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Monday, June 24, 2013

Last week at The Fonecast: 24th June 2013

More of the same

Mark Bridge writes:

Another week, another couple of product announcements from Samsung. There appears to be no stopping them, despite a recent drop in the company’s share price.

This time it’s a couple of tablets – one of which runs both Android and Windows 8 – and a 20 megapixel camera that’s got a 4G-enabled Android device built in.

Across the Yellow Sea in China, Huawei has announced the world’s slimmest smartphone. At just 6.18mm deep, it’s taken the prize from whoever had it before. Well, world records aren’t the same without Roy Castle making the announcements. The phone has a 4.7-inch HD screen and runs a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, so it’s pretty high-spec as well as slim.

There was also an announcement from a UK-based company called Kazam, formed by a couple of people who’d worked at HTC. They’re preparing to launch a range of smartphones later this year.

And while I’m talking about new products, mobile photo-sharing service Instagram launched a video option as a challenger to Twitter’s Vine. You can now choose between 6-second repeating video clips and 15-second non-repeating video clips. Or YouTube.

In the world of management, BT CEO Ian Livingston announced his departure to become Minister of State for Trade and Investment (and probably Baron Livingstone) later this year; he’ll be replaced at BT by Gavin Patterson, who’s currently chief executive of BT Retail.

The Communication Workers Union reached an agreement with Telefonica about outsourcing at O2 UK, ending the possibility of strike action. And Orange Group’s Board of Directors stated its full confidence in CEO Stéphane Richard, who was placed under formal investigation for fraud last week. The investigation relates to his previous role working for the French government.

Finally, a spot of research. Last week we learned that Amazon and Argos are the UK’s most-visited mobile retail web sites, the value of mobile commerce transactions is expected to double within the next four years, younger mobile users value data more than text or voice, NFC handset sales were up 300% last year and 4G LTE Advanced devices are going to become more popular.

Which seems to suggest we’re all getting similar phones and will use them to buy loads of mass-produced products from retail warehouses. That’s progress, you know.

On Monday mornings we summarise the past week’s mobile industry headlines in a newsletter that’s a lot 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

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.

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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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