Podcast - 15th January 2014
This week's podcast starts with talk about money, as Google buys smart thermostat company Nest Labs while O2 UK closes its mobile Wallet product.
We're also looking at the decline of SMS text messaging in the UK, the end of the Cash4phones recycling business, an alleged security breach that wasn't what it seemed, mobile service on the Channel tunnel and the growth of 4G.
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Arrivals, departures... and a little confusion
Mark Bridge writes:
Farewell for another year, dear old International CES. The Las Vegas-based consumer electronics show is but a fading memory as the mobile industry starts preparing for next month’s GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
However, what happened in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas.
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O2 UK is closing its Wallet service on 31st March 2014, less than two years after first announcing it.
The O2 Wallet enables customers on any network to send money from an existing debit or credit card to individuals or to retailers, rather like the Barclays Pingit service.
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Juniper Research has published a new report that shows annual retail payments on mobile handsets and tablets are expected to reach $707 billion (£430 billion) worldwide by 2018.
This means mobile retail spending will account for 30% of all online purchases in 2018, compared with the $182 billion (15% of e-retail) spent last year.
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The UK government says it’s launching a consultation in 2014 that could result in consumers taking photos of their cheques instead of taking the physical cheque to a bank.
As a result, the money could be in a customer’s account within two days rather than six.
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