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Saturday, April 16, 2011

This week at The Fonecast: 16th April 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

We started this week with a story that grabbed plenty of attention. It was a report from Billmonitor.com that claimed we in the UK were wasting almost £5 billion every year by choosing the wrong mobile tariffs. Although I remained a little cynical about some of the detail, there’s no doubt that many consumers could be better off if they switched tariff - or even network. And now, with 1-day number porting available, it’s easier than ever.

Also hitting the mainstream press was Everything Everywhere, which was getting hassle for being the only UK operator charging charities to handle their text message donations. It’s since decided to give 100% of donations to 100% of charities; a pretty dramatic turnaround from two years ago when none of the UK networks were offering any significant concessions for SMS payments.

Talking of payments, American Express did a deal with mobile payment service Payfone to enhance its virtual wallet. The results are only available in the US at the moment, so don’t get too excited. Better news for the rest of us came from Juniper Research, forecasting almost 300 million NFC-capable smartphones around the globe by 2014; the equivalent of at least 1 in 5 worldwide.

There was UK-specific good news from Chinese telecoms firm Huawei, with plans to create 500 new UK jobs during the next three years - and many more through subcontracting. And I have no doubt that the company was also pleased to see the end of its legal dispute with Motorola, although it very much looks as though Huawei came out on top.

Other manufacturing news came from Nokia with two new smartphones and an updated version of Symbian, nicknamed Symbian Anna. (I suspect Symbian may not ever reach the end of the naming alphabet).

Apart from that, there wasn’t much unexpected. Google’s financial results showed it was doing okay. PC sales weren’t doing so well. Apple is expected to sell plenty of tablets. And some people don’t show very much online common sense when using their mobile phones.

Just try to make sure you’re not one of them!


Stay ahead by reading this weekly summary before everyone else!  Click the ‘register’ link in the top right-hand corner of our website and we’ll send you our news summary by email every week.

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5/31/2011 7:54 AM

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Opinion Articles

A Sure Signal from Vodafone

Mark Bridge writes:

Today I've been using my mobile phone at home. For many people that’s not an unusual thing to do – but it is for me because, around here, coverage indoors isn’t particularly good. Downstairs it’s previously been non-existent. But this morning everything changed.

Author: The Fonecast
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Physician uses cell phones to bring health care to the poor

Natalia Ardanza of voanews.com writes:

In Africa there is another use for mobile phones. Public Health workers in Kenya are now using mobile phones to gather health information from patients in remote areas and upload it to the internet for instant analysis at distant centers. And it is all happening thanks to Dr Joel Selanikio.

Author: The Fonecast
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Making dumb touchscreen phones was a smart move

Mark Bridge writes:

I remember a report from last year that said ‘non-smart’ touchscreen handsets – generally those without a popular operating system – would be bad news for mobile operators.

Conventional touchscreen smartphones tended to result in higher-than-average ARPU thanks to their early-adopting tech-loving users, their web-friendly browsers, their email programs, their app-friendly operating systems and their fast 3G connectivity. However, dumber touchscreen devices – those with a manufacturer’s own proprietary OS and perhaps a clumsier browser – could generate 23% less ARPU than smarter phones. So, if touchscreen dumbphones weren’t good for networks… and weren’t really good for consumers either… manufacturers wouldn’t really bother with them. Right?

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"Hello Nexus One" I say...

James Rosewell writes:

Mark’s been encouraging me to write an opinion piece on the Nexus One for the last few days and I’m finally putting fingers to keyboard to share my experiences. It’s taken so long because this phone has so many features. On a positive note I could go into details about the gorgeous screen, the Android Marketplace that will out-sell Apple’s over the next 18 months, the built-in satellite navigation service and the speedy processor that makes everything run smoothly in real time. Or on a less positive note, the touch screen keyboard that sucks (think carefully about this if you’re a heavy texter or emailer, it’s even worse than the original iPhone), the lack of ActiveSync for Calendars and Tasks, no support for WMA music files or the clunky zoom functions on the web browser.

However I’m going to focus on voice dictation. Nexus One is the first phone I’ve used with this feature.

Author: The Fonecast
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The Amazon Kindle prepares to fight the Apple iPhone and Tablet

Mark Bridge writes:

Here’s a curious thing. Firstly, Amazon creates the Kindle. It starts selling the Kindle in the USA with a mobile deal that lets users download electronic books and newspapers wherever they are. Then it starts selling the Kindle to us in the UK, although – hang on a moment – it’s not talking about a UK mobile deal. Instead it still seems to be ‘roaming’ from the AT&T network. Next comes the larger-screen Kindle DX – also roaming away when it reaches our shores. And now Amazon is talking about third-party downloadable applications for the Kindle. Yes, a mobile device with downloadable apps. Hold that thought; I’ll be returning to it.

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