Alvarion has announced another round to wage-cuts and layoffs as it works to return to profitability. The company will reduce the paychecks of all its employees, “along with adjustments to headcount.” Alvarion is also moving to be more responsive to customer with a revised go-to-market strategy, shorter decision cycles and product upgrades.
Nokia is taking aim at the feature phone market with three new touchscreen handsets in its Asha line, which runs on Java instead of Windows Phone 7. The three new devices come with many of the same features as smartphones and are preloaded with Facebook, Twitter and apps for e-mail and instant messaging. The Asha 305 retails for $85 and will be available in the second quarter. The Asha 306 and Asha 311, both slated to hit shelves in the third quarter, are expected to sell for $93 and $121, respectively.
Sprint says it’s switching to an “ecoEnvelope” that will allow customers use the same envelope to receive bills and mail in payments, instead of stuffing a billing envelope with a separate return envelope. The new format is expected to save Sprint just under $500 million in operational costs over the next year and the equivalent of 447 tons of paper. The new bill packaging is one of a number of environmental initiatives undertaken by Sprint.
Wireless infrastructure specialist Stoke added Keating Capital to its list of investors on Tuesday. Keating bought $3.5 million of Stoke’s stoke through a secondary purchase of common shares from Stoke employees, so Stoke did not receive additional capital through the investment. Stoke’s other investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital and Docomo Capital.
Motorola Solutions is expanding its work with emergency communications specialist Intrado. Motorola will resell Intrado’s products and services to global customers, including the Intrado Viper and Power 911 products. The partnership will allow Motorola to expand multimedia capabilities and improve workflows for workers in public safety answering points.
uTest, provider of in-the-wild software testing, today announced a partnership with Appcelerator. The partnership provides Appcelerator’s 1.6 million mobile developers with access to uTest’s suite of mobile app testing services – including functional, usability and security testing.
