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Saturday, June 11, 2011

This week at The Fonecast: 11th June 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

On Monday there seemed to be a dearth of mobile news as the industry held its breath and waited for Steve Jobs to speak.

Why there was quite so much breath-holding beats me, because Apple had already told us what the announcement was going to cover. Anyway, we learned about iOS 5, which will arrive in the autumn, and its 200 new features – including a new messaging service called iMessage. Will it kill SMS?  I think not. And where on earth do they get the names from?

In other product news, HP announced its webOS tablet will arrive in July with a retail price of around £399. I’ll be honest, there doesn’t seem to be quite as much excitement here.

Now to legal issues – but for a change we’re not talking who’s suing who. Or whom. Two former employees of T-Mobile UK who stole customer information and sold it to other businesses have told to pay a total of £73,700 in fines and confiscation costs. They’ll only be jailed if they don’t pay up quickly, which may be a disappointment to the Information Commissioner who’d previously said a prison sentence was required as a deterrent.

Elsewhere, there are complaints that Ofcom’s planned 4G auction could be illegal – which could mean delays to the launch of LTE in the UK – and other complaints that the merging of Orange and T-Mobile’s UK networks breaches a contract with infrastructure firm Arqiva.

Talking of Everything Everywhere, it’s planning 30 new own-brand shops. Looks like the five store trial went well.

And finally to departures. Last week we heard that Three UK CEO Kevin Russell was heading back to Australia. Now Marc Allera, the company’s sales and marketing director, is off. Coincidence? I’ve got no idea. And leaving the GSMA after 12 years is Rob Conway. The organisation doesn’t have a successor confirmed at the moment.

Good luck, chaps. I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve heard of you.


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Opinion Articles

Why a mobile TV service is just like a zombie

Mark Bridge writes:

Here in the UK, we’re struggling a bit with mobile TV. Which made me wonder what the problem really was. Well, after a long evening with the finest stilton and the cheapest port, the answer came to me in a dream. A mobile TV service is just like the lurching, drooling nightmare creatures that appear in every zombie film. And once consumers understand zombies, they’ll understand the problems with mobile TV. Let me explain.

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Selling your way out of a recession? Of course you can!

Iain Graham writes:

Everybody these days (apart from a lucky few!) is suffering from a lack of business or reduced sales due to the current 'downturn in the economic climate'. In my opinion, this is the time when sales people should stand up and be counted!

No, I don't mean the hard nosed, foot in the door double-glazing, second-hand car or mobile phone types (no offence!), I mean EVERYONE! Selling is a concept as much as it is a profession.

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Mobile & Contactless Payments

James Rosewell offers his opinion on the current state of mobile and contactless payments.

The banking and mobile industries have big plans for Near Field Communication (NFC) as the mobile payment mechanism of the future. Barclaycard has been leading the way from the credit card sector forming a partnership with Orange, having previously worked with O2, and running a catchy TV advert prompting contactless cards using VISA’s paywave system.

However the reality of NFC payments appears a lot further away. The Point of Sale (POS) technology appears to be badly deployed by some of the first-phase retailers mainly made up of low-value high-volume businesses like coffee shops, fast food outlets and newsagents.

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Insecure Mobile Browsers

James Rosewell writes: I note with interest Barclays mobile on-line banking home page extolling the safety of mobile banking whilst claiming it’s as secure as their non-mobile equivalent. This is on the same page that recommends customers use Opera Mini to access Barclays mobile on-line banking.

Yet following the link to the operamini.com web site and looking at the help section we can read Opera’s answer to the question “Is there any end-to-end security between my handset and — for example — paypal.com or my bank?” and the answer is “No. If you need full end-to-end encryption, you should use a full Web browser such as Opera Mobile.”

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