Google could soon be the search engine of choice for Verizon Wireless phones — that is, if the two companies hammer out a partnership deal in the next month or so, The New York Times reported Friday.
The growing popularity of sophisticated mobile phones with simplified Web searching makes the prospective deal with Google especially attractive for Verizon Wireless, the Times noted.
“There is demand for Google search despite what the carriers put in front of them,” Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst at Nielsen IAG, told the Times. “Consumers want brand names they know.”
The deal also makes …

Can the mobile Internet revive struggling local newspapers? 
The New York Times reported Monday that Encinitas, Calif.-based Verve Wireless, which helps newspaper publishers create news websites for cellphones, thinks it can.
Verve has already created mobile compatible versions of 4,000 U.S. newspapers — and it recently received a $3 million investment from the Associated Press.  The newspaper industry is betting that Verve’s mobile approach will help to boost dwindling newspaper readership, the Times reported.
The story noted that Americans are increasingly surfing the Web via their mobile phones: of the 95 million mobile …

On Monday, Nielsen Mobile released first quarter 2008 smartphone statistics for the U.S.  Among the findings:
 
Smartphone users are predominantly male (59%) and most are between the ages of 25 and 34 (29%) or 35 and 44 (24.5%). 
A third of smartphone users (35.1%) have an annual household income of more than $100,000. 
More than half (52%) keep their phones for personal use, while another 23% say their company foots the bill.
View the Full Nielsen Media Alert: 6-30-08-smartphone-blast.