Of course you do.

Here’s what the LG Touchscreen Watchphone looks like:

Gorgeous.

The handset goes on sale next week (27th August) in the Orange store by Bond Street Station in central London. It’ll set you back 500 quid. You can buy only one each. Expect them to fly off the shelves.

A small price to pay for:

a) The bragging rights
b) The exclusivity
c) The wickedly smart James Bond technology

To make a voice or video call – in true 22nd Century fashion – all you have to do is ask it nicely. The combination of voice activated command, VGA camera and Bluetooth technology mean you’ll never have to raise a finger to make a call again… just turn your wrist and talk away. The handmade timepiece is designed with the image conscious in mind too and features eight different watch faces – one to suit your every mood or crime-fighting outfit.

More pictures on the Orange blog announcement.

Now and again I’ve found myself on some obscure blog post from 2005 only to discover a genius application for uploading screenshots or something like that.

Indeed I think that’s how I came across ImageWell (uploads screenshots via FTP) and Mailplane (run Gmail / Apps as a proper application) and more.

I didn’t sign-up initially because, well… so much of my desktop usage is browser based. Looking at the applications I have open at the moment, it doesn’t really make for shocking or surprising reading:

* Safari
* Firefox
* Microsoft Word
* Skype
* Mailplane
* Spotify
* ImageWell
* MarsEdit
* Terminal
* Adium
* TweetDeck

Hardly earth shattering, eh? But then… you never know. So I signed up this afternoon and I’ve added two chaps already, Geetarchurchy and Ricky Chotai. Aside from the basic ‘what’s he using that for’ thoughts, it’s really quite interesting. I can see how this will/would really help with discovery of new applications.

Which brings me to the subject of this post. I’d really like to see something like this for mobile handsets. I’m sure the Wakoopa creators are considering something like this. Of course it wouldn’t work very well on an iPhone in real time (no background apps on an iPhone… yet) but it would work reasonably well on Android and Symbian.

Nokia’s already doing this with the upcoming Ovi Store (just WHEN is it actually, actually launching?). Peer-to-peer recommendations. I should, theoretically, be able to see what my Ovi friends are buying/using/consuming via the Ovi Store. I’m looking forward to seeing how people react to that feature, I think it’ll be a winner.

I certainly find the iPhone application discovery process a little bit haphazard at the moment — indeed, it’s positively lonely when you’re sat looking at the App Store on your iPhone. I tend to hear more about applications when I’m not actively browsing, when I’m out-and-about or when I’m working. That’s fine, but it’s not necessarily when I’m most receptive to looking at new things.

I can imagine opening up the App Store on my Nokia with the intent of finding out what my friends have checked out recently.

I’m hoping that once all the kinks are worked out, the Ovi Store will reinvigorate the desire to install new apps… We shall see.

The where-are-you question is very, very relevant in the context of business so I’ve been trying to solve that with the use of a Where Am I function on my personal site, Ewan.net.

I was previously using BlogLoc for this function… but it was getting a little bit annoying having to manually update every time I remembered.

So instead I’ve decided to try out Google’s Latitude facility. Latitude allows you to see the locations of your friends on a Google Map (either on your phone or online) and it works pretty well.

Recently the Google Latitude team announced that they’ve added a public ‘badge’ facility that you can place anywhere on the web to show off your current location. This definitely isn’t for everyone, especially if you’re a little bit suspicious or concerned about your privacy. But I like the concept myself and I thought it was worth a try. Google have been particularly direct with their warnings — which I heeded — so I haven’t displayed by actual street level GPS location. Instead I’ve displayed my general ‘city level’ location.

Here’s what it looks like on the blog:

Nifty.

If you’d like to do the same, get your Google Latitude Public Location Badge here.

Yes? Good. Because that’s what T-Mobile UK have cooked up for your delectation. It’s the next in the series after the rather amazing T-Mobile ‘Dance’ at London’s Liverpool Street Station that saw hundreds of apparent commuters all of a sudden break into a series of co-ordinated dance moves. Brilliant advertisement, compelling viewing. If you haven’t seen it, take a few minutes and check it out here:

And here’s the Hey Jude one in Trafalgar Square:

The good looking girl who appears now and again, singing in tune, is popstar Pink.

I think.

I’ve been wondering all about this particular video after I kept seeing it playing on all the electronic screens around the London Underground/Tube. Know I know.

I’m pretty impressed at T-Mobile UK’s advertising geniuses. The first video, The Dance, definitely underpins the company’s ‘Life’s For Sharing’ message — and, whilst the ‘Hey June’ one does too (load of folk, all singing-along mostly out of tune), I think The Dance is going to remain their most compelling ad for some time.

Here are some quotes right off the press from some mobile developers. (I have removed names).

- “I’d like to know how much of my revenues they’ll demand.”

- “I like the ease of billing and the potential of micro-payments.”

- “I suspect they’ll take 30% just like Apple / Nokia etc. I hope it’s not more than that.”

- “It’s just another App store – we WILL develop for it, obviously, but only because I’m yet to see which store will capture the minds of consumers.”

- “I very much like the concept. Especially if one SDK works across a number of MNOs. That would be really cool.”

- “Is this too good to be true? It sure looks like it.”

- “If they were REALLY thinking of developers, they’d be finding a way to reduce the amount of work we need to do across the various mobile programming languages. Perhaps they are, I can’t quite work it out yet.”

- “Interesting, interesting… that’s all I have to say until you tell us more, Ewan.”

I’m aiming to have more information soon! If you’ve got a comment or opinion, drop me a note — ewan@mobiledeveloper.tv.

(I regularly tap up people for live reaction — if you’d like to be on that list, add me at ewanmacleod@gmail.com on Google Talk or ewanjmacleod on Skype.)

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I am off to visit a Vodafone store to find out what’s going on with my five lines. I’m going to change around some of the price plans and decommission the lines I don’t need.

I’ve also finally recognised that I don’t actually use 3,000 mobile minutes per month, nor do I need unlimited landline minutes. That, plus 500 texts per month. This harks back to a time when Vodafone insisted on charging 12.5 pence (inc VAT) per text and a whopping 35p (plus VAT) per minute to talk to someone on another mobile network here in the UK.

Crazy.

Things are better. We’ve moved on. Whilst a lot of the old price plan penalties still exist, the pay monthly plans are a lot, lot more modern — for instance, £25 gets you 600 minutes to anyone and unlimited texts.

I’ve been mentally sticking my head in the sand every time the Vodafone bill hits my back account. Last month it was 600+ pounds. That’s just silly.

Now I’ve got a few days spare before the meetings begin in earnest, I’m going to sort this out.

It’s possible to do this on the phone, but I can’t easily visualise the lines, the price plans and so on — and I don’t want to waste the time of their expert customer services people.

I would use their online account management facilities but, as everyone on the planet knows, Vodafone UK’s online service is more or less bollocks. It looks to me as though it’s held together with a string of Oracle databases and some sellotape.

I’m able to browse the phone numbers of the lines on my account. I’m also able to see it’s related price plan. But if I try to change anything, I get an error message.

This error message has been particularly effective at preventing me from doing anything to my account for a good few months.

So it’s off to a store. I’ll let you know how I get on.

I might even pick up a new G2.

If you’re interested to see what we’re playing with, you can check out the demonstration logos (and weigh in with your comments) at this url.

I used 99designs.com to commission an identity for Mobile Developer TV. I’ve long been fascinated with the concept proposed by 99designs. Here’s how it works; You commit to spending a particular amount of money (say $200). You publish your brief and 99designs take your money. Then designers from all over the world compete for your business by submitting their designs.

Very cool indeed.

We’ve had 66 entries in total so far. You can see which ones I’m favouring at the moment by checking out the star-ratings on each. I’d welcome your perspective!

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My name is Ewan and I’m founder and Editor.  You can find out more about me here.

After Mobile Industry Review turned subscription-only back at the end of March, I’ve been looking around for other projects to commence.  Mobile Developer TV started off as a concept in the back of my mind about 6 months ago.

Here’s the Background

I’m founder and editor of Mobile Industry Review (”MIR”), one of the world’s most influential commentators on the mobile industry.  The site published daily news and opinion for almost 3 years, reaching a core audience of 250,000 industry executives and fanatics.  MIR’s feed is integrated directly into the intranets of many mobile operators, handset manufacturers and mobile service companies.  Super reach, super influence.  Witness, for example, our ground-breaking video of the never-before-seen Nokia Test Labs in Farnborough (Over 175,000 people viewed it within days of publishing). Or take a look at the recent post I published about iPhone centric developer mindset in Silicon Valley, picked up by MocoNews, VentureBeat and the Washington Post.

I thoroughly enjoyed producing the site with a team of brilliant contributors.  In March 2009, I turned MIR subscription-only, providing the site’s on-going feed to one company.  The nature of the company’s requirement developed to the point that I was able to engage a small team of writers to deliver the on-going service.  I still retain all MIR rights and content — including the domain names and the site’s extensive reach — so I’ve been looking for another project to put these resources to good use.

Why Mobile Developer TV?

I really, really enjoy producing online video features. There’s something about ‘TV’ that you just can’t match with the written word.  It’s about seeing the person (or people), visualising their excitement and seeing just how passionate they are about their products and services. I did a lot of experimenting with the Mobile Industry Review Show — the MIR Show — and after a good few hundred hours of stress and learning, I think I’ve more or less perfected the art of brilliant online video production: Top quality HD cameras, excellent HD video hosting, super-expensive microphones — in fact, the best equipment you can buy, a bit of creativity in the editing studio (Final Cut is excellent, but iMovie, although frowned upon from the professional sector, is extremely quick).

Marry this passion for online television with my fascination with the mobile industry — and more specifically, with mobile development — and it didn’t take me long to hatch the concept.  And here it is!

The Aim

I’m going to meet the best and the brightest in mobile development — and I’m going to put them on camera.  I’m aiming to publish one TV show per week to start with.  Each show will centre on one or two people in the mobile development space.  iPhone App developers, certainly.  But I’m interested in the whole spectrum — from Blackberry’s App World, to Nokia’s Ovi, to Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace and beyond.

If you’ve ever seen any of the interviews I’ve produced in the past, you’ll know I like to keep myself out of the picture. It’s not about me, it’s about the interviewee.  In some cases I’m aiming to do a straight interview — me to the right of the camera pointing the microphone and asking questions.  In other cases, I’ll do a walk-about or a show-and-tell with the developer.

I’m interested in talking to and profiling:

• Mobile application developers
  (Platform agnostic: iPhone/Blackberry/Nokia/J2ME/Samsung/Microsoft/Android)
• Companies whose primary business is NOT in the mobile space — but who have developed or are developing mobile applications.
  (For instance: A travel company launching an iPhone app, dotcoms launching their own apps — eg. Lastminute’s FoneFood app)
• Companies who supply services to/work with mobile developers
  (Example: Providers of mobile advertising, debug/testing)

Video will comprise most of the content here on Mobile Developer TV — however in my research over the past months, it’s clear that, whilst there are a lot of developers in Silicon Valley and London (my two primary locations), there’s a considerable geographic spread of developers.  Only today I was talking to developers from Ohio, Johannesburg, New Zealand, Ukraine, Paris and Scotland.  I’d like to be able to fly into meet each — that might be a bit of a challenge in the short term though.  So to supplement, I’ll aim to publish text interviews and profiles regularly.

One developer I spoke to suggested recording his own interview on video, answering my questions to camera with his own facilities — and sending it over to me to publish.  I think it’s a super suggestion and I think we’ll do that.

Can I profile you?  Contact Me!

I’m based in London and San Francisco so I’ll be producing the majority of in-person videos from those locations.  If you’d like to feature, drop me a note.  I’m ewan@mobiledeveloper.tv — this is the best way of contacting me.  But you can also phone/text me.  My mobile numbers are:

+44 7769 658104 (UK)

+1 415 200 9515 (US)

… (I’m happy to hear from PRs too.)

Don’t Be British

Please don’t be British — that is, sit at the back and hope I’ll come across you.  I really will do my best to find mobile developers and companies to profile — I’ve already got a big list from working with MIR — but I am most certainly no genius.  So I need your help in order to profile you — I need to know you exist. So please do drop me a note if you’re keen to be profiled.  At the very least I’ll aim to send you out a list of questions to answer by email that I can turn into a profile piece here on the site. (Who are you, what are you creating/have you created, what platform, why, what challenges have you had, and so on).  Ideally I’ll arrange to meet physically to interview you on-camera and perhaps produce an application walk-through.

Got News?

If you’ve got a particular topic of announcement that you think mobile developers and those working in related fields should know about, knock me over an email right-away.

Design

I’m doing a Robert Scoble at the moment — that is publishing with a default WordPress Theme.  I’ll update it as we progress.  The content is way more important than the theme and that’s where my focus is at the moment.

Editorial Policy

As for editorial policy, I’m aiming for a macro view of mobile development.  I don’t plan on publishing code level discussions, or discussing the finer points of the Symbian operating system.  Instead, I’ll be looking at the commercial aspects of the mobile applications development sector along with the trends I’m witnessing.  The overriding focus is, of course, on profiling developers.  I’m particularly interested in talking with one-man-bands:  The chaps (and ladies) who’re single-handedly driving the massive change sweeping the industry.  That said, I’m also keen to talk to the business people — the product managers, the executive teams — about the challenges and successes in the field of mobile applications development.

This is a work in progress so I’d welcome your feedback, either below or by email.

I’ll be syndicating the output through the public feed on Mobile Industry Review so if you’re already a MIR RSS subscriber, you’ll start to get updates shortly.  You can also catch blog updates via the new Mobile Developer TV Twitter account @mobdevtv.

Standby!

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Here’s a pic:

I was Palo Alto for a few meetings, one with a mobile titan (ID not public alas). The chap was running 30 minutes late (”Don’t worry, I’ll hit up* the Apple store”, I told him). I’d arrived in by the rather efficient ‘CalTrain’ early anyway so I strolled up University Avenue toward the Apple store.

I was having a look in the shop windows during the stroll and realised I was passing the Verizon Wireless store.

“Screw it,” I thought, “I’ve got some time, let’s go and have a look at Mr CDMA’s offerings.”

I arrived into the store and was immediately greeted by a lady with a clipboard. This is the way things work in America. At least, it’s been my experience with Sprint as well as Verizon.

(Conversations paraphrased from memory)

“How may I help you today?” the nice spritely shiny lady asked, clipboard and pen poised.

“Er I’m British,” I said. Best to get that off my chest.

She did a slow knowing nod.

British = Useless to Verizon. They either want to spend a good 20 minutes selling you a two-year credit agreement (and a handset) or get you out of the shop as quickly as possible with a prepay deal.

But if you’re foreign it’s a no-go. They don’t want your business. You need a US social security number to get started with them. This is fair enough — there are 303 million folk in the country, enough to be getting on with.

Even if you offer to prepay a 2-year contract in advance (e.g. $200 for a Storm on $80 a month is $2120. Offer them $3,000 up front and they’ll decline. Their system, I’m told, doesn’t ‘work that way’).

Anyway. I explained I was British and the lady put down her pen and let me pass.

Normally she’d have been ticking various boxes relating to what I was looking for. Then she’ll hand the resulting form to a sales chappy who, suitably briefed, will help me out.

I took a stroll about the place. I admired a few handsets. I glanced once or twice at the Storm, their handset du jour. Well, actually, their handset du year.

I had a look at the LG Versa.

“Can I help you, sir?”

I turned and found a helpful looking sales chap on my elbow.

“Er,” I said with continued embarrassment, “I’m sorry, I’m British, so… er…”

“Oh,” the chap said, eyes widening.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding, “It’s prepay or nothing, I know.”

I hung my head slightly as the chap nodded with me in sympathy.

With a tough of benevolence, he said I should ask him if I needed any help.

I thanked him.

“Alas, I’m a pariah,” I mumbled to myself, gazing over at the Samsung Omnia on the shelf. Windows Mobile, I know, but it thought it’d be worth a look. I went back to the Storm.

$199 on a 2-year contract.

I started selling it to myself.

“You have a duty to, you know, play about with these things,” I reasoned, calculating whether I really wanted to spunk something like $2,000 on ‘playing about’.

I only found out later that you could get a Blackberry Storm for $449 up-front on a month-to-month agreement. That, provided Verizon would have done a deal with an alien like me, would have bee interesting. I’d still have had quite a problem swallowing $449 unless I was aiming to use it as a primary device.

My key issue is that I’ve never actually used a Verizon handset for more than a day or so — and they’ve been rubbish prepay handsets. I’ve never really tried out the Verizon data network, for example. So I was warm.

But luckily for my bank balance, nobody tried to sell me a month-to-month Storm.

In fact, they’re not selling the Storm in Palo Alto. Although it’s on display, it’s not for sale. The sales team will do their best to avoid selling you one.

Is that a sweeping statement? Yes. Of course Verizon are selling Storms — by the bucketload by all accounts. Just not to me. And definitely not to the customer who came in after me.

I was pondering the possibility of a Windows Mobile handset when I heard a chap come into the shop. I glanced round as he approached me and the salesman who’d (sensibly?) given up on me.

“Hi,” he said, “I’m after a G-3 phone, the Blackberry Storm?”

“Right,” said the salesperson, “Well…”

“This is it here, is it?” the buyer said. He’d walked straight to it and was ready for the sale. He’d clearly seen it on television or been recommended it. The fact he got the ‘G-3′ (”3G”) bit wrong indicated an element of normob (”normal mobile user”) in his makeup. He knew what he wanted. He knew 3G, however you said it, was the way ahead. He was fondling the device and wanted to buy one.

“Er, you don’t want the Blackberry Storm,” said the salesman to the surprise of the buyer, “It’s buggy,” he continued.

“Buggy? Ah yeah..” said the buyer. He’d heard of that too and asked, “When will they bring out a software upgrade?”.

“Errrrr,” said the salesman, “Is it a touchscreen phone you’re looking for?” he said, beckoning the buyer to the other side of the store.

I missed a bit of their conversation — but I could make out the fact the salesman was trying to sell him some type of LG touchscreen.

The buyer did some quick evaluation before walking back to the Storm.

“Nah, tell me about the Storm?”

“It’s buggy, you don’t want that,” the salesman said.

“Right, but it works?” said the buyer. He clearly *just* wanted one. He was giving all the I-don’t-mind hints.

At that point I left the store.

I couldn’t handle it.

I was having a lot of trouble keeping my mouth shut and not slapping the salesman with a handy wet fish a few times.

As I left, the buyer was fondling the Storm clearly in I WILL BUY THIS PHONE mode. I think the salesman had relented at this point as I just caught, “Well, the touchscreen clicks when you press on it, the iPhone doesn’t have that,” as I walked out the door.

Well I never.

Palo Alto, spiritual home to Silicon Valley (and actual home to, amongst others, HP’s worldwide headquarters). By all means discourage the good normob people of Shitsville, Middle America, to avoid getting the Storm (they’ll only return it when they can’t figure out the keyboard). But in Palo Alto? When the chap strides in demanding a Storm? Give him one. Be pleased he’s aiming to swap from T-Mobile (he was) to Verizon instead of T-Mobile or, worse… the iPhone collective that is AT&T.

An interesting experience.

In the interests of fairness I am going to see if I can swim the myriad Verizon Wireless PR channels and get a hold of a Blackberry Storm to use for a month or so. I’ll keep you updated.

Meanwhile I encourage you to pop into your nearest Verizon store and ask for a Storm and report back your experiences. My experience today must surely have been an exception.

* “Hit up” — a fancy wanna-be-cool American way of saying “visit/talk to/connect with”.

Of course AdMob are also hugely active in the application monetisation space with well over 1,000 iPhone applications carrying AdMob inventory. What’s good to know is that in many cases, AdMob is writing cheques (or ‘checks’) in excess of $10k+ to a lot of developers. (Indeed, some of the more popular apps are knocking back hundreds of thousands in AdMob revenue.)

So this evening’s event was both an introduction to AdMob’s iPhone related services, a panel discussion on the hot topic du jour (iPhone App Discoverability) as well as the opportunity for developers to network with each other.

The panel featured the following luminaries:

Mike Kerns, CEO, Citizen Sports (Sportacular)
Jonathan Zweig, CEO, Jirbo / Epic Tilt (ESPN Cameraman, many others)
Ben Lewis, Founder, TapJoy
Alan Wells, Zynga

Here’s a pic:

The always reliable and informed Richard Wong (far right in the blue shirt), General Partner of Accel Partners was moderator. If, by the way, you’ve come up with a genius mobile service, you should be talking with Richard. Right now. They’re hunting.

My evening began on the boulevards of San Mateo — a rather picturesque series of boutique shops and pizza restaurants (I think I walked by about 10 pizza outlets on the walk from the station). I used the always reliable Google Maps on my N95 8GB to navigate the 10 minute walk from station to venue. (In a show of solidarity I thought I should bring my UK iPhone to the event — but in an uncharacteristic effort to avoid being nailed for £7/meg in data from o2 UK, I’ve had it set to Airplane mode, so I’ve been using my TMO USA sim in my N95.)

I arrived about 15 minutes early so the Benjamin Franklin Hotel wasn’t quite ready. I spotted a chap standing outside with his iPhone and I theorised he might well be one of the 150 developers attending the event. I struck up a conversation. Turns out that the chap — Steffen Frost has been working with iPhone app development since May 2007. He came up with the concept 1st of May 2007 and had $100k+ seed funding within two weeks. Nice. His product? Carticipate. They’ve basically fixed car-trip-sharing by iPhone.

Here’s a pic I snapped of Steffen:

“Show me!” I said as he described the concept. Within seconds he was showing the functions. You can browse the trips already being made in your area and ask to ride-share. Or if you’re heading somewhere yourself, you can advertise your trip and see if anyone else wants to join you. Smart. They’ve had some substantial interest from a lot of big companies wanting to sanitise their employee commuting traffic (amongst other applications).

“What’s your next platform?” I asked Steffen, “After iPhone?”

“Android,” he replied. “How about Nokia?” I asked.

“Yeah, well…”

Suffice to say he was severely unimpressed by the current Nokia offering.

That wasn’t a unique viewpoint. I’ll come to that later.

The venue opened a few minutes later so Steffen and I popped in. Jeff from 148apps, (the iPhone review site) had written his Twitter ID on his label — so I promptly copied and began marching around the room thrusting my hand out and asking questions left, right and centre.

Goodness me it’s iPhone, iPhone, iPhone. Obviously this was an iPhone developer meetup — but I was fascinated to see how insular, how wholly-iPhone the development community is here in Silicon Valley.

“What’s your next platform?” I asked another developer.

“Er… probably Android,” he replied, after a bit of thought.

“Right… and, after that?” I prompted.

“Well,…” he replied, the conversation trailing off to the point that we both stood there in silence for a few seconds.

I remembered myself and spluttered out “Blackberry?”

“Well…” he replied again. A nice way of saying no.

Ok.

“What about Ovi?” I asked. Hopeful. I was expecting either a venomous “GET OUT” or a knowing nod.

“Ovi? What’s that?” he looked at me confused.

“Er, the Nokia offering — their app store?”

He and his two colleagues who’d now joined us looked horrified. As though I’d taken their iPhone and nailed it to the wall.

“Nohhhkeeaaaa?” They asked. I’m sure their minds were drifting to the $29.99 bollocks-handsets they see on display in the mobile operator stores. The rubbish ones — the glorified mobile telephones complete with alarm clocks. (Think the Nokia 2100 series).

“Er LIKE NO,” said the chap’s colleague, as the other two nodded vigorously.

Interesting!

I thought I’d try out a killer stat on them.

“So 17m iPhones on the planet — Nokia reckons they’ll have the Ovi Store on 400m handsets by the end of 2010.” (I was paraphrasing — this is more or less accurate.)

Blank looks.

Nobody cares.

It’s a fascinating experience walking amongst these developers. They’re the cream of the cream. They’re the Stanford drop-outs (or not – “I did my first and second degrees at Stanford” said one chap”). They’re conditioned by the Silicon Valley mentality to think big, BIG BIG. This is where the innovation is. It’s easy to see why the Valley is the centre of everything.

At least it’s the centre of iPhone development.

There’s only so much you can do when you’re sat in a dark office in London waiting for the ‘your app has been accepted’ email from Apple. Compare that to one panelist’s throwaway comment, “We’re really tight with the Apple guys.”

And tight is good. Tight is the way ahead. Almost every chap I met has a friend-of-a-friend who works at Apple. Or knows a ‘guy’ at Google. Or whose dorm mate knocked out a $10k/day Chess app for the iPhone.

As I walked around the venue, I bumped into Omar, AdMob’s founder. I’m still ridiculously embarrassed — I haven’t got over sitting next to Omar in a dinner in San Francisco last September and asking him ‘what he did at AdMob’ only to find out he was the founder. OH THAT OMAR!

I found Omar in good spirits. He was on his way up to commence proceedings. It says a lot when the CEO and founder of AdMob took the time to pop along and introduce the event. He outlined his company’s commitment to mobile developers and platforms such as the iPhone before swiftly handing over to colleague Mike for a quick AdMob FAQ, namely:

Q: Can I monetise my app with AdMob?
A: Yes. Lots of people are already (1,000+ apps using AdMob).

Q: How much money can I make?
A: It’s very dependent on the application and it’s use case, but, for the sake of argument, assume $0.15 net revenue per customer.

The audience sat in silence, gobbling up the information as Mike delivered it. It was very smart to give some basic revenue examples. Some apps are clearly making a heck of a lot more than $0.15 per customer, but if you’re looking for a ready reckoner of what you might be able to achieve, having this information is really valuable.

Next? The panel. It would be fair to represent the panel as iPhone Developer Rockstars. They’re operating in the mythical space of more or less continual Top-50 App Store billing. As I sat taking in the panel debate I was mentally calculating just how many application downloads the four guys accounted for. If you’re looking for confirmation of rockstar status, witness this panelist quote:

“We worked out the other day that one of our applications has been played by our users for 2,000 man years so far,”

Shit.

Moderator Richard Wong did a super job of asking a series of pertinent questions to the panel around the issue of application discovery. Once you’ve got your app accepted, do you blow a load of money (on, for example, AdMob) to get your app discovered on the launch day? Or do you play a longer game? Can you really monetise with ads? (Yes).

One point I really liked was, I think, made by Ben Lewis of TapJoy. He explained that customers had emailed in saying they were finding it difficult getting above level 30 in one of their games. So they responded by making levels 30-40 easier. In doing so, they found that their ad-impressions flew off the charts. If you’re displaying ads at the end of levels, it makes sense to ensure that the majority of users can progress to an array of levels.

Panelist Ben caused me to rethink my stance on Apple’s micropayments. if you recall, Apple’s next OS version, 3.0, introduces the capacity to extract micropayments from consumers using your applications. Ben commented that whilst a 30% revenue share for the hosting of the App Store, credit card processing and so on was fair enough, taking the exact same share for micropayments ‘just wasn’t cricket’, as we say in Britain. The point being that Apple aren’t doing any more work, other than the transaction processing.

Now to the good stuff.

For months — possibly even years — I’ve been banging on about the iPhone platform finally unlocking the opportunity for developers. Not everyone has been agreeing with me. Indeed quite a few purists in Europe have continued to assert the apparent superiority of the Symbian/Nokia platform for development. And whilst there’s certainly an argument to be had there, it’s — fundamentally — all about money. And there’s a reason Silicon Valley is going nuts for mobile. (Where ‘mobile’ equals ‘iPhone’). It’s the 800 million iPhone downloads, 70% of which are revenue generating. It’s the fact that you can, theoretically, become a millionaire overnight by developing a successful iPhone application, even though there are only 17m iPhones in existence.

So having been a diehard make-it-easy-for-developers chap, it was rather exciting to be surrounded by a few hundred of the Valley’s iPhone geniuses.

Panel questions arrived. I’d already been mentally willing Richard to pick me when he eventually opened the panel up to audience questions.

“Right, any quest..” he began. I shot up my hand.

“Ewan!” he said.

“Hi, I’d like to ask you about…”

I was getting stuck in.

“Wait a moment Ewan, introduce yourself for the audience,” prompted Richard.

Ah. Yes.

I couldn’t wait to ask my question.

“Given that Nokia expects to have their Ovi store on 400m handsets by the end of 2010, are you looking to develop for that platform?”

The moment I mentioned ‘Nokia’ I could feel the audience bristle.

One of the chaps on the panel looked at me — that ‘what the fluck’ look.

“Er, no,” he said.

He passed the microphone.

“No,” said the next chap.

“Er, we’re thinking about it,” said another.

“Errrr NO,” said the next.

Geez.

I felt like a pariah as the panel began to dissect their reasoning. The path to cash is unclear. It’s a massively fragmented handset population. It’s not centrally controlled and beautiful like the App Store. The Ovi Store doesn’t appear to be that ‘easy’ to work with. The capabilities of the development platform are unknown (at least within the Valley)… and so on.

Judging by the response of the audience and the other developers I spoke to after the panel, the ambivalence to Nokia’s Ovi offering — and the offerings of the other manufacturers — is echoed across the Valley.

Blackberry was mentioned once or twice. Surprising, given the amount of Blackberries in use across the States. But when you consider that a whopping amount of devices are corporate devices that are locked to prevent downloads — and that Blackberry App World isn’t pre-installed as yet — you can see why it’s getting little attention from this community.

Another surprise was the lack of Windows Marketplace discussion. Yes this was an iPhone developer meetup but you’d expect — or at least I expected — most developers to be reasonably platform agnostic or at least looking at other possibilities. Out of the 150 developers there, a show of hands revealed only one chap who had worked on the Windows platform.

This will change. Effort is driven by monetisation. If Ovi, Blackberry and Windows Mobile deliver on their promise, I’m sure the majority will give them the time of day. But right now it’s iPhone, iPhone, iPhone and I don’t blame them.

Read more:
Ewan MacLeod: “TFL destroys hopes of a mobile phone/Underground relationship http://tinyurl.com/cvr5t2.” (via FriendFeed)

Mr Lane is gold dust. If you need a chap to help you out with your technology strategy/product management, talk to him. Despite the fact he’s got an RFID chip embedded in his arm, he’s a nice calm guy — who speaks English and understands commercial reality. Tell him I sent you.

He tells me he’s up for short or long term commitments. He’s a particular affinity for startups but he’s consulted to the best of the Fortune 500 and. He won’t tell you about it himself because of various commitments but he’s regularly put on a plane and flown to HQs across the globe to sort out multinational technical screw-ups.

Thus, if you need a technical action man, Dan is he. He’s relatively available for new projects at the moment.

Here’s the piece I asked him to write:

- – - – -

I eat, sleep and dream telecoms. I’m a serial entrepreneur having founded several innovative startups in the mobile and telecom spaces.

Before becoming an entrepreneur I spent a decade gaining technical experience in carrier environments, designing, building and supporting their complex infrastructures. I have also provided telecoms (mobile and fixed-line) consultancy to several large philanthropic organisations. Some of my personal projects such as my RFID implant and emergency SMS gateway have been covered by mainstream press (NYT, WSJ, BBC etc).

As a founder I’ve spent my recent years coming up with and refining telecoms and mobile product ideas, building a team and working with them to bring those ideas to market.

Howler Technologies, my current startup, has built an amazing piece of telecoms infrastructure based on the IBM Cell/BE processor. In many ways working with such cutting edge software and hardware is very exciting but I’m more passionate about creating products that people rave about and that’s difficult in the infrastructure market. Howler has a great management team running it now so I’ve stepped away to move back into working with consumer-oriented mobile technology and/or services.

My expertise and experience covers an absolutely massive range of topics on both business and technical levels centered around telecoms, mobile, web and the internet.

Ideally I’m looking for a role in research and development, product development or perhaps an advisory role working on something innovative and fresh. If you think I might be of use to your company do feel free to give me a call (+44 20 7099 7097) or send me an E-Mail – (dan.lane@mobileindustryreview.com).

(oh, there is also that little mobile phone show I do with Ewan, Ben and James on the Internet Telly

- – - – -

Nice one Dan. Thanks for writing.

Snap him up!

One thing that I love most about Twitter is its openness. Anyone can tweet, anyone can follow, and everyone (whether or not you know them properly or not) can engage in some sort of conversation (mind you, Ewan wouldn’t totally agree on that point).

But it’s the openness that Twitter has that amazes me the most. Whist I don’t have nor aim to have hundreds of followers, those few that I do have are very insightful. Just having a platform that requires no time or dedication such as Facebook does for instance, Twitter is simple. It’s easy, fun and you can converse with anyone for as long or short as you so choose.

However, other than people who I know purely online (such as many MIR readers), there is not a single person who I am either following or being followed by who falls into the category of either “Friends” or “Family”… Not one.

This doesn’t surprise me, as actually many of my actual friends only became truly aware of what it is that I am doing when I am constantly texting Twitter all the time when Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry had a fairly notable conversation on the television.

Now I could say “Oh, well Twitter needs to change that! More young people the better!” but actually I disagree.

I love Twitter. I like the way it is now, I like the majority of the people who use it, and I think it’s a brilliant place just to sit back and watch. I don’t want it spoiled with constant streams of “Lol”, “LMAO” and all of the other acronyms that I don’t know the meaning of.

And this will happen if Twitter continues to get the recognition through its “Celeb Users” such as Mr. Fry or Jonathan; it will hit the same spiral of slowing decay that has hit Myspace, Bebo and even Facebook over the recent years. And as much as I hate to say it, it’s the teens that do it!

I mean can you imagine it, a surge of “Twitter Whores”, creating endless chains of “followers”, all of whom are about fifteen years old, and look somewhat odd in their display picture.

I hate to sound like an “old fart”, but I cannot stand this thought; and I bet I won’t be the only one either!

That’s why I think it should be preserved. Whilst it should be able to grow and become better, and improve, should that happen at such a cost to all of us who actually enjoy and utilise the platform?

Samantha
samantha@mobileindustryreview.com

He’s really deeply unimpressed:

But before you’re tempted to drop this particular neologism into your zeitgeisty telecoms discourse, just stop for a moment and listen to yourself. This must surely be one of the ugliest words not yet to enter our language. I am not alone in my unease.

Let’s begin with the sound it makes, from the drawn out drone of the “nor” to the lumpen ending “ob” and with little to improve matters in between. Just to hear this word is an aural assault, like travelling on a defective Tube train.

He’s even done a wicked diagram in his post highlighting the failings of the term.

What to do?

Well Matt has a radical suggestion:

What to use instead, you may ask. Well if you need to make a general point about normal mobile users, given that there are now getting on for 4 billion of them, I have a suggestion. It’s a simple term, one of the 159 highest frequency English words taught to Year 1 primary pupils, no less. It’s a human term, and it carries no baggage. For “normob”, just say “people”.

I understand and recognise your perspective Matt.

The challenge I’ve got in regular conversation with other mobilistas is that if you say ‘People like Nokias’ or ‘People can’t use Nokia UI’ or ‘A person wouldn’t get that function’ — you typically get skewered because you’ve made a sweeping statement about the whole planet.

I needed a term that described your man-on-the-street or 55-year-old-mother-of-three. Robert Scoble is NOT a normob. He’ll take the time to sit down and play around with a Nokia N95 and work out how to use QIK on it. My mother, on the other hand, IS a normob. She does not care how her device works. She just wants to make a call, send a text… and (until she got her iPhone) little else. The ability to make a quick distinction with the term ‘normob’ is really, really useful to me.

I used to say ‘normal mobile users’. That got a bit too much of a mouthful. So I knocked the words together.

Normob, … yeah… I do see what you mean.

But I think it still has a place in mobile centric conversations when you’re trying to differentiate between those who care — the first-movers — and the followers, the people who just want it to work.

‘People’ just doesn’t cut it!

What do you think? Any other suggestions for a replacement for the term ‘normob’ (and Promob, while we’re at it)

Here’s the first one he answered:

Q. Who is Stephen Fry?
A. A man trying to get through life without hurting or being hurt. Failing, but trying. For further information, ask AQA.
A. A man trying to get through life without hurting or being hurt. Failing, but trying. For further information, ask AQA.

Check out the rest here.

However, I was watching the news the other day, I think it was CNN or Sky or something, and I was half-heartedly listening; and suddenly something occurred to me about what I was seeing. The old usual reports of a foreign reporter standing with bullet-proof jacket, and some Army guys standing around them are slowly withering away…

And why is that?

Technology!

It was fascinating what it was that I saw, a man had been able to get in touch with a child over in Gaza over the internet, and was having a webcam conversation with them; and through this conversation came a live-feed, and first hand account of what is happening, without the need of invasive, and sometimes misleading (or dare I say biased) news reporters merely saying what they see.

Now this has all come about because of mobile telecommunications, and it’s only ever going to improve with better telecommunications.

What made me smile, and what made me happy is to think with the power of what this industry does, and what some other industries provide, we as a global population may some day have enough power to really create our own media – say a full scale “YouTube Revolution”.

Imagine that! And it all being down to a bit of technology.

Even more amazing than a Media Revolution, would be providing people like those in Gaza with no way to voice what it is that is happening in Gaza, with no means of communicating with the rest of the world what is happening; would be to be able to have an even better communication where civilians caught up in Political affairs such as this, can really communicate to the outside world what it is that needs to be done; and for us to be able to offer hope back to them.

And it’s things like the $100 laptop, working to improve efficiency and output of global communications, and developing new and exciting technology which can achieve this.

What’s more, is that it doesn’t have to end there. On Skype already you’ll see quite a few people trying to find ways to learn new languages via the internet, and others happily teaching in order to learn themselves. Well, why couldn’t that happen more?

“International Online Classrooms” -  I can see it now; the students would be embracing whatever technology they can get their hands on, be it the latest high-speed connectivity handheld phone, or an ultra-powerful Notebook with high-speed wireless internet, and maybe the odd person or two on their desktop… But it could happen, and there is no reason why it shouldn’t!

Maybe I am being am being tad optimistic, but I don’t like starting a new year with pessimism. But I’m also a realist by heart and by nature; I seldom overindulge in beliefs of the impossible, and I don’t believe anything that I have mentioned is impossible; and I’m pretty sure that there are more people out there could find even more better and plausible ideas than mine.

Well, a lot can change in a year, so let’s see what happens!

Samantha.
Samantha@mobileindustryreview.com

My Mum gets Carphone Warehouse letters in the post; and the other day I arrived home from School, seeking out any interesting post for myself, when I came across a little Christmas brochure. I expected to see the usual mix of non-interesting and far-fetched mobiles, which have very limited appeal to someone who is as indecisive as I.

Then I came across the LG Cookie.

I’m not an LG fan by any means, yes their phones are nice, and I have to say although I appreciate the minor attempts at creativity with their naming processes; previous experiences of LG’s have taught me that they’re not my cup of tea. Should I mention I’m not a fan of their interfaces, or just generally how they work and feel?

However, the Cookie did catch my eye! It looks nice, it’ll be a new experience, it’s a touch-screen (another learning curve), and also the ability to use an on screen QWERTY keyboard, and importantly its price.

I don’t know what to do.

Now this could just be a sporadic urge to go and spend money, and get something just because I’ve seen it, and I like the price; but then I think… LG. An interface I know I won’t like, and will struggle to get grips with, and I fear I’ll see all the flaws in my purchase just after I’ve broken that “unbreakable seal” on the box.

It’s hopeless! I do this with every wonderful find I come across, and I deliberate an item and a possible purchase so much that it either becomes outdated and therefore useless, or I decide I don’t like it although secretly still wanting it, or I’ll find something else to admire and want.

I know for one, I can’t be the only person who does this; and I know for one that it’s probably a good safety precaution my mind has implemented to stop such impulse buying – a trait I really try to avoid at all costs.

Now I wonder, why is it I find mobiles such as the Cookie, and previously before it the LG KS360 before that, and there was also a Sony mobile before that too; why is it I loose interest, and forget about it, and then find some other mobile-crush?

Could it just be that no matter how lovely one major aspect or feature of a phone is say, it’s price, a new built in gadget or a sleek, slender design; it really isn’t enough to make a mobile good, or at-least good enough to buy.

What I’m beginning to see is that mobiles tend to be about one major factor, be it its connectivity, a particular design focus, a built in application, the camera, the media, the price, or its “technological achievements”.  I don’t want just one particularly above average feature as reason to invest in a mobile; I want a device that has equally good features which aren’t just surfing above the acceptable quality in phone.

So my next mobile-crush won’t be on a weak whim, a spur-of-the moment encounter, it’ll be something which offers more than one better than alright feature, and something I won’t fall out of love with.

Feel free to e-mail me anything at Samantha@mobileindustryreview.com

But it turns out my aimless journeys around my over-crowded school can come in handy… And I came across a poster of major intrigue!

I love mobile services which are useful. Finding services, and then realising whether or not they are useful or not is what I like doing; mainly because it is rare that I will find something that has use far beyond making a company or un-named person a lot of money.

So when I found this poster, I was intrigued.

I doubt I’ll need to remind or inform anyone of the current issues with “Knife Crime” especially in London and Schools. And as a teenager myself I monitor the news locally and nationally to see what is happening. I often find that the government and their pleas to stop knife crime are only just pleas. Having Gordon Brown or any MP for that matter, talking about a subject to do with young people, doesn’t reach many people.

I hear you ask, what about this intriguing poster?

It’s advertising an “anonymous” texting service which can be used to inform the Police about people or persons with Knives.

I think this goes above and beyond what Gordon Brown, the Police Chiefs and the number of other people or institutions have said or done recently. It’s all too easy to say, “We need to get knives off of the street” and that we as citizens – of whatever age – should be doing our best to prevent deaths on the street.

I’ll admit, when I was in lower school I knew of someone who carried a knife, or at least a blade of some nature. There was nothing I could do about it, because I knew the consequence of phoning up the police – getting the boy, and specifically his group of cronies onto me – so I didn’t do it. And I know also many other people were highly aware of the issue too, and as far as I know, no one ever phoned up the police.

And why was that?
The Police come into school, sit you down, talk to you, make an issue of it, and highlight that you’ve highlighted an issue, and therefore it all backfires on you!

The beauty of this service is the anonymity that comes along with it. On the poster we’re told that the number is scrambled, and therefore can’t be traced so no one can reply, and whatever happens as a consequence, the texter cannot be held accountable for it.

That’s what I call brilliant.

What I like more about this service is that it’s gone a bit beyond a poster campaign, and little business-type cards are being handed out to all the lower years. Admittedly, I stole borrowed one of these cards (for research purposes, naturally).

This is what our Government should be doing, what they should be talking about and implementing. And if such a service had been in place say three or four years ago when I was a little Year Eight or Year Nine, when I was thinking “Oh bugger, that boy has a knife”, I certainly would have sent a text.

So I have to applaud the common-sense which has finally kicked in, and I hope that someone uses it.

Any questions, comments, suggestions or anything as usual send them to Samantha@mobileindustryreview.com.

It has however hit me; I’m beginning to actually resent my mobile phone. As in, I actually don’t like it anymore.

I don’t mean I don’t like my outdated W810i; I’m actually rather fond of the device. It’s certainly better than most things I’ve come across on my bi-weekly visits to the town centre.  No, I actually don’t like the idea (at least for the moment) of being constantly in touch with the world, or at least my friends all the time.

Last week I was on Half-Term. A pleasant one week break from the mountainous piles of work I have to complete, and everything else that goes along with the joys of A Levels. One would expect I would be embracing the free time, and trying as much as possible to get in contact with all my friends…

I haven’t.

In fact, for the entire week my mobile phone was on silent. Now, I have my mobile on twenty-four seven. I actually cannot recall a day when my mobile has been turned off… It just doesn’t happen. This week though, I’ve become rather lax. I keep leaving my phone away from me (which never happens), and I actually try putting off looking at the device.

Now obviously, this could be due to a number of things; but I’ve come to the conclusion now, that I don’t actually want people being able to contact me all the time; and if they do, I don’t want to know about it.

Now this is an argument my Grandparents used against during the populisation of mobiles; “Why on earth would you want people to contact you when and wherever you are!?!” And to me it was as simple as, well, it’s useful for emergencies, and you never know what good can come out of it.

Could this be a phase? Certainly, and I no doubt expect to falling back in love with my mobile, and the joys of constant communication fairly quickly.

The point though, I’ve come to realise how intrusive it is. I’ve pointed out before the annoyances I’ve found with mobile phones in Public Places, and how I found them highly intrusive. But what about our personal lives?

Last week for example, I had fallen asleep rather early for half-term week (I think around quarter to ten). I woke up an hour later; after I found the DVD I had been watching had restarted its self. So I got up, turned it off, got properly ready for bed, and glanced at my phone quickly. “SMS Received From: [name of friend] Read now?”

Now, had my mobile been on its usual “loud” setting, I would have had my very nice piece of Classical Music alerting me out of my sleep informing me of said message. I would have had my sleep disrupted by a text message! Not good.

I can recall a number of similar instances too… Sunday Dinner, and suddenly that ringtone; and blowing candles out on a birthday cake… Ahh, that ringtone again! Plus there are many, many more occasions where this has happened.

So do I resent my mobile?
Well, if anything, I’ve come to realise how intrusive and how bloody annoying the damn thing can be. It’s a sleep disturber; it’s an invited “guest” to special occasions, and just another way in which personal space can be invaded.

Then again, I love my mobile. It goes everywhere with me. It provides me the means to update Facebook wherever I am; to inform my Mum of after school-sessions of Chemistry I am attending. It enables me to contact friends for social gatherings, and family for when they need me.

Maybe I should just try turning my phone off once in a while? Yes, I could… But I don’t see it happening any time soon.

Saying that though, I wonder how well I would go trying going “Mobile-less” for a week? I reckon I could handle it… Maybe.

Do you think you hold any resent towards your mobile? Or, do you find it too intrusive on your personal life?

Once again, if you would like to e-mail me about anything, send them to Samantha@mobileindustryreview.com

Apparently, everyone’s up celebrating Bond week. With Quantum of Solace out this week, one of the partners of the movie, Sony Ericsson has just launched a Microsite celebrating the spirit of the movie and, obviously, promoting their phones.

Check out the site, it has a nice bond theme.

I was browsing around my daily choice of news reads, when I came across an article where a simple SMS message is being used to highlighting the need to have HIV tests in Africa. I think it’s brilliant. It’s short, snappy, and highlighting a point, and trying to induce change with it.

So why then, doesn’t this happen here in the UK?

Now, I’ll tell you, I think it was around a week ago now I received a letter in the post informing me of the free Chlamydia tests I can have.  It’s a brilliant service, and I have to praise my local Primary Care Trust for providing it, and for the notice about it.  But do you know what would be better?

Tell me via the methods of communications I use most. And by that I mean E-mail and SMS.

I admit, I always check I have post, and I do write the odd letter (usually a complaint though), but I do use the “snail-mail” system. But, it’s not engaging, it’s not relevant, and it’s certainly not in touch with the speed of information transfer and communication I’m used to.

Whenever I speak to someone my age, it’s never “Oh, I got this is in the post this morning…” it’s “I got an e-mail a minute ago about…” and “Look at the text I just received!”. The old system of postal mail, I love it, it’s quaint and good to use occasionally, but it’s not good for informing me about a free Chlamydia test I can have.

What would have been brilliant would be a nicely worded (although not txt spk msg) with a link to a free WAP site. If that’s too much to ask for then maybe a service where I could text back my door number and post code to receive more information in the post, or maybe even a test pack.

This really isn’t rocket science, and nor is this asking too much. The most common methods of communication for young people (and probably, most people now), is via our phones. Not to mention, the effort required to get a reply is next to nothing, compared to the mini-form I would have to fill out, then the bother of finding an envelope.  And, with what is it, one in fifteen or ten people getting Chlamydia now, wouldn’t it only just make sense to target me, and all my peers using this method?

Obviously, there is an issue as to how, say my local Primary Care Trust would get hold of my mobile number, and then issues with data-storage and privacy – then again, I was slightly shocked at how information I’ve given to my GP has riddled its way into a mail-merging system.  But, if there was a way in which this system could work, then SMS could be used and become part of the greater-good.

But even say if Mobile Networks became obliged to send out such messages to all people aged nineteen or below, then this system would work brilliantly.

Food for though I think, and I would like to see something developed in the near future which maybe utilised the powers of SMS and even MMS more.

Any ideas, questions, thoughts or suggestions please e-mail them to me at Samantha@mobileindustryreview.com

The country added almost 10 million new mobile subscribers last month, taking the total figure to 310.62 million. Now, if my maths knowledge serves me right, that’s about 4 new subscribers every single second. However, the penetration rate still lags at 27.5%, leaving out enough room for further growth.

The country’s market is large dominated by the GSM technology, contributing about 75.2% of the total subscriber base. 7.65 million new GSM subscribers were added last month while the CDMA base contributing 2.34 million.

Bharti Airtel continued to be the country’s largest cellular operator, adding 2.7 million subscribers out of the 9.9 million. Vodafone, which ranks third added 1.86 million subscribers. Airtel currently services 77.48 million subscribers in the country, while its closest rival, Reliance Communications serves about 56 million.

It would be interesting to take a look at the market share for the mobile handsets and the manufacturers that carry these new subscribers.

[Via Cellular-News, Photo: Sirensongs]

I’m asking, what has been your favourite mobile phone, you have owned, ever!

I’ll start with mine. Now for me, this is an incredibly tough choice, it’s between the Nokia 3310, and the Nokia 3200! (Not exactly high-fliers, but allow me to explain).

The 3310 was my second mobile (2003), a replacement for my Sagem MC3000 that died on New Year (at twelve o’clock, which was a little scary). I hopped off down to Woolworths, and invested I think £60/£80 (I forget exactly) on the 3310.

Not only has this phone got to be the most difficult to break (I’ve thrown, sat on, dropped, spilt drinks over, run over mine quite a few times), but it also came with some of the most majestic ringtones ever (which I played whilst having dinner in Croydon Park Hotel once, not a good idea mind you), and the best game ever… Snake!

What I loved most about this phone was not only it’s simplicity, highly annoying but brilliant ringtones, and the game we all got addicted too, but just the pure awesomeness it had. It was revolutionary at the time, and its fascia customisability was brilliant. I bought quite a few myself, and new buttons (although the originals were the best).

Then in 2005 (January the eleventh to be exact), I bought my fifth or sixth mobile; the Nokia 3200. Now I was stepping into the world; my first camera phone and my first phone that had “Polyphonic Ringtones”.  This set me back, £80 with £10 free “airtime” as Virgin called it.

From what I remember many people hated the device, the buttons were odd (which I loved, and can text better on today, than on any other device), the camera was rubbish (but what did I care), and I was able to ruin the look of my phone by making paper templates to stick in the clear cover.

The 3200 had the features that the 3310 couldn’t aspire to yet; a Radio, a torch, the camera, voice recording, and a colour screen!

Nokia proved them-selves on durability with this phone, more so than any other. At this time in my life I spent the majority of my time falling off of my BMX, being completely clumsy, and still throwing things about. And it still worked perfectly (despite the aging battery) until September 2007.

It’s not only the devices I love, but the memories associated with them. The voice-recording feature on the 3200 was brilliant for recording dodgy singing or peoples snoring; and the 3310 – day long battles with friends, competing to get the highest score on Snake. (Mind you, I was eleven!)

I could ramble on endlessly about the brilliance of both of these devices (which I would be more than happy to use today). Which brings me to you!

What is your favourite mobile device you have ever owned? It can be one you have now, or one you had ten years ago; whatever it is, tell me what it is. I wonder how many of us consider our current devices our absolute favourites!

Any questions, or anything send me an e-mail at Samantha@mobileindustryreview.com and I’ll get back to you!

Let the memories commence!

For just ten pounds per month, users will be entitled to unlimited free evening and weekend texts. Obviously this will be in-accordance to a Fair Use Policy of some nature, but brilliant nonetheless.

Still not happy?
Well topping up thirty pounds a month entitles you to unlimited free texts anytime!

I’ve never taken Vodafone into consideration for anything really, but I have to say, I’m rethinking my plans to join Virgin Mobile. I’m not an avid text’er, but for ten pounds, I can’t go wrong can I?

In addition to this, new and existing Voda-customers will see the peak call price drop ten pence, to 20p.

That’s what I like to hear!

I have to say, in recent weeks all I’ve been reading about Vodafone is good (other than some price changes which weren’t that brilliant), but even so… They definitely seem like the people to go to for customer service, and reliability.