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Apple to drive mobile gaming sales, says research

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ipodtouch.jpgWind back a few years and no-one would have named Apple as being influential in the gaming sphere. Mind you, no-one would have betted on them having a world class mobile phone, either.

Now, research from DFC Intelligence suggests that it’s Apple that could help to drive the mobile game market to $11.7bn annual sales by 2014.

Though they suggest that the likes of Nintendo and Sony will still lead the market, they say that these companies have peaked, while Apple’s platforms will be responsible for the bulk of market growth over the next five years. [Read more…]

Originally posted on October 23, 2009 @ 8:37 am

Social media is so addictive it’s turned on after sex

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While it’s not surprising to discover that many people can’t live without their daily dose of social networking sites, some interesting statistics have emerged from the latest study by the consumer electronics shopping site Retrevo.com.

Where 56% of those who took part in the survey said they checked Facebook between one and ten times, over a quarter checked in over ten times each day.

retrevo-social-media-graph

One in three under-35s texts, tweets or uses Facebook straight after sex, compared to just 8% of over−35s, while two-thirds of under-35s don’t have any problem using these services at work.

[Read more…]

Originally posted on October 13, 2009 @ 11:13 am

Shazam music discovery service comes to O2 UK customers

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shazam-logoO2 may still be reeling from its recent loss, but it’s not resting on its laurels, and has partnered with the Shazam music discovery service, finding a new way to make money from its impatient customers.

Some smartphones already have Shazam as an application, so no worries for those users who desperately need to know what that song is, but for those on O2 with lesser handsets, they can now call the 2580 short code, hold their cellphone’s microphone to the source of the music for a few seconds, and then have details of the song texted back to them via SMS. [Read more…]

Originally posted on September 29, 2009 @ 7:28 am

Nokia acquires Dopplr mobile travel service

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dopplr_logoNokia has announced another acquisition in its push to deploy useful mobile services for its cellphone users.

Dopplr is a service that allows travellers to share their personal and business travel plans privately with selected networks, as well as gleaning information about good places to stay, eat and explore in various worldwide cities.

Though the press announcement is shortened to-the-point, this is no doubt a useful service that could tie in well with other services such as Maps, Plazes and Navteq.

Nokia insists that the current experience for Dopplr users won’t change. I expect there’ll be some interesting ongoing development to get Dopplr functionality into Nokia phone software. It could see the expansion of the seven-strong London/Helsinki-based company.

Originally posted on September 28, 2009 @ 8:31 am

Vodafone UK also gets the iPhone. Let the bun fight commence!

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3g-iphoneGreat news for those who favour competition in the mobile marketplace — Vodafone UK will sell the iPhone alongside Orange and, of course, O2.

Again, the details are sketchy. All we’re told is that the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S will be available in the UK and Ireland “in early 2010”. That’s possibly a few months later than Orange will be releasing it, though we don’t have any juicy details yet.

Vodafone has had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the iPhone, with successive CEOs either praising or dismissing the handset. Nevertheless, you can be sure Vodafone is pleased to get a share of iPhone action in the UK’s competitive mobile space.

So, come early next year we could see a real price and deals war going on in the UK. About time, too.

Will we hear a similar announcement from T-Mobile in the next few days? It’s possible.

Originally posted on September 29, 2009 @ 6:03 am