“I’m not in front of my computer at the moment”

By on May 21, 2012 in Opinion

Earlier today I was on the train. It was packed. The whole carriage was being forced to listen to a Monday morning inane conversation about whether, ‘Lisa has approved that payment.’ Jamie — for that was how the chap introduced himself during multiple calls — was at pains to point out that he, “Wasn’t in [...]

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Points of interest route planner app? Any ideas?

By on May 20, 2012 in Applications

I got this mail in from a reader who’s planning a camper van trip across the UK. He’s got an app enquiry: My family and I are taking a road trip around the UK before heading overseas and I’m trying to find a route planner that includes Points of Interest and Camp Sites (for a [...]

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When even the guy carrying the Burger King sign at Waterloo Station has an iPhone

By on May 18, 2012 in Devices

And you thought having an iPhone 4 or 4S made you an exclusive part of the tech elite? Think again. Is this the beginning of the end for niche Apple?

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Creating loyalty is difficult: A fascinating read for operators wondering why it’s all going wrong

By on May 15, 2012 in Operators

Two of IBM’s top telecoms chaps have put together a terrific piece published on Telecom Asia exploring the issue of mobile operator customer loyalty. I strongly recommend anyone working at a mobile operator takes the time to read through it. On the back of IBM’s rather exhaustive telecoms consumer survey, they’ve outlined some rather direct [...]

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Look how far we’ve got to go in this industry

By on May 14, 2012 in Operators

I arrived into Miami this afternoon and got this message from my operator of choice, Vodafone: Welcome to The USA. Calls cost 135ppm to make & 100ppm to receive. SMS 35p + your home rate & pic msg 37p. For your £5 per day you have 25MB of data, then it’s £3 per 1MB. Click [...]

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New transcription offering makes HulloMail’s voicemail service better than ever

By on May 11, 2012 in Applications

I’ve always been a fan of voicemail transcription services. I simply cannot, CANNOT stand seeing a list of voicemails and then having to click through them in a panicked manner, wondering just what is waiting for me. Visual voicemail does fix this a little bit — but for the longest time I’ve wanted the ability [...]

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Just how much of a problem is Facebook for the operator industry?

By on May 11, 2012 in Operators, Opinion

A thought-provoking research note from the team at Strand Consult: People who believe that Google is currently the biggest threat to mobile operators may not realise exactly how much time mobile customers are using on Facebook and how Facebook is currently changing the way over 800 million people communicate on a daily basis. The biggest [...]

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Rumour’n'conjecture –> Apple iPad mini set for October launch at $200-$250

By on May 10, 2012 in Devices

Now then if this were to actually happen — and it’s a big if — it would probably kill off any meaningful tablet competition for a good few years. It’d be “job done, thanks for coming, but no thanks” to anybody else for a long period — market pricing in the $200 range would make [...]

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Pretty amazing: “Apple iPad: so user friendly, apes use it to communicate”

By on May 10, 2012 in Devices

You have to hand it to Apple, don’t you… Two 8-year-old twin orangutans at Miami’s Jungle Island zoo, draw, play games and communicate using an iPad tablet. The park is one of several zoos experimenting with the interaction of apes and computers, allowing six orangutans to use Apple’s tablet to communicate as part of a [...]

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Why the UK operators are really screwed: 92% of customers don’t plan on increasing their spend over the next 2-3 years

By on May 10, 2012 in Operators

I received a fascinating piece of research in from IBM today. It was sent to me in conjunction with the news that IBM has signed an £18m business intelligence contract with UK 3G-data operator, Three. The deal will see Three use IBM’s technology to get a better understanding of what customers are doing — and [...]

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TU me: Telefonica’s integrated, smart over-the-top (“OTT”) messaging service

By on May 9, 2012 in Applications, Operators

First, let me say kudos to the Telefonica Digital team behind TU Me. Second, let me say: Yah-boo-sucks to the rest of the mobile operator community that’s been standing still, watching paint dry for the last few years doing absolutely nothing to innovate anything more exciting than a slightly modified price plan. TU Me is [...]

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NQ Mobile now has 172 million registered accounts!

By on May 9, 2012 in Opinion

172 million folk have opened accounts with consumer antivirus and security specialist, NQ Mobile. By way of context, this figure was 146 million back in December! They’re clearly doing very well indeed. Here’s the company’s first quarter 2012 operating metrics overview from their recent release: Cumulative registered user accounts were 172.0 million as of March 31, [...]

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