Yellowpages.com offers SMS forwarding

Searching for a phone number is faster online as you don't have to repeat yourself to an operator. Now the US based directory site, YellowPages.com, has finally caught up with the times and allows you to text a number to your mobile phone. Well some of them, anyway. YellowPages has decided to promote this new service in time for the New Year when partygoers are desperate to find a taxi to take them home after the festivities are over. There's now a 'Send to Mobile' button right next to the business entry you require. All surfers need do is fill in their own mobile phone number and YellowPages will forward the number of the taxi firm or whatever as an SMS. There's a disclaimer, however, which states that "the recipient of this text message may incur charges depending on their wireless carrier. Not all carriers are currently supported. " So it might not necessarily work with your particular mobile phone company. But searching online is free whereas most phone companies charge for directory assistance. YellowPages.com also claims there is a ' mobile-optimised version' of its site if you decided to search using the handset's own browser.

The full Inquirer story ... US yellowpages.com now supports mobiles

http://www.yellowpages.com

Fight for Hutchison Essar thickens

The competition for Indian mobile phone company, Hutchison Essar, could not possibly get any worse for Vodafone. There are at least three major competitors. It doesn't seem like Vodafone – which claims to be the world's leading mobile operator by revenues – bothered to do its homework. Under local regulations, a foreign company cannot own more than 75 per cent of an Indian telecoms company. So it was always going to need a local partner if it wanted to take a majority position in Hutchison Essar. The logical choice would have been Essar itself which already owns 33 per cent of the operator. But Essar has already made its own bid to acquire the rest of the company it doesn't already own. So Essar's Ravi Ruia can't have been working in cahoots with Vodafone's Arun Sarin to help the British operator muscle into the Indian market. Worse still, Anil Ambani, who already runs India's second largest mobile operator, Reliance Communications, has now said he wants to take over the country's fourth player too – Hutchison Essar. Ambani reckons he has a queue of private equity companies lining up to help him buy Hutchison Essar, although he didn't say whether that list included the Texas Pacific Group which had been contemplating making a bid. Why all the fuss? Well, Hutchison Essar might have 'only' 22 million subscribers but the whole country has around 130 million subscribers out of a total population of around 1.3 billion. The there's also the question of what Vodafone might be forced to do with its 10 per cent stake in Bharti Tele Ventures, India’s largest mobile operator. Wouldn't Vodafone have been better off trying to increase its stake in Bharti?

The full Inquirer Story ... Vodafone faces stiff Indian rivalry

Razr re-engineered for DoCoMo

Now that it has been re-engineered to work on NTT DoComo's FOMA 3G network and has been suitably equipped with an i-mode browser, Motorola claims its MotoRazr is flying off the shelves in Japan. Michael Tatelman, a vp with Motorola's Mobile Devices Business in North Asia, said, "We knew people were waiting for MotoRazr, and we knew the Christmas season would be big. This proves it will be as big a hit in Japan as it is everywhere else." That's funny, Mobile Insight didn't reckon that Xmas was that big in Japan. Anyway, the M702iS model is the first DoCoMo handset in the M70x series to combine Bluetooth capability, DoCoMo's 'World Wing' 3G global roaming, and the full suite of i-mode content and services. Oh yeah. And surprise, surprise it's the thinnest FOMA handset ever, measuring just 14.9mm. It's available in Hot Pink, Neo Black, and Cool Silver The good news is that the M702iS might make it to the UK on O2's i-mode network. O2's i-mode range is looking a tad boring and as O2 already sells the WAP version, it might spice up the company's i-mode offering a little.

The full Inquirer story ... Hot Pink Razr is Big in Japan

LaNetro Zed to take over Monstermob

The Spanish internet group, LaNetro Zed, is to take effective control of UK based mobile content provider, Monstermob, by acquiring over 50 per cent of the company. Javier Perez Dolset, Zed's CEO, said his company possessed leading personalised mobile products which it would make available to MonsterMob. Trouble with the businesses which Monstermob acquired in China led to the company seeking a White Knight. Monstermob's chairman, Hans Snook (best known for his role in building up Orange UK) claimed, "'The agreement with Zed secures the financial position of Monstermob." Mobile Insight previous reported - Mobile Insight Issue 321 - that LaNetro might be acquired by Mblox. In fact mBlox only acquired LaNetro Zed’s operator connectivity business in Asia. Nonetheless, Zed is best known in the UK for its very public spat with UK telecoms rules enforcer, ICSTIS. Mblox also likes to play down its own role in the Crazy Frog fiasco, when it too got fined by ICSTIS. The pair are therefore well suited to each other.

The full Inquirer story ... Spanish come to Monstermob's rescue

Saddam's death shot on mobile phone

British newspapers led today with footage of Saddam Hussein's hanging which had apparently been filmed using a mobile phone. According to a report in The Times, the two minute long footage was being swapped between handsets for 20 pence a time. The paper also claims, "Within a day, a million people had seen an illicit film of his last moments." Mobile Insight isn't entirely sure that Nokia is going to be very pleased that a picture of some-one holding a mobile phone to view the Saddam footage shows one of its handsets. There appears to be no clue as to who actually shot the video – although the number of actual witnesses must be relatively small. There's no indication as to which make and model of mobile phone was used to take the images. The actual video itself appears to be very readily available on YouTube. Although Mobile Insight suspects it initially spread via Bluetooth transfer. There's also a good picture of the handset on The Sun's web site. The Times version shows very clearly that the handset supports Arabic letters. As most observers claim – the mobile phone appears to be truly democratising the Media, sidestepping refusals to show the 'official' footage on TV.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006600620,00.html

Samsung picks Opera browser

Opera Software has landed a major coup by signing an agreement with Samsung Electronics to provide Internet browsers for its mobile handsets. This could prove to be a major blow for OpenWave which has provided WAP browsers for Samsung handsets in the past. Samsung may follow Nokia's example and load separate HTML and WAP browsers on its handsets. Given that the announcement hasn't named any specific models from Samsung yet, it is difficult to tell whether or not OpenWave has lost out. But it is a major triumph for Opera's 'Small-Screen Rendering' technology that enables mobile phones to access standard Internet sites. Pages are reformatted to fit the handset's actual screen width, thus eliminating the need for horizontal scrolling. The deal is also another sign that mobile phone users want to use their handsets to access bog standard Internet sites – not just sites specifically engineered for mobile phones. So this announcement is another blow for the proponents of the .mobi suffix intended to create a new generation of 'mobile aware' sites

The full Inquirer story … Samsung chooses Opera browser for phones

Snippets

Samsung has produced a 1 GB DRAM chip, based on an 80 nanometre process. The low power  is aimed at mobile phones and other portable devices. It should mass production during Q2 2007. www.samsung.com

In Site of the Week (by Tony Dennis)

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