Apple iPhone outsells LG Prada, HTC Touch, Nokia N95 in Europe

If there’s one thing that gets people riled up more than details on how well the iPhone is selling, it’s news that the iPhone is out-selling the Nokia N95 in Europe. The iPhone clearly outsells these handsets in the US, but Europe has been regarded as a reluctant market for the iPhone, given it’s lack of critical hardware features.

We previously mentioned that the iPhone has shown disappointing sales figures in the UK, but it seems that even “laggard” iPhones sales on UK’s O2 network are still outselling rivals. In fact, all three European markets are reportedly seeing sales of the iPhone outpacing those of its closest, and highly subsidized, competitors - a group that includes the HTC Touch, LG Prada, Nokia N95, and Nokia’s E-Series handsets. Michael Abramsky, an analyst with RBC Capital, is reporting that iPhone sales in the UK, Germany and France have proven strong. Despite selling only 10,000 iPhones on launch day, many of T-Mobile’s 700 German retail stores are reporting 15-20 iPhone sales per week. France’s Orange Wireless, by far the iPhone’s strongest EU market, has reported that approximately 63,000 customers have registered their interest in the iPhone, with reports of some Orange stores running out of iPhone-stock.
Source:http://www.intomobile.com/

Vodafone, NZ Communications sign roaming mobile deal

Vodafone New Zealand Ltd. Wednesday said it has signed an agreement to provide national roaming services to potential mobile market entrant NZ Communications.The local unit of U.K. mobile phone company Vodafone Group said the agreement will enable NZ Communications to provide nationwide mobile service to its customers when they travel outside the coverage of NZ Communications' planned new network.

"There has been enormous interest from all quarters in ensuring there is a third player in the New Zealand mobile market. NZ Communications and Vodafone have worked hard to put a commercial deal in place and we are now finalizing implementation plans to deliver the service", said Vodafone NZ Chief Executive Russell Stanners.

NZ Communications said it aims to start its services late next year but that deadline is dependent on reaching agreement on the details of implementation plans around roaming and co-location, its Chairman Bill Osborne said.

Ericsson signs T-Mobile deal

Ericsson has signed a five-year deal with T-Mobile UK to provide managed services for the operator.
The contract will see Ericsson modernising T-Mobile’s infrastructure, field operations and multi-vendor spare parts management, cutting operational expenses in the process. T-Mobile will also transfer around 190 staff to Ericsson as part of the deal.

The agreement represents an extension of the relationship between T-Mobile and Ericsson, which is also the operator’s 3G core transformation partner. In August, Ericsson also signed a deal with T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom to manage the maintenance of the operator’s German microwave network.

T-Mobile UK networks director Emin Gürdenli said: "Ericsson is a long-term and trusted partner and we are very pleased to extend this relationship. This is an important step in the evolution of our network strategy, which underpins T-Mobile's commitment to provide a superior service experience for our 17 million customers in the UK."
Source: http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk

Sony Ericsson raises the bar with the K850i and W910i

With the release of the Sony Ericsson K850i – a CyberShot phone with a massive 5.0 megapixel camera, the company has put all doubts to rest. The Sony Ericsson K850i represents the cream of our technology in mobile and digital imaging. Although it is very important to have a high resolution camera, there are many other criteria that are important to shoot a great picture or video.

The Sony Ericsson K850i has most of them. The handset boasts of autofocus, digital zoom, an automatic Xenon flash, three LED video light for recording at night and many more such aids. Select the best out of nine stills shot in quick succession with its BestPic feature or improve underexposed pictures instantly with Photo fix – the Sony Ericsson K850i is not just a camera, but a whole studio. The handset shoots videos at thirty frames per second – double than the industry norm of fifteen. You can upload the stills and videos that you have shot with the Sony Ericsson K850i using the handset's preset for video and mobile blogging.

The latest music phone Sony Ericsson W910i delivers an unparalleled musical experience with a plethora of entertainment features. The handset supports a Disc2Phone music management software to get music from your computer into your phone.

This latest Walkman 3.0 media player produces a superb sound with features like TrackID, TrueBass and its killer app, shake control. The 2 megapixel camera comes with video recording skills. Connectivity features include GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth and USB. Focussed on music lovers, the Sony Ericsson W910i also offers messaging options like SMS, MMS and emails. The built in memory of 12 Mb is supplemented by a 512 Mb external memory card.

Both the Sony Ericsson K850i Cybershot phone, and the Sony Ericsson W910i Walkman phone are available now

Google Maps Mobile knows where you are

The latest version of Google Maps Mobile has a menu item which shows you where you are, without recourse to GPS or deals with network operators, but those with GPS will be asked to lend a hand in keeping the database up to date and improving its accuracy.

Google Maps Mobile version 2 is currently in Beta, but available for Symbian and Windows Mobile and can be downloaded from the Google mobile site. The application picks up the Cell ID of the local base station, along with some signal information, and sends that off to Google for comparison with their database of known locations.

If the handset has GPS, and can get a GPS fix, then both sets of information are sent to Google as a new entry in the database - making it more accurate for the next user.

Using the Cell ID is much, much faster than mucking about with orbiting satellites, and in many cases the accuracy is enough to start the user off scrolling to where they want to see. Some rough testing shows that in the Home Counties users can get a fix within a few hundred metres, while in the Highlands it's more like a few tens of miles.

It's always been possible for network operators to track mobile phones in this way, and in the UK they keep records of such location information for a year, but until now the link between Cell ID and location has been something the operators kept to themselves despite several attempts to create a public database.

Google's database is far from public, and a spokesman told us they've not yet got plans to sell access to the information - though that can't be far off. The same spokesman was eager to point out that while Google might be collecting GPS and Cell ID information, they have no way of linking that to a particular person or phone handset, so (for the moment at least) there's no significant privacy issue.

US mobile ad firm claims Vodafone and Telefonica as investors

Amobee Media Systems announced on Wednesday that European telecom powerhouses Vodafone and Telefonica have bought stakes in the US mobile advertising specialty firm.

Word of the investments comes as US Internet giants Google, Yahoo and Microsoft battle intensely for market share in the increasingly lucrative global arena of marketing to people on their mobile devices.

San Francisco-based Amobee launched its first consumer trial less than a year after it was founded in May of 2005.

Amobee specializes in software that supports digitized ad delivery to "all mobile content and communication types" including games, video, messaging and Internet browsing.

Britain-based Vodafone uses Amobee in Greece, Spain and the Czech Republic, according the US firm.

"Mobile internet is fast emerging as a mainstream information, entertainment and transaction source for people on the move," Vodafone director of strategic marketing Frank Boulben said in a written release.

"We see a tremendous opportunity for brands to target segments that traditional media reach less efficiently."

Vodafone and Spain-based Telefonica join a roster of Amobee investors that includes Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Globespan.

The moves are seen by industry insiders as an effort to establish a bulwark against Internet juggernaut Google and other online titans intent on seizing mobile advertising market shares.

Pyramid Research predicts that a billion new mobile phone subscribers will join the current base of 2.8 billion by the year 2010.

Industry tracker Informa estimates that worldwide mobile advertising revenues will rise to 11.35 billion dollars by 2011.

Source:http://afp.google.com

U.K. iPhone users complain of weak signal

Apple Inc. may be having teething problems with another iPhone rollout, this time in the U.K. Some people who have bought the iPhone since it went on sale there on Nov. 9 are complaining of a weak signal or no signal from O2 (U.K.) Ltd.'s network.

About three dozen people have reported problems with reception, mostly when they are indoors, in threads at Apple's discussion board. Some said they have received a good signal when using different phones, also on O2's network, in the same location.

"My iPhone can barely pick up even the slightest signal, although on occasion can pick up 3 bars, only for it to drop out again. I have two other O2 phones, a Sony Ericsson and a Nokia n95, with no reception problems at all," wrote a person using the name Lawlbaker2.
It was difficult to gauge the extent of the problem. More than 5,000 people have viewed the threads on Apple's board. Along with the complaints, about 10 people wrote that their phones were working perfectly. A few users started a much smaller, similar complaint thread at O2's Web site.

Apple representatives in the U.K. did not return calls for comment today. A spokeswoman for O2 said there are "no problems whatsoever" with the O2 network. She said O2 is "aware" of the discussion thread at Apple's board, but she would not say whether O2 considers it a problem or whether it is investigating.
Source:http://www.computerworld.com