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Monday, August 22, 2011

Don't bother looking for a dramatically reduced HP TouchPad in the UK

Mark Bridge writes:

This weekend, you could have picked up a HP TouchPad webOS tablet for $99. Both the HP USA online store and Best Buy in Canada were selling the obsolescent devices at a substantial discount.

HP TouchPad Amazon.co.uk emailYet over here in the UK, we’ve seen nothing except a prize draw from The Carphone Warehouse and a less-than-£90 discount from Amazon. And I don’t expect anything much better in the short-term.

Carphone Warehouse HP TouchPadPrice promises, where retailers offer a refund or credit when a reduced-price product is spotted, will probably keep TouchPad prices high (or stock levels low) for the next few weeks. Besides, retailers still need to make a profit on their TouchPad stocks - and these certainly weren’t bought at a particularly low price.

Personally, I’d head straight for my nearest Best Buy or Carphone Warehouse if the price fell below £100. Even though there aren’t many apps... and those few apps probably won’t be supported in the future unless webOS is picked up by someone else... and there may not be any more apps... I’d happily pick one up. But I don’t think that’ll be happening for a month or so - if at all.


Update: Okay, let’s face it, I got this completely wrong. Within hours of writing the article, Best Buy UK had dropped its prices to £89 for the 16GB model and £115 for 32GB. Both now showing as out of stock. Still, on the positive side, it’s cheaper than I was expecting!

We talked about HP’s webOS at Mobile World Congress in February this year. Click here to listen on our website (the webOS conversation is towards the end of the podcast), find us on iTunes or download the MP3 file.
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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.

Author: The Fonecast
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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.

Author: The Fonecast
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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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