This week in mobility – March 13th, 2015
It’s been an exciting week sailing the mobility seas! Let’s dive right in and see which news has sunk and which has stayed afloat.
It’s been a mixed week for Apple, which revealed its eagerly anticipated watch to mixed reviews (and the inevitable memes across social media). The biggest criticisms of the watch have been around its battery life, which is said to only be 24 hours, and the difficulty of manoeuvring around the watches’ interface.
In other news, BT could lose control of the national telecoms network as rivals Sky and TalkTalk call for BT to be broken up and for OpenReach to become its own independent company. This came after OfCom launched its once in a decade review of Britain’s digital sector to regulate whether it was delivering the services the economy needs.
Here are some other highlights on the mobility cruise this week:
- Apparently improving coverage and speeds for 4G do not affect mobile users’ affection for WiFi. Two thirds of LTE users are prepared to change operators if they are offered a tariff that includes public access to WiFi. A report commissioned by Arqiva revealed that users are willing to spend more money on WiFi and that three quarters of 4G subscribers still use public hotspots.
- Mobile provider T-Mobile has begun accepting Bitcoins as a form of payment for pay-as-you-go phone top ups in Poland, and is offering customers 20% talk time credit if they ditch cash and credit cards. The company is launching a three month trial with Bitcoin in partnership with InPay, a payments processor based in Warsaw. T-Mobile, like most large companies, won’t actually be holding any Bitcoins, but will instead be paid in the local currency by InPay after each transaction.
- Swatch has revealed plans to enter the smartwatch market. The brand, which accounts for
18% of all watch sales, will introduce models with contactless payment capability and technology to display data sent by smartphones. The chief executive has said the first of these new smartwatches will go on sale in May.
That’s your lot – but don’t forget to let me know what you think of this week’s mobility roundup. Do you think T-Mobile’s new partnership is a recipe for success? Do you rate Swatch for its innovative entry into the smartwatch market? Let me know by leaving a comment here or by tweeting @GrahamFranklin or @CiscoUKI. See you next week!
