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Sunday, February 5, 2012

Last week at The Fonecast: 6th February 2012

Mark Bridge writes:

Facebook’s certainly had its share of privacy concerns – but last week the social network revealed plans to go public in a very different way. It formally announced its intention to launch on the stock market; what is known in the USA as an Initial Public Offering. The IPO is expected to raise around $5 billion, although that’ll just be a fraction of the total (and as yet undisclosed) value of the company.

What the IPO documents tell is us that Facebook currently has 845 million active users per month, with around half of those people accessing the site from their mobile devices. It also made $1 billion in net income during 2011. Big money indeed.

Meanwhile Apple and Motorola were waving multi-million dollar cheques around on Friday, metaphorically if not literally.

In Germany, a court granted Motorola Mobility a permanent injunction involving ‘push’ email on the Apple iCloud service. That’ll affect iPhones and iPads, although Apple is appealing and – whatever happens – it seems likely that some form of work-around could be put in place.

As well as this, Motorola paid a 100 million Euro bond to enforce a German injunction originally won in December against the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 and 3G-equipped iPads. The products disappeared from Apple’s online store for a few hours before Apple appealed, apparently making a new offer to pay.

That second case involves ‘industry standard’ patents, which are required to be licensed on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory terms. With the European Commission having just started an investigation into Samsung Electronics and the way it’s applied mobile-related patent rights, I’ll be interested to see what happens next.

If all that’s not confusing enough, spare a thought for mobile networks in India. Those who won auctions for a total of 122 GSM licences in 2008 have had them cancelled by the Supreme Court on grounds that parts of the process were a bit dodgy. Again, the big question is “what happens next?”

What’s definitely happening is the growth in mobile devices; a fact reinforced by recent research. Canalys noted the increase in tablets and the decline in netbooks while IDC talked about smartphones winning over feature phones.

Next, to jobs. Sony has named Kazuo Hirai as its new CEO from April. Kaz, as he’s often known, has been involved with many of the PlayStation’s recent successes. Sir Howard Stringer is stepping down – but only briefly before becoming Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Industry-watchers weren’t particularly surprised with that news – but there were a few raised eyebrows when Apple announced that John Browett, the CEO of Dixons Retail, had been appointed as Apple’s new senior vice president of Retail. John was, of course, played by Darth Vader in the company’s TV ads last year.

Finally, and remaining on the subject of advertising, Everything Everywhere has launched multi-million pound UK ad campaigns for its Orange and T-Mobile brands. Orange will be portrayed as the brand that “goes that extra mile to give customers more” while T-Mobile “offers brilliant value”.

T-Mobile’s value is currently demonstrated by a new tariff called The Full Monty, which includes unlimited calls, texts and internet access. Some have suggested the name is reminiscent of a transport café breakfast or the comedy film about male strippers. In either case, there’s probably too much sausage for everyone’s taste.

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. You’ll find more about advertising and sponsorship opportunities 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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