Mobile Phone Insurance News

At Insurance2go it is our duty to once in a while point out the new bits of kit that have recently hit the shelves. So here goes with some recent beautues.

The HTC Touch 2 has Microsoft’s operating system, Windows mobile 6.5. It has superfast 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS. It is brilliantly set up for the user to customise their handset the way they want it. Looks good aswell.

Samsung launched the Omnia Lite in time for Christmas. Very stylish with a great looking 3 inch screen. Another new mobile phone boasting Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.5. The camera has ’smile’ recognition and panorama mode.

Sony Ericsson launched the Satio will have a staggering 12.1 MP camera and be perfect for accessing social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. 

Samsung are bringing the S9110 Watch Phone to the market sometime very
soon, it incorporates voice commands, steroe bluetooth, and a high
resolution screen. Very flash, very James Bond. The only issue is
whether or not people willl think you’re mad talking into your wrist.

Look out for the new Google Nexus One phone which will be launching in the UK properly in the Spring. It promises to be a cracking handset and maybe even the first to really take on the iPhone. Early reports suggest a faster operating system despite a smaller casing.

As always Insurance2go will be offering insurance on all these new handsets to make sure you’re protected.

The mobile operator 3 has recently erected its 10,000 mast. the location for this landmark event was Shooters Hill, London. The network now claims to cover 93% of the population.

Orange angered 3 recently with claims in their adverts that they had the largest network of all the operators when they only had 7,500 masts. 3 even took the case to the advertising regulator. Orange responded by saying ‘It isn’t how many masts you have it’s where you stick them that counts’.

There is a race amongst the UKs network operators to get a deal in place with Apple to supply the 3G version of the iPad when it launches in the UK in the Spring. Nearly all the networks were keeping quiet yesterday but the Times was reporting that a source had revealed to them that Orange are in discussions already.

Traffic speeds could be monitored by looking at data gathered from mobile phones by cross referencing the location, movement, speed of movement and the direction. Makes sense as this would provide an easy source of this data. However, there are worries over civil liberties and big brother ‘eye in the sky’ intrusions.

The count down is on before the launch of a brand new mobile phone insurance product from the parent company of Insurance2go. Launch date is panned for end of February.

Motorola have annonced that they expect to sell between 11 - 14 million sartphones in 2010, the news comes at the same time they announced a welcome return to profits in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Microsoft have reported second quarter profits up 60% - a very impressive figures. Sales of Windows 7 boosted the companies fortunes.

Nokia have reported that they shipped 127 million handsets in the fourth quarter of 2009. They feel that their Smartphone marketshare is now at 40%. This is all great news for the manufacturer who reported a 65% rise in profits for the fourth quarter.

Fujistu alledgedly took out a trademark for the name ‘iPad’ in 2003. Houston we have a problem. Could be good for the lawyers. See a rush now for people to register names that might be of interest to Apple in the future: iMachine, iWalk, iSketch, iDon’tcare etc etc.

Citymain, the insurance administrator who specialise in the administration of mobile phone insurance schemes, have purchased Burnetts for an undisclosed amount. Burnetts are specilaists in printing machinary insurance and laptop insurance providing a number of synergies.

KCom the Hull based Telecoms group have won a five year deal with Phones4U the mobile retailer to supply managed services.

A joke for Friday: “Free iPad for all iPhone users - simply hold your iPhone really close to your face.”

T-Mobile - T-Mobile the mobile phone company owned by Deutsche Telecom has warned that the merger with Orange would be held up until 2011. They fear that this might happen if British regulators take control of the review of the deal. A spokesman for T-Mobile said that European regulators would probably clear the deal by the end of February this year.

3 - The mobile phone company 3 has announced that it has installed its 10,000th 3g mast in Britain and wants to add another 3000 to that figure by the end of 2010. It now reckons it covers 93% of the UK population with its network.

Vodafone - Mobile company Vodafone reckons it has the largest base of paying music subscribers in Europe. They claim they now have 450,000 customers signed up to their music services.

Apple launch the ipad - after much speculation we finally now know that the new product from Apple is called the ipad. Here at www.insurance2go.co.uk we are planning to offer insurance on this product and are looking forward to the launch date here in the UK.

Apple are fully expected to launch a ‘tablet’ pc today. The device which has been described as a cross between an iPhone or iTouch and a laptop will have the juices flowing of apple enthusiasts around the world.

Rumours suggest that it will have a 10 -11 inch screen, ‘multi-touch’ screen which allows seperate functions to be carried out. It will allow the user to access an emormous amount of functionality from playing games, internet access, reading newspapers daily updates, aswell as the thousands of appications written for the iPhone.

The device is likely to be called the iSlate or iPad.

Apple have a history of coming up with innovative devices some hits some misses, judging by their financial results many more hits especially the iPhone and iPod.

Here are a few of the more noteable releases:

The Macintosh 128K - initially sold for a £2,500 , it was launched in 1984 and sold well to begin with. The Mac portable was the first laptop and was portable …well technically it was, it weighed in at 16lbs.

The Newton - a digital assistant. It had very dodgy handwriting recognition, it launched in the early 1990s and lasted til 1998 before disappearing.

The Powerbook was launched in 1991 and it captured 40% of the laptop market.

The Pippin gaming console 1995. Expensive and unstable, slow and underpowered. Miss.

iMac - 1998 - brightly coloured PCs. Got Apple back on track - Big Hit.

iPod - launched 2002 and has sold more than 200 million units - enough said.

iPhone - Great looks, great applications, internet access. The mother phone.

….and todays release of the iTablet, iSlate, iPad who knows. Time will tell.

Apple have announced that profits are up 50% in the final quarter of 2009. The company made prifts of $3.38 billion in the 3 months to december 26th. The annualised revenue of the company would make them a $50 billion company.

They sold 21 million ipods in the period. An encouraging 58% of their sales we international. The year ahead looks to be promising with a launch tomorrow, widely expected to the the islate - a cross between an iTouch and a Mac book.

Streetcar - the car rental firm have announced that they have an application for iPhones that will allow customers to see where the nearest availabe car is and also to unlock it when they get there. The unlocking uses finger print recognition, the user simply brushes their finger across the screen of their iPhone when it is in the application. Good evening Mr Bond.

Insurance2go will soon be launching new mobile phone insurance products to get 2010 and the new decade underway.

The new Alcatel Tribe is in store now and Carphone have an exclusive Chrome model. The Tribe is Alcatel’s first qwerty keyboard handset.

Sony Ericsson’s first Android handset the Xperia X10 arrives soon. Featuring many high-end features including a high-speed 1Ghz processor, a four-inch touchscreen packing in 480 x 854 pixels, fast data transfer via HSPA, Wi-Fi for Internet wireless connections, a 8-megapixel camera with LED flash and WVGA video recording plus Bluetooth 2.1 and a 3.5mm headphone port.

The Motorola have announced the launch of the MOTOROI. The new phone will feature a large, 3.7in, touchscreen packing in a WVGA resolution along with fast data transfer via HSDPA and a HD facility via a HDMI socket.The handset will also include GPS for location finding, Wi-Fi for wireless Internet connections and 8GB of internal memory. A camera will be included of an excellent 8-megapixel specification along with HD recording.

Samsung will release the bada SDK soon, it is promised to be packed with goodies and amazing features

Carphone Warehouse have announced that they sold up to 200,000 pink Nokia Illuvial range handsets in the pre-Christmas period.

The Illuvial range – which includes pink variations of the 6303, 6700  and 5530 – all sold well during the period.

Carphone also claims to have sold more games consoles in the fourth quarter of 2009 than any other quarter which is not terribly surprising given that the quarter includes Christmas and Games consoles are ideal Christmas presents. They claim they took a seven per cent share of the total gaming hardware market. They believe that this made them the fourth largest retailer of games consoles in this period.

Vodafone have said that they sold 100,000 iPhones in just 8 days after the launch. The figure is pretty staggering and clearly shows that consumers love affair with the iPhone is still going strong. Watch out this year for the launch of the next iPhone which Apple will hope fends off competition from Google with their Nexus One handset and other manufacturers who will all be hoping to cash in on the huge demand for top end smartphones.

Many industry players are predicting three developments this year:

1. Continued growth of smartphone sales.

2. More convergence between mobile, fixed line services and broadband.

3. A move for retailers to be rewarded by networks on a revenue share basis. So the handsets will be more expensive initially unless the customer signs a longer contract of 24 months.

Smartphone growth should see an increase in the number of people wishing to take out mobile phone insurance given that the handsets are expensive and they will be committing to a long two year contract

Sony Ericsson has recorded a pre-tax loss of £165 million for the year end but said that its recovery plan was well underway.

The mobile phone maker which is owned by Swedish company Ericsson and Japan’s Sony reduced its losses last year and they reported that their recent cost cutting was beginning to make a difference.

The company is really hoping that the launch of its new Android smartphone will help it catch up with its main rivals Apple, Nokia, Samsung and LG.

Some handset makers suffered last year as the market contracted by 8 per cent. A spokesman for Sony Ericsson said that the company would continue to focus on returning to profitability by getting established as a communication entertainment brand based on an exciting portfolio of mid to high end products.

Insurance2go continues to be the place to come if you want your smartphone insured. We have a really straight forward policy that covers all phones for just £4.49 a month without loss or for £5.99 a month with loss. And don’t forget all customers get 3 months free insurance in the first 12 months.

Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer, is to give sat-nav applications away free to anyone with a Nokia made Smartphone.

The move will up the ante in the highly competitive smartphone market. The news will be of particular interest to users of the Apple iPhone and Google Nexus One who currently have to pay for a Sat-Nav application.  In 2009 the two biggest selling applicaitons via iTunes were CoPilot Live and TomTom’s UK & Ireland sat-nav systems despite the costs being £26.99 and £59.99 respectively.

Nokia paid $8.1 billion for Navteq in 2007 which has allowed them to make this applicaiton available.
Sony Ericsson has confirmed that it will launch its flagship X10 Android based handset in China later this year.

Bt has revealed its pricing for its superfst Broadband which it believes will tackle Virgin full on. For those covered by BTs superfast broadband the service, with speeds of up to 40 Mbps will cost £19.99 a month. The service will be launched on Monday but it will take a long time to roll out over the whole of the UK. Initially on 31 exchanges will be converted to the new fibre optic technology. BT has committed to connecting 10 million homes to the service, to be called BT Infinity, by the end of 2012.

Amazon, the US web based retail giant, has launched an MP3 applicaiton in the UK which will allow users to download over ten million songs. The handsets need to be Android based handsets.