Spiral Arm News

Sunday, November 30, 2003

Two new web-based services are launched which can track the location of mobile phones across the UK, reports Silicon.com.

Thursday, November 27, 2003

Drinks manufacturer Red Bull have equipped teams with Ipaqs and Orange phones to collect consumer responses, reports Computing. "Feedback from the field to Red Bull's [...] head office is much more efficient with the new system", saving "hours spent writing up reports".

"Reports are compiled from up-to-the-minute research which has proved a huge asset in developing and fine-tuning our marketing and sales strategies."

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

50% of smart phone owners use SMS and MMS, 45% use contacts and calendar, 38% surf the web, and 28% download games according to a survey reported in Computing. They'd like to back up information to a PC and use email, but consumers need more help and simpler applications.

Friday, November 21, 2003

Java mobile devices out selling Microsoft mobile device "150,000 to 1" in a mobile data services market worth US$80 billion, according to Jonathan Schwartz (eweek).

Thursday, November 20, 2003

Camera phones become standard feature and are "on pace to replace DVDs as the fastest-growing consumer technology device ever", reports USA Today. 80 million shipped already.

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

UK students to answer exam questions by phone: "The project capitalises on teenagers' familiarity with mobiles" (the BBC), while US schools to spend US$6 billion on technology, including wireless and PDAs for use in the classroom (Tech News World).

Friday, November 14, 2003

"With salesforce.com running on it, I can get all my forecasts, I can talk to all my customers": Benioff in praise of the Blackberry, Computing interview.

"PDA market suffers at hand of feature-packed phones", reports Computerworld.

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

TheFeature is discussing ways to make phones more context sensitive. Providing the device with information about the user's location or current state (busy, bored, in a meeting) means the device can modify its behaviour accordingly.

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

"Mobile computing has some growing up to do if it is to have serious enterprise appeal." Yet many "see reasons to be hopeful about growth prospects in the enterprise for mobile phones, PDAs, laptops and tablet PCs" (Infoworld).

Monday, November 10, 2003

It doesn't exist yet, but Gartner predict that strong integration with Outlook and Exchange will help Microsoft win over businesses with a standard corporate smartphone. Reported at Vnunet.

Saturday, November 08, 2003

Sydney's Metro Theatre will accept mobi-tickets: bar code tickets sent as picture messages to mobile phones.

Friday, November 07, 2003

Nokia's market share is now at 35% as world-wide handset sales grow 21% year-over-year for quarter 3, 2003. Source: IDC

Mobile marketing is discussed by Fast Company. SMS is the main subject, although data applications, such as Vindigo, are "starting to make money".

Thursday, November 06, 2003

Trials enable the police to view CCTV while out and about. From the BBC.

Monday, November 03, 2003

On average the UK sends 58 million text messages a day, up 10 million on this time last year. SMS "becoming an essential communication tool". Full stats at text.it.

Saturday, November 01, 2003

From the BBC: In Edinburgh drivers can pay for parking by calling a number and keying in the id of the parking meter. Ticket expiry warnings sent via SMS.