Alcatel Onetouch announced a $59 smartphone for AT&T’s prepaid GoPhone product line. The C1 will be available this month at national retailers and billed as an “ultra-affordable” pricing option “with a stylish design,” Alcatel said Thursday. Specs include a 3.5-inch Half-size Video Graphics Array touchscreen, 2 megapixel camera, 4 GB storage and 1.0 GHz dual-core processor running the Android 4.2 operating system.

Bose sent subscribers an email Wednesday saying SoundLink III speakers are now available with colors and logos for seven NFL football teams. NFL branding adds $50 to the cost of the Bluetooth SoundLink III, bringing it to $349. Supported teams are the Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots, New York Giants, New York Jets and Seattle Seahawks. Shipping is free at Bose.com.

CTIA asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to let it intervene in support of the FCC against the legal challenges brought against incentive auction rules by NAB and Sinclair, said a motion to intervene filed Thursday (http://bit.ly/YTCQyL). CTIA’s interests “will be substantially affected by this Court’s review of the challenged order,” the motion said. The Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition and CEA filed motions to intervene in support of the FCC (CED Sept 30 p4), opposing only the Sinclair petition, which has been described as having broader objections to the auction order than the NAB petition did.

The FCC created a new inbox for comments on Comcast’s planned buy of Time Warner Cable and the associated transfers of systems to Charter Communications, the commission said in a public notice Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1vBdly2). The inbox address is ComcastTWCMerger@fcc.gov, the PN said. Documents submitted to the inbox become part of the official record of the proceeding -- docketed as 14-57 -- and will be posted in the commission’s Electronic Comment Filing System, the PN said. The commission will also host a “Comma Separated Values (CSV) file for bulk upload of comments,” the PN said. There was a delay recently in posting comments to the docket on a document confidentiality issue related to the deals.

The NFC Forum launched the “Tap Into NFC” developer program Thursday, designed to leverage the capability of near field communication for new applications and services. The program will support application developers through events, networking opportunities and a dedicated website (http://bit.ly/1ufRexz) with developer kits, technical specs, news and product information, it said. To commemorate the launch, the NFC Forum will host a Twitter contest Oct. 16-23 using #Tapin2NFC, in which developers can share what they like most about the program and site, including favorite products from the product showcase, the forum said. A winning tweet will be selected at random and the winner will receive an NFC-enabled wearable device. Details will be available at the NFC Blog (http://bit.ly/1r1b2yC) the second week of October, the forum said.

JVC Americas and Kenwood U.S.A. completed their merger, announced in April, that aims to streamline operations and spur innovation, the companies said Wednesday. JVC and Kenwood brands will remain distinct in their respective user markets and sales channels, the companies said. Sales and marketing of car electronics for both brands, along with JVCKenwood USA headquarters, will continue to be based in Long Beach, California, while sales and marketing of communications and security products will be in Suwanee, Georgia, they said. Sales and marketing of AV and professional camera products will remain in Wayne, New Jersey. The combination of the two companies will lead to new product and system areas for consumer and professional markets, they said. In 2008, JVC and Kenwood said they would combine businesses, R&D and other work in under the corporate structure JVC Kenwood Holdings but with plans to retain their identities as separate operating companies.

Apple’s share of smartphone sales in Britain dipped only slightly ahead of the iPhone 6 launch due to robust sales of the iPhone 5c in August, said Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Historically, the British market sees a drop in share for Apple in the month before a new iPhone release, but the 1.6 percentage point dip in August 2014 was due to a focus on the iPhone 5c, “which tends to attract a slightly less tech savvy buyer who will be less likely to be holding off for the iPhone 6,” said Dominic Sunnebo, strategic insight director. The iPhone 5c was the best-selling phone in Britain in August with an 8.9 percent share, outselling the iPhone 5s at 7.6 percent and the Samsung Galaxy S5 at 6 percent, said Sunnebo. Of the 13.3 million iPhone owners in the U.K., roughly a third -- some 4 million users -- are ready for an upgrade, Kantar said. “Even before the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launched, some 85 percent of British iPhone owners planned to choose another iPhone at upgrade time,” said Sunnebo. In the past, attracting customers away from Android has been a challenge, but that could change with the larger screen size of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, he said. “It now remains to be seen how much of a barrier iPhone’s significant price premium will have on people switching” to the new Apple devices, he said. Android has remained the No. 1 operating system in the top five European countries (U.K., Germany, France, Spain and Italy) with 75.8 percent share for the three months ended August, with Apple at No. 2 with 13.6 percent, he said. Windows is third with 9.2 percent of sales during the latest period, said Sunnebo.

Sinclair’s court challenge of the FCC incentive auction order would deprive the broadcasters in the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition of the chance to participate in the auction, the EOBC said in a motion to intervene filed Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Wednesday. The EOBC motion seeks only to intervene against Sinclair’s challenge, not the narrower NAB filing it has been consolidated with, the motion said. CEA also asked to intervene solely against Sinclair (CED Sept. 30 p4). “EOBC member broadcasters have relied in good faith that the auction will occur under the rules adopted in the Report and Order and on the timetable set forth by the FCC,” the motion said. By asking the court to vacate or enjoin the auction order, Sinclair’s petition is a threat to the EOBC plans, the motion said. “If successful, Petitioner’s appeal will harm EOBC’s members,” the motion said.

Chinese telecom carriers’ strategies to end subsidies to smartphone makers has meant a falloff of smartphone demand after a peak in March and April, said an NPD DisplaySearch report released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1E0cKdR). Telecom carriers in China will gradually stop subsidizing smartphones directly to focus more on consumer call charges, DisplaySearch said, which is expected to affect current inventory levels of name brands. The change in strategy could affect the supply chain, adding to declining smartphone display average selling prices (ASPs) in the open market, DisplaySearch said. The average price of a 5-inch 720p in-plane switching module was $25 in August 2013 and dropped 44 percent to $14 this August, said DisplaySearch, which could lead to “weaker-than-usual” sales growth in second half 2014. “An adequate supply” of mobile phone displays will result in falling ASPs through the rest of the year, said Terry Yu, analyst. Coolpad, which has strong relationships with Chinese telecom carriers, already suffered from inventory issues that forced the company to implement a new distribution strategy in September, Yu said. Coolpad plans to launch three distinct brands to lessen the impact of subsidy adjustments: one each for telecom carriers’ channels, traditional distribution and e-commerce, Yu said. The iPhone 6’s arrival in China in a few weeks, however, is expected to improve display procurement demand and ASP performance, he said.

Third place behind Apple and Samsung in the tablet wars is “up for grabs" among Amazon, Asus, Lenovo and other “emerging vendors,” ABI Research said Wednesday (http://bit.ly/10lBnlY). Lenovo in particular “is working to gain ground in the market,” and in 2019 is expected to ship 21 million tablets, or 7.3 percent of the global market, ABI said. This “would land it solidly in third place,” it said. Lenovo remains the world’s biggest PC supplier, but now sells more smartphones and tablets than it does PCs, and is the world’s third-largest tablet supplier, Lenovo itself said in the runup to the IFA show last month in Berlin (CED Sept 3 p6). During 2013, the tablet market “exploded with new devices overwhelming consumers,” ABI said. “Leading tablet vendors quickly dominated the market, but are now feeling the squeeze and quickly losing market share control,” creating a “stall” in more advanced and mature markets like North America and Western Europe, it said. “This stall is giving other vendors the opportunity to close the prominent gap and claim third place. The dent emerging vendors are creating in the market is impressive, but continuing that success is going to be the real challenge.”