Mobile growth drops below 20%.
BBC report on a slowdown in mobile phone growth for the first three months of 2007: "This was the first quarter in almost two years in which the annual rate of growth has been below the 20% mark". A total of 252m handsets were shipped in the quarter. Sony Ericsson showed above average growth.
Phone+GPS to help blind.
EasyWalk combines GPS with a mobile phone and text-to-speech software to give blind people more independence. "It requires just two dedicated keys on the mobile phone--one which, when pressed, tells the user their exact location including the house or building number and the other one alerts the call centre that the person needs assistance with navigation."
Reported by The BBC.
UK: more phones than people.
The Guardian are reporting on an Ofcom report that shows there are more mobile phones in the UK that people, yet 4% of adults aged 25-44 do not have one. "This suggests there exists a small cabal of mobile-phone refuseniks, for whom shunning the mobile is nothing to do with being very old, very young or very hard up, but a lifestyle choice."
Handsets for the elderly.
A handset is to be launched in May design for the elderly user. Features include:
Reported by The BBC.
Ringtones part of UK inflation measure.
The BBC: Annual spending on ringtones is now included in the UK basket of products used to measure inflation.
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