireless systems.

However, AT&T’s biggest weapon is inertia, and customers’ fear that changing wireless plans will effect their service. Does it cost money to change to Verizon Wireless or Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S)? It depends on when a subscription has lapsed. Even then, it requires some degree of effort. Of course, there is the worry that a new service may not be as good as an old one in terms of geographic coverage or customer service.

AT&T has its customers trapped, or at least it believes its customers feel that way — or they do not care. The change from 20 months to 24 months to get an upgrade is in the fine print, which few people read. AT&T likely will not lose more than a handful of customers. In the meantime, it has figured out one more way to make money on those people.

AT&T added nearly 300,000 postpaid wireless subscribers in the first quarter, with a burst of 365,000 new tablet subscriptions leading net additions of connected devices totaling 431,000. With more than half the U.S. adult population already owning smartphones — and 90% owning a cell phone of some kind — AT&T and its chief rival, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), need to keep finding ways to boost subscriber numbers.

AT&T reiterated its guidance for revenue growth of 2% in 2013. The company also expects second-quarter wireless EBITDA margins to be comparable to the first quarter’s 43.2%.

A somewhat less-rosy outlook is related the company’s consolidated margins, which AT&T now expects to be down year-over-year. The company said this is due to “strong consolidated customer additions and investments in new growth opportunities.” In other words, it is getting more costly to keep adding subscribers.

AT&T’s shares are inactive in the premarket this morning, having closed last night at $35.81 in a 52-week range of $32.71 to $39.00.

Bloomberg has report that Apple is working with Brightstar to handle the trade-in program. Obviously, the aim will be to take the trade-ins and then redistribute those older models in emerging markets likely in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

What investors need to know is that this may not exactly be a huge boom for Apple. For starters, some credits have been offered from time to time by AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) or by resellers and marketers who have licenses to sell iPhones and other smartphones for those carriers. T-Mobile USA (NYSE: TMUS) has also had credits and trade-ins.

As far as whether or not the trade-in policy will work, some iPhone users keep their old phones as their backup iPhone. If you have ever lost or dropped your smartphone to where the glass broke or to where the phone is ruined you understand why. Many consumers choose to not buy the insurance offered for the iPhone because it is expensive, and keeping a backup of your prior iPhone may prove to be good enough.

The good news is that Apple will likely at least see some benefits from the trade-in program. Its growth has been slowing and analysts are looking for any new methods to increase the quarterly iPhone unit sales routinely. The Bloomberg article does include some of those upside projections, but we will leave that up to you.

Investors are so far underwhelmed about the news as Apple shares are down 1.5% at $438.60 against a 52-week trading range of $385.10 to $705.07.

Both Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) are “winning” the mobile market, depending on what track the two are running on. Google’s Android operating system is a clear winner in the platform wars, and devices running Android outnumber devices running Apple’s iOS.

Market research firm Flurry looked at the horse race on a couple of different tracks as well. On the basis of time spent in apps, iOS outruns Android by more than 20%. The introduction of the iPhone 5 stopped a skid in iOS app usage that followed the introduction of Samsung’s Galaxy S3 smartphone. The new iPad and the iPad mini started another Android slide that was halted slightly by the introduction of the Galaxy S4, but the halt was only temporary.

Flurry offers three possible explanations for the gap in time spent within apps, but our view is that the introduction of the iPad mini really changed the game. The smaller screen size and lower price answered consumer demand for a competitively priced Apple tablet. And tablets, more so than even smartphones, have been widely adopted in the two-screen environment that was once dominated by a TV screen.

Apple completely dominates the profit side of the mobile device market, but Android stands out in emerging markets, where inexpensive devices prevail. Whether Google can convert all those cheap Android-based phones into profits remains a question that the company has avoided answering. We predict that as soon as there’s some good news to report, Google will be first out of the gate.

The Guardian reports on domestic surveillance by the NSA:

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an “ongoing, daily basis” to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk — regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.

At least no one is listening on each and every call.

Since the first study for this project in May 2011, smartphone penetration has risen from 35% to 56%, while feature phone share has dropped from 48% to 35%. The number of Americans who do not own a cell phone of any kind has dropped from 17% to 9%.

Smartphone owners are generally younger, better educated, and have more income than feature phone users. By race and ethnicity, white/non-Hispanic Americans trail both black/non-Hispanic and Hispanic Americans by 53% to 64% and 60%, respectively.

Grouped by age and income, 90% of 18-29 year olds with incomes of $75,000 or more own smartphones, compared with just 43% of those age 65 or older at similar income levels own smartphones.

Both iPhones from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and smartphones using the Android operating system from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) have posted significant sales gains since 2011. Apple’s share of those surveyed by Pew rose from 10% to 25%, while Android users grew from 15% to 28%. BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) has seen its share drop from 10% to 4% and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has seen its share fall from 2% to 1% among the 56% of cell phone owners with smartphones.

The younger you are, the more likely it is that you use an Android-powered phone. Android phones lead in every age group until smartphone owners reach 55 years of age. But Apple leads in users with college degrees and with users who earn more than $75,000 a year.

Provided that wireless carrier costs don’t fly through the roof, it appears that U.S. consumers will continue to migrate to smartphones at a very rapid rate. The phones themselves are getting cheaper and that will add to the adoption rate as well.