New services help consumers keep track of their gadgets

According to Andrew Jaquith, a security analyst with research firm Yankee Group The number of cell phones shipped this year will exceed 1 billion And laptops have become the dominant platform for personal computing.”

As more easy-to-lose items like these hit the streets, an opportunity opens up for nimble companies such as Bak2u.

When Chua Si Zhen accidentally left behind her cell phone at a cafe, it wasn’t the handset she was worried about losing. “It was the contacts, and the little info that I have in there, like my photos and everything,” says the Singaporean.

Luckily a man did return her Nokia N70 handset within an hour — but only after he tried to steal it first.

When the thief inserted his own SIM card into her phone, that triggered software she’d installed on the handset.

The program texted her family members with his phone number and other data that could be taken to the police. The thief, informed of these details by Chua’s angry husband — over his “new” phone — agreed to meet and return the handset.

The program that Chua used is called PhoneBak, and the Singapore startup behind it, Bak2u (www.bak2u.com), is one of many companies capitalizing on a trend: ever more people losing track of ever smaller devices with ever more data stored on them.

Intel to join ‘$100 laptop’ project

 CNN reports that a nonprofit that aims to seed the developing world with inexpensive laptop computers for schoolchildren has made peace with Intel Corp., the project’s most powerful rival.

The XO laptop uses very little power and can be mechanically recharged by hand.

The One Laptop Per Child program and Intel said Friday that the chip maker would join the board of the nonprofit and contribute funding.

The nonprofit effort — known as the “$100 laptop” because of the low price it hopes to reach with mass production — has been trying to line up governments in several countries to buy the machines, which for now cost $175.

But Intel has been an obstacle. Its chairman, Craig Barrett, derided the “XO” machine from One Laptop Per Child as a mere “gadget.” And Intel recently began selling its own child-focused Classmate PC, which is a more conventional machine than the radically rethought XO computers.

The Classmate costs around $225, and Intel expects that to fall near $200 this year. Intel has deals in Pakistan, Brazil, Mexico and Nigeria, spokeswoman Agnes Kwan said.

27.6% of japanese would buy IPhone

 

 In the poll conducted by Mitsubishi Research Institute and Rakuten Research … Of those saying they are willing to buy the iPhone,

27.6% of Japanese mobile phone users would buy an iPhone if it became available in Japan.

5.2% of the 2,200 respondents to the survey said they were “very willing” to shell out the cash for their own iPhone

22.4% said they were “somewhat willing

Please take a look at our selected Mobile Games & Applications for other phones as well

Apple hit by lawsuit over iphone complaints

Some news sources wrote that the battery could not be replaced by users, Business 2.0 writes that Apple may not have made it clear that the battery would have to be replaced by AT&T until after the phone was launched.

So, Apple gets a class action suit and some complaints.

It is hard to believe that the legal action will prevail. Since the battery is sealed in the phone, the replacement characteristics are obvious. But, the issue could hurt iPhone sales.

Cell phone users have become accustomed to walking into a store and buying a replacement battery. After about 400 charges the iPhone battery begins to lose its power to hold new charges and the cost to replace the battery is $80.

No matter how cool the phone is, the battery replacement will cost as much as buying some new handsets do. Some cell phone users just won’t buy that.

Smartphone sales are growing fast

Mobile phone penetration rates around the world are showing up some interesting trends – notably developing markets are selling more phones than ever but making less money as competition tightens. Developed markets are seeing a strong swing away from basic handsets toward more advanced Smartphones – a trend that will only be enhanced by the huge popularity of mass-market targeted handsets like the iPhone, which are starting to make these devices attractive to the consumer market as opposed to just business customers. Other interesting trends include the increasing number of dual-mode WiFi/Cellular phones that can seamlessly switch between local wireless internet connections and 2G cell phone networks to make optimal use of the economic efficiency of the former and the broad coverage of the latter.

• Worldwide revenue for mobile phones is expected to total $117.5 billion in 2010, an 18% drop from 2006
• GSM phones made up 45% of worldwide mobile phone revenue in 2006, smartphones made up 18%, and the remainder was made up by CDMA, W-CDMA, and CDMA2000 phone sales
• Worldwide revenue for the small but fast growing smartphone segment grew 10% in 1Q07 from 4Q06, driven by the wider availability of 3G, which unlocks the media application potential of smartphones beyond email
• In 2006, 20% of total mobile phone revenue came from North America, 34% from EMEA, 36% from Asia Pacific, and 10% from CALA
• The number of mobile subscribers grew 26% to 2.5 billion in 2006

July 30, 2007 Mobile phone penetration

AT&T launches mobile data backup

AT&T launched Mobile Backup, an application that ”eliminates the need to spend hours re-entering contacts into a new or replacement phone.” AT&T Mobile Backup will be available on a variety of handsets but only six Motorola ones to start: RAZR V3xx, RAZR V3i, RAZR V3r, V365, SLVR L7 and KRZR K1. AT&T Mobile Backup is powered by Asurion, and costs $1.99 a month. Release

Blackout On The Web

According to Forbes a power outage in downtown San Francisco disabled 365 Main, a Web server company that hosts sites including Craigslist, Technorati, SixApart, Yelp, GameSpot, the homepage of Sun Microsystems (nyse: SUN – news - people ) and Red Envelope. The outage, which began at about 1:45 p.m. Pacific time, disabled the sites for more than an hour.In a statement issued at 4 p.m. Pacific time, 365 Main said that it was 100% operational again and running on back-up generators until it could confirm that utility power was stable.

An initial report from the blog Valleywag blamed the event on a drunken employee, however 365 spokesperson Cynthia Harris said the rumor was unfounded.

Cellphone USers Facts

• 50% of US mobile phone owners own a cameraphone rising to 63% of French mobile owners and 3 out of 4 (or 75%) of us in the UK – seems we Brits like our cameraphones (good news for the guys at Moblog!)
• Figures for using MMS have remained stable for the last 6 months with about 30% of UK phone-owners using MMS
• 85% of UK users use text-messaging vs 39% of US mobile phone owners so the US has a little way to catch up, but I have no doubt they will over time.
• Mobile internet browsing is a little bit down in most countries vs the last quarter but it’s still . (Hmm, I wonder if poxy data charges and slow speeds have anything to do with that?)

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AT&T nets 1.5M subscribers in Q2

AT&T’s wireless unit has posted its second quarter results, which include a net gain of 1.5 million wireless subscribers (partially thanks to the iPhone) to reach 63.7 million. “Mobility is a major growth engine for AT&T,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said. “Our launch with Apple of the breakthrough iPhone has quickly redefined customer expectations for their wireless experience, initial response was unprecedented, and sales in July continue to be strong. On June 29, we also announced an agreement to acquire Dobson Communications, which will further expand our wireless coverage in key rural and suburban areas.” Here are some other key metrics from the quarter:

• The June 29 iPhone launch allowed for less than two days of sales and activations before the end of the quarter, but AT&T activated 146,000 iPhone subscribers during those two days.
• Total service ARPU in the second quarter was $50.63, up 3.6 percent.
• Total churn, including prepaid and reseller results, was 1.6 percent, down from 1.7 percent in the year-earlier quarter.

AT&T nets 1.5M subscribers in Q2

AT&T’s wireless unit has posted its second quarter results, which include a net gain of 1.5 million wireless subscribers (partially thanks to the iPhone) to reach 63.7 million. “Mobility is a major growth engine for AT&T,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said. “Our launch with Apple of the breakthrough iPhone has quickly redefined customer expectations for their wireless experience, initial response was unprecedented, and sales in July continue to be strong. On June 29, we also announced an agreement to acquire Dobson Communications, which will further expand our wireless coverage in key rural and suburban areas.” Here are some other key metrics from the quarter:

• The June 29 iPhone launch allowed for less than two days of sales and activations before the end of the quarter, but AT&T activated 146,000 iPhone subscribers during those two days.
• Total service ARPU in the second quarter was $50.63, up 3.6 percent.
• Total churn, including prepaid and reseller results, was 1.6 percent, down from 1.7 percent in the year-earlier quarter.