In this week’s podcast we interviewed Mark Finlayson, the managing director of Southampton-based business-to-business dealership Next Communications. Mark’s been in the mobile business for over 21 years… which is pretty impressive when you consider the UK’s cellular mobile phone networks launched less than 25 years ago.

In a very candid conversation, Iain Graham asked Mark what the secret of his success was.

“It was a bit of a shock when we realised it was 21 years; maybe it shows a lack of imagination! I think probably the secret of our success is that we have stayed small and personal. We’ve offered a ‘boutique’ service to our client base and have immense client loyalty as a result. Because of that focus, it probably has limited our growth slightly”.

After talking about his early days in business, Mark went on to explain how he thought the mobile industry would change in the next 12 months...

Last week George Linardos, Nokia's VP of Product, Media & Games, said the company planned to launch a revised Ovi store in Spring 2010, with a 100%-new store in place for the summer. He also said the Ovi store was seeing almost a million downloads every day.

Yet Nokia's mobile services aren't winning over everyone. Tero Kuittinen, an analyst with MKM Partners, says Nokia's 'Comes With Music' service could be closed within 12 months. Others agree, suggesting that Comes With Music wasn't promoted well and came to market too late.

This week's edition of The Fonecast is now online. Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge take their regular look at recent major news headlines from the mobile industry – covering everything from the Google Nexus One smartphone and 4G technology to hands-free driving and the iPhone arriving at Tesco. There's also an interview with Mark Finlayson from business-to-business dealership Next Communications who talks about the last 21 years in the mobile industry… and what he expects in 2010.