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Ofcom says mobile contracts should ditch inflation-related price rises

Ofcom says mobile contracts should ditch inflation-related price rises

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom wants to ban inflation-related rises in phone and broadband contracts. Instead, it says any potential mid-contract price rises should be set out in pounds and pence.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Opinion Articles

Friday, December 11, 2009

Is mobile technology too young to predict?

Mark Bridge writes:

“Leave them alone, they’re just kids”

My word, Anakin Skywalker was a smart boy. Child prodigy. Wunderkind. Genius, some would say, albeit fictional.

But, without the benefit of hindsight (or the Star Wars box set, as many would call it), very few people would have expected him to marry his babysitter, fall into a volcano, turn to the Dark Side and end up looking like the late Sebastian Shaw.

Which brings me to the mobile phone industry. It turns 25 in the UK next month; at least, that’s when Vodafone (and, a few days later, O2 – nee Cellnet) first appeared in 1985. The industry isn’t really a kid anymore... but some of the technology is.

The mobile internet is still pod racing. Mobile social networking isn’t much younger than online social networking – and both are still wearing short trousers. The iPhone hasn’t even built its first droid. (Ooh. See what I did there?)  Anything could happen. They could save the galaxy. They could try to wipe out the forces of good. Or they could end up as Max Rebo.

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been thinking about mobile industry predictions for 2010. And it ain’t easy. Sure, there are some pretty safe bets around the older end of the business – the manufacturers, the networks, the dealers – but it’s hard work predicting what the youngsters will do. (That, of course, is why researchers and analysts still have jobs). Twitter’s still small enough to fit all its employees on a bendy bus. What would happen if Google bought it?  OrStephen Fry set up his own micro-blogging service called Fritter?  What happens when location-sharing leads to a well-publicised mugging?

The whole infrastructure, the whole eco-system, the enthusiasm and loyalty of adopters; it all seems a bit fragile at the moment.

So yes, I’ll be making some predictions in a couple of weeks. But – even more than in previous years – the gap between ‘safe’ and ‘risky’ guesses is wider than ever.

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Recent Podcasts

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Microsoft cuts its mobile staff, Apple finds a new partner and Yahoo! makes an acquisition

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National security, phones for children, a new UK mobile network and a change of name

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This week's mobile industry podcast begins with a quick look at the UK government's emergency legislation affecting fixed-line, mobile phone and broadband traffic.

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