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Monday, May 14, 2012

Last week at The Fonecast: tell 'em about the money, honey

Mark Bridge writes:

As summer approaches, so the media’s interest in mobile phone roaming increases. Once again, the maximum price of calls and texts when abroad in Europe is falling – but this year there’s something different on the horizon. The European parliament has just approved the EU’s plans to introduce a price cap for mobile data... and in a couple of years’ time we’ll be able to choose a completely separate network to help cut roaming costs.

Talking of money, it’s been a busy week for mobile payment news. Payment solution provider VeriFone Systems, whose name you’ll see on a lot of credit card machines, has just introduced a new plug-in card reader for smartphones. As well as letting businesses use smartphones to accept payments, it also opens the potential for mobile developers to build secure payment solutions on top of VeriFone’s infrastructure.

Meanwhile MasterCard announced that its digital PayPass Wallet was expected to launch this autumn, iZettle dropped its fixed transaction fee for mobile payments and Samsung’s new Galaxy SIII was confirmed as the payment-enabled Olympic Games Phone.

From payment applications to a different kind of app. Facebook has announced plans to introduce an ‘App Center’ to its web pages and to its iOS and Android applications as well. It wants to encourage the use of mobile apps that link with Facebook, which is hardly surprising given the lack of revenue currently coming from the social network’s mobile users.

That’s common sense - but some companies are happy to defy convention. In an industry that’s historically made plenty of money from messaging, here’s a network that wants to give it all away. Telefónica has just launched a new all-in-one communication application called TU Me. This is a free messaging app that’s available internationally and introduces the new TU brand from Telefónica Digital. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next.

Finally... we ended Wednesday’s podcast with the story of Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson, whose non-existent computer science degree was causing eyebrows to be raised in Silicon Valley. Surely not a big deal?  Well, he’s now the former CEO.

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. More details about advertising and sponsorship opportunities are available on the About us section of our website.
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Opinion Articles

RIM is still committed to the consumer market... like there was ever any doubt

Mark Bridge writes:

There are times I feel like turning my back on the mobile phone industry and joining a monastery. That’s probably not going to happen, given the monks’ tradition of not admitting wives. But yesterday was another of those frustrating occasions. Let me tell you why.

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Are social media and smartphones really killing SMS and MMS?

Mark Bridge writes:

A couple of research reports this week have noted that text messaging and picture messaging growth is slowing down. Could this be the end for our trusty friend SMS and its bolder, brighter (and slightly flakier) sibling MMS?

Author: The Fonecast
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Last week at The Fonecast: 26th March 2012

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s been a week of ups and downs for the mobile industry.

It started with good news as Apple – fresh from hitting 3 million new iPad sales – announced its plans to spend some of the $100 billion sitting in its decidedly non-mobile wallet. There’ll be a quarterly dividend and a share buy-back scheme.

Author: The Fonecast
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New product overtakes old product: why the surprise?

Mark Bridge writes:

Sometimes I’m a simple soul. This is one of those occasions. I simply don’t get what all the fuss is about.

Sales of Windows Phone 7 smartphones have overtaken Symbian device sales in Great Britain for the first time ever. Yes, the new heavily-promoted mobile phones from Nokia are more popular with consumers and retailers than those using the obsolescent Symbian OS. Windows Phone 7 now has 2.5% of the British smartphone market, compared with 2.4% for Symbian.

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Mosaik Solutions: providing mobile coverage data by putting all the pieces together

Mark Bridge writes:

Some parts of the mobile industry are all glamour and glitz, megapixels and multi-cores, apps and ads. And then there are the essential parts of the industry, quite often with considerably less competition... and therefore accompanied by less singing and dancing.

Despite hailing from the city of Memphis in Tennessee, Mosaik Solutions isn’t from the rock ‘n’ roll end of the mobile industry. It creates mobile coverage maps and provides coverage data, as well as supplying information about coverage patterns, wireless spectrum depth, network configurations and licencing.

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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.

Author: The Fonecast
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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.

Author: The Fonecast
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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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