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Sunday, December 11, 2011

Last week at The Fonecast: 12th December 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

With less than a fortnight until Christmas, it’s probably time to order the turkey and start thinking about gifts. What could be a better present than being given your very own mobile operating system?  That’s what’s happening over at HP, which is making its webOS software available to the open source community. The big question now is whether developers will respond with “lovely, just what I wanted” or a slightly embarrassed “oh, I’ve already got one of those.”

Talking of open source mobile operating systems, the Android Market has now served over 10 billion app downloads. It’s not caught up with Apple’s App Store yet... but it’s getting close. Some will argue about quantity over quality, others will have been downloading Google’s celebratory 10p applications to their phones.

And on the subject of celebrations, it’s party time at Samsung – where more than 300 million mobile phones have shipped this year. That’s a company record and is only the second time any company’s managed the feat. (Nokia was the first, in case you’d not guessed).

While you’re reminiscing, here’s another blast from the past. Panasonic is getting back into the European mobile phone market. In March we’re expecting to see an Android smartphone with a 4.3-inch organic LED screen. But how will it be sold?  Well, if O2 has its way, there’ll be a new way of buying phones. Alongside the prepay and ‘pay monthly’ contract will be a lease. Spend nothing up front, pay a monthly fee, then give your phone back after a year and start again. Or walk away.

Walking away from its proposed new brand is Research In Motion, which has temporarily been barred from referring to the new BlackBerry operating system as ‘BBX’. BBx is already a trademark of software company Basis International, so the new RIM OS looks likely to be called BlackBerry 10 instead.

Location-based social network Gowalla is also calling it a day. The company will close at the end of January, having been acquired by Facebook. And Jawbone is – temporarily, at least – admitting defeat with its UP mobile health wristband. Technical problems have led to a generous refund policy and a halt to shipping for the moment. Mind you, with Christmas culinary over-indulgence just days away, that’s probably not such a bad thing. Well, not for me, anyway.

Are you subscribing to our podcasts?  Last week we started by talking to device data and web optimisation specialists 51Degrees.mobi (who are also our current sponsors). Next came the regular news update on Wednesday, followed by a conversation about mobile telecare with Burnside Telecom on Friday. Find all the latest broadcasts on our RSS feed or via iTunes.

Start your week with a reminder of the latest headlines. Simply register at TheFonecast.com by clicking the link at the top right-hand corner of our home page and we’ll send you this weekly news summary by email.

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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.

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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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