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Sunday, September 11, 2011

This week at The Fonecast: 11th September 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

Welcome to this week's news summary from The Fonecast. Sorry it's late but I have a reasonably good excuse. On Friday I was in central London to meet Hans Eriksson of Bambuser. He was about to stream his life online for 24 hours, relying on social networking to find him off-beat attractions. You'll find our conversation on TheFonecast.com – and the results are at bambuserchallenge.tumblr.com

Anyway, to the rest of the week's news… and I’ll start with some international giants.

Yahoo! has ditched CEO Carol Bartz and has replaced her with current Chief Financial Officer Timothy Morse until a permanent chief executive is appointed. You won’t be surprised to learn that Carol’s unhappy.

Also in the USA, Google has acquired the Zagat Survey restaurant guide business. This may or may not be a big deal for the mobile industry, depending on what happens next.

And Twitter has reached 100 million active users worldwide, with 55 million of them using Twitter on mobile devices.

In the world of network operations, Vodafone has created an R&D centre in Silicon Valley, the O2 More mobile advertising service has acquired six million opted-in users, Everything Everywhere says it’ll upgrade mobile TV for its customers, Orange has introduced a mobile music streaming service, Telefónica is creating a new London-based Digital business unit and Three UK has been feeling a bit left out when it comes to mobile payments.

Meanwhile, mobile manufacturing appears to be dominated by legal issues at the moment. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 remains banned from sale in Germany, while HTC has bought a number of patents from Google and is using them to fight Apple.

But it’s not all conflict. Microsoft has persuaded Acer and ViewSonic to license its patents, thereby covering their use of Android. And the software giant has promised that it won’t be long before Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint find their way into Symbian Belle. (Which raises two questions: What has Android got to do with Microsoft? – and why would I buy a Windows Phone device if I can upgrade my old Nokia instead?)

When you’ve answered those, I’ll challenge you with one final question. If you wanted to promote a “light-hearted, positive and contemporary image of Christianity relevant to the Easter weekend”, what would you do?

The answer, if you’re Phones 4U, is that you’d create a cartoon of Jesus Christ and His Sacred Heart. You’d make sure it portrayed the Son of God winking and giving the thumbs-up sign – and you’d use it to advertise “Miraculous deals”.

This week the Advertising Standards Authority upheld a number of complaints against the ad, noting that it was likely to cause serious offence. Phones 4U has apologised and said it has no plans to run the ads again. Mind you, they’ve not specifically ruled out using other religious figures.

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 - or you’re simply a fan of iTunes - it’s easy to find our weekly mobile industry podcasts. Click here to subscribe... or search for ‘The Fonecast’ in the iTunes store.
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Opinion Articles

Is Android losing its impact for Google?

Mark Bridge writes:

Recent figures released by ABI Research have prompted the market intelligence company to ask whether Google is losing control of the Android ecosystem.

At first glance, Android dominated smartphone shipments for the final quarter of 2013. ABI Research says 77% of the 287 million smartphones shipped in Q4 2013 were running Android.

Author: The Fonecast
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It’s time to prepare for the upcoming surge in signaling traffic

Robin Kent writes:

After initially suffering from slow pick up by consumers, 4G has begun to accelerate, and is now well on the way to the forecasted one billion subscribers by 2017. In fact EE, owner of T-Mobile and Orange, recently announced the addition of 493,000 new 4G customers to its existing base of 1.2 million.

Author: The Fonecast
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Mobile phone coverage: is this as good as it gets?

Mark Bridge writes:

A new report has highlighted the issue of poor mobile phone coverage in rural Sussex villages. BBC Sussex invited me onto their ‘Sussex Breakfast’ radio show to explain what could be done - and, as usual, I made enough notes for a lecture rather than a three-minute interview.

Here’s what I would have liked to have said if I’d been given a disproportionate amount of time to talk.

Author: The Fonecast
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Last week at The Fonecast: 27th January 2014

Expecting the unexpected

Mark Bridge writes:

Great news for mobile phone users. Ofcom’s new rules preventing unexpected mid-contract price rises came into force last week, which means UK consumers can no longer be surprised by their subscription charge increasing while they’re still locked into a minimum-term deal.

Author: The Fonecast
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Ofcom changes the rules for mobile phone contracts... and so does O2

Mark Bridge writes:

This week, new Ofcom rules came into force. They’re designed to avoid unexpected price rises during the minimum term of a mobile phone contract. Yes, just because you signed a fixed-term contract doesn’t mean the charges can’t increase. Networks said they needed this option in case of inflation or regulatory changes. Customers felt trapped.

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