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Monday, April 15, 2013

Last week at The Fonecast: 15th April 2013

Going up...

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s claimed there’s recently been some dodgy equine activity in the mobile industry. No, I’m not talking about the dancing pony that promoted Three UK. I’m not even making lasagne jokes. I’m talking about the ‘Trojan horse’ threatening to monopolise the mobile marketplace.

That Trojan horse is the Android platform, according to a complaint to the European Commission… and those companies doing the complaining include Microsoft, Nokia and Oracle. They’re part of a coalition called FairSearch, describing Google’s distribution of Android as “predatory”. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next.

Sticking with legal activity, the UK’s Office of Fair Trading has launched an investigation to find out whether some free mobile applications and web-based games for children are breaking the law.

It’s not saying anyone is; it’s just checking because consumer protection law doesn’t allow products to include a ‘direct exhortation’ encouraging children to make a purchase. The results of its fact-finding are due to be published later this year.

In other news from the past seven days, a lot of things appear to be going up. Worldwide tablet shipments are expected to increase 38% this year, the number of mobile HTML5 browsers is forecast to rise by 87% this year and app downloads are already up by 11% since the end of 2012.

Also increasing is the UK’s spending on mobile advertising – up 148% to £526 million in 2012 – along with global spending on location-based ads.

4G data speeds are on the way up, too. EE says it’s going to double the speed and the capacity of its UK network, introducing maximum data speeds of over 80Mbps.

And one final increase: a large-screen smartphone from Samsung. This new ‘phablet’ is packing the biggest screen ever seen on a Samsung phone; bigger than the Galaxy S4 and the Note II. It’s equipped with a 6.3-inch display and is called the Samsung Mega. Yes, Mega. Well, with a screen that size it was hardly going to be subtle, was it?

Every Monday morning we summarise the past week’s mobile industry headlines in a 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: 15th October 2012

US government grumbles, O2 UK stumbles

Mark Bridge writes:

Can you trust a Chinese company to build a telecoms network?  Apparently not, according to the US House of Representatives. The “Investigative Report on the U.S. National Security Issues Posed by Chinese Telecommunications Companies Huawei and ZTE” wasn’t at all impressed with the two companies, although most of the complaints appeared to be about a lack of cooperation rather than hard evidence. I wonder if any mysterious agents are planning to visit the new Huawei UK HQ before next year’s official opening?

Author: The Fonecast
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Article rating: 5.0

Mobile phones used to track malaria transmission patterns

Jessica Berman of voanews.com writes:

Scientists are studying the use of mobile phones to track patterns of malaria transmission in endemic nations. The research is part of an effort by many countries to control or eliminate the mosquito-borne disease.

Author: The Fonecast
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Article rating: 4.0

Congressional warning on Chinese telecoms could prompt retaliation

William Gallo of voanews.com writes:

Analysts say this week's U.S. congressional report that called two Chinese telecoms a threat to national security is likely to prompt China to retaliate against U.S. businesses.

The House Intelligence Committee report warned U.S. companies against doing business with China's largest phone equipment companies, Huawei and ZTE.

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Kenya to pull plug on counterfeit mobile phones

Gabe Joselow of voanews.com writes:

Mobile phone subscribers in Kenya may wake up Monday morning to find their phones no longer work, as the nation's telecom companies enact a nation-wide switch-off of all counterfeit devices. Retailers and customers have mixed reactions to the plan, which could affect up to three million mobile phones.

Author: The Fonecast
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Last week at The Fonecast: 1st October 2012

A high for RIM, a low for Apple

Mark Bridge writes:

Apple started last week in the glow of a CoolBrands survey that had named it the UK's coolest brand – but it ended the week with its head bowed in embarrassment. Not only did Tim Cook apologise for the quality of the company’s iOS 6 Maps application, he recommended that customers use competing services until it gets better.

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