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Monday, June 24, 2013

Last week at The Fonecast: 24th June 2013

More of the same

Mark Bridge writes:

Another week, another couple of product announcements from Samsung. There appears to be no stopping them, despite a recent drop in the company’s share price.

This time it’s a couple of tablets – one of which runs both Android and Windows 8 – and a 20 megapixel camera that’s got a 4G-enabled Android device built in.

Across the Yellow Sea in China, Huawei has announced the world’s slimmest smartphone. At just 6.18mm deep, it’s taken the prize from whoever had it before. Well, world records aren’t the same without Roy Castle making the announcements. The phone has a 4.7-inch HD screen and runs a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, so it’s pretty high-spec as well as slim.

There was also an announcement from a UK-based company called Kazam, formed by a couple of people who’d worked at HTC. They’re preparing to launch a range of smartphones later this year.

And while I’m talking about new products, mobile photo-sharing service Instagram launched a video option as a challenger to Twitter’s Vine. You can now choose between 6-second repeating video clips and 15-second non-repeating video clips. Or YouTube.

In the world of management, BT CEO Ian Livingston announced his departure to become Minister of State for Trade and Investment (and probably Baron Livingstone) later this year; he’ll be replaced at BT by Gavin Patterson, who’s currently chief executive of BT Retail.

The Communication Workers Union reached an agreement with Telefonica about outsourcing at O2 UK, ending the possibility of strike action. And Orange Group’s Board of Directors stated its full confidence in CEO Stéphane Richard, who was placed under formal investigation for fraud last week. The investigation relates to his previous role working for the French government.

Finally, a spot of research. Last week we learned that Amazon and Argos are the UK’s most-visited mobile retail web sites, the value of mobile commerce transactions is expected to double within the next four years, younger mobile users value data more than text or voice, NFC handset sales were up 300% last year and 4G LTE Advanced devices are going to become more popular.

Which seems to suggest we’re all getting similar phones and will use them to buy loads of mass-produced products from retail warehouses. That’s progress, you know.

On Monday mornings we summarise the past week’s mobile industry headlines in a newsletter that’s a lot 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

Why the cloud will kill SMS text messages... eventually

Mark Bridge writes:

This week my lovely wife made a rare error in leaving her mobile phone behind when she left the house. Fortunately I was working at home, so I was able to answer her calls and relay her messages. But it got me thinking. What were the alternatives?

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This week at The Fonecast: 1st May 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

We've had another short working week here in the UK... although not necessarily if you're working in retail. The reason for that shortness was a combination of Easter Monday and the Royal Wedding – an event that was rumoured to have its own mobile phone jammer.

As well as having another short week, we've also had another week of financial figures.

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This week at The Fonecast: 23rd April 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s Easter, but that’s not stopped the mobile phone industry from generating plenty of news stories.

Let’s start with partnerships. Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom - which already work together as Everything Everywhere in the UK – have now agreed to combine their procurement activities for customer equipment, network equipment, service platforms and IT infrastructure. Yes, even these two telecoms giants can save money with group buying!

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Exactly how boring is the Samsung Galaxy II S?

Mark Bridge writes:

In July last year I wrote about the 'geek porn' of unboxing being taken to a new level with celebrity unboxing (which sounds rather like a challenge from a reality TV show).

Sony Ericsson had persuaded Maria Sharapova to give her first impressions of the X10 Mini Pro. The end result was entertaining, if not insightful.

And now Samsung have added a new facet to the trend with 'extreme unboxing'.

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This week at The Fonecast: 16th April 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

We started this week with a story that grabbed plenty of attention. It was a report from Billmonitor.com that claimed we in the UK were wasting almost £5 billion every year by choosing the wrong mobile tariffs. Although I remained a little cynical about some of the detail, there's no doubt that many consumers could be better off if they switched tariff - or even network.

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Interview with Chris Millington of Doro about mobile retailing, wearables and technology for older consumers

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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

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