Vodafone has announced details of its new ‘own brand’ engagement strategy that’ll be launched across all its companies next year. This follows the company’s decision to end its Formula 1 sponsorship with McLaren.

Its ‘Vodafone Firsts’ marketing strategy will be focussed on special experiences, from individuals achieving something for the first time to international events.

Inmarsat, the mobile satellite communications business that was originally created by the International Maritime Organization to help ships stay in touch, has launched the first of its Global Xpress satellites today.

When these satellites are in place, Inmarsat will use Ka-band radio frequencies to deliver download speeds of up to 50Mbps and uploads of up to 5Mbps to mobile or fixed devices.

UK-based Mobile Commerce Ltd, which provides mobile search services to a number of network operators, has published details of the brands and search terms that were popular in 2013.

The company dealt with 8 billion search requests during the past 12 months and handled more than a quarter of all searches from mobile internet users via UK operator portals.

Jürgen Hase writes:

Machine-to-machine communication (M2M) and the Internet of Things (IoT) run through all areas of life and work. Cars, cargo containers, parking spaces or even wristwatches and coffee cups – everything around us is on the verge of being connected.

Juniper Research has published its predictions for technology industries next year.

At the top of the list is a prediction that cities will ‘get smarter’ during the next 12 months, anticipating that the high-profile smart technology testbeds of Singapore, Barcelona and Nice will be joined by many other cities next year.