T-Mobile and Orange merger will create the largest UK mobile phone company
February 22, 2010
Orange and T-Mobile merging plan can receive the approvals from European Commission next week. With an approximately number of 30 million customers and a market share touching 37% of UK’s mobile phone users, this would become the greatest UK mobile phone company if it does not face any challenges from the other two great UK operators: O2 and Vodafone.
European Commission’s decision to allow this merge despite the issues regarding how this merge will blow competition away is set to be released somewhere next week. According to EC officials, this resolution would solve the problems announced by Office of Fair Trading, Ofcom (telecom regulator) and legal disputes started by local competition Vodafone and O2.
Announced in September 2009 this merger was investigated by the OFT and it seems that 1 March will be the day when conclusions and concerns will be released by the organization.
There were two main concerns about this merging’s effect. First one it was about the smallest UK mobile phone company, 3, which is owned by Hutchison Whampoa, a Hong Kong corporation. Last weekend it seems that 3 signed a deal with the two operators that will grant access to 3,000 mast sites in UK, reaching a grand total of 16,000 mast sites. Second concern was about the higher level of control over the wireless spectrum, so that the group would hold a substantial majority of the spectrum at 1800 MHz. This problems was also solved last week and the two operators decided to give back a quarter of the spectrum if they will receive the approvals for fusion.
Though things are not clear yet, we could assist in the future at one of the greatest merging seen lately, a combination between two of the greatest telecom operators in UK: the Orange UK, controlled by France Telecom and T-Mobile, which is owned by Deutsche Telekom. We should probably wait for tomorrow’s announcement made by OFT regarding this issue and stand by for some other legal disputes started by rivals Vodafone and O2.
FaceBook revealed “Zero” site for mobile phones at Mobile World Congress
February 17, 2010
Facebook has unveiled the conception of its original site “Zero” at Mobile World Congress, a FaceBook version featuring text-only and low-bandwith requirements.
The world’s leading social network also announced that FaceBook Zero is to be launched in a couple of weeks and it’s aiming to lend a hand to operators in order to free-up some bandwith on their networks. Also, photos are not available to be used on this site.
The GSM Association said that FaceBook accounts for almost 50% of all the time UK citizens spend browsing online with mobiles. Therefore, this “Zero” site, the follower of FaceBook Lite could become more available for people as the requirements for using it are getting lower.
This is another campaign for FaceBook to become more popular anywhere around the Globe and everywhere people share a poor Internet connection. Let’s see though how accepted will this “only-text” version be.
New smartphones from HTC unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2010
February 16, 2010
As we expected, HTC unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelon two gadgets featuring the HTC’s Sense interface, the HTC Desire ( also known as HTC Bravo ) and the HTC Legend.
Desire features a generous 3.7” AMOLED WVGA, one of the most advanced displays available for mobiles and a powerful 1GHz Snapdragon processor will deliver the users a faster experience on the World Wide Web. As we informed you the Desire features an optical joystick for a better applications’ navigation.
It runs the latest version of Android OS, the Android 2.1 and it is Adobe Flash 10.1 ready. T-Mobile confirmed that this device will be available in their network as from March 26th and Orange confirmed also for April.
On the other hand, the HTC’s Legend, which also runs Android 2.1 OS, features a 3.2” AMOLED HVGA screen and it’s build from a single aluminum chunk. The optical joystick is also on its place, as like the Desire.
This will be available in Europe through Vodafone starting with April.
Those two smarphones both feature a new improved HTC Sense with better Internet experience, better email client and with a new newsreader application. With HTC Friend Stream you’ll never miss FaceBook, Twitter or other social networking websites that keep you in touch with your friends and followers.
Now let’s see how the waited Desire will stand in the battle with Google’s Nexus One and both with the iPhone.
Two new Android smartphones from Acer – the E110 and E400
February 16, 2010
The Mobile World Congress 2010 brings into the spotlight, as we expected, new and exciting gadgets released as a result for the higher demand on latest technology.
Acer announced the new Acer beTouch E110 running Android 1.5 and Acer beTouch E400 running Android 2.1. It seems that Acer is trying to take a piece from smartphone’s market while releasing this two new Android based mobiles.
First let’s talk about the beTouch E110 which is somehow at the low end of those releases. This smartphone seems to be a cheaper one and will deliver delight to people wanting to enjoy mobile Internet at lower costs, with high speeds and a user-friendly interface.
Here are the full specs delivered by the press release:
As you may clearly see, this device lacks a Wi-Fi connectivity and when it comes to CPU speed, this only delivers a 416 MHz, quite low for these days in fact. That’s a real budget android phone with no innovative specs but hey, that’s its target: price sensitive people for whom this might be their very first smartphone acquired.
The beTouch E110 is really comfortable to utilize, featuring a 2.8” QVGA touch screen, a 5 way navi key for a simplified access to applications and a virtual keyboard that can be used in QWERTY mode also.
This device will be available in two colours ( Black and/or Blue ) and will hit the market in March.
Ok, moving on to the next Android-powered smartphone announced by Acer, the E400. First we should let the released specs to speak for ourselves:
This smartphone also runs Android, but this time the Android 2.1(Éclair). It comes with a faster Qualcomm CPU delivering a 600MHz speed, a 3.2 MP camera, 3.2” HVGA touch screen and yes, this feature a Wi-Fi connectivity also.
For an instant access to corporate email the E400 has Native Microsoft® Exchange Server support and for editing and creating Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents this smartphone has a preinstalled “Documents To Go”. That’s quite a mobile office, isn’t it?
It doesn’t put aside users that enjoy social networking and videos, so acces to Facebook, IM or YouTube will not be a problem using this smartphone. Also, you’ll never get lost in traffic while driving if you use the GPS-enabled Google Maps that the E400 features.
The E400 will hit the stores later than E110, in April.
What do you think, do any of these two smartphones attract you? Of course, newcomers may be announced until February 18th, when Mobile World Congress 2010 comes to an end, but still, let us know what you think about this newest unveiled Acer smartphones.
Windows Phone 7 Series unveiled in Barcelona
February 15, 2010
As you might know, Mobile World Congress 2010 started today in Barcelona. For 4 days, biggest worldwide developers will release new interesting stuff, will change the trends and will sure surprise us with new products and innovative technologies. And yes, the releasing has begun from this very first day.
Microsoft offered a presentation of its newest Windows Operating System for mobile: Windows Phone 7 Series. Among the producers that announced to develop mobile phones featuring this Operating System we see LG, HTC and Sony Ericsson. According to Canalys, a well known research company, Microsoft only has an 8% share in smartphone’s Operating System market, meaning that it’s situated behind Symbian that owns over 44%, BlackBerry with 16% and iPhone OS with 13%.
Microsoft says that Windows Phone 7 Series is a completely different approach on mobile software and this could be their chance to make an impact on the market.
As a new feature, Windows Phone 7 Series will introduce a series of hubs which simplify usual tasks by bringing together related content from the web, services and applications into one single page. Those six hubs will feature specific topics build for activities that counts most for users:
- People: Access to social networks
- Pictures: Pictures and videos upload on social networks
- Games: Xbox Live access
- Music+Video: Online music, Zune music service or music from PC
- Marketplace: Allows users to search and download games and applications for mobiles
- Office: Used for documents’ edit through Office, OneNote and SharePoint Workplace. This hub also features Outlook Mobile.
Another feature of Windows Phone 7 Series is a physical button dedicated only for Bing, assuring users more facile access to Bing search engine only by pressing a button. No matter what application is running, by pressing “Bing button” you’ll jump to the search engine and find what you’re looking for.
Windows Phone 7 Series seems to be exactly what a Microsoft operating system must be. It connects some good services like Zune, Bing and Xbox and will have some important feature that could create some interest among people. Let’s see if they can manage to find their way through the jungle already created by iPhone and Android, will be interesting to watch.
