1) The huge, huge problem with Android’s wild west marketplace

2) The potential scale that Android malware can achieve in a short amount of time

3) The reality that consumers using Android need to seriously keep their wits about them

I have been pretty direct with my opinions (mostly negative) on what I feel has been a rather lukewarm approach from PhonePayPlus in the past. I’m pleased to see firm action from them.

Here’s the overview:

A malware attack targeted at 18 countries that cost unsuspecting users £15 every time they tried to open a ‘free’ app has been cut off by PhonepayPlus, the UK’s premium rate telephone services regulator.

Sanctions imposed by the regulator’s Tribunal will see all money returned to UK consumers on top of a £50,000 fine imposed on the provider of the premium rate shortcodes that enabled the apps to fraudulently charge smartphone users.

Fake apps of popular brands including Angry Birds, Assassins Creed and Cut the Rope were posted to Android app stores. These fake apps were advertised as free but contained malicious coding (malware) that charged the phone’s account £15 every time the app was opened (usually charged through three £5 premium rate texts). The malware suppressed the sent and received text messages that notify users they have been charged. It was only when consumers received their bill that they were alerted to the fraudulent charges.

This malware attack was dubbed RuFraud by security experts and approximately 14,000 downloads of the malicious apps were made worldwide. The RuFraud attack affected 1,391 mobile numbers in the UK and £27,850 was taken before the shortcode was suspended. Due to PhonepayPlus’ and industry’s swift action in identifying the malware, ensuring that the shortcode was suspended and that the money was held and not passed on to the fraudulent app developers, none of this £27,850 of UK consumers’ money reached the fraudsters.

PhonepayPlus investigated and took action against the provider, A1 Agregator Limited, who had control of, and responsibility for, the premium rate payment system which enabled the malware to fraudulently charge consumers’ mobile phone accounts. A1 Agregator Limited was issued a fine of £50,000, ordered to make refunds directly to ALL consumers within three months, whether or not they had complained and directed to seek prior permission for a year from PhonepayPlus to run any premium rate service in the UK.

Patrick Guthrie, PhonepayPlus’ Director of Strategy and Communications said:
“We will continue to clamp down on those who wish to take advantage of UK smartphone customers. We are very pleased that the tribunal ordered that everyone affected will get their money back and that a strong fine was imposed. The digital economy is vital to the UK’s future and we will continue to take action to maintain the confidence of the public.”

PhonepayPlus recently held the first UK mobile malware summit and works closely with the police, mobile networks and antivirus companies to combat the threat to UK consumers from premium rate malware.

Another alternative would be to make the app free to help support Exchange itself.

The offline mode sounds interesting. Will folk prefer to use the existing native email client though?

This fall, Microsoft plans to release two new native iOS applications on the App Store featuring the Metro user interface: Outlook Web App for Exchange 2012 users, and an updated mobile version of the Lync communications platform, AppleInsider has learned.

Microsoft is currently planning for both Outlook Web App and the new Lync to debut on the iOS App Store before the end of October, a person familiar with the upcoming software revealed. Both will be native iOS applications that render Web content with the same tiled Metro user interface style that can be found on Windows Phone.

via Microsoft working on new native iOS apps for Outlook Web App, Lync.

I’m about to go and find my iPad and download Autumn Dynasty based on the Youtube video trailer above. This is the first super-quality real time strategy (“RTS”) game I’ve seen deployed on an iPad. Indeed the chaps over at game review site Kotaku commented that it looks more like a PC game than anything you’d expect to see on a tablet.

Instead of frantically moving your mouse about your desk, you can control everything with touch — and there’s the obligatory multiplayer functionality too, bluetooth or online.

I used to play a lot of Age of Empires and Age of Mythology years ago so there’s still a place in my heart for RTS games (if not any time in my diary).

I can’t comment yet on the quality of the game itself — I’m just going by what I have seen online and at the game’s site. In terms of keeping up with what’s going on in the industry, Autumn Dynasty certainly looks worth examining.

It’s priced at $4.99 for the next few days so if you’re thinking about it, get it today (iTunes link).

I spent a few weeks with HTC’s One X handset recently. Just 20 minutes with the phone was enough for me to begin to appreciate why many geeks I know were salivating at the sheer concept of owning the device.

Granted, at MWC, I was able to take a quick look and play around with a few of the features, however I always find it far better to actually live with a device for a few days in order to form an opinion.

A lot of my peer group — especially those I work with — were actually marking the HTC One X launch date (via Vodafone) in their calendars. They treated the purchase, unboxing and activation as a nigh-on religious experience.

I can see why.

It’s a big phone. Very big. The screen is fantastic. It’s not too heavy — enough to indicate the quality, yet it sits nicely in your jacket pocket without doing a Nokia N90 (i.e. weighing down one side like a brick).

The camera is very nice indeed — I particularly liked being able to take photos during recording video. I’m a bit partial to the iPhone 4S camera — however I found the X camera quality as good (if not a tad better).

I think the graphics performance is probably one of the most striking elements. I was delighted with the way the unlock screen worked by dragging the little metallic circle up the screen. That could have been an abominable experience but it was super-smooth and utterly pleasing. I really could see the benefits of quad-core in that respect.

The integration with all the basic services I use from DropBox to SkyDrive to Gmail to Facebook and Twitter was brilliant. I was up and running with my ‘life’ in about 5 minutes. Indeed I need to be careful to separate the device from the platform. I still have a few concerns over Android and it’s suitability for new users, however you can’t argue with what it lets you achieve — and so efficiently.

The X felt nice in the hand. I quite like the ridge around the camera on the back of the phone. I liked handling the polycarbonate chassis. What’s more, I felt proud using it.

It is big though. Very big. That’s the way things seem to be going with these top-end phones nowadays for a whole set of reasons. So it did take a bit of adjustment. Like many others in it’s class, the HTC One X isn’t really meant for single handed operation. You ideally hold the phone in one hand and operate with the other. I did like using it for phone calls (once I got over the ‘HEY, I’M ON THE PHONE’ feeling that all big phones engender) in part because of it’s size. I like to speak INTO the phone, not into thin air.

What else? Well apps worked very nicely. Google Play runs beautifully on the X. I was searching and locating my favourites in seconds and they were installing with speed. Indeed it was highly satisfying to just tap-tap into my Google Play account and bring down all my standard apps. I’m still accustomed to Android devices taking a wee bit of time to download and then install — not so with the X.

I was particularly impressed at what HTC’s done with the “Watch” functionality. HTC Watch is the company’s answer to the iTunes Video store. I was pretty impressed with the choice of available movies and I was even more impressed at the keen pricing. Some decent films were only £0.05 to rent. This is the kind of thing HTC needs to be doing. I felt that service added a lot of value to ‘owning’ the device.

The default on-screen keyboard worked very well indeed. I was tempted to see if I could get the likes of Swype installed but in the end, I stayed with the default.

I did enjoy the camera experience, especially since I’m using Picasa for all the family photos — so the ability to stick them straight up from the device was very welcome.

As for battery life, I didn’t set my expectations high at all. However I’m pleased to say that I managed to get ‘a day’ out of the battery with significant use. Much like any other top-end smartphone though, when I hammered the phone with data intensive usage and then loads of video viewing, I was facing a red battery indicator within a few hours. Don’t expect miracles. I’m pleased to say I had to raise my expectations though.

I think it’s a very smart device.

If you’re giving it serious consideration, pop into the shops and check it out. Get hands on. Check out the keyboard. Check out the gorgeous screen. See what you make of the super little on-screen widgets. Make sure it’s the device for you before ‘spending’ your 24-months worth of contract on it.

Perhaps one of the best deals I’ve seen on the One X recently is from Three who’ll put one in your hand for just £29 up front and then £29 a month — for 24-months. That’ll give you 500 minutes, 5000 texts and all-you-can-eat data. Or pick one up for £439 sim-free from Amazon.

Nice work HTC.

I’m giving serious thought to swapping to one.

Very, very interesting move this.

If you live your life in-and-around WiFi you wouldn’t need a mobile operator…

Given the chance, you would probably turn your iPod Touch into a fully working iPhone, right? TextMe is launching in the U.S. today with an app that will get you close to that dream.

“The real vision is to deliver a full feature communication set to any connected device,” said TextMe co-founder Christophe Bach.

Bach explained that right now, people who want free communications on their Internet connected device will generally turn to Pinger for text, Tango for video, and Skype for calling. TextMe, put all three of those together in today’s release.

via TextMe turns your iPod into a phone with today’s launch (exclusive) | VentureBeat.

If so, please do send me an email (ewan@mobileindustryreview.com) and I’ll forward it directly to the chap in question. Here are the details:

Hi Ewan, hope you’re well.

Am looking for a superstar internationally experienced (operator savvy) solutions engineer based in London area. Very good salary and options available.

Anyone spring to mind? Welcome any intro’s you can provide.

Hope to see you soon

Please do tweet or forward this around to anyone you think might be interested.

A reader — a highly connected senior executive — emailed me this afternoon quoting this signature he’d just noticed.

First the offending text:

Sent from my Motorola Smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint

And now the reader’s comment:

I was actually a little bit sick in my mouth.. This is quite possibly the ugliest email sign off I’ve ever seen.

Yeah.

I have to agree.

The defaults like Sent from my iPhone or Sent from my BlackBerry are at least brief — just four words.

That Sprint signature — which definitely has the whiff of a corporate inspired wheeze from the operator’s marketing team — is a whopping 11 words.

The fact that the author of the text felt compelled to use the phrase “Motorola Smartphone” confounds me. Was it critical to point out that it’s a SMARTphone? Not a Motorola Dumbphone? And the “Now Network” (Sprint’s own branding) is a bit… well, I don’t think it works in this context.

Dear me.

I think this is probably the worst I’ve seen.

What about you? Have you witnessed anything like this?

I hope you’ve managed to take a listen to the 361 Degrees podcast that I produce with Ben and Rafe.

Ben runs Wireless Worker, Rafe runs the All About Symbian / All About Windows Phone sites. That gives us a combined distribution into the millions (thanks mostly to Rafe).

We’re now on our third rather popular series. I’ll need to get up to date stats from Ben (as he’s the webmaster for 361) but last time I asked, we had tens of thousands of listeners — just brilliant.

Each week we pick an issue (or series of issues) and explore it — or, at least, dig in around it.

We’ve got a special coming up though: We’re going ‘live’ again.

We did this for the Nokia World 2011 event back in September last year during Series 2 and we’re bringing the format back again. It was rather interesting to do the whole thing ‘live’ in front of an audience, especially when they’ve got access to alcohol. You had to be a Nokia World attendee to come along to that one though.

So thanks to both Nokia and leading digital agency LBi, we’re bringing back the live recordings — this time it’s open to all.

I strongly recommend coming along. For anyone who’s been to Unlimited Drinks (the MIR networking events) you’ll find the live recordings a familiar experience.

Think: Nice surroundings, free drinks and really good networking with uber smart people. I’m just looking down the public guest list and goodness me it’s a veritable who’s who so far. I think there will be a considerable amount of heckling. I reckon the questions will be fantastic.

The format is ‘Question Time’ — myself, Rafe and Ben and then an array of panelists. So far we’ve got the utterly eloquent Ilicco Elia. He’s Head of Mobile at LBi (and, as former Head of Mobile for Reuters, the man behind their inspired mobile strategy). We’ve also got the painfully smart mobile hotshot Ed Hodges. Ed is Head of Mobile, Business & Commercial at Royal Bank of Scotland. Previously he was the man responsible for sorting out Tesco’s mobile app strategy.

Ilicco and Ed will be brilliant. We’re aiming to add a few more guests. More on that soon.

The timings and details look like this:

When: 11th June 2012

Where: LBi HQ, Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London E1

What: Part meet-up, part podcast recording… Starting with “Mobile Question Time”* a panel of mobile experts will debate topical (mobile) questions from the audience, all followed by drinks and socialising.

Doors: 6:00pm
Panel starts: 7:00pm
Networking until: 10:00pm

More info: Eventbrite

I think the panel will be entertaining. The networking will be second to none. If you’d like to meet some of the mobile influencers of London, come along.

We’ll need to be sharp with the timings I think as I reckon there will be a lot to be said. Ben will chair the discussion (he’ll be our David Dimbleby) whilst Rafe and I will join the panelists fielding questions from the audience. The resulting discussion will then be published as a special edition to the 361 Degrees podcast feed.

Now then, if you’d like to join me, all you need to do is register for a ticket. It’s free. You need to be really, really quick though. We’ve only got a total of 50 spaces. Ben and Rafe published their announcements of the event a few hours ago and the available spaces has now reduced to 32 already.

The event is generously sponsored by Nokia and by digital agency LBi — thank you chaps! We’re hosting it in LBi’s event space and, goodness me, you will be thoroughly impressed with their offices. Think warehouse chic meets science laboratory.

See you there!

“Yes it is,” I answered.

“Hello I’m calling from Three, your mobile service provider,” continued the chap.

“Good afternoon,” I replied.

I listened to the offer.

“We’d like to offer you a discounted rate on anything you see on our website for you or your family members.”

Oh dear, I thought. Carry on.

“And we’d like to offer you a special deal on an iPad 2 which is available without any up front cost.”

I bet it is.

“Would any of these be of interest to you? If so I would like to go through the offer which will take 2 minutes of your time.”

I declined politely. I explained that I’d already got an iPad 3. I then said I was “OK” with my existing arrangements. [I actually purchased the new iPad outright rather than bothering to give the business to an operator.]

The chap thanked me for my time. I thanked him. We went on our merry ways.

This is the culmination of weeks of missed calls from the mobile number 0800 358 9766. After about 6 missed calls (and no voicemails) I did a Google on the number and saw various people describing it as 3 sales. Eventually after what feels like a month of missed calls, I managed to answer in person today.

It’s a fascinating look into how mobile operators work. No text messages. No emails. No. Telephone only.

No customer records of any note.

Indeed 3 probably think I’m a relatively new customer given the fact I churned (at their sales person’s instruction) to get the new iPhone 4S.

They haven’t bothered tracking my wants or needs beyond whacking me on to a must-call-n-flog sales list.

You can guarantee that a few moments ago my record was checked off the ‘possibility’ list and assigned to the ‘not interested’ list.

Tomorrow or sometime next week, the Sales Director at 3 UK will be receiving an activity report. In there hidden amongst the figures will be my record.

They’ll probably try and call me in 6 months or so just in case my circumstances have changed.

For the avoidance of doubt though, I’m certainly in the market to sort out my telecommunications and to spend a lot. Just not with 3 at the moment. I didn’t feel like volunteering — as I have done before — that I’d like to get another iPad or that I’d like an HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy SIII etc., etc. I’ve tried this before — but the rather nice sales people typically can only add new additional lines, not upgrade or add to existing accounts..

So there we have it.

Another record of my experience interacting with a mobile operator. I do like to record these for posterity.

Jamie — for that was how the chap introduced himself during multiple calls — was at pains to point out that he, “Wasn’t in front of his computer,” and so couldn’t do anything. Apart from read his email and make calls.

Many companies make this kind of behaviour commonplace by preventing their employees and teams from getting anything done when they’re out of the office. Unless you’re carrying a flipping huge Dell laptop that needs to be secured by no less than six different “factors” before you can open Excel.

How long will it be reasonably acceptable for people to use the (often valid) excuse that they’re “not at their desk” as an explanation for why something can’t be done?

If you leave aside the usual IT problems with connecting remotely, I often find folk don’t do anything when they’re out of office because they can’t run Word, Excel, Powerpoint or some stupidly old back-end “application” can’t be accessed remotely.

Is it time yet for companies reconstruct their technology operations to enable work from anything and anywhere?

I wonder. Probably not. For most, being able to work fully from a mobile device is not yet a business critical requirement. Indeed I wonder how much of the UK workforce still defines “working” as being sat at their desk with Outlook open?

My family and I are taking a road trip around the UK before heading overseas and I’m trying to find a route planner that includes Points of Interest and Camp Sites (for a camper van). I have found lots of route planners but nothing that contains everything inside one app. Are you aware of anything that does it all in one? I have the AA route planner and there a whole heap of apps that show campsites but I’m struggling to find a single source of info for everything.

Any ideas?

Right then what do you reckon? Is all-in-one too much to ask for?

And you thought having an iPhone 4 or 4S made you an exclusive part of the tech elite?

Think again.

Is this the beginning of the end for niche Apple?

On the back of IBM’s rather exhaustive telecoms consumer survey, they’ve outlined some rather direct findings. Take this paragraph, for example:

The survey results reveal that globally only 18% are advocates, contrasting sharply with industries as retail and banking, where the level of advocacy is twice that of the telecom industry. A majority of customers – some 60% – are antagonistic toward their CSP ["Communications Service Provider"]. In other words, three out of every five customers have negative opinions about their communications providers. These antagonists cost more to support and are prone to speak negatively about their provider through social media, but are typically not telling their CSP about their problems.

via Creating loyalty is difficult | Telecom Asia.

What’s interesting here is that — broadly speaking — they’re telling me what I already know — but with the facts and figures to back it up. Shocking.

If anything, their post takes what I thought was the case and hits it for six. It’s worse than we thought.

The authors of the post are Nick Gurney (Managing Partner, Communications Sector) and Rob van den Dam, (Global Telecommunications Industry Leader).

Super work chaps.

Welcome to The USA. Calls cost 135ppm to make & 100ppm to receive. SMS 35p + your home rate & pic msg 37p. For your £5 per day you have 25MB of data, then it’s £3 per 1MB. Click http://live.vodafone.com/zr/sa1 for free price info or call +441635691700. Emergency 112

All fine. I’m certainly not happy with it. But I can live with it. Until Apple or somebody else fixes this ultra-annoying roaming price problem.

So I’ve been told I’ve got 25mb to play with, right?

Wrong.

I got this message a few hours later:

From Vodafone: To let you know it’s nearly midnight in the UK. If you do need to carry on using data after midnight, you’ll be charged a new daily rate of £3 per 1MB. To stop these alerts, text STOP to 40506 Sent MAY 13 @23:30 UK

So because Vodafone’s billing system can’t hack it, they’re shortly going to start nailing me for three-quid-a-meg.

This is ostensibly because the billing system works in British time.

That’s not my problem.

Well, actually, it is. They’ve made it my problem.

“If you do need to carry on using data,” reads the message.

Well?

What’s your stupid modus operandi, Vodafone? Are you telling me that I should be using my data abroad based on the British timezone?

Yes.

Goodness me it’s rubbish, isn’t it?

I don’t see why I should be forced into some stupid timezone-based usage model when that’s absolutely not what “25mb per day” means as any man-on-the-street would understand it.

Per day? Surely that means per 24-hour period? Which for simplicity, we define as “Monday” or “Tuesday”. Calendar days. That’s fine. Insisting that this calendar day must be limited to Newbury-Time isn’t good enough. Not for a global organisation like Vodafone.

I look forward to the day when these billing practices are completely smashed.

In the meantime, you’re doing yourself absolutely no favours Vodafone (other operators are doing similar). You’re just guaranteeing I will be even faster at leaving you the moment somebody steps up and fixes this.

Visual voicemail does fix this a little bit — but for the longest time I’ve wanted the ability to quickly scan the list of incoming messages to identify the most urgent. That’s precisely the functionality that the team at HulloMail has just added.

I’ve been using HulloMail for ages. I’ve also been following them for the longest time. Indeed if you want proof, just do a search for ‘HulloMail’ and you’ll probably find the first video with one of the company’s founders back in — I don’t know — 2009? Something like that.

Across the years Andy and his team have steadily iterated HulloMail to the point whereby today I consider it to be one of the best third-party voicemail systems out there. It’s way, way more advanced than Apple’s standard offering and if you’re unlucky enough to use an operator who doesn’t bother enabling visual voicemail, HulloMail is about a billion times better than clicking the voicemail button and having your phone call your operator’s creaking (and frankly, rubbish) voicemail system. (See this post for the background).

The latest HulloMail iteration now adds voice transcription — with a difference. It only transcribes the first 10 seconds. There are a few reasons for this.

Here’s Andy to explain why:

Over several years we have been testing different ‘fully’-automated transcription services that have fallen short of the mark. However, in Nuance we have found a partner that provides a balance of accuracy and quality of service for a highly competitive rate. And because it’s fully automated, we have been able to keep the cost as low as possible for our subscribers. We will be evolving our transcription product range over the coming months, so watch this space for updates.

It’s a smart fix. You need a heck of a lot of processing power to transcribe a 3 minute voicemail. But you can transcribe 10 seconds of voice really easily — especially given the first 10-seconds of most messages should, hopefully, be reasonably audible and therefore easier for the machine to understand. It also enables HulloMail to charge a single monthly fee for the facility, rather than cost-prohibitive per-message transcription fees.

You only need to glance at this screenshot featuring transcription enabled to see the difference:

The context afforded by the transcription is hugely, hugely valuable in determining what messages to prioritise.

You can turn on 10-second transcription in HulloMail for just £1.49 per month, billed to your iTunes account.

Right now this update is just for iPhone but expect it for other platforms soon. Get it in the app store.

Here’s the full release:

HulloMail™, providers of the award-winning voicemail mobile application for smartphones, has today incorporated a new voice-to-text transcription technology, Scribe™, into its SmartVoicemail™ mobile applications.

Hot on the heels of the launch of the Access Control hacking prevention tool, the first Scribe™ product, Get The Gist provides users with a 10-second ‘snapshot’ of their voicemails in text format within the app, therefore giving an indication of what the voicemail is about before playing back at a more convenient time.

The voicemail transcriptions are fully automated and use proven voice-to-text transcription technology that has been integrated in partnership with Nuance, a leader in voice and language solutions, including the Dragon Dictation application.

Get The Gist is today initially launching on HulloMail’s iPhone app, with the planned launch on its Android app scheduled within a matter of weeks.

Andy Munarriz, founder and CEO of HulloMail, commented on the launch; “Over several years we have been testing different ‘fully’-automated transcription services that have fallen short of the mark. However, in Nuance we have found a partner that provides a balance of accuracy and quality of service for a highly competitive rate. And because it’s fully automated, we have been able to keep the cost as low as possible for our subscribers. We will be evolving our transcription product range over the coming months, so watch this space for updates.”

John Pollard, vice president and general manager, voice-to-text services, Nuance Mobile said; “We’re very excited to work with HulloMail to bring innovations like Scribe to market. Consumers love the flexibility of being able to read their voicemails as text, and quickly decide whether to ignore, call back or simply respond with a text message. It’s voice messaging innovation that keeps people connected anywhere, anytime.”

Pricing and Availability:
The new Get The Gist service is initially available for iPhone users for a monthly subscription of £1.49GBP in the UK, $1.99USD in the USA and €1.59EUR in Ireland. This is for a maximum monthly allocation of 50 messages. The service will launch for Android devices soon – further details will follow shortly.

The full HulloMail SmartVoicemail™ apps are available to download from the iTunes store for iPhone, via Google Play for Android and the BlackBerry’s App World store for an annual fee of £5.99GBP UK, €5.99EUR in Europe and $5.99USD in the USA.

For more information regarding HulloMail, visit www.hullomail.com.

People who believe that Google is currently the biggest threat to mobile operators may not realise exactly how much time mobile customers are using on Facebook and how Facebook is currently changing the way over 800 million people communicate on a daily basis. The biggest difference between Facebook and Google is that Facebook is a communication tool that people use to keep in touch with their family and friends every day.

via Facebook is killing the mobile operators' SMS traffic and revenue..

I’m normally not a fan of these kinds of over speculative posts however I do like to play out scenarios in my mind and this could be a highly successful one for Apple in the medium term.

Apple is indeed preparing a smaller version of its wildly popular iPad tablet and it will launch this coming October for between $200 and $250, a new report claims. Numerous earlier reports have suggested that an iPad with a 7.85-inch display will launch in the third or fourth quarter this year, and now Apple watcher iMore has reinforced these rumors

via Apple iPad mini set for October launch, $200-$250 price tag.

Two 8-year-old twin orangutans at Miami’s Jungle Island zoo, draw, play games and communicate using an iPad tablet. The park is one of several zoos experimenting with the interaction of apes and computers, allowing six orangutans to use Apple’s tablet to communicate as part of a mental stimulus program, Fox News reported.

via Apple iPad: so user friendly, apes use it to communicate.

I think this is a good move by Three. And it’s a smart move for IBM who’ve long been experts in this regard.

The wider issue, though, is shocking.

If you take the above research statement, based on IBM’s exhaustive 2011 Global Telecoms Survey, that’s ridiculously bad news for operators.

It’s obvious, though.

Of course!

Let me ask you this question: Assume you’re paying £35/month for your mobile service plan at the moment. Would you like to pay £40?

No.

Ok, next question: Still at the £35/month rate, would you like me, as your operator, to mess around with our price plan configurations in 2014 so that even though your basic rate stays the same, we screw you on out of bundle calls, so that you end up paying £45 a month on average?

No.

Ok, final question: Would you like me to simply decide to unilaterally raise the cost of calls citing some slight-of-hand ‘inflation’ reason (or equivalent smoke’n'mirrors) so that you end up paying £50 a month for the same basic service?

No.

Whatever way you analyse it, there’s no way I — or the rest of the country — wants to pay MORE money for the same OLD ROPE that you’re flogging me, Mr Operator.

This IBM research statement is exactly the same as the internal polling that most operators will show you only when they’re having a really, really bad day and the CEO is screaming about service innovation, yet again.

Their polling says the same: No consumers are prepared to pay more. Customers HATE paying more.

Correct.

The trouble is, it’s also wrong.

Well, it’s the interpretation that requires some guidance.

I’ll use myself as an example.

I’ve no intent whatsoever to pay more for the same services. If anything, I’d like to pay less.

And at the EXACT same time, I’d like to pay a lot more, for additional value.

THIS is where the internal operator polling screws up. Because they either routinely get it wrong, ask the wrong questions or don’t have the ability to incite enough delight in their customers (during survey) to show them service configurations that would have them throwing money at their operators.

So what would I pay more for?

Prioritised data services. I want a better service than the 12 year old sitting next to me in a restaurant. They’re messing around trying to download the latest delight from Rovio. I’m trying to download a powerpoint because I’ve got a conference call in five minutes. My stuff is more important. I’m not talking about net neutrality. I’m talking about business service levels vs consumer service levels. So I’d pay a lot more for that.

I’d pay for better, enhanced insurance that doesn’t require me to arse about visiting stores, handing over cracked phones, waiting for them to determine the screen is actually cracked (duh) and then waiting to be told when to re-visit for a replacement. No. I’d pay a lot more for that facility.

I’d like to buy my computing resources from my operator. I quite enjoy being able to walk out of a phone store with a ‘free’ iPhone — because Vodafone’s CFO is better at accounting than I am (and they’ve got a lot more fiscal resources than I do, as I’ve got curtains and sofas to pay for right now). So I’d like to do that with my MacBook Air. Or any other business technology.

While I’m at it, I wouldn’t mind rolling my email and server requirements into my operator spend every month.

I’d like to pay for enhanced services — one number, multiple devices, for example.

I’d like to pay for 2-4 week device loan programmes so I get sent new devices to try out on rotation.

I’d like to pay for family location monitoring, say £5 per month to locate my wife, my children, my car, myself etc.

I’d like real-time “emergency” help so that wherever I am, my operator will help me out of whatever fix I’m in.

I’d like guaranteed 2-hour handset and SIM replacement 24-hours a day, anywhere in mainland UK.

I’d pay more for unlimited, unmetered billing. So I don’t have to think about it.

I’d pay more for a proper roaming service plan.

I’d pay more for a concierge customer service telephone/online call centre, so that when I phone up, the person on the other end says “Hello Ewan” within 2-rings and doesn’t arse around with inane security questions — and who sorts out my every request right-away.

Blah blah blah.

Now I’m an edge case. But there’s a lot that consumers will pay for. The issue is that operators are spectacularly rubbish at doing anything about it.

Gone are the days that you can charge for landline calls. Or anything like this. It’s being commoditised down to next to nothing. It’s far too late already but the operators still have an opportunity to innovate before the wider market moves on.

First, let me say kudos to the Telefonica Digital team behind TU Me.

Second, let me say: Yah-boo-sucks to the rest of the mobile operator community that’s been standing still, watching paint dry for the last few years doing absolutely nothing to innovate anything more exciting than a slightly modified price plan.

TU Me is a single communications hub — think What’s App, but on steroids. It’s a smartphone app — iPhone initially — that enables you to send text messages, voice messages, photos, location information and even make calls. You don’t need to be a Telefonica customer to use it — it’ll work on any iPhone, anywhere, on any communications platform (cellular data or WiFi).

Brilliant!

I very much like the Telefonica Digital approach with TU Me? They’ve actually got out of bed and made something worthy of the new economy, the new world — this connected reality that we’re all beginning to inhabit. Put simply, TU Me really does make Apple’s current iteration of iMessage look like a highly limited rubbish first iteration. The Telefonica Digital team have done the Crocodile Dundee equivalent of “that’s not a knife, THIS is knife!” with TU Me.

To build, it took the team 6 months from zero to live. That is excellent. More of this please. If TU Me is a reflection of what we should expect from Telefonica Digital, I reckon we’ve got some very exciting times coming soon. And that’s not all. In the press release below, the company points out it’s got a lot more of this coming, including some “enhanced communications services” (also using the TU brand). Further, these new services will be made available to Telefonica customers “as part of their bundles”.

… interesting. Very interesting.

Bring it on.

So it’s iPhone-only today, but you’ll be able to pick it up for Android shortly. I really do encourage Telefonica to go the extra mile in this case and NOT favour any particular platform. I’d like to see them make TU Me available for:

- Windows Phone
- Symbian (YES! FOLK still use it!)
- BlackBerry 5-7, PlayBook & BB10
- And, er, maybe even Bada

The key, I think, is to remove every single possible excuse for folk not to bother using TU Me. iPhone, Android and RIM will cover a huge part of the company’s smartphone ecosystem. It’s important that families and friend groups that are all using different platforms aren’t put off and don’t just either stay with What’s App (or similar) or avoid even bothering to look at TU Me because of limited platform support.

Remove all the barriers.

I wonder if I could use TU Me on multiple handsets? So even if I had different phone numbers, I’d always get the same messages everywhere? I’ll need to check that out.

Spare a thought for the other mobile operator groups today. They must be having kittens over at the other operator HQs. (Vodafone Xone, anybody?). Deutsche Telecom? Heh. France Telecom are better positioned to respond swiftly with their Life Is Better On team who could certainly deliver similar.

Will we actively see TU Me marketed as a Telefonica / O2 / Movistar / Vivo properly via their standard mass-market, mass-media channels? That would really, really start to shake things up with the standard service proposition that hasn’t seen significant change for a long time.

Will we see TU Me included into international roaming bundles for Telefonica customers?

Can you imagine the potential value of being able to offer customers unlimited fair-use TU Me access for £5/week whilst abroad roaming? Folk would be insisting their families installed the service so that when they were abroad, they could stay in touch easily. It might even be worth Telefonica running a roaming ‘balance of payments’ debt to other operators to promote this and to gain loyalty, customers and additional revenues. If they did this, I think it’d be the bait I’d need to actually got off my arse and swap primary providers to O2 in the UK.

Wouldn’t it be great if they integrated something like Onavo compression or Mailsuite compression into the app so that when you’re abroad roaming, it automatically does it best to limit data use? Or perhaps it could go into ‘roaming mode’ whereby it only allows you to send/receive 200 characters per message and only allows the transmission of text to limit data use?

Yes, I can feel the sound of a thousand mobile strategy executives working through the night speculating on just what the launch of TU Me could herald for their particular customer segments or divisions. (I know: I’ve had a few calls on this today already!)

We shall see. Let’s see where this goes.

Nice work Telefonica.

The branding is excellent as well — TU Me (“too me”)? Love it.

Here’s the full release FYI:

Telefónica Digital today announces the launch of TU Me, a mobile app that enables communication and sharing via smartphones, keeping a record of every interaction through a simple, searchable timeline. TU Me offers one of the best integrated communications experiences on a smartphone and is now available to download from the Apple App Store. Free to use at launch, the service will continue to be developed with added value functionality.

TU Me is the first service from Telefónica Digital to launch directly to consumers and the first time Telefónica has launched a product worldwide, regardless of its operating markets.

Telefónica is committed to innovating in its core business of communications. Over the coming months, it will also use the TU brand to launch a number of enhanced communications services which its O2, movistar and Vivo businesses will make available to customers as part of their bundles.

TU Me is designed to make it as easy as possible for people to communicate with their friends and family using their smartphone. Users of TU Me can exchange text messages, make calls, leave voice messages, share photos and location information. Interactions are stored in a timeline format, making it easy to view, scroll through and keep a history of conversations.

TU Me has been developed to offer the best communications experience in an app and is built to rigorous phone industry standards. It is the only app of its kind that stores your content in the Cloud so that it is always available whenever you log into the app, even if you lose your device. It is also the only app that lets you make calls, send voice messages, instant messages, photos and location from one control within one screen, with no need to switch apps or tabs.

TU Me is initially available for iOS users with the Android version to follow shortly. The service is available for free to anyone with an iPhone worldwide, regardless of their network operator, and works via their mobile data plan or over Wi-Fi.

TU Me is the first product from Telefónica Digital to launch under the new TU brand and reached the market less than six months from the formation of the unit.

“We’ve seen the growing popularity of communications apps on smartphones but we believe we’ve gone one better with TU Me using our knowledge and insights of how people use their devices,” said Stephen Shurrock, Chief Commercial Officer at Telefónica Digital. “TU Me puts all your communications needs into one place, for free, and is a great way for people to stay in touch with those close to them. It’s also a testament to the innovation, speed and agility within Telefónica Digital.”

TU Me is available as a free download in Apple’s AppStore or visit www.tumeapp.com for more information or to sign up to receive information about upcoming releases for other operating systems.

172 million folk have opened accounts with consumer antivirus and security specialist, NQ Mobile. By way of context, this figure was 146 million back in December! They’re clearly doing very well indeed.

Here’s the company’s first quarter 2012 operating metrics overview from their recent release:

• Cumulative registered user accounts were 172.0 million as of March 31, 2012, compared with 86.0 million as of March 31, 2011 and 146.7 million as of December 31, 2011.
• Average monthly active user accounts for the quarter ended March 31, 2012 were 60.1 million, compared with 30.3 million for the corresponding period of 2011 and 52.3 million for the previous quarter ended December 31, 2011.
• Average monthly paying user accounts for the quarter ended March 31, 2012 were 6.5 million, compared with 3.7 million for the corresponding period of 2011 and 5.6 million for the previous quarter ended December 31, 2011.

Which is why Ben and I caught up with their top man in Europe, Geoff Casely, at the InfoSecurity Exhibition recently to find out more. Do listen to the special report embedded below:

Ben and I popped down to InfoSecurity Europe to record a special mobile security report for 361 Degrees. We had an excellent time speaking to many leading companies in the mobile security space — so if this is your area, I hope you’ll find it an insightful series of interviews.

Here we go…

Here’s the episode breakdown:

Part 1: We discuss InfoSecurity Europe and the hot-topics in mobile security – especially Android ‘malware’. We also note Rafe’s continuing absence as the cheque clears.

Part 2: We speak to Rob from Good Mobile Messaging and hear about their strategy for enabling users to ‘bring your own (mobile) device’ into a business IT environment.

Part 3: We speak to Geoff from NQ Mobile about malware, Android, security scanning and the challenge in explaining security risks and products to consumers.

Part 4: David from SMSpasscode talks about using a mobile device as a way to secure access to IT systems. He explains the benefits of SMS in delivering instant services for ‘multi-factor’ authentication.

Part 5: We speak to Jamie from Veracode about the benefits of mobile application security testing and how developers can use this approach to give customers confidence in how an app behaves.

Part 6: We speak to Rob from Mobile Active Defense about ‘mobile device management’ and how it can be extended to give more effective control of business’s mobile devices (and the data on them).

Part 7: We speak to Bernard from Becrypt about full-device encryption and using using high-end government-specification encryption for smartphones and tablets in enterprises.

Part 8: We speak to Trend Micro about mobile anti-virus and choosing secured data synchronisation for consumers and enterprises from a trusted supplier.

Part 9: Ben and Ewan re-cap the day, frustrated at how confusing mobile security is for consumers and wondering what mobile operators and platform makers should be doing better.

James May getting the DigiCave treatment

James May from Top Gear is, I think we can all agree, a Top Chap.

I very much enjoy his sensible analysis and infectious enthusiasm on Top Gear — but he’s also done a lot of other shows on a multitude of subjects (e.g. James May On The Moon, James May On The Edge of Space). He’s a useful guide to anything to do with technology.

Which is why The Science Museum has launched an app based around James. It’s one of the most advanced applications of augmented reality I’ve seen: The underlying technology (Qualcomm’s Vuforia) has been combined with some astonishing visual effects to make James appear out of thin air at each featured exhibit.

The concept is this: Go to the Science Museum in London. Download the app (£1.99) from either the iTunes or Google Play store. Walk up to one of the 9 featured exhibits. Point your phone at the plinth whilst running the app and — boom — up pops a fantastically accurate nigh-on photo-realistic version of James May who proceeds to give you a witty, knowledgeable overview of the exhibit. (You can also use the app at home too!)

I had ‘hands on’ with this the app at the Science Museum a few weeks ago and I have to say I found it absolutely fascinating.

The team behind the app, DigiCave, have used some photo-realistic whizzbang goodness to make it look like James is standing right in front of you chatting away. It really does look like a video of him. It’s only if you look incredibly close you’ll see it’s actually a 3D-composite whose lips and mannerisms move along with the audio. This means that in terms of scale, the only thing the team would need to do to ‘turn on’ more exhibits is to record the audio from James. That’s a heck of a lot easier than creating a full HD video for each exhibit.

The key point is engagement: I was thoroughly engaged. Indeed, on witnessing this service, I was immediately moved to declare the old bog standard audio guides so popular today as last century. Who wants to listen to some dry nobody when you can have James May tell you all about it?

I’d like to see the Science Museum offer a fully augmented James May guide. I think we’d see a lot more engagement from both adults and children with this kind of approach — and hopefully, in a few months, we’ll get an update from DigiCave, publishers ICN and The Science Museum on how things are going.

Now then, how did DigiCave create such a lifelike James May avatar? Simple. They hooked up 36x 12-megapixel SLRs in a 360-circle and took photos of James continually. Very cool. Simply brilliant — I’ve no doubt the DigiCave folk will be getting a lot of phone calls from other parties interested in using their technology to do similar things.

Pick up the app from iTunes or Google Play.

Find out more from The Science Museum’s product page.

You can see what it looks like from these screenshots and photos I took:

Hopefully you should be able to visit the URL directly — but if not, search LinkedIn for “Head of Mobile Technology”. Here’s a brief overview:

We have an exciting opportunity for a senior manager in the role of Head of Mobile Technology, to lead a new team within the recently created Technology Trends and Mobile team, within our Technology Services business at The Royal Bank of Scotland Group

Business Services is the backbone of the Group, providing a diverse range of high quality services to the customer-facing operations within the Group. Business services includes; Technology Services, Group Operations, Group Property, Security and Risk, and Procurement.

Technology Services sits within our Business Services Division. Business Services is the backbone of the Group, providing a diverse range of of high quality services to the customer-facing operations within the Group. Technology Services have created a UK based Technology Solutions centre in Edinburgh with a smaller facility in London which showcases how the Bank could operate in the future, with the Solutions environment allowing employees, vendors and business teams to work together to prototype solutions, enabling the Bank to operate more efficiently and cost effectively.

As the Head of Mobile Technology, you’ll manage one of the most innovative and growing mobile technology infrastructures in Europe. The Group currently has a diverse mobile platform, covering multiple customer facing business units, with many aspects of the platform being leading edge in terms of technology deployment and use. In this senior management position you’ll operate at a strategic level, acting as a mobile platform expert, with a strong handle on the future of the market, and the direction for the Group in this arena. Leveraging the capability of the technology solutions centre and working closely with colleagues in the Integrated Architecture team (who look at market trends etc) you’ll formulate a clear plan as to what various customers within the Group require in terms of the mobile platform. Your team will comprise of Solutions Consultants, who’ll formulate the design, and Project Managers who will support delivery into the business.

Naji El-Arifi is Technical Product Manager at Somo Agency, one of the leading interactive mobile agencies around at the moment. I regularly use one of their creations — the Domino’s Pizza iPad app — way more often than I should. It’s far too easy to order and get the transaction done. A testament to their capabilities.

As a key player in the mobile developer ecosystem, it’s no surprise that Somo’s Naji was on-site during the much feted Samsung Galaxy S3 launch last week. He’s one of the first to get an S3 to actually use on-going.

So what were his first his first impressions? Let’s find out. First, as a reminder, here are the key specs:

+ 4.8in 1280×720 306ppi HD super AMOLED
+ Quad core 1.4 Samsung CPU
+ 16GB 32GB expandable via micro SD up to 64
+ S-voice
+ 8MP camera
+ Notification light
+ New All share capabilities

Now over to Naji:

- – - – -

So the Samsung S3 just launched and for me, it will be the best phone on the market. They have managed to put a larger screen and bigger battery into a device that is thinner, but about the same height and width as the last one.

It has a gorgeous 4.8in 1280×720 resolution screen with a 306ppi. The ppi doesn’t seem that high but looking at the device, the last thing you notice is the pixels. And yes it is PenTile, that’s what helps them make it so thin, but the resolution is high enough that you won’t really notice.

The design of the exterior is just beautiful. Its new hyper glaze backing, as opposed to the cheap feeling plastic of previous versions, makes it feel much more premium. But you can still remove the back and replace the battery if you need to.

The user experience is lag free and smooth as silk. After a day of testing, the phone seemed to be a powerhouse. One example of this, and a really useful feature, is being able to play HD video in the bottom corner while still being able to use your phone to send emails and messages. If you’re interested in benchmarks, the S3 gets well over 6,000 in quadrant.

There are a fair few small, but significant changes to the user interface, my favourite is the addition of battery percentage in the notification area next to the battery. S-Voice worked really well, in spite of the crowds at the launch event. It uses natural recognition, like Apple’s Siri, but should be better at searches local to the UK.

They are making good use of voice/face combination to ensure unlock can not be performed by anyone other than the phone’s owner. Time out is also smarter, taking a photo just before it goes to sleep, to check to see if you are still looking at the screen.

In summary then: Smarter, faster and I think better than the iPhone!

- – - – -

Naji, thank you very much indeed. I look forward to your perspective in a little while to see how the phone’s performed over the week!