Mark Walsh

Internet users worldwide spent an average of 5 and a half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in December, an 82% increase from a year ago.

The proportion of adult U.S. subscribers owning smartphones jumped to 17% last year from 11% in 2008 and 7% in 2007.

A new consumer survey of smartphones confirms what many iPhone owners will readily tell you -- that they love the device but hate the wireless service it's paired with.

If analyst Laura Martin is right, Hulu is the demon seed that will wipe out the network television business as we know it.

China has long loomed as a huge potential opportunity for outside mobile technology companies. Cracking that market has been another matter.

Mobile phones and online social networks are natural allies, but social sites must still work closely with handset makers to ensure a user-friendly consumer experience.

Even during the Great Recession, online ad spending by the telecommunications industry has remained strong. Indeed, the downturn has fueled competition for unlimited, fixed-rate cell phone calling plans and boosted advertising as a result.

By shifting programming from television to the Web, TV networks are on a "slippery slope" that puts the combined $300 billion market valuation of the industry at risk, warns a new report.

Technology research firm In-Stat forecasts that by 2013 the number of U.S. broadband households watching Web-to-TV content will grow to 24 million, generating $2.9 billion in revenue from streaming services.

Mobile broadband subscriber growth slowed dramatically in the fourth quarter of 2008 as consumers cut back on discretionary spending, according to new data from comScore. After six consecutive quarters of double-digit growth, the number of mobile broadband users slowed to 5% in the fourth quarter.