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Monday, January 7, 2013

TheFonecast.com newsletter: 7th January 2013

Time to catch up with everything mobile

Mark Bridge writes:

Happy New Year!  It’s been three weeks since our last newsletter and a fortnight since our podcast of mobile predictions for 2013, so there’s plenty to catch up with.

Although we took a bit of a break for Christmas, telecoms regulator Ofcom was especially busy. Not only did it reveal the bidders in the UK’s 4G spectrum auction, it also published its latest mobile phone complaints research – once again, O2 is causing the least trouble – and launched a consultation about protecting consumers from price rises during fixed-term contracts. That’s a particularly touchy subject for Three UK following a recent ASA adjudication.

When it comes to innovation, we heard that the Linux-based Ubuntu operating system was heading to smartphones, Toyota was planning built-in Qi wireless charging for one of its cars and free WiFi was coming to Scottish train journeys.

RIM settled its patent disagreement with Nokia but revealed a drop in quarterly revenue and profit, Google arranged to sell the non-mobile Motorola Home business, Telefónica said it had chosen Nokia Siemens Networks for O2’s 4G rollout in the UK, Kodak sold its digital imaging patent portfolio to a collection of tech giants, US mobile operator Sprint agreed to acquire broadband provider Clearwire and René Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, announced his retirement plans.

We learned that SMS and WiFi had both been in demand over the festive period, that over 100 million 4G LTE mobile devices were shipped worldwide last year and that more than a billion new smartphones and tablets had cameras in 2012.

Phew. For a holiday period, things have been pretty busy in the mobile industry. And there’s more to come. The consumer electronics CES show opens in Las Vegas tomorrow… and we’re already preparing for Mobile World Congress in February. The next few weeks will be very busy indeed – but stay tuned to our free podcasts every week and you’ll always keep up-to-date!

Every Monday morning we summarise the past week’s mobile industry headlines in our newsletter. 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

RIM boss ignores the questions when asked about BlackBerry difficulties and competitors

What went wrong? What did you learn from the iPhone?

Mark Bridge writes:

Live TV and radio interviews. They can be worrying things, even when you’re not expecting to be challenged too much. I know this from experience. So when your company is launching a much-delayed operating system, you’d expect a few difficult questions… and you’d be ready with a response.

The official response of RIM is apparently to ignore the questions.

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Mobile phones transform lives in Africa

Jennifer Lazuta of voanews.com writes:

Rene Mendy, a street vendor in Dakar, has never had enough money to open a bank account. But now, thanks to an emerging mobile phone banking service, he has access to many financial services.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 28th January 2013

Figuring out the figures

Mark Bridge writes:

I didn’t study economics at college, which is probably one of the reasons I have a very simple perspective on quarterly results. As far as I’m concerned, they fall into one of three categories: much as expected, better than expected or worse than expected. Anyway, it’s the time of year when some of the biggest names in the mobile telecoms industry publish their financial results – so here we go.

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Bringing personalised radio to your smartphone

We interview Shankar Meembat about the UTuneMe radio app

Mark Bridge writes:

Targeted advertising on mobile devices is something we’re all getting increasingly familiar with. Visit a web site and there’s a good chance you’ll see an advertisement that’s aimed directly at you, perhaps using information about the sites you’ve previously visited, the type of smartphone you’re using or even your location.

Yet listen to the radio or stream music on your smartphone and that same level of personalisation hasn’t been aavailable. That’s all changing now, with help from a new service called UTuneMe.

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Why Huawei should get out of the mobile handset market

Why Huawei should get out of the mobile handset market

or why Huawei need to spend their £1.6 billion profit on marketing

James Rosewell writes:

Huawei is a company one can’t miss at Mobile World Congress. They bring their own building!  Plus last year a wonderful “Pegasus” flying horse sculpture made using Ascend handsets was proudly displayed next to the main fountain to hail the launch of the Ascend series of handsets.

Huawei has been busy following MWC12. They now run major parts of Everything Everywhere, Three and O2’s network in the UK. On a less positive note they’re not welcome in the US.

But how has the devices side of the business performed?

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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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