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Nokia to Sue Apple

James Oliver — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:20:04 +0000

Mobile phone giant, Nokia is to sue apple in an attempt to extract royalty payments they claim they are owed by the computer manufacturer. Nokia’s story is that a number of their patents were infringed by Apple in the manufacture of the iPhone. Analysts have estimated that they think Nokia might be looking for as much as one or two percent of the price of an iPhone in royalties, backdated to the launch of the device, obviously. That shakes out to a maximum of $12 dollars per iPhone. Apple have so far sold more than 30 million units, meaning they could stand to pay as much as $400 million dollars.

Apple recently posted profits of $1.67 billion for the last quarter so $400 million is actually a relatively small amount when viewed in the context of the galactic the sums of money flying about in the computer industry.

Of course, it’s unlikely that this amount of money will ever actually change hands between the two companies. What’s more probable is that if it is proven that Apple have violated copyright, some sort of arrangement will be reached behind closed doors and we’ll ever find out the amount. Spoil-sports.

What does the Orange/T-Mobile Merger mean for the iPhone?

Matt Thomas — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 09:00:50 +0000

So, now that there’s going to be a giant single mobile phone provider, will Apple decide that they’ve hitched their star to the wrong wagon, or will they stand by their existing deal with O2?

Well, at this stage it would seem like the new company would be in a very good state to push for that, especially as their new business will have the best 3G coverage in the country, which would be very attractive to iPhone users. Orange boss Tom Alexander is certainly in a bullish mood, stating that ‘It does put us into a very, very strong position. 3G coverage is really important for supporting devices like the iPhone.’

Even so, I wouldn’t dump your O2 contract just yet, the deal has yet to be approved by regulators and even if it is ratified, it will likely be 2012 before the new company actually takes shape in any meaningful sense. Even so, the move will have given the decision makers at Apple food for thought when it comes to the iPhone.

T-Mobile merges with Orange

Jenny Sanderson — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:00:22 +0000

In a move that has had financial professionals rubbing their hands with glee (for the first time in a while), Orange and T-Mobile have announced plans to merge, creating the biggest mobile phone company in the UK, with approximately 40% market share. The move is thought to have been prompted by increasingly hostile market conditions and mounting difficulties when it comes to turning a profit from customers.

The move will lead to a huge reduction in costs for both companies as they take advantage of enhanced economies of scale. It will also, in all likelihood, lead to sweeping job cuts across the industry, with call centres and branch jobs likely to be hardest hit. It is thought by industry analysts that prices at the customer level will fall in the short term, though many consumer advocacy groups are worried that the reduced competition will lead to customer service issues in the long term.

Even though both parties seem 100% committed to the move, it could still be scuppered by the regulators, who usually don’t like to allow any company to acquire more than a 25% stake in an industry.

Is Palm spying on Pre Owners?

Jenny Sanderson — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:55:40 +0000

According to a blog post written by a Unix-literate Palm Pre user, the resurgent manufacturer could be collecting data on their users without permission. Joey Hess told technology blog, ‘The Reg’ that after ‘rooting’ his pre so that he could see all the files in the OS he noticed log files indicating that the system was uploading files and information about his usage of the phone.

According to Hess, the information palm is harvesting includes fairly basic information like what apps you are using, how long you’re using them for, when those apps crash. However, somewhat more troublingly, the system is also uploading GPS information about where phone users are at any given time, a situation about which Hess seemed very worried indeed, “It seems both unnecessary and a large privacy risk.”

In response, Palm had this to say…

“Our privacy policy is like many policies in the industry and includes very detailed language about potential scenarios in which we might use a customer’s information, all toward a goal of offering a great user experience. For instance, when location based services are used, we collect their information to give them relevant local results in Google Maps. We appreciate the trust that users give us with their information, and have no intention to violate that trust.”

Touchstone. Overpriced?

Jenny Sanderson — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:09:46 +0000

Across the tech blogs, not least this one, recently you’ll have seen a lot of information about the Palm Pre and the cool touchstone charging device that works with it. In case you haven’t been about recently, the touchstone is a piece of kit that can charge your Palm Pre wirelessly, all you have to do is rest it on top and it uses something called ‘inductive charging technology’ to top up the juice on your phone.

The wireless charger has caused quite a stir, the buzz generated around it leading Palm to believe that they can get away with charging the hefty price of $70 for the device. This has shocked people slightly, since at the end of the day, cool or not, it is just a charger, something that comes free with every other phone. The feeling that this price may be just a little unreasonable has been underlined by the recent revelation that the device actually only costs a mere $5 to make, in terms of components.

A 1,400 percent mark up is a big margin in anyone’s book and has been taken by some as evidence that Palm are nervous about their ability to make back the huge outlay already poured into their make or break device.

Mobile Phone Industry facing trouble

James Oliver — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:09:19 +0000

It’s looking like April to June could be the worst quarter ever for the mobile phone industry as demand for the devices continues to stagnate. The blame has been laid partly at the door of the recession but mostly the consensus is that market saturation is behind the decline in demand for mobile phones. It stands to reason, when the world and its five year old daughter find themselves already owning a mobile phone, how are you going to sell many more?

The industry slump looks likely to continue in the short term, with demand set to stay low well into next year, as retailers work through stock piles of old phones. “We do not expect demand to get better before second half of 2010,” – stated industry analyst Carolina Milanesi.

The only glimmer of hope for the industry in the short term is the SmartPhone market, where devices such as the Blackberry, the T-Mobile G1 and, of course, the iPhone continue to defy the overall market due to their versatility and branding. This sector is expected to get an even bigger shot in the arm in the next few weeks after the launch of the new Palm Pre.

More Households ditching the Landline

Matt Thomas — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:00:52 +0000

A study from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has indicated that almost 15 per cent of the households in the US has no land-line in their house, surviving solely on mobile phones. The study found that 14.7 per cent of US citizens are solely reliant on their mobile phone.

Why is this anything to do with the CDC? because up until now the company has performed its larger surveys exclusively on landlines. These findings make those surveys much less relevant, both for the CDC and any group using telephones to perform surveys.

“These findings are important to CDC because many of our larger surveys are done on calls to land-line phone numbers. All of those adults with only cell phones are being missed in these surveys.” – Stephen Blumberg, health scientist – CDC.

It’s a statistic that will make many survey companies rethink their policies.

For stats fans, the state with the highest number of no land-line households is Oklahoma, with 26.2 per cent, for some reason streets ahead of Delaware with the least, 4 per cent.

Ludicrous Fighting talk from Palm investor

Matt Thomas — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:42:55 +0000

Roger McNamee, co-founder of Elevation Partners has been quoted as saying that all iPhone users are going to be switching to Palm Pres when their contracts expire. Now, this site has been as complementary as anyone about Palm’s new venture and we really do hope that they can finally compete with Apple. However, claiming that the Pre is so good that every single iPhone user is going to toss their prized possession aside in disgust and embrace the device may be slightly overstating the case. Here’s the quote in full…

“You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two- year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.”

The chances are that you either are, or know, someone that has an iPhone. Have a think, are those people proud of their phone? Do they keep it in a special case and polish it with a cloth when they think no one’s looking? Probably.

In my experience, iPhone users are a very happy set of consumers. All I can say is, the Palm pre must be incredibly good.

Mobile Internet use to Skyrocket

James Oliver — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:00:04 +0000

The mobile sector will account for over half of all broadband connections by 2015. That’s according to a report from Analysis Mason. The online analysis company believe that by that point Europe will boast in excess of 148 million mobile broadband connections. The current growth-rate of 46 percent year on year will even see 3G and 4G connections becoming more prevalent than DSL.

It’s a trend that the telecoms industry would do well to take on board. The report also predicts that the current percentage of revenue from mobile broadband, which stands at 1.7 percent as of December 2008, is set to grow to 5.7 percent by 2014, though how that revenue will be collected is set to change as casual users in Europe begin to opt for prepaid monthly contracts rather than the commitment and general hassle of the current monthly contract system.

It’s important to note that all these predictions require the year on year growth rate to hold steady at 46%. This is an ambitious estimate but by no means out of the question, there are still a whole lot of Europeans without mobile internet access. It’s all going to come down to adoption rates and just how quickly prices come down.

Facebook/Nokia Deal?

Matt Thomas — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:44:23 +0000

Facebook is redoubling its efforts to make the world’s leading social network available on a range of mobile devices by discussing a partnership with Nokia. Nokia are the world’s biggest handset manufacturer, so any deal with them would represent a massive step into the mobile market for Facebook, maintaining, even possibly extending their current meteoric growth rate.

At this point financial terms are unknown, as are the number of Nokia devices that would be included in any deal. The only thing that can be said with any degree of certainty is that talks are ongoing. The two companies have been working at the deal now for several months with Nokia thought to be wavering over whether it should sign up with an established player like Facebook or design and build its own social network from the ground up.

If Nokia were to choose the second option they would have some catching up to do. Facebook’s unique mobile visitors jumped significantly last year from just under two million in January to around seven million by the end of the year. Significantly, this rate of growth began to outpace MySpace’s around the end of last summer, making Facebook officially the best performing mobile social network.

Spring Release possible for Palm Pre

James Oliver — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:35:52 +0000

Despite the fact that the Smart Phone market is already hugely crowded, the launch of the latest addition, the Palm Pre, really is a highly anticipated event. The pre-release publicity and reviews have been almost uniformly positive and an impressive showing at an otherwise fairly boring CES has left people champing at the bit for a release date.

I’m afraid I don’t have an exact date for you. However, due to reports from various sources we can say with some degree of confidence that the Pre will be in stock at phone stores by March. However, don’t make any plans to join an overnight queue just yet, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be out in March, the actual release date could quite feasibly be in May or even as late as June.

From a PR point of view an early release would be best. The Pre has built up a very good word of mouth thus far and the pre release opinion of the device is probably as good as it’s going to get, if people are made to wait too much longer there is a risk of the frenzy peeking too soon, also there’s no telling what their rivals might come up with in the mean time.

However, Palm will also be mindful of the Blackberry Storm debacle – the device was rushed to shelves in time for Christmas and wasn’t really ready. Palm will be keen not to repeat this mistake.

Mobile Providers weather Obama-Mania

Matt Thomas — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:10:54 +0000

The four major US phone networks dealt with massive surges of activity on their wireless networks yesterday without major problems. The massive surge in activity was down to, guess who? Barack Obama.

The networks were forced to handle a concentrated period of usage from the millions of people who had flocked to Washington for the inauguration, yesterday. The only problems reported were slight difficulty in getting hold of people in Washington and a delay in the arrival of text messages. Wireless service was disturbed before the swearing in but quickly returned to normal afterwards.

To avoid a massive log-jam on the system AT&T Wireless, Sprint Nextel, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile were forced to erect auxiliary cell phone towers in and around Washington and to redirect call traffic to manage the flow throughout the day.

Thanks to this forward planning the companies were able to deal with about five times the normal call volume yesterday and still provide a service that was remarkably close to normal.

A Verizon spokeswoman had this to say,

“Even in the most crowded spectator areas nearest the inauguration stands at the US Capitol, the vast majority of calls went through on the first attempt,”