Nokia predicts weaker world market for mobile phones

Nokia is predicting bigger downturn in worldwide mobile phone market than it predicted in the fourth quarter and was expecting further fall in 2009.

Nokia is forecasting sale of 1.24 billion phones worldwide, which was previously estimated to be 1.26 billion. It said that hand set market and overall telecom equipment sales were expected to go down next year.

Nokia’s shares fell 7% to 9.56 euros, lowest since August 2004. According to Global Crown Capitals’ analyst Tero Kuittinen, this is a warning which has coincided with marked deterioration in the demand for consumer electronics.

Nokia, in its statement, claimed that slowdown in global economy accompanied by the currency volatility contributed to sharp decline in global consumer spending. The euro zone is now under recession and the economic growth has sharply slowed down around the world.

According to Nokia’s estimates, mobile device volumes of the industry for the fourth quarter would be 330 million, much below 346 million market forecast reported in Reuters’ poll this month.

The world’s leading phone maker is however expecting that its market share would remain at the same level in the fourth quarter or go marginally up compared with third quarter, but felt that sales and profitability are likely to suffer.

Orange to discontinue use of Phorm for sake of customer privacy

Orange, the popular mobile operator and broadband provider, is set to discontinue using ISP-hosted Phorm advertising system.

Orange said that it did not want customers to feel that their privacy was being compromised with the use of Phorm’s services.

The statement released by Orange mentioned that it was very close to its customers who trusted Orange for their personal information. It was company’s policy to make it very clear to its customers how the data could be used without any compromise on privacy. It further added that new ways of data use would be found to provide value to advertisers and customers alike.

Though Orange discontinued Phorm’s services on privacy grounds, it still uses targeted behavioural advertising from Revenue Science and web-analysis services by Hitwise, which also serve Phorm. According to Orange’s vice president, Paul-Francois, company was using their services to analyse its website traffic.

Paul informed that Phorm was discontinued because it was using very large access data from customer through telecoms data model, which Orange was not comfortable with, as a responsible network provider, to allow use of non-web-based data without customer consent.

Phorm denied that customer privacy was being compromised by its services and claimed that it was much better than other service providers. Its spokesperson insisted that no personal data was ever stored by the company.

However privacy campaigners have been attacking Phorm over perceived breach of customer privacy for long.

T-Mobile’s Android phones on sale in UK stores

T-Mobile’s G1 phones, which operate on Google’s Android platform, are being sold throughout the UK from Thursday.

HTC’s Dream handset rebranded as G1 is designed with touchscreen functions and a Qwetry keyboard. Its open-source Google Android platform is a mobile stack with applications and operating system.

G1 has provided access to the Android Market where customers can get and download mashups and phone applications. Developers are given freedom to develop their own programmes for the Android platform which can be uploaded to the Android Market to earn 70% revenue for their software.

Daniel Meredith, UK head of handset and device marketing at T-Mobile, described G1’s launch as incredibly exciting. He commented that it was a step forward change where T-Mobile was going as an industry. Android opened up communication on a truly open platform and Android community would deliver exemplary services and application, Daniel added.

He informed that developers would get feedback from users about applications in forums and through rating and ranking software.

Apart from T-Mobile shops and call centres, G1 will be available on Carphone Warehouses and for order on T-Mobile’s UK website.

The handset is offered in 2 packages for individual users. Combi, at £40 per month with voice calls of 800 minutes and unlimited texts and internet browsing. Flext package for £40 per month with unlimited internet browsing, 1250 minutes of voice calls and 2500 texts. It will also be offering business package in due course.

Intel apologises for comments on iPhone and ARM processor

Chip maker Intel has tendered its apologies to Apple and ARM for comments by its executives on inadequacies of Apple’s iPhone and ARM processor which drives iPhone.

Intel vice president of mobility group, Shane Wall, while addressing company’s developer forum had passed objectionable remarks on iPhone’s performance. He had said that the iPhone struggles when any sort of application required horse power at all.

Another executive Pankaj Kedia, director ecosystems ultra mobility group, had blamed ARM processor for lack of speed with the iPhone. He had commented that the iPhone shortcomings were due to ARM and not because of Apple.

Intel’s senior vice president, Anand Chandrashekhar, released a note making correction of executive’s words, stating that Intel’s Atom processor had not been able to match characteristics of battery-life of ARM processors for the size of a phone.

Anand further added that although Intel had plans to become competitive in ultra-low-power books, it had not reached the target as yet. He remarked that Apple’s iPhone was extremely innovative product which opened up exciting market opportunities.

Anand admitted that Intel executives’ comments were inappropriate and they should have refrained from commenting on specific customer designs.

Apple had not hesitated in giving the cold shoulder to Intel in the past by announcing this month that it’s MacBook and MacBook Air would incorporate Nvidia graphics in place of Intel’s integrated graphics which Apple had used in older models.

UK mobile operators persuading customers not to upgrade handsets

The UK customers approaching end of their contracts are being persuaded by some mobile operators not to upgrade their handsets.

The customers, in lieu of an upgrade, are being offered discounts on their monthly tariffs. The strategy is evolved at a time when customers are feeling pinch of severe credit crunch in the current financial quarter. The operators will not be required to spend as much money on new handsets or business gifts, which are normally given to customers either free or at minimal cost in return for continuing with the network,

According to O2’s head of consumer post-pay acquisition, Jonathan Earle, customers who were happy with the existing handsets would be willing to accept tariff discount offer to save money. He added, effective last Monday, O2 customers were being given choice of postponing handset upgrade to January 2009. On doing so they were entitled to a discount of £15-a-month on their subscription. The offer would be reviewed in January 2009.

T-Mobile is also adopting similar approach for renewal of contracts. According to one of its spokespersons, T-Mobile was reviewing its customer-retention programme to offer significant savings in renewal of contract through free business gifts, such as loyalty bonuses and airtime discounts. He added that customers would welcome company’s offer which gave them opportunity for savings on monthly bills.

According to telecom analyst Dean Bubley, in the past, with a lot of cash in hand customers were prepared to switch over to other operator if they did not get an upgrade. Now the operators were cashing in on customers’ desire to save money.

BlackBerrry smartphone “Storm” was initiated by Vodafone, confirms RIM

RIM has announced its touchscreen smartphone “Storm” and disclosed that it was initiated by Vodafone. Hoping to ’storm’ the consumer market is the reason they decided to name the advanced gadget as they did.

Vodafone’s Jens Schulte-Bockum, global director of terminals and RIM co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis were in London last week to show off the smartphone.

Vodafone had invited Lazaridis last summer and sought a breakthrough innovation from him to reposition RIM into the heart of consumer space.

The BlackBerry maker was under tremendous pressure to provide something unique to excel in a densely crowded high-end mobile market after the launch of Apple’s iPhone, which replaced the keyboard with touchscreen that transformed public perception of smartphone and fuelled a nascent market.

Lizaridis explained that with Storm, RIM took a multitouch capacitive touchscreen; put it underneath a second sub-system which enabled clicking the device no matter where you pressed. The Storm has subtle movement and an interesting suspension system which allows clicking by pressing at any place.

Lizaridis added that if you watched somebody using Storm, not seeing the front display, it would look as if tat person was typing on a keyboard.

Apart from touchscreen the HSDPA Storm has all the bells and whistles included, such as a 3.2-megapixel camera, high resolution video playback screen, GPS and MP3 player. Although despite all these great functions, some mobile phone users still prefer simpler phones, such as the Nokia 6500 Slide.

Storm, to be launched in time for Christmas, will be exclusive to Vodafone’s UK network. It is likely to be made free with a £35 tariff per month, if consumers opt for 2 years’ contract.

Studying the shoppers’ mindset via a mobile device

UK firm Path Intelligence has found out that the longer customers spend time in shops, the more they spend. Not a shock finding, but the technology employed behind it has an array of other uses. The wireless system draws an anonymous identifier, which mobile phones transmit to track their movements. The method will be very useful for research, and improving services in various environs and situations.

For their first ever commercial project, the firm studied the shoppers in a shopping centre and analysed their movements to decide the paths, which they took and how long they spent in the centre as a whole.

“The real problem area is that it has been hard to quantitatively analyse this,” states the company’s chief executive, Toby Oliver. “People say, I think this is the case, but what we are able to do is put some numbers behind the behavioural effects.”

Mobiles are given a anonymous number temporarily by the network termed a mobile subscriber identity (TMSI) that the phone transmits to advise of its location periodically. As the mobile moves through the various regions that are served by different base stations, the number changes.

Weakening global economy likely to affect Nokia’s market-share

Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, is compelled to lower its 3rd quarter market-share outlook due to worsening of global economy. The company has been the strongest leader of mobile-handset market for  many years. Its executives were confident of retaining a market-share of 40%, which it achieved in the last quarter. But they now predict it would slip slightly in the third quarter due to a worsening global economy. The executives also blamed company’s reluctance in taking on the competitors for price war, for the shift in their expectations. Though the company is expecting 10% rise in sales this year, executives are worried over falling prices and declining consumer confidence.

Nokia has plans to launch several new handsets during the quarter, but is currently facing slowdown in sales of mid-range products. There are companies other than Nokia sailing in the same boat. Samsung Electronics also reported slowing down of its sales in the second quarter due to weakening economy.

According to NPD Group, sales in the US market were down by 13% in the second quarter. Though Nokia does not enjoy higher market share in the US, downturn in its sales in developed regions such as Japan, Asia and Europe would impact the company adversely. Nokia would be looking at the developing markets for growth.

Vodafone increasing shops and staff to improve customer service

Vodafone wants to improve its face-to-face customer service by adding 50 shops and 200 extra staff to its existing strength of 500 in the next 12 months. Vodafone already has a 350-strong retail network in the UK.

The first new shops will arrive in London, Bristol and Liverpool this autumn. The remaining shops would be opened in spring 2009.

Vodafone’s director of consumer sales UK, Tom Devine, informs that the company is trying to deliver its best services by enabling face to face dialogue between existing and prospective customers with a retail adviser, closest to their location.

Vodafone has initiated this multi-million pound expansion at a time when its revenues are dwindling due to the decline in consumer spending.

According to analyst James Barford at Enders Analysis, it is worth noting that although the rate is slow, Vodafone is still pushing for growth in the market, which is not the case with most other markets. It is offering cheaper tariffs and rolling out new outlets to remain in competition with its rivals.
Vodafone has the highest number of customers in the government and corporate sector; a push in the consumer market is the right option for its further growth.

It is less costly for a large mobile phone company to expand its network and the gains in terms of brand awareness and customer proximity are significant. According to Barford, Vodafone saves on commission if the customer goes to its shop directly, instead of purchasing through Carphone Warehouse.

Gartner declares Apple’s iPhone 3G fit for business use

Analyst house, Gartner, has cleared Apple’s iPhone 3G smartphone for business use with a caution, that adoption should be gradual. It reported some inconveniences, such as the relatively poor performance of the iPhone battery and its link with Apple’s own iTunes.

The firmware for iPhone 3G was launched worldwide last month on completion of hardware testing, Gartner certified that Apple has incorporated promised improvements, with a note that organisations would have to develop strategies to support its application.

In its report titled “iPhone 2.0 is ready for the Enterprise, but Caveats Apply”, the analyst declared that iPhone has met the minimum requirements and could support business applications such as email, voice mail, browsing and personal-information manager.

Users of Microsoft Exchange can use iPhone, but those of other mail services like Lotus Notes will have to employ Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). Many users not utilising Exchange, including Associated Newspaper, would not adopt iPhones owing to lack of Lotus support.

Gartner cautions that organisations that intend to use iPhone as a business tool would risk lowering their security footprint. To avoid the risk, organisations will have to limit access of employees to the browsers.

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