My iPhone 15 Pro Max SLi Ultra Ghia Plus strategy

So there's a new iPhone about to...

Microsoft Surface Duo: Insert lament post here

I was reading Ron Amaedo’s post on...

MWC: What we have learned today

Despite being an ‘exhibition’, Mobile World Congress is a terrible place for firms to actually do any real communicating – to customers, partners or media.  It’s even worse if you hope to actually gather any information.  As a venue Fira is nothing short of incredible – perched on the hill-side overlooking Barcelona a small mobile industry town has sprung up… There’s a Nokia stand the size of my ‘apartment’ (well, several stands), a TV studio, a whole T-Mobile marquee and restaurants by the dozen all with super-bright lighting for the many cameras.  Plenty of dazzle, but the aim of most companies seems merely to be to physically hand-over or read-out (in a press conferences) as much information as possible. It’s nearly impossible to consume and often fairly soul-less.  Of course, the seasoned journos and bloggers know this and seek out face-to-face briefings, but it’s confusing that so many companies are investing (obviously substantial) amounts in making announcements and publicising their products.

But it’s far from a dead-loss… the real value of these events is the unplanned meetings.  Like Andrea, the Italian industry analyst, we met this morning whilst marching around Barcelona’s marina event in search of a Nokia event.  Fresh back from Rome, I still couldn’t understand why there was so muh talk of mobile TV (DVB-H) from Italy, but little evidence of any real usage.  Andrea assured us we should believe our eyes – Vodafone and TIM were leaving their mobile TV offering to go stale… un-marketed and un-loved.  Three, although more actively pushing the service (as we witnessed in their stores) was struggling financially.  The official subscriber numbers, he said, were misleading – they represent customers receiving free access to mobile TV services as part of a subscription, not a source of additional revenue for the operators.

And so, in 5 minutes, more useful information than all of the heavily scripted and stage-managed Microsoft event that followed… Perhaps we should scrap all our briefings and hang round the bar a bit more… Hmmmm….

Recently Published

Why you need GadgetsOman (or similar) in your life

About four days ago I got a familiar WhatsApp message from the team at GadgetsOman. It was just a day or so after the...

My iPhone 15 Pro Max SLi Ultra Ghia Plus strategy

So there's a new iPhone about to launch. It's not that different from the one I've already got (iPhone 14 Pro Max). The camera is slightly...

Microsoft Surface Duo: Insert lament post here

I was reading Ron Amaedo’s post on ArsTechnica earlier today about the ending of software upgrade support for the first edition of the Microsoft...

“Apple will only sell 100,000 of their headsets in the first year” Really?

BGR reports a TrendForce estimate that Apple will sell 100k units of their new headset when released and says “but that’s still a big...

The BlackBerry Movie: Worth a look, but it’s heavy on fiction

I went to see the BlackBerry movie last night here in Dubai. I was astonished to find the movie theatre almost full, apart from...

Question: When is the only time a traffic jam is good news in the UK?

Answer: When you're sitting in the back of an Uber and you need reliable mobile signal. Boom! Sad, isn't it, dear reader? Travel all around...