EML Wildfire Tech PR Blog

Strong Evolving Technology + Widely Adopted Standard = Opportunity to Innovate

I’ve blogged previously both on the question of innovation and on the need for standardisation. A solid and widely adopted technology gives a perfect platform for innovative new technologies to be developed quickly and easily –a standard provides this base.

The established installed base of billions of Bluetooth devices in the market is one such platform. I blogged earlier this year about the relative pace of wireless innovation, and significant hardware innovations provide the foundation for more rapid innovations, which might be in software. But equally, the flood of innovations might come from the hardware systems or end products designed around the core technology.

For over 10 years I worked with CSR, the very successful British company that made Bluetooth work in a type of integrated chip technology called CMOS, which others said couldn’t be used for a wireless radio.…

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In his report on the new Nokia 925 handset earlier this week, the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones highlighted that wireless charging has been removed from the new Nokia 925 – though this feature will be available via an add-on cover. The logic was that this was to make the phone slimmer. If wireless charging was deemed to be a must-have feature in modern smartphones, then I would argue that dropping support in exchange for just a couple of millimetres might have been a bigger issue.

Also known as inductive charging, the advantages of wireless charging simply in terms of convenience are obvious; no fiddling around with plugging power cables into the handset. Industry leading mobile tech giant Qualcomm is putting its weight behind the initiative and is particularly keen to address one of the barriers to its wider adoption: wireless charging is still only possible when the device is placed on a mains powered charging pad.…

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4G – it’s like 3G, but faster

It’s safe to say any tech PR types hoping to send out mobile news today would have spent the morning swearing – if you’ve managed to miss it, Ofcom has announced the results of the 4G Spectrum auction.

For the most part it’s as expected; the big operators got in on the deal, but there’s a new entrant with BT – likely to use its allocation to supplement mobile broadband services.

There’s a lot of decent write-ups out there already and you’re on a PR blog after all, so I won’t go into the finer points, but what does this mean for us telecoms PR types?

Well the 4G story has been around for a while now, but the main challenges faced by the operators are rolling out their new networks – and then making sure they deliver on what people expect.

I’ve already written about how 4G should give operators the chance to change how they charge, with OTT services (Over the top – think video and extra content on top of the basic voice and data) having a big role to play here.…

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Yesterday Ofcom released ‘The Consumer Experience 2012,’ its annual report into the consumer experience of the fixed and mobile, internet and digital broadcasting markets.

The link to the full report is here – it’s over 140 pages so not light reading. The good news is that we’ve read it so you don’t have to. Well, most of it, we do have social lives you know.

The report covers a surprisingly broad range of areas, for instance did you know that to complain about the postal service you go to Ofcom? Me neither (HT @nifs).

Some of the conclusions won’t come as a surprise – that mobile data is still on the rise along with smartphone ownership and that email is replacing posted mail for example, but the report is well worth a read and does go into a good amount of detail in each of the areas it covers.…

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Imagine that you’re running a business. The majority of the products cost you anything up to £400 a go and the government wants several £billion to let you deliver the service, ignoring the infrastructure and running costs you’ve got to factor in as well. Then imagine you give the products away for free and charge customers £30 a month to try and make it back.

Mad right?

But this is what mobile operators have been doing for years.

Now I’m not suggesting mobile operators are charity cases struggling to make ends meet, but one of the big themes from the recent HetNet conference (and plenty of others) is that the pricing model needs to change. Something that is already starting to happen with data caps, Wi-Fi charges and information capture forms on previously free services.

Taking away the toys

However this hasn’t been going down well with the subscribers. People don’t want to pay for things they’ve always got for free.…

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