Mobile Industry Awards: Manufacturer shortlists revealed

Best Manufacturer, Phone of the Year and Hottest Phone for 2011 shortlists announced

The Mobile Industry Awards manufacturer shortlists are now available on the MobileTodayawards site.

Mobile’s hand-picked Retail Judging Panel will judge the Best Manufacturer, Phone of the Year and Hottest Phone for 2011 categories on 19 May.

Visit http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/awards for shortlists and to book your table now.

The shortlists are as follows:

 Best Manufacturer

• Apple
• HTC
• RIM
• Samsung
• Sony Ericsson

Phone of the Year


• Apple iPhone 4
• BlackBerry Torch 9800
• HTC Desire
• HTC Wildfire
• LG Optimus 7
• Nokia N8
• Orange San Francisco (ZTE Blade)
• Samsung Galaxy S
• Samsung Omnia 7
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro

Hottest Phone for 2011


• INQ Cloud Touch
• HP Pre 3
• HTC Desire S
• HTC Sensation
• LG Optimus 2X
• LG Optimus 3D
• Motorola Atrix
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc
• Samsung Galaxy S II

(Via Mobile Today)

Apple, HTC and RIM lead contract sales

iPhone, BlackBerry and HTC selling well, but Nokia in decline, say retail staff

Apple’s iPhone still tops the best contract seller list for UK retailers but is closely followed by BlackBerry and HTC, according to retail staff.

The iPhone 4 remains one of the most popular contract products in the UK but the worldwide launch of its white variant on 28 April has boosted Apple’s sales even further, staffers told Mobile last week.

The iPhone sold more than 16 million units worldwide in the last quarter of 2010 alone.

A Phones 4u staffer said: ‘Some customers don’t even know what an iPhone does but they still want one.’

RIM’s BlackBerry Curve 9780 and Bold 9700 handsets have also proved popular, with sales primarily driven by teenagers and young adults seduced by instant email and BlackBerry Messenger.

An Orange staffer said: ‘BlackBerrys will always sell well. The 9700 and 9780 models have been selling like hot cakes.’

HTC phones were also big winners in store in recent months, with staff reporting huge demand for the HTC Desire, HTC Desire HD and HTC Wildfire.

According to one Carphone staffer, customers were attracted by not only the quality of the HTC handsets but also the ‘cheap tariffs’ they are available on.

For instance, the HTC Desire S is available for free on a 24 month contract for just £18.50 per month.

Meanwhile, staff told Mobile that the Nokia E7 and N8 were not selling as well as expected, despite the N8 getting off to a strong start at the end of last year.

An Orange staffer said: ‘Nokias are currently the worst selling handsets in store. The handsets lack the quality that they once had.’

Another added: ‘The customers that are actually purchasing them are simply doing so out of cultural habit. They assume it’s a safe choice and something they know or are used to.’

(Via Mobile Today)

BlackBerry Touch 9680 snapped in the wild

Codename Monza spotted again

It's been over a month since we heard anything regarding RIM's next generation Storm handset. We were kind of disappointed that it wasn't detailed at BlackBerry World, where the Bold 9900 stole all of the headlines.

But now, here it is, pictured again - in all of its glory.

Well, some of its glory at least. You can really see the whole device, but it does give us a better look at the physical buttons and the distinct lack of the green and red call function buttons (as per the 9900).

The 9680 Monza / Monaco / Storm 3 / Touch (who knows what it's actually called)  is said to have a 1.2GHz CPU, a 3.7-inch 800x400 display, and 768MB of RAM.

It also has a 5-megapixel camera with flash and can record 720p video and have NFC on board too.

No word yet as to whether this will be a BlackBerry OS 7 device though.

Via: crackberry.com

£1m mobile fraudsters jailed for seven years

Three men working for Norfolk based dealer Business Telecom have been jailed for  seven years after being found guilty of fraud totaling £1m

Three men from Great Yarmouth based dealer Business Telecom including its chairman Christopher Boughton- Fox have been jailed for a £1 million telecoms fraud.

The fraud, thought to be one of the largest of its kind, involved company salesman talking customers into signing new contracts for new phone systems which included free handsets due to a cash back scheme.

However the customers, which included local schools, charities and businesses, were actually signing up for costly leasing agreements which cost on average between £10,000 and £35,000 over seven or more years.

Boughton- Fox, who along with sales director Jonathan Parrish had denied conspiracy to to defraud was jailed for seven years. Parish received five and a half.

Senior salesman Neil Debenham was jailed for three years after admitting the charges. All were convicted by a jury at Ipswich Crown Court last month.

Over the course of the trial, which ran for 10 weeks, the court heard how Business Telecom had grown to report a turnover of £4.5 million at its peak.

Boughton-Fox was paid an annual salary of £600,000 while Parrish earned up to £40,000 a week in some cases.

(Via Mobile News)

Data Select sale to Brightstar expected this month

Distributor Brightstar is expected to confirm the acquisition of distribution rival Data Select this month with a deal now said to be signed

Brightstar Europe has now agreed a deal to buy Data Select following months of speculationMobile News has been told.

Sources in Data Select and Brightstar claim the deal has now been signed and could be announced as early as Friday (May 13)

Neither Brightstar or Data Select would comment.

It is understood Data Select CEO George McPherson and Brightstar Europe president Rod Millar have held a series of meetings with senior member of the management team of Data Select about the future of the business.

Some senior staff have been offered financial inducements to stay with the company for at least six months its been claimed. The future of other executives is not yet known.

Several UK distributors say Data Select staff have contacted them about new employment opportunities.

Rod Millar is said to have have discussed any concerns from some members of staff about plans for the company. There are suggestions that Brightstar managing director for UK and Ireland Richard Turner will head up the business.

Turner and Millar were at the BlackBerry World event in Florida last week and neither were accepting calls at the time of going to press press.

Data Select is likely to retain its identity between three and six months before being absorbed in to Brightstar. A relocation plan is being examined for Brightstar to move some of its staff to Data Select offices in Marlow.

One source said: “The deal has been completed. They are now in a cooling off period. Many of the staff have learned their fate. No one is speculating who and how many will stay. But you can assume there will be significant duplication of positions.”

Data Select founder and chairman Peter Jones’ interest in the company has been described as minimal in the past year. Confirmation of the sale will end his 13-year tenure come to an end, having established the company in 1998.

Speculation on a potential sale has been rife at Data Select since the company moved to Slough, away from Jones’ main offices in Marlow. Jones’ last public appearance for Data Select was the launch of the JCB handset range in November.

The deal will make Brightstar the sole UK distributor with direct relationships with all major manufacturers. It is not known if Nokia included a ‘non-transfer’ clause in it agreement with Data Select giving it the right to terminate any distribution deal in the event of an acquisition.

Sources within Nokia have said it would be “unlikely” for the manufacturer to withdraw.

The acqusition of Brightstar will give the distributor a credible B2B mobile dealer channel for the first time as well as access to major accounts won by Data Select.

(Via Mobile News)

BlackBerry is planning on rolling out its popular instant messenger service, BBM, to Android and Apple’s iOS, according to reports.

 

The BlackBerry Messenger App, which is one of the most popular tools on the phone, has only been available exclusively on the BlackBerry platform until now.

However, according to Boy Genius Report, a respected technology blog, Research In Motion, BlackBerry’s parent company, has been in talks with Apple and Google about making the software available to users across all three platforms.

No pricing or timing details have been finalised. BGR cites “multiple trusted sources” as its backup for the piece. The piece says: “We’re also told strategy is still being developed, however, and RIM may end up charging users a one-time fee or even a recurring fee for access to its BBM service on third-party platforms.”

They added: “As far as what Android and iOS users can look forward to, we’ve been told RIM will offer stripped down versions of the BBM experience BlackBerry owners know and love. That way, Android and iOS users can communicate with practically anyone who has a smartphone using BBM, but they might not be able to share photos, location, or videos

“Users who want the full BlackBerry Messenger experience will still need a BlackBerry smartphone to get it."

Blackberry was unavailable for comment.

Michael Gartenberg, research director for analysts Gartner, said that it was hard to see how RIM would benefit from giving away one of BlackBerry's key selling points to users of other platforms. He said: "It doesn't sound like a good thing for RIM unless there's a larger story here that's not being told."

He said that BBM was a core part of the BlackBerry experience and would be difficult to separate out. "It's not something you could just create an app for," he said.

He added: "It will be interesting to see if it would make it through Apple's approval process."

(Via Daily Telegraph)

'Obsolete' 3yr phone deals are outlawed
THREE-YEAR mobile phone contracts have been outlawed by Brussels. Thousands of such lengthy deals, which critics said 'saddled' users with obsolete phones, have now been taken of the market. The EU ruling has also forced providers such as O2, Vodafone and Orange to offer 12-month contracts which had all but died out. the number of contracts on the market have soared from 279 in February to 4,765 at the start of this month.


(Via Metro)