U Mobile opens store at Berjaya Times Square (Malaysia)
Malaysia’s U Mobile has opened its flagship store at the ground floor of Berjaya Times Square. To celebrate the opening of the store, U Mobile will hold a one-day sale called the ’1+1 Just for U’ campaign offering HTC Wildfire and BlackBerry Curve 9300 devices.
The promotion also includes a 30-days promotion which offers entries in the draw for handset or game console prizes when customers activate their postpaid subscription.
MTS offers low-cost handset in Russia
MTS, Russia’s mobile operator is offering the Basic 140 handset for US$23.01.
The company is offering the low-cost handset with the Many Calls To All Networks tariff. This package including 90 minutes of free on-net calls and 20 minutes of calls when the customer is on roaming in the CIS countries.
Retailers Struggle with the changing M-Commerce Demands
Consumers round the globe are turning to mobile handsets to purchase everything from gift vouchers to flat-screen TVs and retailers around the world are struggling to keep up with the pace of change.
John Lewis has announced that it is going to launch a mobile-optimized version of its highly successful website. In the U.K., majority of retailers are ahead of the curve in developing mobile websites and apps in order to connect the potential of m-commerce, which technology analyst Ovum expectations will bring in US$41 billion in global revenues by 2014, up from US$7.7 billion in 2007.
According to Scott Seaborn, head of mobile technologies at Ogilvy Group U.K., one of the U.K. High Street retailer estimates that it loses 12% of sales from people who purchase via a mobile channel while still in-store. The boundaries are beginning to blur between using a handset and a laptop. Mobile is becoming so significant in human behavior.
Marks & Spencer and John Lewis, the two most established names on the British High Street, are both taking up m-commerce with devoted mobile sites. Marks & Spencer recently sold two sofas for US$5,200 via mobile.
John Lewis has announced that it was launching a mobile-optimized version of its highly successful website and is looking at app development once the site has been successfully launched.
According to Jonathon Brown, head of online selling at John Lewis, the customers appetite for mobile commerce has grown enormously and the company’s focus is on developing a site with a seamless experience. Mobile is a vital part of the vision to become the leading multi-channel retailer in the UK.
According to Marks & Spencer’s social and mobile commerce development manager, Sienne Veit, the company has chosen not to go for apps because they wanted to reach all of the customers. Every person on the U.K. High Street is the customer, so the company doesn’t expect all of them will have the kind of phone that has an app.
According to a survey conducted by France Telecom’s Orange, U.K. consumers are ahead of their European counterparts, which shows that 40% of them have used m-commerce in the last six months, and 40% are likely to do so in the future. In France, only 28% have used m-commerce in the last six months.
The Internet Advertising Bureau asked retailers what was stopping them from developing their m-commerce capabilities.
According to Jon Maw, the IAB’s head of mobile, in the research, 41% of retailers claimed they will have a mobile presence in the next 12 months, but still 39% think consumers are not ready for mobile. They’re wrong. People are comfortable very quickly with buying on mobile [online grocery store]. According to Ocado, 15% of its sales are made or altered through mobile apps. Consumers are willing to buy stuff on their mobiles as long as the experience is a good one.
Vodafone allows Prepaid Top-Ups via Facebook Page (Qatar)
Vodafone Qatar has launched the world’s first Facebook reload service for prepaid mobile phone subscribers. Vodafone customers can now top-up their prepaid plans while visiting Vodafone Qatar’s Facebook page. A launch offer gives a 10% discount on all top-ups until the end of the month. All Vodafone customers can also access the Facebook mobile website for free from their phones.
According to DeEtte Christie, Head of Online, and Vodafone Qatar, it is a fantastic achievement for Vodafone Qatar to launch the world’s first mobile credit reloads via Facebook. Vodafone Qatar is the leader in utilizing social media and online to deliver world-class customer experience. The company has a vision for making Qatar the envy of not only the region, but the global community through delivering new and innovative ways for the customers to engage with Vodafone whether through the PC or a handset. The company started by offering free access via mobile phone to not only Facebook, but Twitter, Maktoob, Friendster and Orkut, and they followed this up by giving everyone on Vodafone 10MB of free Mobile Internet access every month. The company has organically grown a vibrant and active Facebook community of more than 30,000 members through offering high quality customer service, breaking news, special offers, and more.
Motorola makes a strategic move to separate its handset business
According to the Co-CEO Sanjay Jha, Motorola Inc. may spin off its mobile-phone business early in the first quarter of next year.
According to Motorola’s previous statements, it would separate the handset business and a set-top box division from the rest of the company during the first quarter. According to Jha, the company may be able to complete the transaction near the beginning of that period. The spin is looking good for first quarter, the early part of first quarter.
As per reports, Motorola unveiled six new smartphones including a version of its Droid handset for business users. The company is rebuilding its handset business around Google Inc.’s Android software, capitalizing on surging demand for devices that use the software.
Get ready, Motorola is bringing Android-based smartphones to all consumers, Jha said at an event
According to Nielsen, Android a free software that’s also used in phones from HTC Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., has become the most popular operating system in the U.S. among new smartphone buyers, passing Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry platforms. While BlackBerry retained the top spot among U.S. smartphone owners overall with a 31% share, its lead is declining.
AT&T Inc., the second-largest U.S. wireless operator announced that it will soon start selling three of the Motorola phones namely, Bravo, Flipout and Flipside, ranging between US$79.99 to US$129.99 with a two-year contract.
The company recently introduced phones like, the Citrus and Spice at affordable prices. According to Motorola, the Droid Pro targeted at professionals, comes loaded with business software and additional security.
Handset manufacturers to face a tough 2010
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: After facing tough economic conditions in the year 2009, no easy way ahead in the year 2010 is in sight for the cell phone manufacturers. The top 10 mobile manufacturers of the world do not seem to get any respite from the unprecedented losses they suffered last year.
The shipment of Top 10 Original Development Manufacturers (ODM) and Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) has grown from 197.5 million in 2009 to 204.2 million units in 2010, recording an increase of 3.4 percent, analysts feel that the growth is not something to be cherished for the industry which is accustomed to double digit growth.
The current challenged faced by the handset manufacturers is just a carryover of the turmoil last year. A key strategic shift throughout the industry supply chain was forced by a fall in the global wireless handset market. However, some improvement can be noticed in the wireless handset market which is growing 12.8 percent to 1.5 billion units and expanding at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 6.8 percent from 2009 to 2014.
LUXE City Guides launches mobile app
LUXE City Guides, the stylist pocket travel guides is all set to release its Mobile edition for iPhone and Blackberry along with handsets from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and HTC.
Priced at £5.99, the app comes with a year of free updates sent directly to the phone, plus a discount of 50% on the second year’s subscription. The app will cover 10 destinations initially including New York, Hong Kong, Paris, London, Shanghai, Singapore, Rome, Bali, Sydney, and Bangkok – with 20 more international destinations coming soon.
Research unveils Mobile Industry Handbook
A research has released the ‘Worldwide Mobile Industry Handbook 2009-2014. Subscriber numbers for operators in 73 countries for the year 2007 to Q2 2009 are included in the study. It also has subscriber growth forecasts for the same countries for 2009 to 2014; quarterly mobile handset shipments 2007 to Q2 2009; and handset vendor market share 2007 to Q2 2009.
According to Portio, the handbook will enable readers to understand the value of the trillion dollar worldwide mobile industry; identify growth opportunities in key regional markets; understand the latest technology; and get a detailed insight into ARPU, churn rates, penetration and handset shipments.
The report is priced at £795 for a 1 – 5 user PDF team licence; £1,495 for a small or medium size PDF company licence; and £1,995 for a large corporate PDF unlimited licence.
Nokia and Motorola most popular handsets: Survey
According to a survey, conducted by University of Salford on UK’s most iconic model over the last 25 years, Nokia and Motorola are the most popular handsets.
Acquiring over 29.2 per cent of the votes, Nokia remaind the centre of attraction with its 3210 model. The survey attracted over 2,000 votes which was sponsored by Mopay, handset recycler.
According to Simon Walsh, co-founder of Mopay, the company received a vast array of mobiles everyday and the most popular models to be recycled are Nokia handsets. In his opinion, the company is really standing the test of time and remains a top choice for upgrades.
Out of the Top Ten iconic handsets Motorola did well too with three out of the Top Ten iconic handsets (a total of 16.3 per cent).
Though Apple took the top slot with the iPhone, the overall manufacturer came third with a total of 13.5 percent of the votes.
ReplaceAds announces the availability of Mobile Ad Network
ReplaceAds, the largest network of audio, video and display ad inventory in the fast growing internet radio business has announced the availability of its new mobile advertising platform. With over 2000 radio stations available on iPhone, BlackBerry, iPod touch, Android and other handset, the company generates more than 250 million mobile advertising impressions per month.
According to John Williams, CEO and Founder of ReplaceAds’ parent company Jetcast, mobile audio and video streaming is growing at a phenomenal rate. The new mobile monetization platform of the company will allow the broadcasters to quickly grow their mobile revenues and for advertisers to easily and cost effectively reach our affluent, and highly engaged mobile audience.
Jetcast is of the opinion that since mobile streaming is hitting an all time high, more people are listening to radio via their Blackberry, iPhone or Android Smartphones than ever before. As per the ratings of Bridge Ratings, the mobile phone radio audience will reach 40 million by 2015.
