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Kendall And Kylie Jenner Video Game Gives Glu Mobile A Lift

Freemium game publisher Glu Mobile ( GLUU ) got a lift on Thursday from the launch of its latest celebrity video game, based on reality TV stars Kendall and Kylie Jenner. The mobile game, “Kendall & Kylie,” quickly jumped to the top of the download chart on Apple ‘s ( AAPL ) App Store. On Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Google Play store, however, it ranked No. 129 on the free games chart on Thursday afternoon. Shares of Glu, a low-priced and volatile small-cap, jumped 4.5% to 3.74 on the stock market today . Earlier in the session, the stock had risen as much as 8.7%. San Francisco-based Glu has struggled to find a follow-up to its hit celebrity game “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.” But the Jenner girls, Kim’s half-sisters, appear to have the Kardashian golden touch. Customer reviews of the new game have been highly favorable, in contrast to Glu’s previous celebrity game, “Katy Perry Pop,” which flopped. Like all of Glu’s games, “Kendall & Kylie” is free to play, but users can buy extras to enhance the game. “Kendall & Kylie” features the voices, likenesses and exclusive video messages from the Jenner sisters. In the game, players interact with the sisters as friends and mentors as they work to realize their creative and career aspirations. “Kendall and Kylie Jenner’s combined social followers have more than doubled to over 150 million since Glu’s original partnership announcement, showcasing their tremendous impact on pop culture,” Glu CEO Niccolo de Masi said in a statement . “The global awareness of each of their personal brands makes them great partners for mobile gaming.” Other upcoming celebrity video games from Glu will feature pop singers Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift. RELATED: Taylor Swift Video Game In Glu Mobile Investors’ ‘Wildest Dreams’ Zynga Stock Getting Dogged By Declining User Base .

Comcast, AT&T Fire Back As FCC Moves Ahead With Set-Top Box Proposal

Federal regulators Thursday moved forward with a proposal to make it easier for consumers to switch from set-top boxes leased monthly from pay-TV companies to new devices sold at retail by consumer electronics or Internet companies. Comcast ( CMCSA ), AT&T ( T ) and other pay-TV companies quickly criticized the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to begin making the new rules, calling it unneeded because of advances in Internet and app-based technology. Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google and Tivo ( TIVO ) are among companies that could gain from the FCC’s proposal. Roku, a maker of video streaming devices, has sided with cable TV industry partners amid the lobbying battle. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, an Obama administration appointee, said Thursday in a hearing that rising set-top box leasing fees have hurt consumers. The FCC, with a Democratic majority, voted 3-to-2 to begin a formal rule-making process. The agency aims to develop technical standards so that new hardware suppliers can provide access to programming sold by pay-TV companies. The FCC says that its set-top box initiative is not a threat to copyright protections, although pay-TV providers pay content companies for programming. Republican FCC member Michael O’Rielly said that it would take three years for new products to appear, because pay-TV companies would have two years to comply with any new technical standards for sharing programming. He added that technology innovation would render the FCC’s rules “obsolete” in the meantime. Comcast, in a blog post, said: “A new government technology mandate makes little sense when the apps-based marketplace solution … is driving additional retail availability of third-party devices without any of the privacy, diversity, intellectual property, legal authority or other substantial concerns raised by the FCC chairman’s mandate.” Comcast has stepped up deployment of Internet-ready X1 set-top boxes. The FCC proposal has pressured shares of  Arris International ( ARRS ), a supplier of set-top boxes to the cable industry; they were down 13% in afternoon trading on the stock market today , following the vote, but pay-TV stocks saw no big moves. AT&T, in a statement, said: “While consumers are embracing an apps-based approach that offers a variety of content on more than 450 devices, the FCC has chosen to go down a path that threatens the very competition that has led to a vibrant marketplace. As this proceeding continues, we hope these concerns are given the weight they deserve and the commission allows consumers and not Google to continue to drive the market.” By selling set-top box type devices, Google could target the TV advertising market, raising privacy issues, according to critics. Wheeler’s proposal could also impact Charter Communications ( CHTR ), Time Warner Cable ( TWC ) and  Verizon Communications ( VZ ), as well as satellite TV broadcasters DirecTV and Dish Network ( DISH ).

Apple Last Quarter Suffered First-Ever Decline In iPhone Sales

Apple ( AAPL ) iPhone sales to end users fell for the first time on a year-over-year basis in the fourth quarter, research firm Gartner ( IT ) said Thursday. The overall smartphone market saw sales to end users rise 9.7% worldwide to 403 million units in Q4. But iPhone sales declined 4.4% year over year to 71.5 million units, Gartner said. When Apple reported December-quarter results on Jan. 26, it said iPhone sales rose 0.4% to 74.78 million units. But Apple, among other vendors, counts iPhones sold into the sales channel, not those sold through to end customers. “Apple counts smartphone stock in retail inventory as ‘sold’ because Apple no longer owns it,” Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta told IBD via email. “Gartner does not consider this a sale to an end user and we use our own methodology to estimate sales to end users, based on Apple figures and other data.” Apple expects its own iPhone sales figures to fall on a year-over-year basis in the current quarter, Apple’s fiscal Q2 . Total industry smartphone sales to end users saw their slowest growth since 2008, Gartner said in a press release . In the fourth quarter, Samsung and Huawei were the only two top-five smartphone vendors to increase their sales to end users, Gupta said. South Korea-based Samsung continued to lead the industry, with sales to end users of 83.44 million smartphones in Q4, up 14.2% year over year. Its global smartphone market share rose to 20.7% last quarter from 19.9% a year earlier. Samsung makes smartphones based on the open-source Android operating system from Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Google. But Samsung’s share of the premium smartphone segment is eroding as more customers switch to iPhones, Gupta said. “For Samsung to stop its falling sales of premium smartphones, it needs to introduce new flagship smartphones that can compete with iPhones and stop the churn to iOS devices,” Gupta said.  Samsung is expected to unveil its latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S7 series, on Sunday ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain. Apple easily held on to second place with 17.7% market share, down from 20.4% a year earlier. China-based Huawei came in third place with 32.12 million smartphones sold, up 52.7% year over year. Its market share jumped to 8% in Q4 from 5.7% a year earlier. Rounding out the top five last quarter were China-based vendors Lenovo and Xiaomi with 5% and 4.5% market share, respectively, Gartner said. Gartner expects Chinese smartphone makers to continue to grab market share in 2016. “They are well positioned to capitalize on demand for midrange to lower-end smartphones in emerging markets as they aggressively expand outside China,” Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza said in a report ahead of Mobile World Congress . “Their cost advantage allows them to push affordable, but more sophisticated midtier offerings, while increasing their brand awareness.” In terms of smartphone market share by operating system, Google’s Android OS climbed to 80.7% share in Q4, up from 76% in Q4 2014. The 17.7% share for Apple’s iOS was No. 2 Microsoft ‘s ( MSFT ) Windows faded to 1.1% market share in Q4, compared with 2.8% a year earlier. BlackBerry ( BBRY ) evaporated to 0.2% market share, vs. 0.5% in Q4 2014. Image provided by Shutterstock . RELATED: Over Quarter Of U.S. iPhone Owners Still Use 4-Inch Handsets Apple iPhone Sales In China Fall Off Cliff In January .