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Monday, July 16, 2012

Last week at The Fonecast: 16th July 2012

Black days for BlackBerry?

Mark Bridge writes:

BlackBerry and bad news seem inextricably linked at the moment. RIM’s CEO admits he’s “not satisfied” with recent company performance and warns of challenging times ahead... and then the company is hit by a $147 million dollar damages order for patent infringement.

Mind you, Research In Motion wasn’t the only mobile company bringing disappointment into the mainstream news last week. O2 UK suffered over half a day of disruption that left millions of its customers unable to use their phones while Chinese manufacturer ZTE said half-year profits could be down by up to 80% due to postponed domestic deals and currency issues in the Eurozone.

A legal battle between Samsung and Apple in the UK resulted in positives and negatives for both sides. A judge ruled that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab family didn’t infringe Apple’s iPad design (hoorah for Samsung!) because the Samsung tablets were clearly not as cool as the iPad (hoorah for Apple!).

Technology distributors Brightstar and Tech Data were claiming a win-win deal with an announcement that Brightstar Corporation was selling its 50% share of jointly-run Brightstar Europe to Tech Data. Tech Data will then have its own European distributor, while Brightstar will continue operations in Europe under a wholly-owned subsidiary.

While we’re talking about partnerships, Vodafone Ireland and Three Ireland have agreed to set up a 50/50 joint venture company to share their physical network and site infrastructure across the country. Back in the UK, Telefonica has extended its partnership with G4S Utility Services and will now be providing up to 1.4 million O2 SIM cards for ‘smart’ gas & electricity meters. And Telefonica was also in on the global machine-to-machine alliance that’s designed to help network operators with cross-border M2M deals.

Finally, in a world where – as Iain Graham often points out – every phone is becoming a smartphone, it’s clear that accessories are becoming more sophisticated as well. A new report from Juniper Research says ‘smart accessories’ will become a major new market for manufacturers over the next five years, with this year’s total of 10 million task-specific smart devices expected to be dwarfed by the 2017 total of over 100 million units.

Mind you, with ‘smart paper’ and ‘smart covers’ already on the market, perhaps that’s not really so surprising.

Start your week with a reminder of the latest mobile headlines. Simply register at TheFonecast.com by clicking the link at the top right-hand corner of our home page and we’ll send you this weekly news summary by email.

The Fonecast is sponsored by 51Degrees.mobi. More details about advertising and sponsorship opportunities are available on the About Us section of our website.
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Opinion Articles

The impact of iOS 7 on mobile app developers

The impact of iOS 7 on mobile app developers

Anton Faulconbridge writes:

It’s the latest tech update that everyone is talking about; for good or for bad, iOS7 is here and it’s something that all mobile app developers need to take into consideration. So, how have these changes to Apple’s system had an impact on third party apps?

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It’s not your fault, so why wait for your mobile phone?

David Heled writes:

The dependency on mobile phones is at an all-time high. Used for everything from the weekly grocery shop to monitoring heart rate, it’s no underestimation to say that we would be lost without our mobile phones. So when it takes days for your phone to be repaired, it has a considerable impact on your normal daily life.

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How ring-back tones could transform the way we use our mobile phones

Interview with Florent Stroppa of OnMobile

Mark Bridge writes:

Ring-back tones offer consumers yet another way to customise their mobile phone service. Yet despite this – and the revenue opportunities they provide – many mobile network operators don’t offer them.

Recently I spoke to Florent Stroppa, General Manager Europe for value-added service specialist OnMobile, to find out why the UK doesn’t really seem to be bothered about ring-back tones… and whether the next-generation of ring-back services will change this.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 7th October 2013

Compare and contrast

Mark Bridge writes:

Talk about a difference. In preliminary results last week, HTC announced its first-ever quarterly loss while Samsung revealed record quarterly profits.

Curiously, many of the week’s other news stories also had a companion headline to provide a contrast.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 30th September 2013

Changes revealed, charges concealed

Mark Bridge writes:

Things didn’t look so bad in the mobile industry last week. After the shock of BlackBerry’s job losses and restructuring, it seemed as though the saga could be reaching a conclusion. On Monday shareholder Fairfax Financial announced a bid to buy the company. BlackBerry’s board of directors has approved the terms of the agreement, although it’s still able to consider alternative proposals as well.

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Recent Podcasts

Reviewing our 2015 mobile industry predictions... and looking forward to 2016

Podcast - 15th January 2016

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return to review their mobile industry predictions from last year. Which mergers, partnerships and developments did they forecast correctly... and which didn’t work out as planned?

Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

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Podcast from Mobile World Congress 2015

Podcast - 6th March 2015

Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.

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Looking back at February: from security scares to multiple MVNOs

Podcast - 27th February 2015

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.

We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.

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Interview with Chris Millington of Doro about mobile retailing, wearables and technology for older consumers

Podcast - 24th February 2015

In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.

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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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