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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

Monday, September 26, 2011

Last week at The Fonecast: 26th September 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

Welcome to a summary of last week’s mobile industry news from TheFonecast.com.

The biggest mobile-flavoured story from the past seven days was probably HP’s replacement of its president and CEO. Léo Apotheker is out after less than a year, replaced by former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. It’s not likely to affect the company’s plans for webOS tablets and phones… but it’ll be interesting to see what Ms Whitman does next.

More headline-grabbing news came from Facebook, which introduced a ‘Timeline’ feature that’ll let users display every aspect of their lives in a… well, a timeline, really. You’ll be able to fill your timeline automatically via ‘social apps’ on your desktop and mobile devices – from the music you play and the newspaper you read to the shopping you buy and the exercise you do. Somehow, I think a few people may be caught out by this.

Sticking with new products and services, Google Wallet went live (but only for US-based customers at the moment), Orange added a bada-powered smartphone to its 'Quick Tap' mobile payment service and Bambuser introduced a Google Map mash-up for its live broadcasts. Not quite so new was the introduction of MMS photo uploading to Twitter; the micro-blogging provider was very proud of it, despite Orange UK having introduced its own MMS tweeting service two years ago.

Under the ‘not-so-good’ heading last week we heard Ofcom say that complaint numbers from Three UK customers are rising. (No, not three customers but Three customers). The NPD Group revealed that 82% of smartphone users had no security products on their phones. UK virtual network Desi Mobile closed within a year of launch. And the Emporia Telme phone for older users was hit by a European injunction from rival Doro.

At the other end of the age range, internet security company Westcoastcloud had been looking at younger users. They reckon one in ten children under the age of 10 now owns an iPhone, with one in twenty children owning an iPad. Perhaps there’s an entire audience demographic we’re missing here at TheFonecast.com. Maybe we ought to ditch the podcast theme tune and replace it with Igglepiggle’s song instead.

Bye bye, everybody, bye bye.

Stay ahead of the crowd by receiving this weekly news summary from TheFonecast.com by email. Simply click the ‘register’ link at the top right-hand corner of our website and enter your details.

If you use an iPod, iPhone or iPad, it’s easy to find our weekly mobile industry podcasts on iTunes. Click here to subscribe... or search for ‘The Fonecast’ in the iTunes store.

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