3, the uk based network operator, will begin to offer the iPhone4 from Friday 30th July. Some of its stores will open as early as 7 am to meet demand.
3 will be undercutting its rivals by offerng a 16GB for an upfront cost of £99 which compares favourably to O2 and Orange who ask over £150.
Interesting news, and of course those wishing to take out mobile phone insurance can do so with insurance2go.
Vodafone put dedicated handset plan on hold
Vodafone, the international Telecoms giant based in Newbury, have decided to put on hold their plan to launch dedicated handsets tied into its 360 internet services. Instead they will concentrate on making the platform available to a wider range of handsets. This appear to make some sense as it will allow applications to be developed without the developer feeling concerned that the range of use or potential market will be limited. Many users will look to us to provide mobile phone insurance for thier new mobile and our range of policies offers good value for money on all products.
Ofcom criticise Broadband speed
Ofcom, the British Telecoms regulator, has released a report that shows that British Broadband users receive half the speed they pay for. The average UK speed advertised is 11.5 Mbps whilst the actual speed received was a little more disappointing 5.2 Mbps.
Phones4U are to extend their relationship with DSGi Group and have more store-in-stores at Currys, the electrical retailer. the first phase will see a roll out of 50 such stores in Currys’s flagship stores followed by further roll out in 2011.
The stores will be staffed by Phones4U employees, who will be fully trained as per all the company employees.
DSGi Chief Executive: John Browett said ‘The Phones4U at Currys’ trial stores have received overwelmingly positive feedback from our customers. Our new format stores offer unbeatable combination of value, choice and service, and the introduction of Phones4U branded areas at our stores represents an exciting new benefit for our customers.
The move will be watched with some interest at The Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy where the expansion of the Best Buy superstores is set to continue. Currys have a head start but Best Buy have deep pockets and an interesting battle market share is sure to follow.
To avoid shortages in stock HTC have announced that they are investing in new production capacity. The company were embarrassed by shortages that occurred earlier this year. The problem was particularly strong with the Desire model when it was launched in April backed by some serious advertising
Mobile phone recyclers to check for stolen goods
Mobile phone recyclers are to check that the handsets they are collecting, either as trade-ins or as purchases for cash for customers looking to get rid of an old handset, are not stolen. The development that includes all the main recyclers: Envirofone, Carphone, Mazuma, Virgin, 20:20 have signed up to a new code of practice.
The new code, which is voluntary, has been agreed in conjunction with the police and the Home Office. The recyclers will check that handsets against a number of databases including the National Mobile Phone Register which is managed by Recipero. According to Recipero around 100,000 handsets that are reported stolen each year are recycled. Potentially the companies offering cash for old mobiles are offering criminals an easy way to turn a stolen handset into cash. Now that the new code is in place this should if not close but significantly reduce this gap.
Crime prevention minister James Brokenshire said: ‘Tackling crime effectively is not just a job for government alone, action at all levels of society is needed to make a real difference. This new agreement is a perfect example of what this approach can achieve’.
He went onto say: ‘By joining forces with the police, the mobile phone industry is closing a multi-million pound loophole that has been exploited by criminal and the industry should be congratulated. Alongside the impressive work on blocking stolen phones, this code will make mobile phone theft an even less profitable crime.’
The blocking of handsets was introduced a number of years ago, the IMEI of a stolen handset can be added to the database of stolen equipment and the handset will then no longer be operational.
It is all part of a number of measures to reduce mobile phone crime which sadly is still with us. At insurance2go we monitor the situation closely and will always to look to offer competitive mobile phone insurance and if this means reducing the premiums if and when we can we will do so.
Vodafone attempted to settle investor unrest on Friday when they held their company shareholders meeting. The unrest is over the percieved weakness in the board since Sir John Bond joined the group as chairman in 2006.
The company is still a massive business as the following figures show:
Vodafone has 323 million subscribers. Revenues and prfits since Sir John joined have grown as per the chart below:
2006 £29.4 billion revenue, £14.1 billion loss
2007 £31.1 billion, £2.4 billion loss
2008 £35.5 billion, £9 billion profit
2009 £41 billion, £4.2 billion profit
2010 £44.5 billion, £8.7 billion profit
Oprating profit for 2009 - 10 was a tidy £9.9 biilion, £8.2 of which came from Europe, £1.1. billion from Africa and Central Europe, with a smaller £0.6 billion from the Middle East.
Other stories:
AT&T have reported an income of $4.02 billion for the quarter jusr ended up from $3.2 billion last year.
Insurance2go is insuring more handsets than ever due to the extension of contract from the standard 12 months contract to the 24 and in some cased 36 month contracts. More and more customers are signing longer and longer contract to make sure that they get a top end handset at a cheap price. This is great but it means that the handset is heavily subsidised and if something were to happed to the handset during the contract period then the customer might find themselves without a handset to use and replacing it could be very costly. As a result more and more people are looking at taking mobile phone insurance to protect their handsets.
Nokia see profits decline
Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer, have seen a 40% decline in profits for the three months ending on 30th June.
Profits were down to 227 million Euros for the period. The company has reported that gross margins are down to 30% which is a drop of a staggering 34% from the same period last year.
This is all happened during a period when the sales of handsets actually grew by 3%. In Europe handset sales grew by 1%, globally volumes increased by 8%.
Nokia’s market share worldwide is now around 33% down 2% from 35% in the second quarter of 2009.
The handset manufacturer has been hit hard by the competition in the Smartphone market, from amongst others Apple and their now legendary iPhone. It is hoped that the launch of the Nokia N8, the company’s first Symbian3 device, will bring back some much needed revenue. CEO Olli-Pekka-Lallasvuo said that the handset and further Symbian3 devices would ‘kick-start Nokia’s fightback at the higher end of the market’.
Naturally, insurance2go.co.uk are always happy to provide mobile phone insurance on all devices including those offered by Nokia.
Nokia originally began life making paper goods including toilet paper until they had a change in direction and moved into TVs and mobile phones. A good move, the company has been the largest selling mobile phone manufacturer for a long time. The reputation of the company was based on classics such as the Nokia 101 analogue mobile and the Nokia 2110 GSM handset that was incredibly popular in the mid 1990s.
www.insurance2go.co.uk are delighted that the response to the new laptop insurance pricing released recently has been so positive. The pricing is hugely competitive and allows customers the chance of covering their laptops or PCs with a comprehensive policy at the same great value as with the mobile phone insurance offered by the company:
To insure a £500 laptop costs just: £32.50 for 12 months cover.
To insure a £700 laptop costs just: £45.50 for 12 months cover.
The company recent added iPad cover to their potfoilio to allow the masses of people buying the new iPad to cover theirs at great value.
Insurance2go has been successfully trading for over 5 years offering great value insurance on loads of products that customers carry around with them outside the home.
Asda, the supermarket giant, are set to open their own mobile phone stores offering as wide a range of networks as possible. The company is ending the relationship with Orange, who had a number of concessions within Asda stores. The news is something of a turnaround after initial reports said that the Orange Concessions had been a success and both parties we looking to roll out further concessions across Asda’s portfolio of stores across the country.
The new Asda communication stores will offer both Prepaid services and Contract sales. It is thought that the initial roll out will take place in the 36 Asda Superstores with more opening in the remaining 320 stores across the country.
The move follows Tesco who are pushing their own mobile and telecoms stores widely
Asda will look to offer a wide range of network operators to compete as strongly as possible with Tesco and to a degree Carphone Warehouse.
It will be interesting to see if they offer their own mobile phone insurance, naturally all customers are more than welcome at www.insurance2go.co.uk if they wish to protect their handset.
Vodfaone chairman under fire.
Investors and shareholders are putting pressure on the chairman of Vodafone – Sir John Bond after what they see has been a disappointing period since the departure of Arun Sarin.
Sir John took over as chairman of Vodafone, the world biggest mobile phone operator, in 2006 after the departure of Arun Sarin. One significant investor said ‘Something has to give. It’s a large, reasonably dysfunctional board and, clearly, strategically the company is not delivering.’ He went on to say ‘The company is doing a better in terms of focusing on value and sweating existing assts rather than just making acquisitions. But there has been a massive destruction of value.
RIM hit back at Apple
RIM the makers of Blackberry handsets have hit back at claims from Apple that all Smartphones experience similar reception problems as the iPhone4. Last week, Apple were forced, due to growing criticism, to hold a press conference where they said that all iPhone4 users would be given a band that would help improve reception. At this conference, which was hosted by Steve Jobs, he said that most or all smartphones experience poor reception at times.
In a joint statement from RIM, its co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie said: ‘Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation.’
Shebang to walk away from Tesco deal
Shebang, the mobile distributor, have announced that they have served notice to Tesco to walk away from their £20 million supply contract deal. The firm said the decision was down to lack of profitability and a lack of collaboration in developing contact sales.
Shebang managing director Iain Humphrey said: “It is a major contract, and was a significant win for us at the time. But, from our experience, we do not believe it has offered us sufficient value, and we do not consider Tesco to understand the value supply partners bring, nor share in the reward with them. There is a transition period now of 90 days to ensure Tesco’s business is not interrupted.
“We will remodel the Shebang business without Tesco. Low-margin turnover is not our goal. We want profitable business, and to work with our customers in a real partnership arrangement that utilises our logistics expertise, so we both win from the relationship.”
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