Those were the days.

Whilst it’s tempting to say that in this industry I’ve seen it all — from helping install some of the most modern telephone exchanges to laying the first (and, I have to say, most reliable) under-sea cable across the Atlantic — the reality is somewhat different. The pace of change in this market and in particular the manner in which it’s morphed and reshaped itself across the decades has been breathtaking.

Where did Apple come from?

I can still remember the completely unruffled telecoms industry exclaiming that Apple “knew nothing about making mobile phones” at one of the MWC events a few years back.

Just ten years ago the mobile industry was a third-rate also-ran to the fixed line behemoths where I cut my teeth. Across the last twenty years I’ve held senior positions across many of the most recognisable telecoms brands, most of whom now exist only in the archives of trade journals from years gone by.

It’s therefore an utter delight to be attending Mobile World Congress once again. I’ve been there most years in some capacity or other, especially during the “3GSM” years.

I think it’s fair to say that Mobile World Congress, like the business it represents, has gone through immense change in the last 5 years. I am referring of course to the inclusion a couple of years ago of the App Planet section in Hall 7: A genius move. Many would say, a necessary move.

What was there before App Planet? Well — frankly, it was an infrastructure event, filled to the rafters with high tech infrastructure, base stations and network gear. Handset launches began to play more and more of a critical role in recent years. The conference segment of the event has always been very powerful and attracted the top talent from around the globe.

When App Planet first came along with around 200 exhibitors I walked around getting really excited by the innovative apps and services that were on show. The spark was lit at that time and MWC was never going to be the same again. Over the last couple of years I’ve seen App Planet (or “AP” as many refer to it nowadays) grow and attract more and more participants, both in terms of speakers and exhibitions. This has had a really staggering effect — it’s begun to draw more and more visitors (like me) to see, touch and feel the fantastically innovative new products and services in this sector.

Bring it on App Planet!

Aside from all the new apps and products, personally I am really looking forward to seeing what BlackBerry/RIM will be offering after their rather lack lustre launch of the Playbook tablet last year. I know Ewan (our editor) is certainly bullish on the company’s prospects — me? I’d like to really get a handle on what they’re doing with this next generation platform they keep discussing. Given RIM’s recent management change announcements, my expectations are high for this year.

I’m keen to see what the operators have to say for themselves. I’m going to try and get into the conference if time permits. Like Ewan, I also find it rather stimulating to compare what the operator executives say against the industry reality.

I’d also like to pick up on what the Far Eastern companies such as ZTE and Huwaei are doing. I’ve always been staggered by the Huwaei ‘tent’ at MWC in recent years — can you call it a tent? Last year it was effectively a hall of their own.

Most of all, though, I’m looking forward to immersing myself in the MWC energy.

As Ewan seems to forever be writing here on Mobile Industry Review: Bring. It. On.

[ Written on a train into Waterloo on my iPad 2 3G with bluetooth keyboard. ]

I had to check through the Mobile Industry Review archives just to be sure!

What a difference a year makes in the mobile industry, eh?

This time last year the market was reacting to the news that Nokia had dumped it’s “burning platform” and moved to Windows. There were lingering questions over Symbian and MeeGo (now effectively answered: No-go) but the dramatic move by Nokia silenced absolutely everybody, especially the uber-critical and highly influential Western Media.

The move bought Nokia a year’s worth of breathing space. Obviously the company couldn’t be expected to release a Windows Phone handset immediately. And the mobile world did — I think it’s fair to say — pull a rather thin smile at the promises from Nokia’s High Command relating to delivering their first Windows Phone within the year.

Fast forward a year — a year? I can’t quite believe it — and here is an astonishingly positive post about Nokia from the Western Media Imperial leader itself: TechCrunch. In fact the post is from the site’s Editor-in-Chief, Erick Schonfeld.

Here’s Schonfeld on the Lumia 800:

When you hold one in your hand, it’s clear that the smartphone wars are far from over. It is too easy to dismiss Windows Phone 7 as being too little, too late. That was our first reaction too. No, it’s clear that Windows Phone has more than a fighting chance. Microsoft will make sure that the economics are much more attractive to the carriers than the iPhone’s so that they push Windows Phone. If consumers bite, Windows Phone could emerge as a very strong smartphone platform.

via Fly Or Die: The Nokia Lumia 800 “Flagship” Windows Phone | TechCrunch.

This is the sort of rehabilitation of Nokia’s image that was a total pipe dream 12 months ago.

Finishing off his post, Erick points out that if he had to choose between a top of the range Android device or the Lumia 800, he’d have to think very, very carefully. That’s a huge, huge #win for Nokia given the positivity that continues to surround Android in the Valley.

By aligning itself so closely with Microsoft, Nokia has bought itself a ticket at the top table of the smartphone world. Critics might argue that Nokia has been pushed to the back standing behind Microsoft, however I think that’s been necessary. The company’s image was so bad that it was next to impossible for many in the Valley to take them seriously. So a Microsoft wing-man is proving thoroughly useful.

There’s a few caveats to this broad perspective on Nokia. Of course we need to see how consumers react to the Lumia devices. At the end of the day, it’s all about sales. Ideally we need to hear about millions of Lumias being placed into consumer hands this year. And then toward the end of this year, we need to see Nokia bring some of their own tricks to the fair — especially in the context of gorgeous hardware and magical mobilised services. I think they can deliver.

To answer my question then, is Nokia’s rehabilitation in the Western Media complete? Yes. I think it’s all about delivery now.

- – - – - 

We are in an unprecedented era for discounting and promotions. The marketing tactics, designed to lift sales of a variety of consumer electronics products, may actually erode margins if hastily designed. The lagging economy, consumer demand for deals and the rapidly accelerating promotional technology of online and mobile has led to a perfect storm that mobile retailers and manufacturers must be aware of. Enticing and dynamic promotions are now necessary to get customers in the door, but be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water.

How we got here:

1)      The Groupon phenomena has taken deal finding to a new audience – 18-35 year old, affluent households. Groupon and its competitors have so vastly changed the consumer psyche with respect to fair market value the trend is shifting – now consumers think paying full price means they are getting ripped off.

2)      Extreme couponing has become popular enough to support a prime time television show. This represents another little nudge to the consumer psyche; paying full price means you are being taken advantage of.

3)      The economy still struggles. The Great Recession has encompassed a wide swath of middle income consumers that need to price shop now even if they never had to in the past.

4)      Technology has not slowed down. This, paired with the mounting consumer demand for deals, means that promotions can spread faster than ever before thanks to couponing websites, mobile shopping applications, daily deal blogs, social network promotions and more.

Mobile retailers and manufacturers have delivered on consumers’ voracious deal-seeking demands that have grown out of the struggling economic situation. But as more shoppers take advantage of deals, margins of the sponsoring businesses are getting taxed. Moving forward, smart mobile marketers need to begin asking for more from their customers in return for these deep discounts. The good news is that a well designed promotion will not only work for the retailer or manufacturer, but offer appealing benefits to the consumer as well.

In 2012 mobile marketers must use promotions as the catalysts for long-term engagement and ROI, versus just temporary sales lift tactics. Deep discounts will migrate from instant deals to redemption-based models like rebates or cash-back promotions, and will require consumers to engage with a brand for a period of time.

The consumer redemption requirements to get a deep discount could be as simple as a Facebook “Like” or an email opt-in, or more detailed like participating in shopping preference surveys. This will give marketers the opportunity to collect critical consumer data, and provide new touch points for ongoing interaction. Plus, consumers hungry for deals seem willing to go that extra step: according to 2011 Parago research, more than 70% of consumers are willing to opt-in for additional emails when redeeming a reward.

Over the last few years this has worked well on Twitter and Facebook, where brands require customers to engage online to receive exclusive discounts. Research from Empathica shows that six in ten consumers follow at least one brand via a social network and forty percent do so to search for deals.

Next year this linking of promotions to information gathering will need to expand more concertedly beyond social networks and become a strategy for mobile retailers and manufacturers to reach all deal finders, on and offline.

Theresa Wabler is director of marketing at Parago, a provider of rewards-based incentive solutions. She can be reached at Theresa.Wabler@parago.com.

Super work Best Buy!

- – - – -

Square Mobile:

The camera phone:

Video sharing:

The first text message:

Text to speech:

Shazam:

Instagram:

The dated, dusty and generally dreadful technology store?

Oh dear.

Let’s be clear, Dixons Travel is pretty excellent. I’ve bought quite a lot from them over the years — indeed I even picked up a £1,400 laptop once on a semi-whim. Dixons Travel shops at Heathrow tend to be brightly lit, modern and staffed by (generally) keen folk, ready to help.

Almost the polar opposite, then, to the dive that is Dixons Bracknell, nearby my place in Ascot. It’s a shocking place, stuffed to the brim of old, over-priced technology that’s hardly helping anyone. As for customer service? It’s rare, very rare, to find a Dixons chappy who’s happy to help beyond demanding you ‘enter your PIN’ and querying if you ‘want the receipt in the bag’.

PC World is another flipping tragedy. If John Browett is seriously meant to be the guy who masterminded their development, I’m sorry to say, they’re about a trillion miles away from the quality environment of an Apple Store.

That, I should point out, hasn’t stopped me buying — begrudgingly — from PC World on occasion, especially since it’s rather useful to walk-away with something there-and-then.

Perhaps John was the loanlone voice at Dixons/PC World? Perhaps he was the chap kicking and screaming and trying to get the dead-end retailer to do something, anything, that might make customers smile? Maybe he focused his attention on the Travel shops first?

Either way, the benefit of the doubt is most certainly necessary. It’s a phenomenal role for John and I wish the chap every success. He’ll be inheriting probably one of the most fascinating physical sales environments on the planet.

Here’s how GigaOM reacted to the news:

Tim Cook has made his first major appointment since taking the reins at Apple, bringing in the head of British technology retailer Dixons, John Browett. He comes in to fill the gap left by the departure of Ron Johnson, the man who spent a decade building the Apple Store into a force to be reckoned with.

 

via Who is Apple’s new retail boss, and what will he do? — Tech News and Analysis.

Now, all the iFans go absolutely nuts, there’s method in this apparent madness, especially given Apple has just completed yet another ridiculously amazing quarter.

If you recall, Nokia was swimming along knocking out millions of handsets a day before it reached what we might politely describe as a market-required-correction. Things got so bad in February last year that the company found itself in a seriously precarious ‘burning platform’ position.  It’s of platforms we wanted to talk, though.

In this week’s episode we discuss the ‘technology cycle’ and how the need to refresh a mobile platform every 5 years – something that is currently causing Nokia and RIM so much pain – will eventually come to Apple.

How will Apple handle that?

How will they navigate the treacherous waters? The mobile industry is moving faster and faster — and although Apple is easily knocking back billions in revenue at the moment, it’s conceivable that it could come unstuck rather fast.

We do think Apple is one of the few firms with the vision and experience to navigate this tricky process successfully. That didn’t stop us wargaming a host of scenarios though.

Have a listen and tell me what you think:

[ Direct MP3 download - 34MB ]

There are lots of ways to follow or subscribe to the Podcast using iTunes and other popular services.

[ Direct MP3 download - 34MB ]

In our first episode of 2012 we wonder what this year might hold for mobile and offer some predictions:

• Ewan thinks this will be the year m-commerce goes big.
• Rafe thinks this is the year the smartphone market gets really competitive.
• Ben thinks this is the year operators start running additional services ‘over the top’ of their existing network to differentiate.

There are lots of ways to follow or subscribe to the Podcast using iTunes and other popular services.

I’d like to lighten the load for the marketing team at McDonalds. They’v been dealing with a bit of a TwitterStorm relating to their #McDStories outreach concept. The background to the story is nicely laid out in today’s Financial Times.

The FT reports that McDonalds bought two promoted tweets from Twitter encouraging users to contribute their (positive) stories about the brand. Then all hell broke loose. Folk started using the same hashtag to discuss their McDonalds horror stories. Not good. Especially when you’re aiming for some positive reinforcement.

Is all press good press though? Quite possibly.

Reading the news stories about the ‘storm’ I was prompted to think of my own reaction to McDonalds.

I’m not ashamed to say it’s a wholeheartedly positive reaction.

Not only does the company employ legions of people worldwide and from what I can determine, if you work hard, you can earn well and be promoted. The UK MD of McDonalds has regularly been in the press talking about aspects such as the economy and I found him smart and articulate.

So here, then, is my McDStory:

My base relationship with McDonalds is consistency. I like consistency. I don’t like exceptions. That’s not to say I’m uncomfortable with change — I very much thrive on it — but, when it comes to food, especially in foreign climes, I like having my expectations either met or exceeded.

True, it’s perhaps rare to be blown away by a Big Mac meal.

But sometimes, McDonalds is what you need. Especially when you’re in the arse end of France or the Czech Republic, shivering, hungry and panicking about trying to speak the local language. Many times I’ve walked into a McDonalds somewhere on the planet and instantly relaxed, safe in the knowledge that “I know how this works” and that, all-things-being-equal, the food should be ok. You can’t really screw up french fries. Especially since almost every McDonalds planet-wide uses the same equipment.

You don’t need to speak the lingo. You just need to be able to gesture politely to whatever burger or meal is being advertised on the signs above the counter. Then, if you really don’t speak the language, you need to say words like “grandeyyy menoooo” and the other magic phrase, “Coca Cola”, and you’re done. The chap or lady serving you will parse that into a numerical total. Hand over the cash and receive.

I take huge, huge satisfaction and confidence from these kinds of experiences. Let me tell you why.

Years ago, YEARS ago, I went on a school trip to Israel. My school had decided to try and expand their trip horizons beyond the usual France or Germany and put on a trip of the ancient holy lands. I was into Roman history (still am) so opted to go along. Plus my mother co-opted my dad into coming along as well (parents were encouraged).

I think I was about 17.

This, by the way, was when Israel and Palestine were exceedingly calm. You could easily cross between the two countries. Relations between the two countries were so easy at this point, our trip was based out of a hotel in Bethlehem.

At this point I had a limited range of dietary options. I liked burgers, chips, pizza, crisps, ham sandwiches. I avoided everything else because I could and my teenage body was burning calories like no tomorrow.

So if you asked me to try new things — such as local ‘delicacies’ the answer was always a flat, direct NO.

Everyone else on the school trip was getting stuck into all sorts of local food. Me? I preferred to pop across the road from the hotel to the little shop and buy kitkats and twixes. And Coca Cola. Anything, basically, that was made by a recognised global brand whereby I could guarantee some level of quality control.

After a few days of kitkats I decided I needed some real food. I knew there was a McDonalds in Jerusalem. I’d looked it up before I left the UK. So I took a cab to Jerusalem. It’s only 8km or 18 minutes away. I had think I ate 2x Big Mac meals and I got a cheeseburger ‘for the road’. Needless to say: Delicious in the context of a kitkat diet.

My dad? He decided to try the local delicacies. This unfortunately put him out of action for 3-4 days almost immediately due to a rather serious case of gastro-enteritis. Whilst I was taking care of him and plying him with water, I was also popping out every afternoon to McDs in Jerusalem for sustenance.

So there’s one way in which McDonalds helped me.

Over the years I’ve made serious use of McDonalds regularly in a business context. In the UK they were one of the first chains to ‘get’ the concept of WiFi. Here’s a story I wrote over 3 years ago about the company introducing Free WiFi into their Oxford Street restaurant. Back in 2007, whilst on business in Hartlepool I had a serious issue with their rubbish BT Openzone connection (that’s when McDonalds WiFi was a premium service).

It’s difficult not to underestimate the huge value I place in knowing that if-all-else-fails, wherever I am, the local McDonalds will have decent quality WiFi. Countless times I’ve been on location somewhere in the UK (or in the States, actually) and found myself suddenly needing good quality WiFi — and my first stop has always been McDonalds.

I always buy something too. I think it’s only fair.

And now let’s get to the food issue. I don’t think that eating a McDonalds burger every day is very healthy. Neither, I’m sure, is eating a Byron Burger every day. Or a Dominos pizza. But nowadays there’s no excuse with McDonalds. They have salads. They have healthier options. They’ve fruit. They’ve orange juice and water. They’ve got all sorts of rolls and sandwiches. And they’re pretty direct with their calorie counter labels next to every product just in case you’re trying to ignore them.

Their McFlurries rock too.

For me, though, the value with McDonalds is always being able to get a connection. In today’s rather annoying ‘data crunch’ world, you really can’t rely on your operators to be able to deliver consistent high-speed internet in many metropolitan areas at peak time.

And when I’m abroad (not speaking the language), out of town and not wanting to be adventurous or seriously stressed with work having not eaten anything for what seems like days, a quick stop at McDonalds fixes things.

Note: That picture above appears in my McDonalds post from May 2008. I took the photo with a Nokia E90 — here’s the original photo on Flickr. It seems like DECADES ago!

I have to say, it’s rather cool. You can immediately start broadcasting your own ‘radio show’ live, which is then archived and presented as a podcast.

This is me playing with Spreaker’s console…

I thought I’d try out the iPhone app by describing the mobile commerce experience I had at my local tapas restaurant, Don Fernando.

Care to listen? Woop:

The overwhelming majority of VCs in Europe are utter idiots. I say this a) from direct experience and b) from inherited experience (on the boards or advising startups who had the stupid, stupid idea of dealing with a clueless EU-based VC).

Most VCs will happily take you for lunch, smile at you regularly, then after 6-months of screwing about, tell you it might be better for you to borrow some money from a bank

Far from sucking, Carlos is well known across the community as a chap who’s got his head on properly and, further, someone who won’t waste your time.

He’s got a lot of experience at some bigger firms in the industry — and now he’s doing seed investments as a Partner at the much lauded Seedcamp, probably about the only decent thing happening in the European investment community at the moment.

Carlos has answered the question that many executives thinking about starting a company pose to me regularly: How does an early-stage investor value a startup? He’s provided a nuanced break-down of the various factors that usually apply — so if you’re thinking of getting stuck into a startup or if you’re on the mind-numbing European-startup-circuit wondering why the majority of investors you’re meeting are absolute tools, you will get a lot of value from the post (and, by the way, the rest of the output on Carlos’ site).

Have a read… Nice work Carlos

One of the most frequently asked questions at any startup event or investor panel, is “how do investors value a startup?”. The unfortunate answer to the question is: it depends.

via How does an early-stage investor value a startup? | the drawingboard [dot] me.

I have to cancel my existing iPhone 4 account. It’s got about 8 months to run and I need to simply pay off the balance and close that account. Because I opened another one to get an iPhone 4S last month. I wanted to extend the existing one, however the chap in the shop (obviously) didn’t want me to do that. Another connection is good news for him, I suppose.

The problem I’ve got is that I need to invest around 20 minutes doing this. Possibly a little longer. I need to explain to the 3UK Indian call centre why I wish to cancel whilst still in commitment. I then need them to process that I am *fine* paying off the balance — I’m concerned, or, at least, my expectations lead me to believe that this will be a big ask for them.

I then expect to have to do the yes-really dance with the various teams there at 3UK’s customer services.

I’ve been putting it off.

I just don’t know if I can be bothered. The inefficiency of it all really bugs me.

Still.

What do you think?

It could be a really simple, pleasant experience. You never know.

This got me thinking.

How much would I be prepared to pay to speak to a British fixer? You know, someone who simply listens to my 10-second request, taps some stuff into the system and tells me, “That’ll be £200 to fix.” I can then respond in the affirmative and be done with it. Job done. Simple. We move on.

I think the answer is £35. Or maybe £25. Something like that. I’d pay a premium to speak to a fully trained British chap or lady who would be available immediately to resolve my query in this particular regard.

Further, I’d probably pay extra per month to have this kind of “consider it done” service integrated into my contract.

Am I alone on this?

No.

On the face of it, probably yes. In reality, if it was branded properly — I would pay something like £5 per month extra to have the 3UK Premier Service that gets you immediate access to an “account manager” who handles everything so you don’t have to think.

What do you think? Have I got my head in the clouds?

When users will find out for certain is also subject to debate; a March launch has been suggested for the iPhone by a number of blogs, who have also suggested it for the iPad 3. Hexus, however, has claimed that Apple could make a rare announcement at February’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

via Apple’s larger iPhone 5 ‘coming in March’ – Telegraph.

Generally speaking — and famously — Apple never bother with conferences unless it’s got “Mac” or “Apple” written on it.

I don’t see them breaking the habit and exhibiting at MWC any time soon.

However, I do think that it would be very, very smart if Apple made an announcement either the week before or during Mobile World Congress — especially if it was iPhone-related.

Apple already did this to an extent with CES — however, the iPhone and the mobile industry are a seriously different kettle of fish.

If Apple really wanted to upset the existing world order (and the millions upon millions of Euros being invested during Mobile World Congress), they should call a “Let’s talk about iPhone” press conference for the first Monday of MWC-week.

Goodness me.

Can you imagine?

Just speculating brings me out in goosebumps.

The world’s consumer media (mainstream and bloggers) will be flying into Barcelona on Sunday evening to record their “here’s a new Android” segment for 30 minutes on Monday morning, before flying out same-day. [Of course, the trade media will be there for the duration].

Can you imagine the shock if Apple made the media choose? Either you cover our keynote about the new iPhone in San Francisco. Or you go to that also-ran in Barcelona.

To be clear, I’m certainly not labelling MWC thus! That was me putting fighting words in Apple’s mouth.

Sparks would fly though.

And there’d be no choice. The media would flock to San Francisco. The anchors, the editors, the pundits — they’d all be in California and MWC would either be ignored or

The ramifications for the industry would be profound. Of course the mobile industry now exists in Apple’s shadow. But not officially. Not, really. And certainly not at MWC. In Barcelona, the operators can freely strut their stuff and the other platforms can have a bit of time in the media sun. Apple is always in the back of everyone’s mind at MWC, but it’s possible to suspend reality for at least a few minutes.

And it’s in this limited reality that the rest of the industry gets to pretend that it’s still relevant, that things are still the same as they were pre-iPhone. That nothing has really changed.

Look at the keynotes at MWC over the last few years since the iPhone’s announcement. iPhone and Apple has been largely irrelevant — the industry’s still under the impression it’s in control.

A serious tub-thumping press conference from Apple timed to remove all attention from MWC would illustrate the new world order nicely.

I’m a fan of this kind of hard ball because it’s one of the only measures that might prompt the rest of the mobile marketplace — the operators in particular — to actually get off their arses and start innovating properly.

Anyway.

Perhaps Apple will be too polite and give-way.

News: MWC is a crowded and noisy event with all brands vying for attention. What is your big news for the show and do you have any customers willing to support your claims? Customer references speak volumes when it comes to coverage.

Perfect your pitch:  With media and analysts receiving hundreds of calls in the run up to MWC, why should Rory Cellan-Jones @bbcnews speak to you? Decide on three key messages for the show that will make your company stand out from the crowd.

MWC Show Daily: The freelancers and editors writing for the Show Daily will soon be announced. The sooner the team receive embargoed press releases, the better chance you have of inclusion so start sending now.

Social Media: With social media platforms often the first port of call for news and key trends at technology events, how will you be making use of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ or Foursquare this year?

Have you got all your ducks in a row, yet? Don’t worry if you haven’t but you should definitely be turning your attention toward MWC now.

Hotwire is hosting a pre-MWC reception shortly to discuss all these issues above — and I’m going to be there to offer some perspectives from the blogger/media standpoint. The evening is targeted specifically for those working in marketing at brands and vendors. So if that’s you, please come along and say hello. It’s taking place at Zebrano Bar on Greek Street, Soho, on the evening of the 25th of January.

I’m really looking forward to the evening. Do please RSVP as soon as you can to Fiona (here’s her email).

a) I buy it (good for the shop I’m currently in)
b) I find they don’t have the thing I need in stock, so I get it on Amazon
c) They’re charging ridiculous prices, so I get it on Amazon
d) I’m annoyed by the physical shop’s policies/prices/rubbish staff, so I get it on Amazon

Retailers with suspicions that smartphone-wielding consumers inside their stores are pricing products at competitors and buying elsewhere may be onto something. According to a survey of 360 smartphone and tablet users, 40.6% of them have done just that, says Prosper Mobile Insights, a mobile commerce technology company that commissioned the survey.

via Mobile Commerce – Evidence mounts that consumers are shopping competitors inside stores – Internet Retailer.

The interesting reality? Yes.

In fact — and I make no apologies for this — I don’t really care.

I’ll have it. Next.

Just how good is Apple, if I can say that?

It’s a given that I’ll purchase one. Possibly two.

This approach does make a mockery of all this hardware buying nonsense though. At what point can I just subscribe to Apple so I can get rid of messing about having to actually queue up or chase around for a unit? I’d sooner pay Apple £399/12 = £33.25 per month so that when the new shiny one is launched, I get it at my door.

Whether Apple release an iPad 3 (i.e. much revised) or simply do a quick evolution update, the matter is settled for me.

And it’s settled for you too, right?

You don’t really have a choice.

I was being pitched last week by a supplier to a company I’m advising. The chap bought out a first generation iPad.

I almost had to turn away.

Oh no.

Ohhhh no.

“GEEZ,” I thought, “Look how THICK that is? Look how heavy it feels in his hand!”

That’s the business equivalent of bringing out your 2002-era Compaq laptop. It’s simply not doable.

You cannot be seen with a first generation iPad anymore. You know this. I know this. Apple most certainly knows this.

You have to give it to them. Even if the iPad ’3′ is simply the iPad 2 with a better screen and, say, Siri, then yeah… millions are going to have to buy them — almost automatically.

The $399 price point is such that they’re very much accessible for anyone with a credit card and the desire or the “need” (i.e. the desire).

If you’re working in the End User/Desktop Services team of a major company, get ready to service the myriad of requests for updates. There’s a valid business reason — i.e. reputation — as to why your chaps and ladies will start to demand iPad 3s. Some will think this ridiculous. But the majority, well, we’re already under the Apple Fashion Spell.

If you don’t think there’s an Apple Fashion Spell, then you’re either still using a Nokia N95 as your mobile multimedia computer of choice along with a 486DX (with math-co-processor on board) desktop, claiming that they “do the job just fine”.

The rest of us are sitting staring at our iPhone 4S devices wondering what the fluck Apple was thinking delivering a device that LOOKS exactly the same as an iPhone 4. How the hell are we meant to differentiate between the Vicky Pollards with their OLD iPhone 4 handsets? That is Apple Fashion Spell pain.

So bring on the iPad 3 whenever it arrives. March? April? Whatever. I’ll take two please.

Meanwhile, can someone else do a bit of innovation and original thinking rather than just make shite copies of iPads that are rubbish? Thanks.

Sent from my iPad.

[ Direct MP3 download - 31MB]

This week the team set themselves a ‘fun’ challenge – to choose a new pre-pay mobile phone costing less than £100 to give as a as a Christmas present…

[To avoid arguments we agreed to 'shop' at Carphone Warehouse]

• Rafe opts for a Nokia: A ‘One Direction’-branded Nokia C2-02 for £59.95 (and suggests buying 8 Alcatel OT209s for £4.95 each to use up the rest of the budget)
• Ewan buys something special for his Nan: A Doro PhoneEasy 610 for £79.95
• Ben spots an Android bargain: The SonyEricsson X8 for £99.95 (or £69.99 direct from Three as Rafe points out later)

We discuss each other’s choices, the appeal (or not) of each device and what matters most when buying a cheaper handset.

As ever, your views are welcomed – did we pick well, what would you buy and what matters to you when choosing a mobile for others?

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Hotwire are MWC legends. Much of the video footage you might have seen from MWC over the years has been thanks to some serious efforts on the part of the Hotwire team moving heaven and earth to sort out logistics to enable me to get some of their client executives on camera. It’s all a bit of a rush during those 3-4 key days and rarely does everything go exactly to plan. Which is why preparation is absolutely key, especially if you’re new to MWC — or if you haven’t yet had the responsibility of managing your CEO’s expectations when he’s expecting you to deliver a sit-down 3-hour fire side chat with a chap from the Financial Times — with 10 minutes notice. And when all he’s got to talk about is a 0.8 product revision.

Oh it’s a stressful time for the PRs. I do my best to get organised as quickly as I can and get the meetings in the diary. And I do my best to try and work with as many PRs and companies as possible during that week.

There are some really smart techniques that you can deploy as a marketer/public relations person. If you happen to know the journalist or blogger in question (and Hotwire do), then you can style the news and announcements to their exact requirements. For instance, I much prefer capturing output on video. I don’t *like* sit down interviews at MWC where I have to take notes, because the chances are I’ll be running a massive sugar low — and can’t write fast enough.

If you’ve got that kind of media knowledge then the chances on getting better, faster or higher quality coverage are so much greater. THIS is the sort of thing the Hotwire team will be discussing at their reception. It’s all informal though. No presentations, no speeches. Just good company, a keen topic and a bit of food & drink.

By the way, in terms of sugar lows, did you know that Rafe Blandford of All About Symbian and All About Windows Phone stuffs his laptop bag with Mars Bars at Heathrow Airport prior to coming to MWC? I thought it was hilarious until I found myself starving running from interview to interview. Rafe’s offer of a Mars Bar kept me going. Now I do the same. BUT. And this is a big but… why don’t you think about doing similar with your press briefings? For instance, last year I arrived to film one of Hotwire’s clients and Annette from their team asked if I’d like a coke from the bar of their client’s stand. Yes. Yes please. It might sound a bit trite or a bit irrelevant, but that sort of thing really can help a blogger/journalist along. These are the sorts of tips I’m getting into order for the reception — I shall be there to vent forth on my viewpoints if you’d like to listen.

Please do consider coming along.

The reception is taking place on the 25th of January 2012 from 6-830pm at Zebrano Bar, 18 Greek Street, Soho, W1D 4DS. If you’d like to come, please simply drop a note to Fiona Stevens (fiona.stevens@hotwirepr.com) to RSVP or give her a call on 020 7608 4697.

I recognise that this is less than scientific but they can certainly be considered anecdotal. I simply spoke to the IT director or senior manager — whoever was available to have a chat.

When I called, I introduced myself as the Editor at Mobile Industry Review and gave them a quick overview, pointing out that I was doing a quick bit of BlackBerry research.

I came up with three questions as I didn’t want to impose too much on their time. Indeed I didn’t expect them to be as polite as they were. (I ended up getting a whole load of feedback from each question.)

Here are the questions I asked along with the rather simple results:

- – - – -

Do you have BlackBerry email services?

100% (all five said yes)

Do you intend staying with BlackBerry for the foreseeable future? (i.e. 12-24 months)

80% (4 out of 5)

Are you considering other smartphone platforms?

60% (3 out of 5)

- – - – -

So, yes, RIM are going through a lot of trauma but I wonder whether their core business will still remain relatively secure. That said, relying on core business simply won’t cut it in the smartphone wars. Also rather worrying is that 3 out of 5 are having their heads turned by other platforms. This is not surprising given the consumerisation of IT and the amount of employees hankering to try out the latest gizmos.

[An interesting aside -- one of the chaps I spoke to pointed out that they currently pay for their BlackBerry services and licenses via their operator but plan to stop doing this soon because they intend swapping to Office365. They'll still need BlackBerry 'service' from their operator, but they won't need the client access license costs for their exchange server -- because it's all wrapped into the Office365 monthly service fee. This is good news for RIM's continuity but bad from a reduced license revenue perspective.]

The background to ‘superphones’ is this:

You started off with your featureless feature phone, right? Next came the ‘smart’ phone because, well, it was a bit more powerful and it was basically a multimedia computer in your hand (the Nokia N95 was marketed with precisely that description). Come to think of it, ‘smart’ really meant ‘can do stuff in the background’.

Feature phones were limited to one task at a time. And when you wanted to — gasp — take a photo and have it upload in the background whilst you visited a website with the phone’s browser? That was an impossible ask on a feature phone. You needed a smartphone. Or, a smart Symbian phone, really.

[I was always tickled by the fact my N95 8GB knocked the socks off the first few generations of iPhone because, fundamentally, it could do stuff in the background -- properly]

Android arrived giving us a new definition of smart. The device just asked for your Google username and password and — boom — everything on the phone was configured and ready, including your email, instant messenger and so on. Truly revolutionary, when it took decades to type your details into a Nokia, or when you had to wait for a ‘system administrator’ to sort out your BlackBerry email.

BlackBerry, by the way, was one of the original smartphones. Ever since I can remember, they’ve been multitasking with the best of them. It was fitting, then that I first saw the term ‘superphone’ at a RIM conference. They were talking about their uber-uber next generation devices running BBX or BB 10 as it’s now known. [I'm disappointed we're going to have to wait some time -- at least 6 months -- to see one in the flesh.]

The term superphone is about to appear all over the shop.

If only it actually meant something more than a bigger CPU and slightly more megapixels. I worry that we’re going to have to wait for Apple to knock out their next iteration before the industry can do any serious innovation/copy.

A superphone should — in my mind — be able to wash the dishes. Almost literally. You know, it should be able to integrate with the house, the car, the shopping centre, the cinema multiplex, the train, the hotel room, the airline and so on. It should have all sorts of wickedly cool presence management along with something like Siri on-board speaking to you and understanding everything you want. It should be a phenomenal communications device.

Taking a standard 500 dollar Android device and giving it a 12 megapixel camera, a quad-CPU and a paint job and calling it a superphone… no. No, absolutely not.

You just know that this is about to happen though.

It’s a bit like various nameless networks renaming their H+ cell services ’4G’ when they’re patently nowhere near the speed supposedly understood by the term.

I’ve heard whispers of Nokia and Microsoft being associated with the superphone term. Please, gents, please don’t knock out the Lumia X with a few more megapixels and call it ‘super’. Let’s see some serious innovation before the term ‘superphone’ is grabbed by the marketing bods and placed into the Oxford Dictionary?

I’ve had my say.

Now, bring on the slightly-slightly-better–than-a-smartphone superphones!

Remember the Milk (“RTM”) is an online todo list service (and it’s available on multiple platforms including mobile). I’ve recently adopted it as my default to do list service and I’m pleased to report I’m getting a lot of value from it.

What’s rather cool, though, is that you can connect Siri to RTM.

This is particularly useful for me. Throughout the day I am forever remembering stuff that I need to do. Sometimes they’re stupid little tasks, other times they’re important points that I don’t want to forget. I usually do. Unless I write them down. Or email myself. Or use some todo app that I never read again.

So I’ve committed to RTM. And I’ve got Siri. I’ve connected them both so all I do now is tell Siri (words to the effect of):

“Remind me to buy some sausage rolls” *

Siri then brilliantly translates your text, asks for confirmation and then pushes the reminder straight into your RTM todo list.

I’ve been using it loads this week. Brilliant!

Here’s the RTM video demonstrating the functionality:

* You can read all about these sausage rolls here.

On the face of it, there’s a reasonable argument — over to the Telegraph post:

The force must find £50 million worth of savings from its overall budget by 2015 and has already cut energy bills by 10 per cent.

I presume that someone has done the calculations — I wonder just how much money this policy would save? What is the cost of charging an iPhone for an hour? It must cost a few pence. This will add up if you take into account daily usage across the year — and thousands of people doing it?

At all the different offices I’ve worked at over the years, I’ve never once been told to ‘charge my personal devices at home’. Occasionally where it was warranted, I’ve asked permission, only to get a ‘well, duh, of course’ response every time. Even going to a friend’s house, I don’t think I’d even think twice about the *cost* of charging. I’d ask permission but I’d only be doing that out of politeness.

Being able to charge your phone (for free) is, I think, a basic requirement for everyone. It’s perhaps not a ‘human right’ — but it’s a seriously important one, especially in today’s connected environment and especially when safety (or, at least, the illusion of safety) is linked to that connectivity. And, even more so if you’ve got a recent smartphone that comes with wholly unsuitable battery performance.

I’ve no idea how much this stuff costs but let’s do a worked example on cost. Assume it costs £0.05 to charge your phone. Multiply that by 20 business days a month and that’s £1.00 per month. Or £12 per year.

I wonder if I’d be prepared to see a quid-a-month docked from my pay packet to cover my personal electricity costs?

Possibly. I’d certainly prefer the option.

But then how far do you go? You see I expect personal charging to be ‘thrown in’ as part of the deal. Well, normally, I don’t even think about it. So, should I also have to contribute £20 per month to ensure clean toilets? Or parking?

Parking’s a bit of a tray area isn’t it? I know some employers who do factor this into a pay package. Or who offer incentives for employees *not* to drive, to a) keep parking spaces available and b) add a nice paragraph to their Corporate Social Responsibility section in their annual report.

Thinking about it, I don’t know if many companies I’ve worked at actually had a ‘electricity for personal uses’ policy. I never bothered to check. Nobody has ever screamed at me for using an extra power socket. No one has demanded money for it. No one has screamed about how much money they’re losing in extra unnecessary costs.

I’m happy to be educated in this regard. Generally speaking I’ve only ever worked for large corporates (who factor the electrical cost into business-as-usual expenditure) or small outfits who’d never question it.

Does your company prohibit you from using electricity for charging your phone?

And have I got things all wrong? Is it more than 5p to charge a phone? Have I missed something?

It looks to me like the only thing Sussex Police are doing with this policy is seriously winding up their employees. How are they going to enforce it?

One possible solution: Take a one time capital expenditure hit and buy every employee a Proporta-style pocket charger (examples at Amazon) with instructions to charge it up at home. That might be equitable!

Update: I was just looking at Amazon some more — maybe what everyone at Sussex needs is a £3.45 wind-up pocket charger:

Even today with phenomenal competition from Android, iPhone and Windows Phone, BlackBerry beats everything hands-down when it comes to messaging. I’m not just referring to email. I’m talking about Facebook, Twitter, BBM and of course, SMS. It really is a joy to use a BlackBerry especially when I’m going through periods of hyper-connectivity. The QWERTY keyboard along with the unified inbox makes it all brilliant.

With an iPhone 4, messaging is a painful experience for a geek like me. I simply can’t stand having to arse around swiping left to reveal an iMessage and then waiting for the app to boot up and then display the message. I also don’t like the way I have to keep on waiting around to check that my outgoing message has been sent (if you’re in-and-out of signal range, it’s common for your iMessage/SMS to simply fail to send — but you only discover this if you actually go and check).

Android is a little better because it’s able to retain some degree of persistent experience. You can swap quickly to the SMS app, for example. Integrated Gtalk is lovely. I should also point out that the iPhone 4S is a lot *faster* when it comes to messaging — indeed most of my speed/timing messaging frustrations have disappeared with the new, faster processor on the 4S.

RIM’s QWERTY keyboard is what makes the BlackBerry experience uber fast for me. I’m just not as fast on a virtual keyboard. Neither are you, right? It’s rare — very rare indeed — to find someone who is actually faster on a touchscreen than on a BlackBerry keyboard. Us geeks are all reminded of Steve Jobs on stage at the iPhone launch explaining why the physical keyboard was a problem.

How much does a super-fast messaging experience matter to the average consumer? Not much when they can’t perceive the difference between the experience on a BlackBerry or an iPhone. Except that the iPhone (or Android) “feels” better. I can see why. If you look at the BlackBerry — even with OS7 — it’s still quite a clunky experience compared to the fancy visuals and animations of iPhone/Android.

Then there’s the apps issue. But I won’t get into that today.

BBM rocks. I love that experience. But.. and this is becoming more and more of an issue, I don’t know many people who use it nowadays. In fact the only person I’ve BBM’d in the last *month* is one of the nice chaps who works for RIM. That’s a real problem for me. I’d like to use it more. But I can’t. If anything, I’m not young enough If I was 15, the chances are all of my peers would be with me on BBM.

However.. I’ve got about 15 currently active iMessage conversations on-the-go right now. Some of them are group chats, the majority are individual conversations. This is not good for RIM.

I’d love to see some kind of interoperability between iMessage and BBM. Or BBM to Gtalk directly. I doubt Apple would ever allow this.

Meanwhile, despite the stories you’re seeing daily now about RIM, do keep a level head on your shoulders when you’re thinking about them: Kantar Worldpanel’s research (released today) indicates that RIM is selling 17% of all Smartphones in the UK based on the 12 weeks to 27th November 2011. To put this in context, iOS accounts for 31% and Android 47%.

It’s going to be rather interesting to see what RIM comes up with next!

Check-ins are the bane of my flipping life.

When I’m in San Francisco I can’t sit down with a friend without them jumping sky high in shock 3 seconds into the meal because they’ve forgotten to check-in.

You’d have thought that Silicon Valley’s finest would have figured out a way to do this automatically. Or bought BuddyCloud — whose founders long ago realised that it was far more useful to do this in the background. On Symbian. Because it could actually do that.

If you’ve got a Fisher Price iPhone that can’t (or couldn’t) do anything in the background without wetting its pants and screaming, then there was no choice — this is predominantly why you have to click a button in a kind of Pavlovian zombie blank-stare manner.

So we’ve legions of absolute chumps checking in and then subjecting the rest of us to their mindless banality on various social media channels.

I do the odd check-in on Facebook. I’ve been playing with it on Path.

I definitely don’t do it on Twitter to the thousands of people (and bots) who follow.

Exposing folk to your check-in spam on Twitter is really, really bad form. By all means use FourSquare. Please just uncheck the ‘tweet this’ option.

I’ve been doing my best to manually unfollow the people who keep on insisting on doing it. But I tell you now, I would love to see a web app that queries my Twitter followers for anyone who’s done a FourSquare check-in during the last month and unfollows them. Does anyone know if anything like this exists?

I have to say I think QR codes are, with limited exceptions, absolutely shit.

I don’t mind seeing them in magazines or newspaper ads. Or perhaps on event signage. There are plenty of situations where their use is warranted.

But on flipping television advertisement?

Are you kidding me?

Am I having an out of brain experience?

Butter me in honey and call me Geoffrey!

Read this: [And then weep.]

The code was preceded by three alerts telling viewers to get their smartphones ready. When the code appeared on the screen, they can use an available reader to stream the video on their mobile devices or instructions to download to their desktop.

How utterly shit.

Read the full story here.

I really can’t believe this.

The code was preceded by THREE alerts? Telling viewers to GET THEIR SMARTPHONES ready? You WHAT? Apparently the QR code was displayed twice for a 45-second duration.

That, my dear reader, must have been a truly exciting experience for everyone else watching.

Apparently “thousands” of people across the country interrupted their advertising viewing to scan the QR code.

I am astonished.

I am saddened.

Look how far we’ve come as an industry. And folk are using the technology for this purpose?

Save me.