No doubt you read my previous post on the future of voice, and had your thoughts provoked – however, since then, SpinVox have hosted a session on the future of voice. Their chief of “Interweb bloggery”, James Whatley, was present, along with their VP of consumer business, James Scroggs. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend,…
ZTE to spend 100mn RMB on handset promotion
Chinese handset vendor ZTE plans to invest 100mn RMB (that’s about 5.5mn GBP if my maths is right…) in promoting it’s handset brand in 2008, according to reports. ZTE is also targeting sales of 50mn handset in 2008 – currently the U980 model accounts for one third of all TD-SCDMA handsets sold by China Mobile.…
ROK Entertainment acquires Jalipo
ROK Entertainment has bought online TV provider Jalipo in shares, equivalent to a 16.8mn USD value. ROK are stating that this has been a strategic purchase, and that Jalipo’s product offering will be incorporated in the ROK portfolio. Jalipo appeared about a year ago with it’s “online marketplace” concept – the idea being that credits…
Big retailer news: Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy join forces!
Best Buy has announced a joint venture with Carphone Warehouse (CW), by investing 1.1bn GBP! The 50/50 JV will include the CW’s 2400 stores in 9 European countries, and the assets will include the CW share of an existing venture with Best Buy (which we reported on here). Starting next year, Best Buy will open…
Limbo survey on WAP gives surprising results…
“Mobile entertainment community” Limbo has just announced it’s Mobile Advertising report for Q108. This is a suvey based on 1000 Adults, and there are some very interesting stats. Check out these numbers, each with a little graphic: The number of WAP users is now about 50% of those using SMS: 51% of SMS users are…
Frengo launches interoperable mobile social apps…
Now we mentioned Frengo on IntoMobile when it launched some time back, but now “Social mobile services” company Frengo has announced a “suite of applications that interoperate across popular sites Facebook, MySpace, hi5, Orkut and Bebo, enabling users to interact with existing contacts as well as discover like-minded individuals regardless of their particular social networking…
Update: BT “ToGO” service launched in UK
Following on from Dusan’s post, BT have released more details on their plan to give their broadband customers smartphones, so that they can capture more of the UK mobile market. The new “BT ToGO” handsets will work on home/public WiFi, and utilise mobile networks when WiFi isn’t available. The two devices were named as the…
UK start-up able to encrypt mobile calls
A UK start-up has developed some technology to encrypt calls (and hence prevent snoopers) from fixed-line and mobile phones – and is looking to raise several million GBP as it comes close to closing some big deals. The company is called Cellcrypt, and is just 3 years old. Security of calls has become a huge…
China starts CMMB Mobile TV trials
China’s SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film and Television) will start Mobile TV trials using the CMMB standard on May 10th. Trials wil begin in Beijing and Shenzen, followed by Shanghai at the end of the month. Users will be able to buy CMMB USB dongles and get free TV programmes – apparently there will…
Vodafone Chief: VF not a dumb pipe
Arun Sarin (Vodafone CEO ) has said any content providers wishing to launch D2C (direct to consumer) services will always have to work with Vodafone. Apparently, speaking to the Financial Times, Sarin stated that the ‘unique gift’ of billing secures it and other operators against becoming “dumb pipe” for data – for examples from those…