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Your advert here!!! Our Guides Technical Editors:
Last modified: | Mobile Insight Vol: 8 Issue 343 November 20th 2006EasyMobile blames TDC for UK collapseThe full Inquirer story ... Easymobile gives up the ghost 3 and Virgin Mobile may disappear
Twice in as many days, O2's outspoken chairman – Peter Erskine – has hinted that he expects consolidation in the UK cellular market. With 3 and Virgin Mobile most likely to disappear.
Erskine was speaking to journalists after O2 had unveiled a very upbeat set of figures. For example, over the last two years O2 has claimed over 40 per cent of all net additions.
If you add in Tesco Mobile's performance with over 4 per cent, that's nearly one in two of every new UK subscriber.
So where does that leave O2's rivals? Erskine described Virgin Mobile as "hardly a run-away successful mobile company", hinting that it had virtually stood still after its acquisition by NTL.
The implication is that the big players – including O2 and Vodafone – might swallow up their smaller rivals. Here [Hutchison] 3 can be viewed as a potential take-over target. Particularly if you want to acquire 3G users quickly.
Vodafone, for example, has 191.6 million customers but has sold only a mere 10.9 million 3G data cards and mobile phones across all its territories.
Erskine also hinted that he expects 02 to catch Vodafone up in the UK. He says O2 already has more customers – all he needs now is more revenue per customer.
Significantly O2 was strangely quiet about its i-mode service which was supposed to be the next Big Thing. Erskine pointed the finger at Nokia which has yet to provide a useful i-mode
compatible phone. The full
Inquirer story ... Walled gardens revived for mobile videoWalled Gardens - the bane of the early mobile internet – are threatening to make a comeback with the advent of independent video streaming services.
According to Doug Overton, head of marketing with WDS Global, the mobile network operators have already started to block services offered by independent video content providers.
Such providers are trying to stream their video content to 3G mobile phone users. In order to receive the stream, the consumer needs to download an appropriate Java based client.
The catch is that the standard port addresses which such Java apps normally utilise are being blocked by mobile network operators. The motivation for this is to ensure that all video streams pass through the operator's own portal.
The full Inquirer story ... Mobile walled gardens make comeback with video A deal just announced by Vodafone should see it become Yahoo's exclusive UK mobile phone advertising partner.
It may even lead to lower call charges for those Vodafone customers who agree to accept Yahoo's ads. It's unclear whether these ads would only be seen when subscribers surf the mobile Net.
Mobile Insight has seen several technology demonstrations where ads are 'pushed' down to the handset with the owner's permission. These ads can even appear on the handset's 'idle' screen.
The move follows remarks made by Google's Eric Schmidt, who predicted that calls might become free for those who use their mobile phone to search the mobile Internet or who buy online with their phones.
It's not the first time free phone calls have been linked to advertising. Mobile Insight
seems to recall that Richard Branson proposed such a facility for students (who otherwise couldn't afford to make such calls).
In this last case, however, the long suffering students would have been forced to listen to ads before being connected to their friends and families.
The full Inquirer story
... Yahoo strikes deal with
Vodafone
US citizens face the danger of their smartphones being confiscated ad infinitum according to a report in the
New York Times. This report revealed that laptop computers are currently seized on a completely ad hoc basis from US citizens on re-entry to the US without "probably cause, reasonable suspicion or warrant." The whole thrust of the article illustrates how members of an industry body, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, have and potentially can have, their laptops taken without even the remotest excuse by US government agencies.
And one female member told the NYT that had she been waiting for at least a year to get her laptop back. One of the problems is that no-one has yet to legally challenge what the US government can or cannot do with the information it acquires as the result of such confiscations.
In one instance, the victim in question had been found to be harbouring instances of child pornography.
There's a grave danger, however, that US customs officials will soon realise that devices such as wireless PDAs and top end smartphones
have the potential to store as much illicit data as a laptop. So US citizens
face the prospect of their mobile phones not making it past baggage check.
The full Inquirer story ... Your Smart Phone's data belong us, says US
Reacting to customer demand, O2 is launching 'My Bluebook' which will eventually store all you handset's data online. For free. And it will be Outlook compatible.
My Bluebook has apparently been 'soft' launched so that existing O2 customers can already sign up to it. But the really clever bits – like the addressbook backup, aren't implemented quite yet.
O2's Russ Shaw told the INQ that his company wasn't going to charge for the service. However, he probably meant no charge for storing the data. We can't believe that users won't burn up their own GPRS data allocations while the information is uploaded in the background.
Anyway, the service should prove extremely attractive to the average Brit who normally loses all his or her stored numbers when they lose or have their handset stolen. Or drop it in the bath. The full Inquirer story ... http://www.theinq.com/default.aspx?article=35760
First International Computer (FIC) has just announced the Openmoko - which
claims to be the world's first truly 'Open' Linux based handset.
www.openmoko.com ...
The tovo t450 PocketFone uses WiFi where available and the normal mobile network
everywhere else. The dual mode handset is
manufactured for Mobiboo by Pirelli Broadband Solutions. It can be
purchased from selected Tesco stores for £159.95.
www.mobiboo.com
This
week
Textandsell Everyone knows that putting a picture against an item you wish to dispose of helps to sell it on eBay. But a rival UK service, Textandsell, intends to harness the power of cameraphones to do so.
Turning a photo into a digital image that can be uploaded to an auction site such as eBay isn't exactly within everyone's skill sets. By contrast sending a photo from a cameraphone isn't too much of a technical challenge.
With its new site set to launch by Q3 2006, Textandsell encourages potential vendors to snap the item they want to sell. Then simply create a picture message (MMS) or text (SMS) which includes a description the item plus an indication of the desired sales price.
Finally send both text and/or photo to the company's mobile phone number – +447740827827.
The site intends to use location based technology which will enable vendors to search for items in their general vicinity – rather than searching the whole of the UK.
Initially vendors will be charged a mere £1.50 to list the item for a whole week. Texts or picture messages sent to the company's number are charged as a single premium rate SMS.
The company hopes that its Internet site will be perused by the younger generation. Textandsell claims 20 per cent of 25-30 year olds spend over 20 hours per week on the Net while this figure rises to 25 per cent for 16-24 year olds.
The trick is ensuring that your mobile phone is setup properly for picture messaging (MMS). If it isn't, the correct settings can be downloaded via text messaging either from the handset vendor's site or the mobile network operator's site.
http://wap.textandsell.com
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