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Sunday, August 21, 2011

Didn't predict the recent events at Google, Motorola and HP? Don't worry about it

Mark Bridge writes:

Let’s face it, last week’s Google/Motorola deal wasn’t widely predicted. Stasys Bielinis of Unwired View deserves a round of applause but I don’t remember hearing anyone else suggesting this radical move.

The HP/webOS situation was arguably easier to call, although the overall changes at HP are much bigger than most people expected.

Even Microsoft & Nokia’s partnership seemed the stuff of fantasy less than twelve months ago.

All these recent events reminded me of Charles Dunstone’s appearance at the Google Think Mobile event at the end of June.

Charles, who - I’m sure you know - co-founded The Carphone Warehouse, described his early days as “just stumbling around trying to make a living” within a minute of walking onto the stage.

He went on to talk about the early days of mobile, when the idea of 1% UK mobile penetration was considered “insane” - and the success of SMS was an “accident”.

“All the way through mobile, everyone has failed to understand its potential and then has also failed to capitalise on its potential”, he said, noting that “generally what happens in the mobile business is not ever what anyone has anticipated”.

“It’s a very, very confusing environment and there’s absolutely no-one who really knows where it’s headed and in the end who’s ultimately going to own and who’s going to be the most powerful people within this marketplace”.

I find all this reassuring. After all, if the CEO of one of the UK’s longest-established and best-loved mobile phone businesses isn’t trying to predict the future, I probably shouldn’t worry about it either.

[YouTube: Charles Dunstone at Think Mobile]

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Opinion Articles

How mobile phone retailers must embrace technology to diagnose phone faults

Amir Lehr of Cellebrite writes:

Mobile phone faults pose a daily problem for mobile phone retailers. According to mobile diagnostics expert Cellebrite, 60 per cent of cases are software-related issues with the smartphone, and can be resolved within minutes.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 12th May 2014

Feelin’ groufie

Mark Bridge writes:

Last week a major retailer with a significant online presence announced plans to release its own-brand smartphone by the end of the year. No, not Amazon. This news came from Tesco.

Author: The Fonecast
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Smartphone innovation is slowing down, as Samsung struggles to differentiate

Lawrence Lundy of Frost & Sullivan writes:

While the Galaxy S5 is an evolutionary product, there is not enough in there to make people upgrade from the 4. It doesn't push the envelope in any real way; we are in a sort of stasis now when it comes to smartphone innovation.

Author: The Fonecast
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Welcome to the digitised city

M2M technology transforms parking in Pisa

Jürgen Hase of Deutsche Telekom writes:

The Smart City is on its way. All over the world more and more cities are connecting all areas of their infrastructure. Pisa in Tuscany, for example, aims to improve its traffic management with a machine-to-machine (M2M) solution and a Big Data service provided by Deutsche Telekom.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 31st March 2014

HTC goes One better

Mark Bridge writes:

“Hey, everybody, we’re releasing a new flagship smartphone that carries all the hopes of the company with it. If this sells well, we could be saved. If not, it could be disaster.”

“Great. What shall we call our new phone?”

“Oh, we’ll give it the same name as the previous model. That’ll be fine.”

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