Categories
Close
Menu
Menu
Close
Search
Search

Featured Articles

Opinion

Last week at The Fonecast: 14th January 2012

Mark

Harder, better, faster, stronger...

Share:

Print

Rate article:

No rating
Rate this article:
No rating

Mark Bridge writes:

Oh, how the mobile industry loves a superlative. Much like the work ethic celebrated by Daft Punk (or Kanye West, if you prefer), it’s always looking for a new angle.

The mobile part of last week’s CES show in Las Vegas presented us with the world’s largest smartphone and the world’s thinnest smartphone. Well, depending on your precise definition and probably only until Mobile World Congress.

Anyway, Alcatel came up with the 6.45mm deep (in places) Android-powered One Touch Idol Ultra smartphone, while Huawei’s Ascend Mate had a 6.1-inch screen. Also from Huawei came a Windows Phone 8 handset and a flagship Android phone with a 5-inch HD display, 13 megapixel camera and quad-core CPU… slightly taking the shine off Sony’s flagship Android phone, which had a 5-inch HD display, 13 megapixel camera and – I’m sure you’ve guessed – a quad-core CPU.

Meanwhile, in another part of the show, Belkin added a mobile-controlled WiFi light switch to its home automation product range while Glympse announced an in-car location-sharing feature in partnership with Ford.

Outside of CES, NTT Docomo said it’s planning a smartphone aimed specifically at pre-teen children and teenagers in Japan, UK pub company Punch Taverns arranged free WiFi in its pubs and Ordnance Survey launched its first official map application for Apple devices.

Finally, and away from the glitter of Vegas, we’ve had some preliminary financial results. HTC expects its quarterly profit to show a drop when official figures are released in the next few weeks, Nokia said it shipped 4.4 million Lumia smartphones (and 2.2 million Symbian smartphones) in the last three months and Samsung predicted a record quarter. Yes, yet another superlative.

Every Monday morning we summarise the past week’s mobile industry headlines in our newsletter. To receive it, simply register your email address at TheFonecast.com by clicking the link at the top right-hand corner of our home page.

Comments

Collapse Expand Comments (0)
You don't have permission to post comments.

Opinion Articles

ExclusiveMultiplayer Computer Games are Big Business for Small Devices

Greg Flakus of voanews.com writes:

Millions of people are addicted to playing games on mobile devices, with rivals and teammates spread around the world. A company in Austin, Texas has developed such a game, known as a mobile multiplayer online game, for the Apple iPhone and iPad, basing it on a pen-and-paper game that was popular in the 1970s called Traveller.

ExclusiveLast week at The Fonecast: 30th April 2012

Mark Bridge writes:

Last week mobile phones and health were back in the headlines together, rather like love & marriage or salt and vinegar. The news is pretty much as we’ve heard before; this time it’s the UK Health Protection Agency’s independent Advisory Group on Non-Ionising Radiation telling us there’s no convincing evidence that mobile phone technologies cause adverse effects on human health – but longer-term research is still needed.

ExclusiveBig headlines for Three UK... but no big changes

Mark Bridge writes:

The headlines sound pretty dramatic. “Three exits business market”. “Three parts company with Phones 4u”. It sounds like the 3G network operator is cutting back and reorganising. But let's look a little closer.

ExclusiveLast week at The Fonecast: 23rd April 2012

Mark Bridge writes:

We’ve had a few sets of quarterly results in the past week. Let me summarise as best I can.

Qualcomm: doing very well, thank you.
Microsoft: pretty decent, although no-one’s talking much about phones.
Intel: not as good as before, although better than expected.
Nokia: sorry, we’ve lost a billion Euro. Well, we did warn you...

RSS
First4041424345474849Last

Recent Podcasts

ExclusivePodcast from Mobile World Congress 2015

Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.

ExclusiveLooking back at February: from security scares to multiple MVNOs

We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.

ExclusiveA month of mobile: O2 counts on 3, Microsoft counts to 10 and Apple counts its profits

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.

RSS
12345678910Last

Follow thefonecast.com

Archive Calendar

«May 2026»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
27282930123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
1234567

Archive