Spiral Arm News

Monday, March 26, 2007

Google and Apple mobile in Europe.

The Guardian are reporting on the progress both Apple and Google are making with operators in Europe. "Apple wants to secure a deal with a single pan-European network for the launch of its iPhone by the end of the year, with industry insiders suggesting Vodafone has emerged as an early front runner." Google are in talks with companies, including O2, regarding a "GPhone" which would "make it easy for users to search for information using their mobile handset.".

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Jury out on effect of mobile on work/life balance.

Solutions Research Group's asked 2,600 Americans if they agreed with the statement "Devices like BlackBerry chain you to work more than they liberate you" and found that 34% agreed, 37% disagreed, with 29% neither agreeing or disagreeing.

Reported in Computing.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Mobile advertising: acceptable with incentives.

eMarketer: "Most people (90%) say that they are not at all interested in getting ads on their mobile phone [...] As with any medium, once mobile ads are associated with something of value, user interest shoots up. If incentives are involved, it shoots up considerably."

The Register report that Yahoo! oneSearch is the companies search services made available for US mobile users. "Paid-for results and display adverts are also included".

Friday, March 16, 2007

SMS in 2012 estimated at US$67bn.

MobileCrunch: "A report from Portio Research is forecasting SMS revenues to reach $67 billion. The increase is mostly attributed to an expected increase in mobile subscriber base from 2.61 to 4.81 billion, sending 3.7 trillion messages. The Asian markets are expected to grow the fastest, comprising 50% of the subscriber base by 2008."

Thursday, March 08, 2007

SMS and Government: reminders to leave the country.

The BBC report a UK proposal to "run a pilot scheme to send text messages reminding people not to overstay their visas."

The opposition view: "Shadow home secretary David Davis accused John Reid of giving up on trying to deport hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, preferring to 'spam them with text messages'. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said: 'If tough rhetoric and gimmicks were enough to sort out our immigration system, we would have the best in the world.' "

Monday, March 05, 2007

McDonald's mobile loyalty club.

"McDonald's and mobile operator NTT DoCoMo in Japan have formed a joint venture company to allow burger customers to buy their Big Macs using their mobile" reports Computer Weekly. The plan involves the launch of a loyalty scheme by October 2007 "to offer enhanced membership services and to strengthen customer loyalty".

Thursday, March 01, 2007

US SMS spammer fined.

Computer Weekly reports on a cases in the US where the sender of unsolicited SMS messages has been fined under the US Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act.