Categories
Close
Menu
Menu
Close
Search
Search

Featured Articles

RSS
123

Opinion Articles

Opinion

Last week at The Fonecast: 24th October 2011

Mark

Share:

Print

Rate article:

No rating
Rate this article:
No rating

Mark Bridge writes:

If there’s one theme that dominates the last seven days – and, let’s face it, I like to find a theme wherever possible – it’s new mobile devices.

We started the week with Apple having sold over four million units of the new iPhone 4S in the first three days since its launch. This was followed by Motorola Mobility reinvigorating its RAZR brand by applying it to a high-spec Android smartphone – which in turn was followed by Google and Samsung revealing the Galaxy Nexus. It’s the first phone specifically designed for Android 4.0, also known as ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’, and will start hitting the shops next month.

Finally, in terms of product announcements, Casio turned up at the end of the week with a new Android device... but it’s not a phone. It’s not a tablet, either. No, the VX100 is a cash register (or ‘business support terminal’, if you prefer). We await the first reports of retail staff playing Grand Theft Auto III on the till.

We’ve now moved into quarterly results season, with Apple, eBay, Microsoft and Nokia all publishing loads of big numbers. I’d say the only real surprise was that Nokia didn’t do as badly as many people expected. Still, with the company’s new Windows Phone launch expected at Nokia World in a couple of days, it’s the next few quarters that’ll be really interesting.

Research In Motion has been easing its way back into the affections of its customers, starting with a free app giveaway to compensate for the recent service failure and then moving on to the announcement of a brand new operating system. It’ll be called BBX, being a combination of the BlackBerry phone operating system and the QNX platform used by the PlayBook. We’ve not seen much detail yet; it’s still a case of ‘watch this space’.

And I’ll end with another couple of unresolved questions. One is a report from Denmark, where some new research has found that mobile phone use seems to result in no increased risks of tumours to the central nervous system. More research is, of course, needed before we can be sure this doesn’t just apply to Danes.

And the other unresolved question comes from Vodafone, which is closing down the Vodafone 360 service. Although it reminded me of the ‘Pop Idol’-loving Vizzavi and its fluffy chick, Vodafone 360 was much more about connectivity and sociability. It was, in many ways, a social network aggregator. So if that didn’t work, what’s next?

Last week’s special podcast feature looked into mobile financial services - from banking to NFC payments - with contributions from Gemalto. Listen on our website, via iTunes or by downloading the MP3 file.

You can receive this news summary by email every week. Simply register 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.

Recent Podcasts

ExclusiveJohan Lodenius of MediaTek talks about wearable devices, smartphone evolution and the importance of driving costs down

This year's Mobile World Congress was notable for the number of product launches by handset manufacturers. To get a better understanding of smartphone manufacturing, we spoke to Johan Lodenius of semiconductor company MediaTek.

He gave us a simple overview of how 'fabless' manufacturing works, discussed developments in smartphones and wearable devices, contemplated the end of the PC era and talked about the importance of driving costs down.

ExclusiveMobile payments, new smartphones, wearable devices, connected cars, CeBIT and David Cameron

This week's programme opens with a quick look at David Cameron's commitment to 5G technology and the Internet of Things, which was made in a speech at CeBIT.

Iain and Mark then move on to talk about the other big mobile news headlines from the past few days, including the forthcoming Paym m-payment service, new HTC and LG smartphones, the growth of Chinese handset manufacturers, wearable devices, in-car connectivity and damaged iPhones.

ExclusiveThe rise of OTT messaging and the future of SMS: we talk to Stacy Adams of mBlox

Messaging was very much on the agenda at Mobile World Congress this year, following Facebook's announcement that it was planning to acquire WhatsApp in a 19 billion dollar deal. So if the future for this type of internet-based 'over the top' messaging service looks good, what does this mean for SMS?

To find out more, we spoke to Stacy Adams of mBlox to learn what was happening in the messaging world, to find out how SMS is being integrated with mobile apps - and to discover some of the other ways SMS was being used by businesses today.

ExclusiveWe talk about 4G LTE coverage and device sensors with OpenSignal at Mobile World Congress

Even at Mobile World Congress, the relevance of the mobile network operator can sometimes be forgotten. So for a different perspective on this year's event, we spoke to Samuel Johnston from British mobile crowd-sourcing firm OpenSignal.

Samuel discussed the announcements from MWC14 and OpenSignal's latest report into 4G LTE coverage around the world, as well as giving us an exclusive insight into OpenSignal's next research subject.

RSS
First567810121314Last

Follow thefonecast.com

Archive Calendar

«May 2026»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
27282930123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
1234567

Archive