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Wednesday, July 27, 2005


T-Mobile drops walled garden to boost data revenue.




Quoted in ZDNet UK, Ulli Gritzuhn of T-Mobile states: "Too expensive, too complicated, too little use -- that's our clients' judgment about our current data services".




Their new strategy, called Web'n'walk, is to drop restrictions on the sites customers can visit, and to make Google the home page on new devices. "With the Google home page, we want tell our customers from the first moment that they are carrying with them the Internet they know from home". To do this, T-Mobile will be shipping Opera as the web browser on Nokia devices.

by Richard @ 10:01

Monday, July 25, 2005


BBC launch mobile location-based information.




The BBC are offering location-specific stories and information to UK seaside areas. The Discover your Coast service has placed plaques along coastal walks, and each plaque contains a phone number, text number and bar code. Dialing the number connects the mobile phone user to the content. "The service provides contributions from local people and narrated pieces about the area they are visiting." The content can also be downloaded for free from the internet.

by Richard @ 07:45

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Smart phones fastest-growing handset.




eWeek report: '"Smart phone sales broke all records in the first quarter of 2005, and we expect them to double year on year to 2006," said Roberta Cozza, a principal analyst at Gartner.'



Smart phones made up 8.4m, of the 180m handsets shipped in 2005Q1. Symbian is the market leader, although Microsoft shipped 2.9% and Linux powered 14%.




eWeek also report Gartner predicting that 1b handsets a year will be sold by 2009. In comparison the estimate for 2005 is 779m. The prediction is also that smart phones will account for more than 20% of all handset sales by 2008.

by Richard @ 10:24

Monday, July 18, 2005

Demand for mobile content grows.




A survey reported in The Register states: "Currently 20 per cent of mobile phone users download mobile content with that figure rising to 60 per cent by 2006 [...]"

by Richard @ 08:06

Thursday, July 14, 2005

The mobile phone and an end poverty.




The Economist reports on the role the mobile phone can play in the developing world.
"But despite rapid subscriber growth in much of the developing world, only a small proportion of people -- around 5% in both India and sub-Saharan Africa -- have their own mobile phones. Why?". The cost of handset and government taxation.

by Richard @ 16:53

Monday, July 11, 2005

Gartner: mobile malware over-hyped.




Mobile viruses, trojans and other "malware" are on the five most over-hyped IT security threats.


  • "mobile malware will be a niche nuisance in the foreseeable future".

  • "Anti-virus vendors see huge potential profit opportunities in selling security solutions to billions of cell phone and PDA users".

  • "The most effective approach to blocking mobile malware will be to block it in the network".



by Richard @ 12:34

Friday, July 08, 2005


Microsoft plans mobile email for 2005Q4.




Infoworld report that Microsoft is planning an upgrade to their Exchange Server product to support push-email to Windows Mobile 5.0 devices. The Economist (June 11 2005, p. 7) comment: "The move is a direct challenge to the dominance of the BlackBerry [...]".




TheRegister reports that Yahoo! is also entering mobile email in the US with a US$2.99 per month service for Sprint PCS customers.

by Richard @ 12:34

Tuesday, July 05, 2005


Mobile phone sales rise again.





Gartner research, reported in
Computing, shows a 17% 2005Q1 sales compared to 2004Q1. A total of 180.6m handsets were sold.




The top three increased their market share:


  1. Nokia - 30.4% (from 28.8, an increase due to performance in China)

  2. Motorola - 16.8%

  3. Motorola - 13.3%




Siemens, who are selling their handset division, was the only manufacturer to ship less handsets and their market share dropped to 5.5% from 8%.

by Richard @ 12:34