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Monday, April 29, 2013

Last week at The Fonecast: 29th April 2013

Money, messaging, microphones and M2M

Mark Bridge writes:

This week there was only one set of financial results that attracted the mainstream tech media. Apple reported the first drop in quarterly profit for several years as figures fell by 18% to around £6.1 billion. On the positive side, it made around £6.1 billion profit. It also announced dates for its developer conference in June and promised a new version of iOS.

Samsung’s quarterly profit was up to £4.2 billion, ZTE’s profits rose to £21 million and LG’s profits fell to £12.9 million… but it did manage to produce over 10 million smartphones in the quarter, which is a new record for the company.

In fact, research company IDC reckons quarterly smartphone shipments have now overtaken feature phones.

Sticking with manufacturers, Nokia is claiming a new ‘world first’ by putting a dedicated WhatsApp messaging button on its forthcoming Asha 210 mobile phone. There’s legal action, too: the Finnish company has won a court injunction that prevents HTC from using a microphone made by STMicroelectronics. Apparently the microphone was developed exclusively for Nokia, which is bad news for the HTC One smartphone.

Microsoft and ZTE have been friendlier; they’ve agreed a licensing deal that gives ZTE coverage under Microsoft’s patent portfolio for smartphones and tablets using the Android and Chrome operating systems. Yes, this sounds very familiar, doesn’t it?

Finally for now, UK telecoms regulator Ofcom is encouraging companies to operate wireless devices without a license. Well, sort of. It’s asking companies to take part in a trial of ‘white space’ wireless technology, which is designed to take advantage of unused gaps in frequency bands. If it all runs smoothly we could see machine-to-machine connections and broadband services using the new tech across the UK next year.

Talking of M2M, last week we broadcast a special programme that took a look around the GSMA’s Connected City at Mobile World Congress. You can listen to the podcast via the built-in audio player on our website or by downloading the MP3 file.

Every Monday morning we summarise the past week’s mobile industry headlines in a newsletter that’s rather 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

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.

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Everyone’s selling Android phones… but who’s selling Android?

Mark Bridge writes:

Samsung. Huawei. Acer. HTC. Motorola. LG. Toshiba. Sony Ericsson. INQ. Dell. They’re all after a slice of the Android cake. (The Android cake is an éclair at the moment. Not particularly good for slicing. But I digress).

And my, what advertisements we’ve seen. Most recently Motorola has been knocking the iPhone while HTC has been playing with marker pens.

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

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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...

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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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Podcast from Mobile World Congress 2015

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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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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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