Discount bolsters numbers: The BlackBerry Curve was the best-selling smartphone during the first quarter, outstripping sales of Apple’s iPhone 3G, according to a market research organization. The NPD Group says several factors cave the Curve a popularity surge, including its $99 price tag and that it is available for all major wireless network—the iPhone is strictly designed to work with AT&T. Smartphones make up 23% of all wireless sales, compared with 17% during the first quarter of 2008.
Is it over? Hopes that the recession is easing got a boost from reports that construction spending and pending home sales both fared better than expected in March. The Commerce Department says construction spending increased 0.3% in March, the best showing since a similar rise last September. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected spending to drop 1.5% for a sixth straight monthly decline. Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors said its index of pending home sales rose 3.2% to 84.6 in March, the second monthly increase after it hit a record low in January. The pending sales index also is 1.1% above last year’s levels. Economists called the new data faint glimmers of hope that construction activity could be stabilizing, although at very low levels.
