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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Google launches streaming music service in the USA

Google has used its annual Google I/O developer conference to reveal a new streaming music subscription service called Google Play Music All Access. At the moment it’s just available in the USA and will cost $9.99 (£6.56) per month, although early adopters receive a $2 discount. Customers can store up to 20,000 of their own songs and listen to them alongside millions of online tracks. After browsing genres, customers can create their own online ‘radio station’.

The company has also introduced new tools for Android game developers and has revealed updates to the Google+ social network, to its search service and to its mapping platform.

In addition, a SIM-free Google-friendly version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be available exclusively on Google Play from next month.

James McQuivey of Forrester Research said “Music is one of the most powerful tools for engaging digital customers because they use it every day. If Google failed to make a play for the music business, it would later regret it because its customers would remain forever tied to another digital service even if Google Android and Chrome devices continue their dominance. That explains why Google Play is adding All Access. The problem with the digital music business is that it is already very mature. Spotify, Rdio, Pandora, all of them have made themselves valuable to users in a way that will be very hard to beat. To compete with existing music services, Google's All Access experience has to at least be as good as Spotify and Pandora, but unfortunately for Google, there's not much more you can do to impress music listeners short of making the music free.”

[Official Google blog]

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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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