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Monday, June 18, 2012

Last week at The Fonecast: 18th June 2012

What next for Nokia?

Mark Bridge writes:

Oh, how cheerful we were last Monday. Apple previewed iOS6, which will bring mobile tickets (and 200 other new features) to the iPhone and iPad this autumn. Vodafone cut the cost of using your phone in Europe with its flat-rate £3-per-day EuroTraveller deal and a few days later Three came up with its own ‘unlimited’ European data roaming.

Yet by the end of the week there were fewer smiles in the mobile industry. The biggest bombshell came from Nokia. In a series of announcements on Thursday it said 10,000 staff would be cut (including three of the leadership team), factories would be closed and its Vertu luxury phone brand would be sold. There’ll be a new focus on location-based services and photography, helped by the acquisition of technology, patents and staff from imaging business Scalado.

There was also a Nokia link to last week’s other big acquisition story. Mobile computing business Psion plc is being combined with the Enterprise Mobile Computing business of Motorola Solutions, assuming shareholders are happy with the price. Psion’s EPOC operating system was the forerunner of the Symbian OS, now nestling within... Nokia.

Fortunately, most of the week’s other headlines were relatively upbeat. For example, it’s been a good week for mobile financial services. iZettle released its API, enabling its card payment technology to be incorporated within other applications, and picked up £20 million in new funding. Customers of the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest were able to withdraw money from cash machines by using mobile phones instead of a bank card. And on the other side of the Atlantic, US-based mobile payment service Square said over two million individuals and businesses are now signed-up to use its app.

Supermarkets were busy moving further into mobile. Tesco took control of the WE7 online music service for a purchase price of £10.8 million, while Sainsbury’s spent much less on its eBook retailer. Just £1 gave it a 64% stake in Anobii Limited alongside HarperCollins, Penguin and Random House Group.

A different kind of selling was proposed by Everything Everywhere and Nokia Siemens Networks. They now have a machine-to-machine partnership that will allow vending machines to offer remote stock monitoring, location-based promotional messages and mobile payments.

Finally for now, our congratulations to Charles Dunstone and Dr Mike Short. Sir Charles of the Warehouse, as he’ll probably never be known, was awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Meanwhile Dr Short of Telefónica Europe, who’s also president of the Institution of Engineering & Technology and a supporter of many other mobile organisations, is to receive a CBE.

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

Mobile phone usability and design: we talk to MobiWire and Doro at Mobile World Congress

Mark Bridge writes:

The mobile user interface seems to fall in and out of fashion. Nokia and Apple have both transformed the mobile UI in previous years… but still the challenge of creating the 'perfect' user interface design remains.

This focus on mobile usability is the main topic of today's special podcast, which includes Chris Millington of Doro UK and Jerome Nadel from MobiWire.

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This week at The Fonecast: 19th February 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

This week has been dominated by the media frenzy that is Mobile World Congress. James Rosewell and I were at MWC for all four days… but even a podcast every day wasn't enough to include all the news, so expect more reports from us next week.

GSMA Mobile World Congress 2011

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Avoiding the Scissor effect intelligently

Daniel Joseph Barry of Napatech writes:

Avoiding the dreaded Scissor Effect has become the number 1 priority for mobile carriers. The scissor effect refers to the phenomenon of rising infrastructure costs and flat revenues; an unsustainable situation for any business. The scissor effect has already been witnessed in fixed line networks and now mobile carriers face the same challenge in relation to mobile data services. Is it possible for mobile carriers to grow revenue per user in line with bandwidth usage?

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Nokia crystal clear on Symbian & Microsoft

James Rosewell writes:

Nokia held their Developers Day during day 1 of Mobile World Congress 2011. Rich Green, new CTO at Nokia, kicked off the event by talking about the future of Symbian. In a nutshell here are the key facts:

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Show-starters at ShowStoppers

Mark Bridge writes:

“Hot products. Cool companies. Meet the press.”

That was the tagline for ShowStoppers, a showcase event that took place last night before today’s opening of Mobile World Congress. As you probably heard in today’s podcast, I went along and met a few of the participants.

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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.

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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.

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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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