Mobile Choice Blog

Japanese people love the mobile internet

Everyone assumes that Japan is lightyears ahead of the West when it comes to mobile phones, even if the gap's narrower than it used to be. But new statistics released by analysis firm ComScore appear to bear out the theory that Japanese mobile users are more advanced than us Europeans.

The research claims that in June this year, almost as many people accessed the internet via a mobile device there as through a work or home PC (the exact figures are 53.6 million and 53.7 million respectively). The same report reveals that Japanese mobile users spend on average 8.1 hours a month surfing on their phones. 8.1 hours!

Meanwhile, 80% of Japanese people have taken a photo using their mobile, while 40% have used their hanset's barcode reader (ah, yes, that's something they are ahead in), while the most popular types of mobile internet usage are (in order): email (75% of users), news/information (52%), and search/navigation (51%).

(via MocoNews)

Nokia 6301 wants to give your home phone the boot

What do we think of UMA? Well, she was good in Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill movies, but she's gone off the boil a bit since. Oh, hang on... No, UMA is nothing to do with Ms Thurman - instead, it's the acronym for Unlicensed Mobile Access technology, which is about combining mobile with Wi-Fi based landlines.

Nokia has just announced its latest UMA phone, the 6301. When you're out and about, it's a normal mobile phone, but when you get back home, it connects to your home Wi-Fi network to act as your landline too. Nokia is working with operators to sell the handset, with Orange already signed up - although we're not sure if that means Orange UK yet.

There's been a lot of talk about mobile phones killing off landlines in the past, but if UMA catches on, that supposed battle will become a moot point. We think one nice touch is that you'll automatically put the phone into a charging dock when getting home, so running out of battery life when out and about should become a thing of the past.

Navizon launches virtual GPS for iPhone using Wi-Fi positioning

The iPhone doesn't have a GPS chip inside for proper satellite navigation, but rumour has it Apple may include the feature in its next-generation iPhone, which is due out next year. However, a new 'virtual GPS' iPhone application from Navizon may prove whether such a feature is much desired by users of Apple's handset.

The application works by calculating your position using cellular signals and Wi-Fi access points, which apparently lets it get your position down to a few hundred feet. That's not good enough for turn-by-turn driving navigation, but fine for pinpointing your local area and serving up maps.

The app has launched in the US, and has a free trial period of two weeks, after which users have to pay $25. If Apple is considering introducing full GPS, they'd be wise to keep an eye on the popularity of Navizon's application.

(via NaviGadget)

Mobile advertising reaches a lucrative audience

There are lots of companies looking to make their fortunes from mobile advertising, but it's still quite early to decide whether they're on the right track. However, a new survey conducted by M:Metrics and AdMob indicates they might be.

According to the survey, 65% of people who respond to ads on AdMob's publisher network are in the 18-34 age bracket that's much coveted by advertisers. The survey also suggested that advertisers can easily target specific types of people, for example by gender or ethnicity, by advertising on certain sites.

In theory, this means more targeted advertising, which won't be seen as intrusive by mobile users, because it'll be more relevant to their interests. However, it's fair to say that the biggest advertisers will need more data than this before they plough serious money into mobile advertising. As we said, it's early days...

(via MobileCrunch)

Top 5 reasons to buy a UK iPhone

The iPhone goes on sale in the UK on 9th November, so should you be digging your wallet out to hand over £269 to Apple and O2? There are plenty of pros and cons to Apple's handset, so we thought we should round them up. Today, it's the five reasons to splash your cash on an iPhone, but don't worry cynics: we'll get to the reasons to hold back tomorrow.

1. The user interface is streets ahead of the competition. There are other touchscreen phones, but their UIs simply don't compare with Apple's super-usable iPhone interface. Navigating between applications, through your songs, and surging websites is seamless.

Orange gives no Christmas cheer to Nokia and Motorola

They might together account for over half of all mobile sales, but it seems Nokia and Motorola have fallen off Orange's Christmas (SIM) card list. The Register has noticed that in Orange's Christmas handset line-up, there aren't any new phones from either manufacturer, despite them being respectively first and third in the phone makers chart.

There's already speculation that Nokia's absence is due to its decision to launch the Nokia Music Store in competition with the operators' own services, but that argument wouldn't apply to Motorola, which has stuck to its guns in making its handsets work with the operator offerings.

It's not great news for either manufacturer, although it's not exactly tip-top for Orange users hoping to upgrade to the latest shiny phone from Nokia or Motorola. It's more evidence of the upcoming battle between operators and manufacturers as the latter try to launch their own mobile services though.

(via The Register)

Patchy EDGE coverage may hamper UK iPhone users

At last, Apple has announced full details of iPhone's launch in the UK. It will only be available on O2, will cost £269 on an 18-month contract, and goes on sale on 9th November (for more details, see the story on the main Mobile Choice website).

At the launch Apple boss Steve Jobs said he wasn't worried about the handset's lack of 3G, because "The EDGE network works really well for most of the iPhone's applications", while surfing the internet using Wi-Fi is faster than 3G, if you're within range of a hotspot.

But there's a catch. According to O2, it will only have rolled out EDGE to 30% of the country by the time the iPhone launches - everywhere else, it'll be surfing at GPRS speeds. That's S-L-O-W if you're viewing full websites through iPhone's Safari browser. Here's hoping O2 provides full details of where you will and won't have EDGE access before taking people's money.

If mobile music really wants to rival iTunes, why not go ad-funded?

The name SpiralFrog won’t mean much to the average UK mobile user. Don’t worry, it’s nothing to do with Jamster. SpiralFrog is a US company that’s just launched a free music downloads service supported by advertising. You get songs from famous bands for free, and the advertisements shown while you download them pays for it.

That’s one trend. Now think about the way mobile companies - operators and handset manufacturers alike - are keen to make mobile music a rival for Apple’s iTunes. All the operators have their own dual-download services, for example, while Nokia is preparing to launch its Nokia Music Store.

Yet it’s clear that for the most part, these mobile music services are copying iTunes. Imagine if they took a lead out of SpiralFrog’s book instead...

When is a Christmas mobile exclusive not an exclusive?

Want a Sony Ericsson W910i music phone this Christmas? You'll have to switch to Vodafone then, as they've bagged the exclusive. Oh, but wait a minute, that's only on the Havana Gold coloured edition. If you want the red W910i, you'll need to go to Orange, who've - you guessed it - bagged the exclusive.

Presumably later this week, O2 will announce that it'll be exclusively selling the khaki-coloured W910i, while T-Mobile will proudly unveil the exclusive cheese-shaded W910i, and 3 will parade its exclusive pigeon-coloured W910i. Possibly.

It's enough to make us wonder: would people actually switch operators in order to get a particular shade of their most coveted mobile phone? And if not, what's the point of all these exclusives? And cheekily, we wonder how many of these handsets will be advertised with a big EXCLUSIVE tag on them, with the implication that, say, the W910i isn't available on any other network.

Thank goodness for higher quality Bluetooth headsets

There's an interesting shift happening in the Bluetooth headset market, with the swelling ranks of cheap devices now being accompanied by an expanding niche of high-end headsets, focusing on features like audio quality.

Take the new Sennheiser VMX 100 for example, which has just been reviewed over on the main Mobile Choice site. It sports two microphones and Digital Signal Processing to ensure unwanted noise gets screened out, so your voice comes through loud and clear.

Poor call quality has been one of the things that's stopped many mobile users from going wireless (well, that and their shame at walking down the road seemingly talking to themselves, of course). The development of headsets like the VMX 100 should help sway some of those refuseniks. Now, if Sennheiser could make an 'I'm Not Mad - I'm Just On The Phone' hat, they might persuade the others...