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Monday, December 23, 2013

Last week at The Fonecast: 23rd December 2013

Something for everyone this Christmas

Mark Bridge writes:

'Twas the week before Christmas,
when all thro' the mobile industry
came a sudden burst
of news-related activity.

There’s been something for everyone in the wireless telecoms industry during these final festive days of 2013.

Tablets?  Most certainly. How about the new Datawind UbiSlate tablet for £29.99?  You’ll struggle to find a cheaper tablet, although admittedly you don’t get high specs for the low price.

Accessories?  Oh yes. Let’s take a look at the Samsung GamePad, which connects via Bluetooth and will work with most of the company’s Galaxy devices. There’s an accompanying app that’ll help you find compatible games, too.

Mobile payments?  A deal with Eurostar will see iZettle devices used when passengers want to upgrade after they’ve started their high-speed train journey.

Quarterly results?  Go on then, if you insist. BlackBerry has reported a £2.7 billion quarterly loss. However, it’s also announced a Foxconn manufacturing deal and an agreement to pre-load BBM on some LG phones, so it wasn’t all bad. But mainly bad, you might say.

4G?  Starting to go mainstream, it seems. EE has set up the first 4G roaming agreement for visitors to the UK, while Strategy Analytics is forecasting there’ll be two billion 4G LTE connections worldwide in 2018, up from 238 million this year.

Festive concerns?  Yes, thanks to the Information Commissioner’s Office. The ICO has been warning consumers not to get carried away on 25th December – the busiest day for app downloads last year – by reminding users to protect their personal information when installing new mobile apps. As Sergeant Phil Esterhaus might say, “let’s be careful out there”.

Finally, I’d like to wish you and all our other readers a very happy Christmas. We’ll now be taking a short break and look forward to returning in the New Year.

Our final podcast of 2013 included the team’s mobile industry predictions for 2014 and a not-too-embarrassing look back at our thoughts from last year. You can listen to the podcast on our website, by downloading the mp3 file, by finding us via iTunes, by using our RSS feed or on the Stitcher.com mobile app.

On Monday mornings we summarise the past week’s mobile industry headlines in a newsletter that’s very much like this article. 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

‘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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Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

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Podcast from Mobile World Congress 2015

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Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

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Looking back at February: from security scares to multiple MVNOs

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We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

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Interview with Chris Millington of Doro about mobile retailing, wearables and technology for older consumers

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In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.

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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?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.

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