Latest Podcast



Featured Articles

Ofcom helps protect customers against unexpected roaming charges

Ofcom helps protect customers against unexpected roaming charges

UK service providers must notify customers when they connect to a different network

New rules from UK telecoms regulator Ofcom will protect customers when they use their mobile phone on a foreign network. In addition, customers will be alerted if they are inadvertently roaming, perhaps because they're near an international border.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

Global smartphone market is set for recovery, says new forecast

A new forecast from research specialists Canalys shows the smartphone market is set to recover next year. Worldwide shipments declined by 12% last year but that decline is expected to slow to 5% this year.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

New Hutchison/Vodafone network would be biggest UK operator

Vodafone Group plc and CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings Limited have agreed to combine their UK telecommunication businesses, respectively Vodafone UK and Three UK. The merger will create a large new network operator to compete with Virgin Media O2 and EE.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

UK mobile payment service Paym to close in March 2023

UK mobile payment service Paym will close on 7th March 2023. The service, which allowed users to make and receive payments using their mobile phone numbers, was launched in 2014.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Which? seeks payout for Samsung and Apple smartphone owners

Consumer protection organisation Which? has been given permission by the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal to represent Apple and Samsung smartphone buyers in a legal case against chip manufacturer Qualcomm.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
RSS

Opinion Articles

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Did 2009 turn out the way we expected?

Mark Bridge writes:

At this time of year it’s something of a tradition – certainly within the mobile industry – to make predictions for the year ahead. It’s a trend we’ve followed with The Fonecast… and we’ve done reasonably well over the last few years.

We’ll be making this year’s predictions for 2010 in our programme on 23rd December. Ahead of that, I’ve been listening to our last show of 2008 to see what we thought 2009 would hold for us.

James said he expected mobile payment trials to become more public and more widespread in 2009 ahead of commercial launches in 2010. That’s certainly happened here in the UK as well as abroad. We’ve seen Square launch in the USA, investment in mobile money from Nokia and the world’s first commercial NFC mobile payment system in Malaysia. In the UK we heard about a partnership between Orange & Barclaycard and saw O2 launch the O2 Money debit card.

I decided not to choose the commercial launch of femtocells – a pity, because Vodafone’s Access Gateway arrived in July – and instead went for the safer option of location-based services becoming one of 2009’s biggest growth areas.

Sure enough, Google launched its Latitude location-sharing service, GyPSii introduced real-time location sharing on social networks, Twitter introduced the option of geo-located ‘tweets’ and the location-specific advertising returned to the headlines through O2 and Vodafone.

But it’s Iain who really hit the jackpot this year. He predicted a year of consolidation – and, my goodness, we’ve seen plenty of that. Orange and T-Mobile was the biggest news for the UK, although we also had The Carphone Warehouse taking over Tiscali, Google buying AdMob plus assorted purchases by Nokia, 2ergo and many others.

Calendar 2010So – our 2009 predictions turned out well. (Rather better than 2008, to be honest!)  Now it’s time for us to start thinking about 2010…

Print
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Rate this article:
No rating

Categories: OpinionNumber of views: 8589

Tags:

Leave a comment

This form collects your name, email, IP address and content so that we can keep track of the comments placed on the website. For more info check our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use where you will get more info on where, how and why we store your data.
Add comment

Recent Podcasts

A week of mobile industry news, from UK 'not spot' coverage proposals to Microsoft's new non-Nokia smartphone

Podcast - 12th November 2014

This week's podcast begins with a heated discussion about the UK government's consultation about improving mobile phone coverage.

Iain, James and Mark then move on to talk about over-the-top voice services, mobile internet usage, patent deals, the UK's next spectrum auction and wearable technology.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

Talking about mobile ticketing with Ashley Murdoch of Corethree

Podcast - 7th November 2014

Leaving your wallet at home and going shopping with nothing more than your mobile phone is still a science-fiction vision of the future.

But it's getting much closer to reality, thanks to a UK-based company called Corethree. They're currently working with a number of public transport operators and have brought mobile tickets to a wide range of smartphones.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: 5.0

New products from Microsoft, Samsung and Huawei... plus the rest of the week's news

Podcast - 5th November 2014

The new Microsoft Band, the Samsung Galaxy A smartphones and the Huawei Honor 6 are all discussed in this week's podcast.

We also look at some of the mobile industry's other big stories, including Amazon UK's mobile phone deals, the Lenovo purchase of Motorola Mobility, LG's quarterly results and the anticipated increase in WiFi hotspots.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

Big numbers for EE, Apple, smartwatches and the Internet of Things

Podcast - 29th October 2014

We start this week's podcast with news that EE now has the largest 4G customer base in Europe, with 5.6 million UK connections.

There's also talk about a new DIY product for the Internet of Things, the disappearance of Nokia branded smartphones, quarterly results for Apple, increasing M2M connections and a growing market for smartwatches.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

The latest UK mobile industry podcast, including new devices from Apple, Google and will.i.am

Podcast - 22nd October 2014

The new Apple iPad tablets, Google's latest Nexus devices, Android Lollipop, wearable tech from will.i.am and the world's slimmest smartphone all feature in this week's podcast.

We're also talking about free mobile data for Christmas, 4.5G technology being rolled out in the UK, 5G technology being tested in South Korea, the end of an era for webOS and video messages that self-destruct.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: 5.0
RSS
135678910Last

Follow thefonecast.com

Twitter @TheFonecast RSS podcast feed
Find us on Facebook Subscribe free via iTunes

Archive Calendar

«December 2024»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
2526272829301
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
303112345

Archive

Terms Of Use | Privacy Statement