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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

How long can Apple remain torn between two lovers?

Mark Bridge writes:

“Torn between two lovers, feeling like a fool, loving both of you is breaking all the rules”.

Mary McGregor sang those words in 1976 – and Apple would do well to bear them in mind today. Why?  Well, Rick Astley is to blame for it all.

Oh, alright, Rick’s not personally involved. It’s worm-writer ikee, along with the people who’ve followed him in creating security threats for the Apple iPhone. But why am I invoking the lyrics of Mary McGregor?  It’s because Apple has two loves... and it may be struggling to choose between them.

Author: The Fonecast
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Everyone’s selling Android phones… but who’s selling Android?

Mark Bridge writes:

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But those ad campaigns are mainly about manufacturers and phones. As you’d expect, really. Not about Android.

Author: The Fonecast
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1 paisa for 1 second

James Rosewell writes:

One paisa is equivalent to 1/100 of an Indian rupee. In American dollars, a paisa is worth 0.00022 cents. For the British reading this, that’s 0.00013 pence.

Why is this important?

A company in India called MTS have launched a pay as you go SIM card that allows you to make on-network calls for ½ paisa per second...

Author: The Fonecast
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Two mobile operating systems to rule them all

Mark Bridge writes:

Cain and Abel. Price and Andre. Judge Dredd and Rico. History is full of pairings that didn’t work out. Two forces that started off together but ended up trying to destroy each other. And so it could be with mobile phone operating systems.

This week it’s been reported that Nokia will be dropping Symbian from its N-series devices by 2012, favouring Maemo instead.

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Who ya gonna call when the phones go dead?

Mark Bridge writes:

This week there’s a government exercise taking place in London. A number of civil servants and private sector employees are simulating the failure of the UK’s fixed-line telephone network. Called “White Noise”, it imagines a scenario where telephone exchanges are destroyed by a giant subterranean monster that pulls really hard on all those underground cables.

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