Wireless

Apple came close to matching Android's smartphone market share during the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a Nielsen report released Wednesday. The debut of Apple's iPhone 4S in the fall had a major impact on the proportion of smartphones sold in the quarter. Demand for iPhones increased nearly 20 percent in December compared to three months earlier, Nielsen found.

AT&T ranks as the lowest-scoring cellphone service provider in a new Consumer Reports survey that asked 58,000 customers to rate their carriers. AT&T was the only one to drop significantly in overall satisfaction from a year earlier. More than half of the of the survey respondents who used AT&T as a carrier owned some version of the iPhone, the Apple smartphone that is exclusive to AT&T.

The Federal Communications Commission is expected to propose rules Thursday that will require wireless phone carriers to alert customers by voice or text message when they have reached their monthly usage limits. The FCC wants carriers to send this alert before customers incur extra charges.

I first met Dan Hesse, the CEO of Sprint, back in the mid 1990s and have since followed both his and Sprint's journey. Let me tell you the backstory of the battle Hesse is fighting to bring Sprint back to life. I will also share a few thoughts about where it is today in its recovery, and what we can expect going forward.

Intel has focused solely on the computer business for so long, we forget it can pursue other avenues of growth as well. Tomorrow, all our devices will be connected and talk to each other and share information. In that new world, Intel has been looking around for another business to acquire to help expand its reach. However, Intel does not have a footprint in that space.