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Monday, February 3, 2014

Last week at The Fonecast: 3rd February 2014

Patently obvious

Mark Bridge writes:

Patents were a very popular topic of conversation last week. Google sold its Motorola Mobility smartphone business to Lenovo but hung on to most of the patents. Does this mean the patents were the most valuable part of the business? Well, when you look at the difference between the original purchase price and the sale price, it seems a reasonable conclusion.

Meanwhile, Google also arranged a cross-licence patent agreement with Samsung... and Samsung agreed a patent licensing deal with Ericsson. Everyone happy?  Well, perhaps ‘sated’ is a better word.

And while we’re on the subject of Samsung, it’s asked Carphone Warehouse to run 60 of its stand-alone shops across Europe. All this, and illy coffee too.

Other cheering news came from Ofcom, which confirmed that all the UK’s major mobile networks now offered 90% 3G coverage. Mobile marketing and mobile wallet venture Weve launched a beta version of its mobile display advertising service in the UK. And new rules from the Office of Fair Trading have clarified in-app payments, which promises to be good news for parents who’ve given their children an iPad. (26 million iPads shipped worldwide in the last quarter, says Apple, with IDC estimating that was a third of the global tablet market in Q4).

Finally, there were a few goodbyes last week. We said farewell to Inq Mobile, the Hutchison Whampoa handset manufacturer turned app producer. Azzurri Communications said goodbye to CEO Vim Vithaldas, who’s overseen a successful refinancing arrangement. And AT&T told us it wasn’t interested in taking over Vodafone. Not at the moment, anyway.

On Monday mornings we summarise the past week’s mobile industry headlines in an email newsletter that’s very much 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

Last week at The Fonecast: 8th July 2013

Not all good news...

Mark Bridge writes:

The UK is beginning its week with news of a long-awaited sporting victory for Andy Murray. The telecoms world had its own much-anticipated good news last week, when European roaming rates fell again. And regardless of Neelie Kroes’ plans to abolish roaming rates completely, there’ll definitely be another roaming cut in 2014.

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The hidden benefits of 4G

Dan Grose of Phones 4u writes:

It’s been nearly 10 months since EE launched the UK’s first 4G network and an estimated 55% of the country is now enjoying its benefits. The fourth generation of mobile networks has brought speeds of between 10-12 megabytes per second to thousands of areas across Britain, creating somewhat of a revolution in super-fast mobile browsing.

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Nokia’s £13 phone still makes money for the company

Mark Bridge writes:

The UK mobile phone industry knows all about subsidised prices. Independent mobile dealers and high-street shops will happily offer a ‘free phone with free connection’ in order to tie a customer into a minimum-term contract.

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Easily upgrade your Android and iPhone app to access physical objects

Andrea Gerber of baimos technologies writes:

Mobile devices are becoming ever more prevalent in our daily lives and so it comes as no surprise that they are now being utilized in security-relevant scenarios such as car-sharing and shared parking. Mobility solutions such as these increasingly rely on smartphone applications, hence technologies arise that allow the smartphone to morph into a digital key.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 1st July 2013

Good news from Sony Mobile, bad news from BlackBerry

Mark Bridge writes:

I don’t know about you but I’m delighted to see Sony Mobile getting plenty of coverage for its new smart watch and giant smartphone. The company’s impressive presence at Mobile World Congress 2013 showed plenty of promise... and I’d say it’s now delivering.

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