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Nokia Head of Mobile resigns

Matt Thomas — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:05:23 +0000

For the second time this week, telecommunications giants Nokia have hit the news headlines following an announcement that another high-ranking executive has tendered their resignation. The news comes just days after chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo resigned from his position, which he has held since 2006, to be replaced by Stephen Elop from Microsoft.

The head of Nokia’s mobile division, Anssi Vanjjoki will be leaving his role just months after being appointed to it. Vanjoki issued a statement commenting: “I felt the time has come to seek new opportunities in my life. At the same time, I am 100% committed to doing my best for Nokia until my very last working day.”

The announcement follows a blog post with the executive wrote following his appointment in July, which stated his commitment to supporting Nokia to improve in the smartphone market: “It’s my aim to ensure Nokia stays as the market and intellectual leader in creating the digital world. I’m under no illusions; it’s no small task. I am committed, perhaps even obsessed, with getting Nokia back to being number one in high-end devices. Achieving this will require performance and efforts over and above the norm. This is a role I’ve personally been preparing for over the last 20 years.”

Vanjoki will serve a notice period of six months, meaning he will have been in the role for less than a year before leaving to a new position elsewhere.

The announcement follows the appointment of Mr. Elop, as the first non-Finn to take up an executive position within Nokia. The shake-up within the company is thought to follow difficulties that Nokia have been having in penetrating and succeeding within the smartphone market, with stiff competition from the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android operating system. Both of these firms are enjoying a gradual increase in market share as Nokia struggled to maintain their lead in the industry.

It is thought that the changes will lead to further management positions being vacated and replaced over the next few weeks, as the company seeks to find the best possible team to lead them in to a new era of development and improvement.

Facebook Places functionality updated for smartphones

Andre — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:01:23 +0000

An announcement this week from social networking giants Facebook sees the launch of a new smartphone function called ‘Places’. Places enables people to update their status to show people where they are, when they are on the move. It constitutes Facebook’s first location-based service, enabling people to share information about where they are eating, playing or shopping.

The Places feature follows on the back of other existing services such as Gowalla and Foursquare. It is currently only available as a US iPhone application, or by entering Facebook’s smartphone site. However, there are plans to roll out the new feature to the 500 million members of the networking site in the very near future. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook has commented: “This is meaningful because you can stay connected with your friends around you.”

The new feature employs smartphone GPS technology to enable users to locate their current location and access a list of places nearby. The action then enables them to publish their location details to their news feed facility on their own page. They also have the ability to tag friends whom they are with, to distribute location information among a group of people travelling together, providing friends have already updated their location on the site.

Product vice president Chris Cox commented: “While home and work are two of the most important places in people’s lives, Places tries to tap into the third most important. This third place is the one we end up talking about a lot. I went to a movie, I saw a band, I went to a bar. So much of the interesting stuff in our lives happens in this small amount of time and we want to make that come alive. The worst portrait of Facebook is people at home just looking at pictures of other people having fun. This is exactly the opposite. This is a very participatory, real-world kind of thing.”

Government spending on iPhone applications revealed

Matt Thomas — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:08:25 +0000

A recent release of figures under the Freedom of Information act has revealed that the government is spending up to £40,000 on applications for the Apple iPhone. Information released suggests that tens of thousands have been spent on development for the gadget, to improve governmental procedures.

Applications which have been developed include a tool to assist jobseekers in finding work, and software developed for the Foreign office which provides travel advice. Just weeks after the government announced they would be slashing expenses incurred due to poor website management, the data revealed has surprised industry experts. The Central Office of Information recently announced that the government had spent over £100m on website development and maintenance last year.

When asked by the BBC to comment on the expenditure incurred by iPhone application development, the Home office refused to comment, saying that this would contravene security protocol by revealing too much information.

The DVLA have commissioned the most expensive application for the iPhone – a tool which shows people how to change a wheel. This has cost £40,000. The DVLA commented: “We want to make it as easy as possible for motorists to renew their car tax, tell us about a change of address or update their driving licence, meaning they stay safe and legal to drive. This would also bring benefits for DVLA, for example by reducing the number of reminders that need to be sent out. We considered how an application could help with this but no final decisions have been taken and the app, for now, is still in development.”

Other areas of mass expenditure include the NHS, who have developed a drink tracker and smoking cessation application. The Jobcentre have spent over £32,000 on application development.

The government have announced that any future spending on iPhone applications will be subject to strict controls.

Smartphone data deals to be scrapped by phone companies

Admin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 07:30:02 +0000

Many UK phone companies which currently offer unlimited data plans for smartphones are looking to cap data usage in the UK. O2, Vodafone and Three have all announced that they intend to limit data usage, in a move which coincides with the recent launch of the Apple iPhone.

O2, which operated as Apple’s exclusive partner in the UK for Apple’s iPhone, has just brought in a cap of 1GB each month for new contracts signing up for the service. Vodafone and Three are following suit, suggesting an agreement across the companies to reduce data use through devices. Rather than attempt to offer better deals in a competitive market, the decision has sparked a debate as to whether the phone companies have concerns about the possibility of networks being clogged by large data downloads.

Orange have had an imposed 750MB limit since they began to provide iPhones in 2009, which they term their ‘fair usage’ policy. Most of the providers offer variable data packages depending upon the type of contract which users sign up to when they purchase their smartphones, between 500MB and 1GB monthly. This is meant to cover up to 1,000 emails with attachments, or up to 300 MP3 downloads.

The launch of better, faster smartphones has led to rapid data consumption, with people streaming more and more information on their gadgets. This has created a ripple in the mobile industries, as companies rethink their original packages in an effort to reduce congestion from numerous users downloading data at the same time.

O2 currently lets users know when they are getting close to their limit, via text. Once a user has reached their personal limit, they are not allowed to surf, and functionality is limited to the sending and receipt of emails. They have provided a top-up service where users can purchase additional data allowance, at £5 for 500MB. While most people who own smartphones do not reach their monthly allowance of data, it seems that mobile phone companies will have to act quickly to ensure that their capabilities for provision of service can meet the demand created by enhanced smartphone functionality.

iPhone out sold by Android

Matt Thomas — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:53:57 +0000

A surprising new report from analysts NDP has revealed that smartphones using Google’s Android as their operating system are now outselling Apple’s ever popular iPhone.

The report revealed that Android powered devices were accounting for 28% of the market, a shocking 7% higher than the iPhone’s still respectable 21%.

Both however, are lagging behind Research In Motion (RIM) who continue to lead the market with a 36% share for their Blackberry operating system.

The rapid growth of Android has been largely attributed to the aggressive marketing of US company Verizon Wireless who are one the biggest mobile network operators in the United States.

Their ‘buy one get one’ deals have been exceedingly popular over recent months and if this current growth rare is anything to go by Android may well overtake Blackberry as the market leaders by the end of the year.

Although Google’s phone is doing extremely well as it rapidly gains a high market share the company has backtracked a little over its seemingly aggressive approach.

A fortnight ago Google announced that Verizon would not be joining its web based Nexus One store and hat Vodafone would now only be allowed to sell the phone in their retail stores.

After this, Spring, another popular mobile network in the US announced that they were no longer going to join the online handset stores in offering their service with the new Google phone.

Without Sprint and Verizon it does not look as though Google’s dream of a super-phone is about to come true anytime soon.

Google will continue to sell their original GSM mobile phone from their online store but this may be the last we see of the Android phone.