Mobile phone market shows effects of global financial crisis

Research company IDC says the global financial crisis is being felt by the mobile phone industry, with sales down significantly in the third quarter of 2008. Their figures show that manufacturers shipped 299 million handsets in Q3 2008, up 3.2% from last year but down 0.4% from the previous quarter. Historically, the third quarter has seen an increase as manufacturers prepare for Christmas. Average selling prices for mobiles have also begun to drop. Nokia leads the list of mobile manufacturers with a 39.4% market share, Samsung is second with 17.3%, Sony Ericsson has moved up to third place with 8.6%, Motorola is fourth with 8.5% and LG is fifth with 7.7%. Strategy Analytics has calculated similar figures; they say 303 million cellphones were shipped worldwide in Q3 2008, up 5% year-on-year, which is the industry’s weakest growth rate since 2002. [IDC press release; Strategy Analytics report]

10% of mobile broadband customers say they were mis-sold

In the week that Vodafone was criticised by the ASA for its "light years ahead" mobile broadband advertisement and 3 admitted problems with its mobile broadband service, O2 has published research that says over one in ten mobile broadband users feel that they were mis-sold. The main source of irritation is the cost of the service, with nearly a third complaining that the ongoing cost was higher than expected. One-fifth were upset that they were unable to use mobile broadband where they wanted it despite being told that there would be coverage - and 13 per cent were frustrated there was no returns guarantee if the service wasn’t right for them. Needless to say there's a sales message in here. O2 has revamped its mobile broadband offering by cutting costs, creating a new coverage checker and offering a 50-day Happiness Guarantee. [Press release]

Motorola ditching Symbian and Linux OS phones

Motorola is going to concentrate on selling phones that use Google's Android operating system, Microsoft Windows Mobile and its own system in a bit to cut costs. Company co-CEO Sanjay Jha said Motorola would be dropping support for Symbian UIQ and the Java-Linux platform. It's also no longer planning to sell its mobile handset business in Q3 2009 but says it'll take longer. As part of the company's reorganisation, two thousand jobs are being cut from its mobile business, with three thousand - 4.5% of its global workforce - going overall. [Sources: WashingtonPost.com; Press release]

154 million mobile customers worldwide have ported their numbers

The Telecommunications Management Group, a US-based telecomms consultancy, says 154 million mobile phone customers in 48 countries worldwide have kept their mobile telephone number when changing networks. Their new report about mobile number portability (MNP) points out that China and India have yet to introduce MNP - and says that statistically every mobile phone customer in Hong Kong has ported their mobile number at least once. [Press release via PRNewsWire]

UK now sending 6.5 billion texts per month

The Mobile Data Association has released its latest quarterly figures for UK mobile phones. In the third quarter of 2008 (July - September) it says usage for text and picture messages has continued increasing. Texting is up 38% year-on-year from Q3 2007, while MMS usage is up 20%. We're now sending an average 6.5 billion text messages sent per month - that's almost 217 million per day - and we're also sending an average of 1,495,525 multimedia messages every day. [Press release]

Vodafone does Russian branding deal

Vodafone has agreed a partnership with Russia's Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) network that'll see Vodafone's products and services offered to MTS's 87 million subscribers across Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. [Press release]

Bang & Olufsen drops mobile phones

Danish hi-fi manufacturer Bang & Olufsen says it's going to focus on developing and manufacturing audio and video products - which means it'll stop developing mobile phones, co-branded products an stand-alone audiovisual devices. It's previously produced the Serene and Serenata phones in partnersip with Samsung. As a result of the reorganisation, 165 staff are being made redundant. [Press release 1; Press release 2]

Over half of mobile consumers are influenced by handset choices

A study by Google in the USA tells us what we already knew - consumers choose their mobile phone deals according to handset brands and features as well as networks. In Google's survey, more than half of all shoppers said handsets played a major role in their purchase decisions. 24% said their decision was just about the phone, while 28% said handset and network both influenced their choice. The remainder - 48% - said they only chose depending on the network. [Source: RCRWireless.com]

Money transfer and NFC will account for half of all mobile payments by 2013

A new report from Juniper Research says mobile money transfer and contactless Near Field Communications will account for 50% of the overall mobile payment market globally by 2013. It expects the mobile payments market to move from today's focus on digital goods (such as ringtones, music, and games) to customers transferring money and using NFC features to make purchases. In addition, the overall mobile payments market is expected to grow by a factor of ten between now and 2013. This week's Mobile News podcast includes an interview with Tom Whitaker of Masabi about the ways that m-payments and m-ticketing will change the way we use our mobiles. [Press release]

This week's Mobile News podcast now online

This week's Mobile News podcast is now available to download. In our main feature, Iain Graham talks to Ben Whitaker from Masabi about mobile payments and mobile tickets. Mark Bridge and James Rosewell join Iain to discuss the latest mobile industry headlines - plus there's a preview of the Motorola Aura. As usual, you can download or listen free at TheFonecast.com and on the Mobile News website... and you'll find us on iTunes and via RSS too.

Credit crunch causes mobile users to change upgrade plans

Mobile application developer GetJar has just published the results of its first Mobile Attitudes poll, which shows that mobile phone users around the world are delaying plans to upgrade or buy new handsets because of the global economic crisis. 78% of users worldwide are delaying plans to upgrade or buy a new mobile phone, and 76% are cutting the amount they spend on mobile usage. When asked whether they’d reduced spending on mobile phones in the previous 12 months, more than half hadn’t reduced their spending at all or had cut it by less than 10%. [MobileAttitudes.org]

Essex train company to block mobile signals

Rail operator c2c, which runs trains between Essex and London, says it will cover windows in its 'quiet' carriages with a special coating that'll block mobile phone signals. This will help to enforce the company's existing policy of banning mobile phones, personal stereos and other electronic gadgets in one carriage of each train. The window film will allow light through but blocks mobile phone signals, along with wifi and other radio waves. [Source: thisislondon.co.uk]

Android G1 security flaw spotted

Security researchers say they've found a flaw in the Android-powered T-Mobile G1 smart phone. Charlie Miller of Independent Security Evaluators says he's notified Google about the flaw; Google has responded by saying it's aware of the problem and is working with T-Mobile and HTC to distribute its solution to the problem. Apparently the flaw centres on the phone's web browser, which could allow a rogue website to capture information entered on the keyboard when visiting other sites. [Sources: Press release; NYTimes.com]

Regulation plus credit crunch risks damaging telecoms industry says trade body

ETNO, the European Telecommunications Networks Operators' association (which represents Europe's telecoms and electronic communications operators) says the current economic situation means regulation should be gentler - otherwise investment in new technology might not happen. In particular, it said a priority for the next few years should be investment in fixed and mobile broadband networks. [ETNO CEO summit; ETNO General Assembly]

What Mobile awards

This year's What Mobile awards took place last week. The awards, which are nominated by consumers, are now in their fourth year. The Apple iPhone 3G won "Mobile Phone of the Year"; the other phone-related results are below:

• Best Mobile Camera: Samsung i8510
• Best Mobile Game : Metal Gear Acid
• Best Mobile Game Developer: EA Mobile
• Best Online Retailer: T-Mobile.co.uk
• Best High Street Retailer: The Carphone Warehouse
• Best Mobile Service: Nokia Maps 2.0
• Best Mobile Accessory: Sennheiser MM50 iP
• Best Mobile Broadband: 3
• Best Music Phone: Sony Ericsson W890i
• Best Fashion Phone: LG Secret
• Best Smartphone: BlackBery Bold
• Best Manufacturer: Sony Ericsson
• Best Network: Vodafone

[Source: Mobile News]

Messaging pressure creates mobile email addiction

The pressure for employees to be online 24 hours a day is driving them to risky behaviors and also underscores the importance of email reliability and availability for businesses, according to a new study commissioned by software company Neverfail. Its report says worry over being available during non-work hours has led employees to email addiction. 94% of respondents said they used their phones to send email or text messages during work nights or at weekends, and nearly 80% took their phones on holiday. [Press release]

AT&T profit hit by iPhone subsidy

AT&T's subsidy of the Apple iPhone combined with the phone's success has led to AT&T's profits dropping, according to its Q3 figures. AT&T paid $900 million to Apple for iPhone subsidies during the quarter. [Sources: Wired.com; CNN.com; ATT.com]

Customers prefer mobiles to PCs

A survey from IBM says over 50% of consumers would substitute their internet usage on a PC for a mobile device and 71% expect to increase their usage of communication services from their mobile device. [Press release]

Vodafone and Visa reveal ad trial results

Vodafone and Visa Europe have revealed the results of a recent mobile advertising trial. The trial involved sending 150,000 text messages to Vodafone subscribers in eight countries during May. Customers were reminded to use the +44 UK country code when calling home and were offered a promotion to win tickets to the Beijing Olympics if they used their Visa credit card abroad. 86% of customers remembered the promotion and 74% read the message. Vodafone says the trial was a success, although only half of those receiving ads said they were interested in receiving further relevant and targeted messages. [Source: Mobile News]

Samsung drops SanDisk bid

Samsung says it's no longer interested in buying memory card manufacturer SanDisk following SanDisk's recent financial results and its new agreement with Toshiba. SanDisk had already rejected Samsung's offer. [Source: vnunet.com]