Apple facing laggard O2 iPhone sales in UK?

Having witnessed the ridiculous hype and initial demand for the iPhone here in the States, overseas iPhone carriers are going to have a hard time matching the feverish rate of US iPhone sales. But, that didn’t stop O2 from expecting to sell/activate upwards of 100,000 handsets during the O2 iPhone’s initial launch window.

So, how did O2 fare in their initial iPhone sales? Not as well as they would have liked, apparently. “Slow” would be one way to describe iPhone sales in the UK. The Register reports that initial iPhones sales figures have yet to break 30,000 units - with 26,500 iPhones having been activated in the two weeks since the iPhone’s launch on O2. Carphone Warehouse reported sales of 11,000 units over the launch weekend. And, an unnamed source told AppleInsider that the premier Apple Store in the UK, located on Regent Street, was still working to sell the entirety of their initial iPhone stock - which was shipped to the store prior to the iPhone’s UK launch on November 9. The Regent Street Apple Store has reportedly been selling a laggardly 100 iPhone handsets per day (compare that with the LG Shine that effectively sold more than 10,000 units worldwide for every day it was on the market this past year).

TAG Heuer to launch mobile phone

Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer, part of French luxury goods group LVMH, said on Monday it had licenced its name to French customised design manufacturer Modelabs for a series of luxury mobile phones.

"The launch of the first TAG Heuer mobile telephone is foreseen for the second half of 2008," the companies said in a joint statement.

Luxury goods companies, which realised long ago their brands could be extended to more than clothes and bags, have been rushing to embrace the mobile this year.

Prada and Armani have both recently launched phones made by, respectively, LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics.

TAG CEO Christophe Babin said in the statement the launch of its eyewear line in 2002 convinced it of the wider potential of the brand, popularised in its adverts by Formula 1 drivers like Kimi Raikkonen, actor Brad Pitt and golfer Tiger Woods.

"The success of this line, already market leader in luxury eyewear, confirmed for us the potential of TAG Heuer as a brand for contemporary, technological and timeless products...such as luxury mobile phones," he said.

Source:http://www.guardian.co.uk

Free phone calls for UK mobile users

The United States is way behind when it comes to mobile phones, mobile broadband and even land line technology but our friends across the pond are finding entirely new things to do.

A new device may soon be on the market that would allow mobile phone subscribers to redirect those calls to a broadband line, almost like VOIP. In fact, exactly like VOIP except from your mobile.

That would make the phone call technically free but you would still need to buy the £100 ($206) device that makes it all possible, the femtocell. I think it could have used a better name but I can’t think of any right now.

The Telegraph reports that mobile phone companies may give the devices away so they can carve out a piece of the broadband pie for themselves. But, don’t count on it. Since when has a phone company done anything to benefit their customers (unless it was forced by the government).

Sony Ericsson concept phone with full-sized USB port

The image above does NOT present an actual phone - rather it’s a concept device designed by Vincent Palicki. I’ve no doubt Vincent is cool guy — after all he’s thinking the way (I believe) we all do. Yeah, we hate BOTH mini and micro USB ports, pop and all other cables. Why wouldn’t handset manufacturers made a device that has a standard USB port built inside. It doesn’t sound that hard, does it? .

T-Mobile forced to sell iPhone without a T-Mobile contract

Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile are to allow customers in Germany to buy Apple's iPhone without having to sign a T-Mobile contract, after rivals Vodaphone obtained a court injuction against it.
T-Mobile planed to sell the iPhone without a T-Mobile contract for 999 euros at its outlets.
The move will allow those customers in Germany who bought an iPhone since November 19th, to unlock the device free of charge so it can be used with other SIM cards.
However, that will not enable customers to make use of all the functions that the music playing Web-browsing iPhone offers.
The court's injuction prevents T-Mobile from locking iPhone's SIM to T-Mobile when making a sale

UK Mobile Phone Retailer Goes Bust

The UK based online mobile phone retailer, Phonebox Direct has filed for bankruptcy with reported debts of between £4-10 million. Phone Box had been actively marketing via the internet mobile telephones which offered cash-back inc­entives to customers, providing certain conditions were met by those customers. In a statement on the company's website, it says that the number of customers that were able to comply with the terms and conditions and hence became eligible for the cash-back payments exceeded the company's expectations. The company is therefore no longer in a position to meet its ongoing liabilities to those customers.

This is not the first time a mobile phone retailer has offered cash-back incentives to customers, then filed for bankruptcy before it was obliged to make payments to its customers. Dialamobile, another retailer following the same business model went bust a few months ago. The company was investigated by Trading Standards offices after the collapse.

Source:http://www.cellular-news.com

Sony Ericsson W910i phones recalled by Orange

The first wave of W910i’s are all being recalled by Orange. Why? Because the phone function is somehow causing the device to switch off after 10 seconds and its also not answering calls.

Well, that kinda makes a phone, well, not a phone, doesn’t it? Some people who are returning them, are getting exchanges, and then the exchanges are having the same damn problem.

Someone needs to do something, preferably Sony Ericsson, letting such a fiasco get this out of hand is ridiculous. So, I’d definitely recommend waiting to get the latest installment of Walkman line of phones
Source: http://www.slashphone.com/70/8808.html