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Thursday, December 15, 2011

Look to the future now: mobile industry predictions for 2012

Mark Bridge writes:

As 2011 draws to a close, many of us start looking towards 2012 and wondering what’ll be happening in the mobile phone industry. Here at The Fonecast we’ve invited a handful of industry experts and business leaders to offer us their thoughts about the coming year.

Today’s podcast contains analysis and insight from Hans Eriksson, Steve Litchfield, Dr Windsor Holden, Dr Mark Smith and Jack Wraith MBE. You can listen to the full programme on our website, via iTunes, on our Facebook page and on the Stitcher mobile app.

I started by talking to Hans Ericsson, Executive Chairman of Bambuser, who explained how the Bambuser video streaming service had been adopted this year by human rights activists. As well as predicting that 2012 would see a growth in the use of live-streaming mobile video services - thanks in part to infrastructure improvements - he also anticipated continuing growth in smartphone sales.

Next was technology journalist Steve Litchfield, who thought Android’s market share might drop next year (along with BlackBerry and Symbian figures). He also thinks the iPhone 5 could struggle slightly when it’s launched, although Apple’s overall market share is unlikely to fall.

Dr Windsor Holden, research director for Juniper Research, started by warning that the recession is likely to affect premium-priced tablet sales but could benefit lower-priced tablet devices. Mobile coupons could also be helped by the economic climate, with consumers using their phones to obtain discounts. In addition, he noted that the London 2012 Olympics were expected to boost mobile advertising, m-gambling and mobile NFC payments.

Dr Mark Smith, CEO and founder of ipadio, covered a wide range of topics from network infrastructure to podcasting. He forecasts more global innovation around 2G technology... and anticipates an increase in the popularity of podcasting within businesses. (Hooray!)

Jack Wraith MBE, chief executive of the Telecommunications UK Fraud Forum, said 2012 could well see more action against cross-border telecoms fraud; definitely good news for consumers. He predicted growth in NFC mobile payments (along with its associated security concerns) and an increase in the trend towards free WiFi, which could challenge mobile networks’ revenue.

Many thanks to all our guests for taking the time to talk to us; listen to the full podcast to hear their forecasts in their own words.

There’s no doubt that 2012 will be a challenging year for much of the mobile phone industry... but if there’s one uniting message from our five podcast guests, it’s that 2012 also promises to be an exciting year as well.

Next week Iain, James and I will be offering our own predictions for 2012 (and looking back at the predictions we made 12 months ago). Download the podcast - and all our programmes as soon as they’re broadcast - by subscribing to our RSS podcast feed or listening via iTunes.
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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.

Author: The Fonecast
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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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A month of mobile: O2 counts on 3, Microsoft counts to 10 and Apple counts its profits

Podcast - 30th January 2015

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

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