2011 October | Mobile Industry Review

Archive | October, 2011

A nice example of Nokia’s smart subliminal marketing

By Ewan on October 24, 2011 in Devices

The problem we’ve all had with Nokia, I think it’s fair to say, is that in recent years the products haven’t quite met our expectations compared to the rest of the market. I know the purists reading will disagree at this point — however, let me point you to Android and iOS device sales over [...]

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BlackBerry DevCon: RIM’s fighting strong

By Ewan on October 24, 2011 in Devices

I was really looking forward to BlackBerry’s DevCon Americas event last week. I was especially interested to take the temperature of the RIM team and the BlackBerry hopeful. I wasn’t sure what I’d encounter. If you believe any of the media stories circulating recently, RIM is toast. The service outage didn’t help the company’s reputation. [...]

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I’m going to buy an iPhone 4S: What network should I buy with?

By Ewan on October 24, 2011 in Devices, Operators

Right then, following on from my rather lukewarm experience at the Three store this morning, I am looking to buy an iPhone 4S — on contract. Half of me thinks, ‘wait and buy it outright in November,’ — the other half says do it, do it, do it today. Normally Three is my default provider [...]

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Went into the Three store in Richmond today…

By Ewan on October 24, 2011 in Operators

So, you remember I had a tantrum with my main Three account last month? I used it in my MiFi unit thinking everything was fine. It was, until I hit a 2GB usage limit and ran up a £120 bill. My fault, my fault but I was seriously annoyed. I was annoyed with myself, principally. [...]

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Nokia World: I haven’t seen this much excitement for a long time

By Ewan on October 24, 2011 in Devices

I’ve been in and out of meetings today and I’ve been taking the temperature of the UK tech marketplace at each one. I’m surprised at the level of excitement brewing. Expectations are running high. Nokia has done a super job of setting expectations with the odd reveal now-and-again across the last few months. The tech [...]

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Get a landline redirect with Orange Pocket Landline for £10/month

By Ewan on October 21, 2011 in Services

I just came across this service from the team at Orange Business called Pocket Landline. It does what it says on the tin. For a tenner a month, you pick a local landline number that’s redirected to your Orange Business mobile number. Job done. That’s it. It’s a really good concept — aimed at businesses [...]

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Thanks to the Waterloo Record

By Ewan on October 19, 2011 in News

Thank you to Chuck Howitt, one of the journalists at the Waterloo Record newspaper who interviewed me on Tuesday evening. He included my comments in his overview piece on RIM and the fact that app developers are still ‘pumped’ about BlackBerry. Thanks for taking the time Chuck!

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The MIR PlayBook App Project: The journey begins

By Ewan on October 18, 2011 in Applications

I’ve decided it’s high time we had a PlayBook application for Mobile Industry Review. I’ve been deliberating on this issue for far too long. I’ve made noises. I’ve written occasional tweets, but now I’ve decided to do it. I really do like the PlayBook. I love it. It’s the right size, it’s super-super powerful. I [...]

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My top tip for data roaming in the States: The $99 Best Buy Connect MiFi unit

By Ewan on October 17, 2011 in Applications, Operators

I’m having a wicked time now that I’ve got myself a Best Buy Connect MiFi unit. If you’ve been following my Twitter feed, you’ll have seen the videos I’ve been publishing about how much I’m enjoying being free from the stupid mobile data roaming rates that my operators are trying to foist on me. In [...]

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RIM’s $100 App World outage compensation: Good move

By Ewan on October 17, 2011 in Applications, Devices

You’ll have no doubt heard that RIM will shortly be offering $100 worth of application downloads to every consumer as compensation for last week’s outages. This is a good move, for a number of reasons. 1. It’s a tangible offering — real apps, real brand names 2. It’s a recognition of the annoyance and frustration [...]

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Fundamentally depressed: It’s almost 2012 and data roaming costs still suck

By Ewan on October 15, 2011 in Opinion

Strolling through the streets of New York this evening on the way back to the hotel from a meeting I took a look at my BlackBerry and saw the familiar wind-up text from Vodafone. The message reads: Just to let you know, you’ve used over 3MB of data which has cost you £3 per MB [...]

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Will enterprises embrace or restrict iCloud?

By Ewan on October 14, 2011 in Services

As far as most enterprise security officers are concerned, corporate data must be stored on company managed/controlled systems, eg the internal network. That’s the most basic interpretation of most policies. The definition of “systems” has widened recently to extend trust to the likes of Salesforce, Office365 or Google Apps. Indeed each of those services has [...]

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