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Saturday, June 11, 2011

This week at The Fonecast: 11th June 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

On Monday there seemed to be a dearth of mobile news as the industry held its breath and waited for Steve Jobs to speak.

Why there was quite so much breath-holding beats me, because Apple had already told us what the announcement was going to cover. Anyway, we learned about iOS 5, which will arrive in the autumn, and its 200 new features – including a new messaging service called iMessage. Will it kill SMS?  I think not. And where on earth do they get the names from?

In other product news, HP announced its webOS tablet will arrive in July with a retail price of around £399. I’ll be honest, there doesn’t seem to be quite as much excitement here.

Now to legal issues – but for a change we’re not talking who’s suing who. Or whom. Two former employees of T-Mobile UK who stole customer information and sold it to other businesses have told to pay a total of £73,700 in fines and confiscation costs. They’ll only be jailed if they don’t pay up quickly, which may be a disappointment to the Information Commissioner who’d previously said a prison sentence was required as a deterrent.

Elsewhere, there are complaints that Ofcom’s planned 4G auction could be illegal – which could mean delays to the launch of LTE in the UK – and other complaints that the merging of Orange and T-Mobile’s UK networks breaches a contract with infrastructure firm Arqiva.

Talking of Everything Everywhere, it’s planning 30 new own-brand shops. Looks like the five store trial went well.

And finally to departures. Last week we heard that Three UK CEO Kevin Russell was heading back to Australia. Now Marc Allera, the company’s sales and marketing director, is off. Coincidence? I’ve got no idea. And leaving the GSMA after 12 years is Rob Conway. The organisation doesn’t have a successor confirmed at the moment.

Good luck, chaps. I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve heard of you.


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Opinion Articles

‘The Eyes Have It’ at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

DoCoMo are one of many network operators and handset manufacturers demonstrating innovative new products as Mobile World Congress. Our eye was caught by the employee demonstrating “Eye Controlled Earphones”. It’s a good job the ladies from the CBOSS stand weren’t walking past at the time.

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'Mobile Money Monday' at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Monday’s Mobile World Congress conference agenda dedicated one of 4 streams to Mobile Money - Transfers, Transactions and Technology allowing all stakeholders to share experiences and debate the future of Mobile and Money.

Two types of service dominated presentations and panel discussions; Near Field Communication (NFC) technology enabling payment at traditional Point of Sale (PoS), and the Mobile Wallet replacing plastic or cash.

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‘Innovation Corner’ at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Here’s my pick of the 3 most innovative companies I’ve uncovered at the 2010 Mobile World Congress.

Cootek.com win the prize for simplest innovation... an accurate touch screen keyboard. They’re a few months away from being ready to release the software to handset manufacturers, but the demo handsets worked very well. The keyboard assumes the user is not going to press the intended key, but in fact might miss and press another key in the same area. Based on this knowledge and an extensive dictionary of words and language context, it’s able to determine the intended word with surprising accuracy. I sincerely hope their technology will be made available for the Nexus One in the not too distant future.

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Google “Mobile First” from Eric Schmidt’s Key Note at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, presented a compelling vision of a mobile centric future. The phone has become the “high value end point” for Google services enabled by a combination of increasing handset power, mobile data networks and cloud computing. By far the scarcest resource is the bandwidth available through the mobile data networks. Google appear committed to work with Mobile Network Operators (MNO) to maximise bandwidth usage, although several audience questions suggested scepticism from the main stream mobile industry. Eric expressed a need to maintain a harmonious relationship with MNOs stating Google could not operate its service on mobile devices without their co-operation.

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The great Windows Mobile 7 conspiracy theory

Mark Bridge writes:

I like a good conspiracy theory. A good one, mind you. None of this “Funny thing happened on the way to Mars” nonsense. Oh no, not me. And, despite occasionally mirroring Jerry Fletcher by balancing a bottle on the door handle, I’ve never been inclined to publish such a theory. Until now.

You see, it’s Mobile World Congress in a fortnight’s time. Which is when the great and the good of the mobile industry – along with their mates and hangers-on – head for Barcelona. Microsoft will be there. They’re holding a press briefing on Monday afternoon. And there’s a lot of talk about Windows Mobile 7 being (unofficially) on the agenda. But where’s the evidence?

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