Sunday 25 February 2007

Mobile mad

At the risk of posting too much mobile news, here's a link to a new Global Mobile report from Netsize and Informa, which demonstrates of the 2.2 million GSM mobile standard subscribers worldwide, growth is strongest in African and Asian markets.

Titled, "Convergence: Everything's going mobile" it includes both up-to-date research and articles from head honchos at Nokia, Google, Vodafone and the like.

Unsurprisingly, China and India lead the pack in GSM and the research shows 3G has failed to take off in Europe, with people buying the phones but not the services. Music on mobiles has proved popular during 2006 with strong download sales but TV 'on-the-go' is where companies are focusing their efforts now.

Mobile growth in the UK is predicted to jump from 69,710 million subscribers in 2006 to 74,485 million this year.

Interestingly, there's a section on machine-to-machine(M2M) computing in the report. Using the Web as a network to transmit data from electrical products with embedded digital sensors, homeowners and businesses will be able to control and monitor machines and appliances remotely from mobile devices. Useful if you've left the lights on at peak time and therefore potentially energy-saving.

Pretty young things


It's not a queue to a rave but the European Young Professionals event which took place at Aura in London last week. Feedback on the networking event's blog said there were more women then men out of the 240 people that attended. The next one's on 14 March at Pangaea in Mayfair, London. One for the diary then.

Wednesday 14 February 2007

Two hours in six seconds

At 3GSM, the world's main 'mobiles of the future' event, taking place this week, Vodafone and Google announced a deal to put maps on mobiles.

The FT reports it here saying that the two companies plan location-based services so that you will be able to type in 'pizza' to your mobile and bring up a map to your nearest restaurant.

The other thing on people's lips at the event is 4G, which promises download speeds to your mobile of a two hour film in six seconds according to The Times. Anyone using 3G yet?

Tuesday 13 February 2007

The hiatus


Sorry about the gap in posts. I've been on holiday and got sick. Morocco is a beautiful country worth visiting but my stomach wouldn't agree. Broadband use amongst the youth is exploding thoroughout the country with groups of kids huddled around computers in most internet cafes. It's unrestricted so it will be interesting to see the Web's cultural impact in a developing Muslim country. International mobile phone charges are extortionate so internet telephony is popular too.