How to find a new mobile phone

For those who are looking for a new mobile phone, it can be very overwhelming.

Buying a mobile phone should be easy and simple. With the rise of smart phones, this is no longer the case.

I am looking for a new mobile phone, I have a 2 year old Samsung mobile phone which is unheard of. I do not want to spend more than 25 pounds a month but I would like to have at least 300 minutes and 500GB of data download. I will share with you my quest for the ideal mobile phone:

1) Vodafone
I started my mobile phone journey with Vodafone as I have been with them for over 10 years (although I have never received any loyalty points or benefits from being such a loyal customer)
.
I do not want to be on a 24 or 18 month contract. That is too long. I switched to a SIM only contract with Vodafone in November and my bills have not been more than 25 pounds. So what can I get with my money?

BlackBerry: BlackBerry Curve 8520, Curve 3G 9300,
HTC: the HTC Wildfire only
LG: LG Cookie,
There are a number of Nokia phones on PAYG
Nokia 6700 Slide, 7230, C1-01, C2-01, C3-01, C5-03.
I can get 6 Samsung phones , C330, Ch@t 335 E1150, E2550 and the Galaxy Mini. I can get just 2 Sony Ericsson phones, the Spiro and the X10Mini Pro.

All of the Vodafone phones are available on PAYG.

Mobile phone operators

(source – flickr.com/photos/marksunderland/4543099719/)

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Apple iPhone 4 sells out – supply outstrips demand

I read in the metro on Friday that Apple sold 600,000 pre orders of its new iPhone 4 in one day which crashed their website. And now they say if you have not pre ordered the iPhone 4, you will not get it before July 14th.

iPhone 4

I wonder did Apple do this on purpose? They knew there was going to be a huge number of people signing up for the iPhone 4, they could have made more ready. Lets see how the other mobile phone operators are reacting to the news.

O2 are ranking number 4 for the term “iphone 4″ and it immediately takes you to the page which clearly describes O2′s response to a shortage of handsets. They are saying that only those O2 customers can get the iPhone 4 and then after July 4th, it will be available for non customers. I registered my interest for the new handset and I have been receiving emails with a count down of when I can go and buy the iPhone. This was a nice touch as it lets customers stay excited about the launch.

There was no place to register my interest on the Vodafone site. They also do not mention anything regarding an iPhone shortage, does this mean they will have enough when they become available in their stores? Their site has no new content about the iPhone 4, simply an overlay which appears to be from Apple and sits on the old Vodafone iphone URL.

I registered my interest on the Orange site who sent me an email a week ago letting me know when the iPhone 4 would be available. On their website, like Vodafone, there was no mention of an iPhone shortage, simply a detailed breakdown of their price plan. Orange are the only UK network to reveal their prices for the handset and the tariffs. Prices range from £169 for the 16GB handset on the cheapest £30 per month two year contract, to free for the 16GB model on a £75 per month two year deal.

I am sure demand will only increase once Vodafone and O2 announce their deals. Lets just hope not too many customers switch from O2 since their capped data usage was announced.

Sony Ericsson Satio on Orange, Vodafone and O2

The world’s first 12mp camera phone is now available on Orange, O2 and Vodafone.

The first 12mp camera

There has been a lot of hype and publicity around Sony Ericsson’s first touch screen phone. It has to an incredible 12.1 Megapixel sensor, Autofocus, touch focus and a Xenon flash. It delivers top quality photographs, so you never need to take a separate camera out again.

It is a true multimedia phone. It has a built in 3.5 inch touchscreen and has Wi-Fi connectivity for high speed web browsing. As well as GPS for SatNave and support for music and video file formats.

It is avaible on Vodafone, Orange and O2. Vodafone are giving the Satio away for free but requires at least a £35 a month on a 24 month contract or a more expensive plan on a shorter 18-month contract.

However, now tha the phone has been out for a couple weeks, it has been getting some negative reviews from customers. A lot of reviews have mentioned poor battery power and the phone freezing. Some also say the exterior looks too plastic.But despite some of these poor comments, we still have to give credit to Sony Ericsson for its first Symbian S60 smartphone, it normally releases J2ME phones.

For more information, have a read of the following:

http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/sony-ericsson-idou.htm

http://www.cnet.com.au/sony-ericsson-satio-339295076.htm

http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/10/12/four.touchscreen.phones.hit.vodafone.uk/

More to be added shortly…

Palm Pre in the UK

One of the most anticipated phones, the Palm Pre, only available on O2, finally launched on Friday October 16th. In a statement yesterday, the company said it sold more Palm Pre handsets on Friday than the number of regular handsets they sell on an average day.

For those that have missed the hype about the Palm pre, I will give a few points as to why this phone has created so much stir:
- For one thing it is smaller than the iPhone with a tiny keyword aswell as the touchscreen.
- You can have more than one application running at the same time which is not the same as the iPhone.
- There will be an app store for the Palm Pre but you can still load other apps and buy them over the air from the Palm app store.
- It is the first device to run on Palm’s new Web OS operating system and as it smaller than the iPhone it is not as clunky and easily fits into your pocket

What is also new with this phone is that you can charge the handset by placing it on an electromagnetic induction pad instead of plugging it in a cable.

Palm Pre is only available on O2 on contracts from 30 pounds a month plus 90pounds for the phone. Those on 24 month contracts can get the phone for free.

It seems awfully convenient that at a time when O2′s exclusivity for the iPhone has come to an end, they bring out the Palm Pre. It will be interesting to see how the smart phone market reacts to such a new handset. Feel free to comment for those that have bought one.

Have a look at this interview on the BBC with the CEO of O2 and the CEO of Palm

iPhone for all

When O2 signed the exclusive deal to have the iPhone on just their network, little did they know how popular it would become. It has led to more than triple number of customers coming into the O2 shops, within the first two months of the launch of the first iPhone. However, this exclusitivity will end in October this year and Orange and T Mobile as well as Vodafone are set to have their own iPhone deals. Elsewhere around the world, the iPhone is and has always been available on other networks.

I am interested to see what deals these network providers will give us customers. I think the iPhone is still expensive, the cheapest package has to be with the 8GB iPhone and still costs just under 45 pounds a month for 1200 minutes and 500 texts.The 8GB iphone comes free, but everyone is now raving about the iPhone 3GS which some say will not be available on other networks.

The iPhone should be available in Orange shops from at the earliest end of next month. So, there is another reason to join the Orange network. Not only will you get your 2 4 1 on cinema tickets and great deals at pizza express you can get your new iPhone. Ofcourse nothing has been finalised with the mobile operators and therefore they do not know exactly when or how much their new iPhone deals will be. But one thing is for sure…. O2 no longer have the exclusitivity and will therefore need to work even harder to keep their customers.

O2… see what they can do.

Who is the leading network provider in the UK?

I have decided to add more to the mobile technology section of this blog. With the increasing number of smart phones with accessing the internet, this is not an area to ignore.

This data is over a year old, but then if I want data for this year, I have to buy the report and I thought… well this is good enough for the time being. It is important to share what has been happening in the mobile market. If you all have any more recent up to date reports, please let me know.

http://www.telecomsmarketresearch.com/resources/UK_Mobile_Operator_Subscriber_Statistics.shtml

As you can see Vodafone and O2 are the leaders in the market place in the UK. O2 has been very successful since it got its hands on the exclusitivity of the iPhone. The first generation iPhone came out November 9th 2007, 5 months after it was launched in the USA. The second generation iPhone hit the market in July 2008 and the third generation came out June this year.

O2 UK sold 1 million iPhones during 2008 which has boosted revenues for Telefonica (parent company of O2) for Q4 2008. Revenues rose 10.4 percent in the fourth quarter, based on stable local exchange rates, climbing to €1.755 billion (£1.6 billion). So O2 has a lot to be thankful for. However, they are set to lose this exclusitivity October 9th this year and O2 are already starting to get their hands on other smartphone manufacturers such as the Palm Pre to make up for any exodus in customers when the exclusitivity runs out.

Source: http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-earnings-iphone-boosts-o2-uk-q4-revenues-grow-10.4-percent/

Exclusivity can have a dramatic effect on the mobile operator’s sales. According to ZDNet news, as of March this year, the G1 Android handset accounted for 20%of T-Mobile’s contract sales. The G1 was at the time, the only handset on the market to use Google’s Android software stack, which was launched exclusively on T-Mobile at the end of October 2008. And according to T-Mobile, the G1 produced the operator’s “best-selling launch of 2008″.

According to Strategy Analytics, they forecast 900% Android phone sales growth during 2009 and shipments of Apple’s iPhone will grow 79%.
The reason for the big forecast is due to Android’s low-cost licensing model, its semi-open source structure and Google’s support for cloud services. Vodafone recently launched the world’s second Android phone – the Magic May 30th this year. Smasung and Orange are also jumping on the Android bandwagon and will launch their phones by then end of the year.