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Monday, January 28, 2013

Last week at The Fonecast: 28th January 2013

Figuring out the figures

Mark Bridge writes:

I didn’t study economics at college, which is probably one of the reasons I have a very simple perspective on quarterly results. As far as I’m concerned, they fall into one of three categories: much as expected, better than expected or worse than expected. Anyway, it’s the time of year when some of the biggest names in the mobile telecoms industry publish their financial results – so here we go.

Microsoft’s figures seemed pretty stable to me – revenue up a bit, profit down a bit – although there wasn’t much mention of mobile. Make of that what you will. Google’s also earning loads of money, despite its Motorola mobile business showing an operating loss in the quarter.

Samsung’s quarterly revenue and profit were both up… but the company warned that business may be slowing down a bit. Hardly surprising, I’d say. Apple’s profit figure was largely unchanged year-on-year, which might seem disappointing until you realise it’s $13.1 billion. Poor old Apple, eh?

Nokia headed back into quarterly profit for the first time in over a year. No party yet, though. And Chinese telecoms giant Huawei anticipated a 33% profit increase in its 2012 financial results, while rival ZTE warned of a loss.

After the financial results come the analysts. ABI Research, the International Data Corporation, Juniper Research and Strategy Analytics have each published estimates for mobile phone sales in 2012. All are different, although there’s no doubt that smartphones are taking over and Samsung’s had an especially good year.

Alongside all these facts and opinions, we’ve had some new products and services turning up as well. UK retailer Phones 4u is planning its own virtual mobile network (but don’t mention upgrades, please), Twitter has launched a service for sharing short video clips and the Mozilla Foundation has announced two new smartphones that’ll run the Firefox OS mobile operating system.

On top of all this, we’ve got RIM preparing for the launch of BlackBerry 10 on Wednesday. Which, much like financial results, will be much as expected, better than expected or worse than expected. We’ll let you know.

Every Monday morning we summarise the past week’s mobile industry headlines in our newsletter. To receive it, simply register your email address at TheFonecast.com by clicking the link at the top right-hand corner of our home page.
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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