Mobile Industry News 11/16/09

Quattro Wireless' daily take on interesting and important news for the mobile industry. See something today that we missed? Post it in the comments or send it our way on twitter @intheq
 
80% of Consumers Won’t Pay for Mobile News
Mobile Marketing Watch
As a growing number of major media outlets proceed with eliminating free digital news content in favor of premium, subscription based services, a new report from Forrester Research doesn’t offer promising data to support the transition from free to paid content.
 
NBC Launches All-In-One Video Player, VoIP And Texting Tool—And It's Ad-Supported
NBC Universal’s latest attempt to refine its social media strategy includes an everything-but-the-kitchen sink app called the NBC Communicator. The tool is designed to attract users and advertisers to full-length episodes directly on NBC.com, as opposed to video site Hulu, which is backed by the network along with News Corp and ABC. NBCU reps wouldn’t say what kind of CPMs they’re charging to advertise on the app.
 
Marketing Daily: Consumers Love Their Supermarket Apps
MediaPost | Marketing News
So, does all this "app-iness" prove that Americans are increasingly in love with grocery lists, as so much of the "new frugalism" research indicates? No," says Phil Lempert, the consumer trends expert known as the Supermarket Guru. "It proves we are in love with apps."
 
Online Media Daily: Report: A Quarter Million Droids Sold In First Week
MediaPost
A quarter of a million Droid handsets were sold in the first week after the Motorola smartphone from Verizon Wireless was released Nov. 6, according to a new estimate by mobile app analytics firm Flurry. That makes the much-hyped Droid easily the best selling Android-based phone to date, far surpassing the opening week performance of the T-Mobile myTouch, which sold 60,000 units.
 
From Recession to Recovery, Re-Invention
digiday
By all standard economic indicators, it appears that the U.S. is finally emerging from the worst recession in several decades. Even consumers have begun, albeit timidly, to venture out, shopping for non-essential items. 
 
This Is Your Phone Calling: Get to the Doctor
GigaOM
Could your smartphone one day notify you that you are in the early stages of a life-threatening disease — long before a doctor does? Strong signs indicate that mobile phones will become capable of that and many more types of medical diagnostic tasks.
 
Warner Bros. launches first Harry Potter iPhone app
VentureBeat
Independent developers have had great success creating apps for the iPhone in the past couple of years. But big brands are expected to elbow their way into the market as it grows more mainstream.
 
WiMAX Hits Austin and San Antonio Today

Sprint announced WiMAX service today in San Antonio and my hometown of Austin, Texas, so this is just to tell y’all I’m playing with a modem and will be letting folks know how it all works, once I activate the darn thing.