Mobile advertising research from USA

A new USA study from Harris Interactive has looked at the potential effectiveness of mobile advertising. 56% of teens and 37% of adults said they'd be interested in ads with incentives. Of these respondents, 80% of adults and 70% of teens said cash was the best incentive. Teens liked the idea of entertainment downloads (61%), free music (57%) and complimentary minutes (53%), while adults were most keen on free minutes (49%) and discount coupons (37%). Text messaging was the preferred medium, with 69% of adults and 64% percent of teens wanting their ads to arrive using SMS. [Press release; PDF]

Institute of Engineering & Technology talks about mobile phone health effects

The IET - the Institute of Engineering and Technology - has published a document explaining its position on the possible health effects of mobile phones and electricity pylons to health. It has reviewed scientific papers from the last two years and points out that scientists have been unable to replicate some results from high-profile studies, suggesting that the original research wasn't investigated sufficiently before publication. The IET says the absence of robust new evidence of harmful effects of electromagnetic fields is reassuring and is consistent with findings over the past decade. [PDF document]

Worldwide mobile sales up but Western Europe is down

Researchers at Gartner say that mobile phone sales were up 13.6% in the first quarter of 2008, although figures in Western Europe were down - which is the first time this has happened since Gartner began tracking in 2001. Worldwide sales reached 294.3 million handsets in Q1 2008, although quarterly sales of mobile phones in Western Europe were down 16.4% year-on-year. Nokia's market share slipped slightly to 39.1%, Samsung held on to the number 2 position with 14.4%, while Motorola's share slipped to 10.2%, keeping it in third place. [Press release]

New features for Google Android OS

Google has revealed some new features for its Android mobile phone operating system, including touch-screen support, a revised standby screen and enhancements to GPS support. Google Android devices should be available by the end of the year. [Sources: AP via Google; AndroidCommunity.com; Telecoms.com]

New Mobile News podcast now online

In this week’s edition of the Mobile News podcast we take an extended look at the week's industry news headlines and gossip, including Arun Sarin's departure from Vodafone and 3's termination charge appeal... and we also find time to review the Samsung F490 widescreen mobile phone. The Mobile News podcast is produced by TheFonecast.com; you can download it from the Mobile News website, from TheFonecast.com, from our RSS feed or via iTunes.

Vodafone's Arun Sarin to retire

Vodafone has announced that Chief Executive Arun Sarin is retiring in July after five years in the role. He will be replaced by current Deputy Chief Executive Vittorio Colao. Mr Colao was appointed Chief Executive of Vodafone's European businesses and Deputy Group Chief Executive of Vodafone Group plc in October 2006. The company has also announced its annual results, with profits up 5.7% to £10.1 billion and a proportionate mobile customer base of 260 million people worldwide. [CEO press release; results press release]

...all about the new Apple iPhone 3G...

Cartoon by Hugh MacLeod. We'll wait for the official news...

49% of the world has a mobile phone

There were 3.3 billion mobile phone users worldwide at the end of 2007, equivalent to a penetration rate of 49%, according to the International Telecommunications Union. Average worldwide growth was 22%, with Africa's subscriptions showing the largest gains: up 39% annually over the last two years. The ITU pointed out that nearly 90% of all telephone subscribers in Africa now use mobile phones. [Source: Cellular-News.com]

Restructuring for China's telecoms industry

The Chinese government has said it's going to restructure its telecoms industry. Current rules prevent fixed-line operators from offering mobile services and vice versa. There'll be a number of mergers and swaps, resulting in more competition for state-owned China Mobile, which currently has over two-thirds of the country's mobile phone customers. The government has also said it'll start issuing 3G licences. There are currently around 600 million mobile phone users in China. [Sources: ChinaTechNews.com; BBC News; Chinese government announcement]

Nokia annoys N-Gage gamers

There were protests last week when gamers realised that N-Gage downloads bought for their Nokia handsets were locked to that specific device. The All About N-Gage website revealed that customers who replaced their phone or upgraded to a different Nokia handset needed to buy the games again if they wanted to keep playing. Nokia has subsequently relented, saying it is now "solution that would allow people to transfer purchased N-Gage games to a new Nokia device". The N-Gage gaming platform was re-launched last month, five years after the first dedicated N-Gage device appeared.

Orange and Nokia to form "strategic international partnership"

Orange and Nokia have said they're extending their current working agreement to form a strategic international partnership that'll see them co-operating with music, mobile gaming, maps, advertising and location-based services. As part of the deal, Orange will be launching a range of Nokia phones that offer access to the Orange Music Store, Orange games, N-Gage games, and Nokia Maps. [Press release]

Mobile operator group defines security requirements

The Open Mobile Terminal Platform forum (OMTP), which is supported by a number of network operators, has announced a set of recommendations to improve mobile device security over the next few years. In particular, the recommendations are designed to protect new mobile payment solutions and services from hackers. They've been welcomed by UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and by Jack Wraith, Chairman of the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum. Members of the OMTP include AT&T, Hutchison 3G, Orange, SK Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

USA ahead of UK for mobile browsing

Smartphone users in the USA are spending an average of four hours and thirty eight minutes per month browsing the mobile web, compared with two and a half hours per month in Britain, according to a survey of 3,500 people by M:Metrics. The favourite site for mobile users in the United States is Craigslist, where users spend an average one hour and thirty-nine minutes per month - and in the UK it's Facebook, where users stay for an average of one hour and forty-five minutes. The company says one of the main reasons for the difference in browsing time is that flat-rate data plans are more popular in the United States, where almost 11% of users have an unlimited data plan compared with 2.3% in the UK. They also say more US smartphones have QWERTY keyboards... and there are more smartphones in the UK. [Press release]

Motorola settles Iridium bankrupcy

A judge in the USA has said the bankruptcy case involving satellite phone network Iridium won't cost Motorola anything. The mobile satellite company collapsed in 1999 with Iridium's creditors claiming that Motorola, which had backed the company, was to blame for Iridium going bankrupt. They were after around $4 billion in damages plus interest. Iridium still offers satellite phone services, with the current company run by a group of private investors who bought Iridium’s assets in 2000. [Sources: Press release; Reuters]

Bluetooth awareness at an all-time high

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has announced that global awareness of Bluetooth technology is at an all-time high. Awareness of Bluetooth technology has risen for the fifth consecutive year, with 85% of consumers now recognising the technology. The survey, which was conducted by research firm Millward Brown, asked around 2,500 consumers in China, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, the US and the UK about Bluetooth technology. In addition, 68% recognised the Bluetooth logo and 79% understood the technology was used on mobile phones. This compares favourably with WiFi, where only 53% of consumers worldwide were aware of the technology. [Press release]

Ofcom survey shows fixed-line usage dropping

Ofcom's annual review of the UK's TV, radio, and telecommunications usage has been published. Although an increase in rural broadband usage has grabbed much of the attention, the survey also shows that an increasing number of people are living without fixed-line telephones at home. In general, 87% of UK homes have a fixed-line phone - down 3% from last year. An average 12% of households rely on mobile phones, with Belfast and Liverpool (23% and 21% respectively) having a particularly high number of mobile-only households. [PDF summary]

A third of mobile ad cash is spent on search ads

More than 34% of all mobile advertising money is being spent on mobile search advertising, according to figures from Juniper Research. They say mobile search advertising spending in 2008 will exceed $445 million (£226 million) - and it'll increase to over $2 billion by 2013, with the total spending on mobile ads hitting $7.6 billion (up from $1.3 billion in 2008). ABI Research published a similar report last month.

Christian Dior plans mobile phone

Fashion design company Christian Dior is planning a range of mobile phones. The first model is a flip-open design that's being built by ModeLabs, who have also built phones for Levi's, TAG Heuer and Hummer. [Sources: WSJ.com; PDF press release]

Hydrogen power cell for mobile phones

French researchers have created a hydrogen fuel cell that can be used to recharge mobile phones, reducing our reliance on electrocity for recharging. The fuel cell is being developed by STMicroelectronics and Bic. It's the size of a small cigarette lighter and could be on sale in early 2010. Each cartridge will recharge a traditional battery between three and five times. [Source: AFP via Google]

Carphone co-founder gets Olympic role

Carphone Warehouse co-founder and non-executive Deputy Chairman David Ross has been been appointed as the London Mayor's representative on the London Olympic Games Organising Committee. [Press release]