The UK Mobile Report

Nokia 330 Auto Navigation

The Nokia 330 is the firm's first foray into the SatNav market for cars. So, no, its not a phone, but it does play MP3s and videos, and surprise surprise it runs Windows. Good news for buyers currently looking at the likes of TomTom and Dash. Reuters reports that the 330 will be available by year end and cost around £300.

Verdict: Good to see Nokia extending the brand. This will surely help drive SatNav kit prices down.

Plaxo goes mobile

Plaxo, the 'smart address book' service which pools all your contacts onto one shared database, is now offering Plaxo Mobile Plus, a mobile service in the US. Costing $4 per month it synchs with your mobile automatically and allows users to share contacts online and perhaps most importantly if a phone is lost the contacts remain in store on the Plaxo system. Plaxo appears to be growing at a furious rate increasing 50% to 15 million subscribers in only 6 months.

Plaxo will be competing against ZYB, a Denmark-based free mobile contacts backup and sharing service.

Verdict: It makes a lot of sense to pool your contacts on the Web, and the larger the Plaxo subscriber base becomes the more attractive it will be. For security reasons I currently ignore emails asking me to confirm my details on Plaxo, but I may now be tempted to join and reap the benefits - especially if they bring the mobile service over here.

Microsoft to open mobile centre in Prague

Reuters has reported that Microsoft is to open a European Support Centre for mobile technologies in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. The centre will initially have 15 staff and focus on Microsoft's work with network operators and manufacturers.

Virgin gets ITN News

Virgin Mobile is to provide ITN News to its TV-enabled subscribers through a deal with BT Movio. Full story on UK Press Gazette. ITN News is a 24 hour service competing directly with BBC News 24.

Alcatel/Samsung - Analyst view

Nick Green, proposition manager, mobile TV, LogicaCMG Telecoms said: "In certain markets satellite mobile TV could be an attractive alternative to the widely publicised terrestial variants. It remains to be seen whether the planned launch date of 2009 for the full service is soon enough  for the European market with many competitive systems  currently undergoing  trial."

Nick Gregg, CEO of MarketClusters (which tracks mergers, partnerships and acquisitions) said: "The partnership comes at an interesting time for the mobile TV sector as two key questions still haven’t been answered - Will consumers want to watch broadcast video content on their mobile? How will they consume this video - on-demand or live broadcasts?"

"The deal is based on the availability of S-Band which is particularly relevant in the Asian markets. Alcatel and Samsung are likely to see this as a strong opportunity to leverage existing satellite infrastructure and pre-empt the mobile TV market with a one-to-many approach - trying to get ahead of players like Nokia and Qualcomm with the cell-based broadcast approach.

"Today we have seen another similar deal as two satellite operators, SES Global and Eutelsat announcesd a US$165m joint venture investment to commercialise the S-Band capabilities of a satellite to be launched in 2009. We predict more M&A activitity as mobile TV-enabled handsets move toward mass penetration.

"The News Corp acquisition of Jamba in mid-September was in part to gain some exposure to mobile content delivery services - almost the only area in the digital media landscape that it was not present in."

Dunstone lays into Vodafone and Phones4U

There was a seismic shift in the retail market last week when Vodafone announced that it was dumping Carphone Warehouse (CW) and shifting to an exclusive deal for pay as you go contracts with Phones4U.

A few days later CW boss Charles Dunstone gave a fascinating interview on BBC Radio 5. Here are the juiciest quotes:

"It's a reaction from Vodafone in a maturing market to say 'we can only afford to recruit a certain number of customers and it is cheaper for us to do it with one partner rather than many.' I guess its an acknowledgment from them that they don't want to be market leader anymore."

"Carphone Warehouse stands for impariality and we didn't feel we could meet the volume they wanted us to commit to."

"Phones4U have to work out for themselves how they deliver that volume; I can't see how you can do it and still be impartial."

Verdict: The City hit CW shares hard after the announcment and Dunstone is struggling with explaining how he will maintiain the 'impartial advice' branding without offering Vodafone. If as some analysts suspect this is part of Vodafone's ongoing plan to sell more through its own stores then this is a worrying trend for 'impartial' retailers.

Alcatel and Samsung team on satellite TV phones

Alcatel has announced plans to work with Samsung to develop a range of mobile phones capable of receiving satellite TV broadcasts using the Digital Video Broadcast Handheld standard (DVB-H).

According to Continental Research's Autumn Mobile Phone Report, mobile TV has so far only been used by 2% of subscribers with 4% saying they expect to use it. The report also cites current barriers to growth as being small screen size and the patchiness of 3G signals.

Continental concludes with the warning: "It will be important that operators minimise any technical hitches. When both photo messaging and WAP were introduced, early adopters experienced problems. If early adopters of mobile TV have similar experiences, then subsequent poor word-of-mouth will slow the service take-up."

Verdict: Two years ago the mobile industry bombarded buyers with images of people sending pictures to each other. It didn't happen. Now we are getting ads (e.g. Virgin) showing people watching TV on their mobile. The first review I have seen of the Lobster doesn't bode well in terms of user experience. The omens, for now at least, don't look too good. Not many people are prepared to pay for something that comes in below their expectations, but when the technical glitches are ironed out (12-24 months) mobile TV viewing looks set to boom. Satellite delivery meanwhile could offer the economies of scale and the technical quality that the industry needs.

Norfolk islanders cave in to mobile

Norfolk island, somewhere between Australia and New Zealand, population 1,841, has given up its resistance to the mighty mobile.

After voting 'no' to going mobile in 2002 it has done a U-turn and is to install a switch this year. The non-mobile world just got even smaller.

iPod wheel thing to die?

The latest trend in investigative journalism seems to focus around fingering through US patent applications (rather you than me). This week's trawl, thanks to the bloodhounds at ZDNet, brings up news that Apple is planning an iPod with the iconic wheel replaced by a touch sensitive screen 'bezel'. It seems to be all about having a larger screen with touch sensitive areas along the edges.

Verdict: I rather like the wheely thing on the iPod. Not sure I fancy fingering tiny 'bezels' to find my favourite Half Man Half Biscuit track, but a bigger screen could be very nice. So bring on the bezels Mr Jobs.

Toshiba wants you in a helmet

Playing computer games just got a whole lot more fun thanks to Toshiba's prototype 360 degree helmet. Why not shut out the rest of the world completely and live in a computer game for an hour or fifteen? Only a couple of sites seem to have broken this story so far, my favourite being the superb Slippery Brick.