Andy Marrs joins in newly created role, tasked with identifying future industry trends

O2 Media has appointed Andy Marrs as marketing insights manager in a newly created role.

Marrs (pictured) will work closely with key mobile industry bodies and analyst houses to determine and understand future industry trends and market sizes, reporting back to O2 Media, its clients and partners.

He had worked at consumer magazine publisher IPC Media for seven years as head of insight audiences before joining O2 Media. There he was responsible for the management and delivery of consumer, brand and market insight to support the firm’s portfolio of multimedia brands.

O2 Media launched in March 2008. It’s permission-based messaging service O2 More, which offers O2 customers special promotions such as gig tickets via text message, had over six million customers as of November 2011.

O2 Media head of planning Charlie Hunter-Schyff said: “The whole philosophy and vision for O2 Media is to provide insight into consumer behaviour through the best data possible, so we can gain the consumers’ attention and prompt a response.

“In order to keep our business relevant and leading edge we need to understand industry trends that can help drive innovation and Andy will play a key role in determining the shape of our product roadmap.”

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Retailer secures lead on third handset to result from partnership between Korean manufacturer and Italian fashion house

Phones 4U will be the first UK stockist of the new Prada-branded LG’s 3.0 smartphone from tomorrow (Friday January 27).

The device is the third handset released as a result of the partnership between LG and fashion house Prada.

The first LG Prada device was released in 2007.

The 8.5mm thick PRADA phone has an 8MP camera, a 1GHz dual-core processor and up to 8GB of internal memory.

The device comes with a leather back and Prada-branded packaging and headphones.

The LG Prada 3.0 runs a specially modified version of Android Gingerbread 2.3 with a black, white and grey user interface.

Phones 4U is offering customers who buy the device before the end of February 12 months free Wi-Fi from the more than 6,000 The Cloud Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK.

Phones 4u chief commercial officer said Scott Hooton: “Our customers value their mobile phones highly, and so seek not only a powerhouse of technology, but aspirational design also.

“The PRADA phone by LG 3.0 delivers on both fronts, and we’re excited to be putting it into the hands of our customers before anyone else.”

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Manufacturer makes massive loss both last year and in Q4 2011 but CEO Stephen Elop insists the three month period “marked a significant step in Nokia’s transformation”

Nokia made a loss of £900 million last year, with losses totalling £799 million in the final quarter of 2011.

The loss last year followed a £1.7 billion profit in 2010. Nokia had made a profit of £742 million in the same quarter in 2010.

Sales fell from £35.6 billion in 2010 to £32.4 billion last year, and decreased 21 per cent year-on-year to just over £8.39 billion million in Q4. However this figure was up 11 per cent from the pervious quarter.

Within its devices and services division, sales fell to £20.1 billion last year from £24.4 billion the previous year. They also fell year-on-year in Q4, from £7.13 billion to £5 billion but that was an increase of 11 per cent from Q3.

Sales of smartphones also slumped last year to £9.07 billion from £12.47 billion in 2010, and fell 38 per cent year-on-year in Q4 to £2.3 billion. This was an increase of 17 per cent from the previous quarter.

Within this division, it made a profit of £741 million last year, down from the  £2.9 billion profit made in 2010. Profits in this area were also down 81 per cent year-on-year to £170 million in the quarter.

Nokia shipped 77.3 million smartphones last year, down from the 103.6 million shipped in 2010. Smartphone shipments also fell 31 per cent to 19.6 million compared to the same three month period in 2010. Again, this was still a rise from the previous quarter, this time of 17 per cent.

Nokia also announced that it has sold well over smartphones globally since it first went on sale on November 16.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop (pictured) said: “The fourth quarter of 2011 marked a significant step in Nokia’s transformation. Most notably, in Q4 we introduced new mobile phones and smartphones, which resulted from the strategy shift in our Devices & Services business.

“In the war of ecosystems, clearly there are some strong contenders already on the field. And with Lumia, we have demonstrated that we belong on the field.  Our specific intent has been to establish a beachhead in this war of ecosystems, and country by country that is what we are now accomplishing.

“And, while we progressed in the right direction in 2011, we still have a tremendous amount to accomplish in 2012, and thus, it is my assessment that we are in the heart of our transition.”

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Vodafone begins stocking BlackBerry 9790 for £31,24 per month on a 24 month plan

Vodafone has begun stocking the BlackBerry Bold 9790 for £31,24 per month on a 24 month contract.

The handset (pictured) runs on the BlackBerry 7 operating system, has a 1Ghz processor and 8GB of internal memory.

It has a five megapixel camera JM-1 lithium battery that BlackBerry owner RIM says provides 5.2 hours of talk time and 18 days of standby time.

The Vodafone deal will give customers 600 minutes of talk time, 500MB of data usage and unlimited texts.

All customers purchasing the device will be legible for the operators Red Box service, which transfer data from their old phone to the Bold 9790.

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Manufacturer appoints vice president, chief marketing officer of lastminute.com to head up its European marketing operations

Nokia has appointed Mark Newton as European marketing vice president. He begins his role on March 1, and will report to Nokia marketplace activation global senior vice president Charmaine Eggberry.

Newton will be responsible for ensuring Nokia delivers against its regional marketing plan, and also providing coaching and guidance to the European functional areas.

He joins from consumer direct travel services provider Travelocity, where he was VP, chief marketing officer for lastminute.com for two-and-a-half years. Prior to that he was VP, international digital at American Express for five years.

Eggberry said: “Mark brings significant international marketing experience to Nokia. We expect him to oversee and increase in our engagement with consumers and other stakeholders across Europe.”

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The Carphone Warehouse announces BlackBerry Playbook’s will be cut by up to 58 per cent until February 7

The Carphone Warehouse has cut the cost of BlackBerry PlayBook’s by up to 58 per cent until February 7.

The retailer has reduced the 16GB device from £399 to £169 and the 32GB device from £479 to £199. Both are reductions of 58 per cent.

It has also cut the cost of the 64GB PlayBook by 55 per cent from £559 to £249.

Other retailers including Amazon took similar action on the PlayBook earlier this month.

The Carphone Warehouse chief commercial officer Graham Stapleton said the decision to reduce the tablets had been made to “remain competitive”.

“The tablet market is growing dramatically and we are working to meet that demand with competitive prices across both our tablet and handset portfolios,” Stapleton said.

“The BlackBerry PlayBook has already been extremely popular and we expect with this promotion there will be even more interest.”

The Carphone Warehouse’s announcement comes after distributor Data Select announced it would be cutting the price of BlackBerry PlayBook’s (pictured) price from £317 to £199.

Data Select has also extended its free BlackBerry Playbook offer until the end of the month. The incentive sees dealers receiving a free Playbook when purchasing 10 or more BlackBerry handsets on Vodafone. Eligible handsets include the 9800,9810 and 9860.

BlackBerry’s parent company Research in Motion (RIM) announced earlier this week co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have both stood down, handing the reins to chief operating officer Thorsten Heins who will also become RIM president.

The change follows months of pressure from shareholders who argued RIM needed a new management structure to keep up with rivals such as Apple and Google.

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Operator offers to share good practice with other forces following report which says that majority of forces have failed to take advantage of money to give officers BlackBerrys and other devices

Vodafone has defended its record of providing UK police forces with BlackBerrys and other mobile devices following a National Audit Office (NAO) report which claimed that much of the £80 million spent since 2007 on giving officers the technology had been wasted.

The NAO report said that the Mobile Information Programme, which resulted in more than 41,000 devices from a range of operators being rolled out to forces by March 2011, had provided only a basic improvement in performance with only one in five forces using devices effectively.

The report said that the rollout had also only provided limited cash savings.

The NAO also criticised the failure of the National Policing Improvement Agency to take into account how forces would use the devices when setting out frameworks for buying in the devices.

Vodafone said that it had successfully helped a number of forces to buy and use devices effectively, and offered to share its experiences with other forces around the UK.

A spokesperson said: “We agree with the NAO on the importance of a comprehensive procurement process, which takes into account the actual needs of the police force rather than merely setting arbitrary targets and deadlines for the number of devices being used.

“The NAO also highlights the need for sufficient funding to ensure that the officers who need access to mobile technology to do their job more effectively, actually get it.

“Vodafone UK is already working closely with a number of police forces across the UK to help them make best use of mobile technology in the most cost effective way possible, to ensure the greatest benefit to the local communities.

“It’s crucial that police forces team up with a communications provider willing to work in close partnership with them in order to fully understand their challenges, local area, processes and systems.

“Last year’s National Police Framework Agreement set a new standard for the procurement and deployment of mobile technology and is open to all law enforcement agencies.

“The framework was announced by the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) with Vodafone selected as the national framework provider for mobile services. It paves the way for UK police forces to continue to improve productivity, drive efficiencies and reduce costs.

“We would be very happy to discuss with the NAO both the framework and our experience of delivering the benefits of mobile technology to police forces in England and Wales.”

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The LG Optimus Sol E730 smartphone packs a 3.8-inch touchscreen WVGA Ultra AMOLED display, a 5MP rear-facing camera with 720p video recording, a front-facing VGA camera, GPS, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, and a 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery.
As entertainment features, new Optimus Sol handset is brings Dolby 5.1 audio and DLNA technology.

source form: mobileinfos

Samsung Wave Y La Fleur edition smartphone sports an 832MHz processor, 150MB of internal memory, microSD card support (up to 32GB), and runs bada 2.0 OS.
The Wave Y La Fleur smartphone has 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen display with resolution of 320 x 480 pixels, a 2MP rear camera, A-GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n.
Dimensions of Samsung Wave Y La Fleur are 110 x 58.2 x 12.3 mm and weighs 102.4 grams.

source form: mobileinfos

New Samsung Galaxy Xtreme aka Galaxy Xcover Extreme is boasts an 800MHz Marvell MG2 processor, 512MB of RAM, 150MB of internal storage, a microSD card slot (up to 32GB), and runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS.
Samsung Galaxy Xtreme S5690 rugged handset packs a 3.6-inch multi-touch Gorilla Gl

source form: mobileinfos