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CONSUMERS
Cellphone Customer Satisfaction Increasing
Cellphone companies showed the most improvement among 14 industries in a survey of customer satisfaction. The University of Michigan said an index of customer satisfaction for wireless phone companies rose 4.8 percent from the previous year. Still, the cellphone satisfaction index of 66 was the fourth-lowest among the 14 industries. Cable and satellite satisfaction was worst, with a score of 63. Express delivery services scored the highest at 83.
INTERNET
Yahoo Redesigns Home Page
Yahoo is previewing a redesign of its main Web page that makes its search box more prominent and adds a preview of e-mails along with other new features. The change is the most significant since Jerry Yang and David Filo started the site in 1994. The company will continue to offer My Yahoo, which lets users customize their news and weather. Yahoo will also include a section called Yahoo Pulse that highlights what people are looking for or rating on the Web.
Palm Treo to Add Wi-Fi Capability
Palm will add wireless Internet capabaility to future models of the Treo phone. The company had declined to add Wi-Fi because it drains battery life. Chief executive Edward T. Colligan would not say when the capability would be added. "We do believe Wi-Fi is an important technology," Colligan said. "There's no question that we'll ultimately put in our products, but at the right time."
COMPUTERS
Sony to Introduce Paperback-Size PC
Sony next month will introduce a paperback-size computer that uses flash memory instead of a hard drive, challenging Samsung Electronics in the handheld PC market. The computer will look like the Vaio type U model that Sony announced yesterday, which will sell for $1,500. Samsung's Q1 device uses a hard drive, which stores more data but is less stable and uses more battery power than does flash memory. Both companies are targeting users who want small devices that are more powerful than mobile phones and that can perform some functions of a personal computer, such as Web surfing or word processing.
EARNINGS
Hewlett-Packard said its second-quarter profit rose 51 percent, to $1.46 billion, from the comparable quarter a year earlier. Sales rose 4.6 percent, to $22.6 billion, for the quarter ended April 30. Chief executive Mark V. Hurd cut expenses in his first year, enabling Hewlett-Packard to preserve profit margins as he reduced prices to beat rival Dell Dell in sales. Hewlett-Packard's PC shipments outpaced its larger rival in the quarter, according to researcher IDC.
Compiled from reports by Washington Post staff writers, the Associated Press and Bloomberg News.
