Mobile Network Comparison

O₂ has made a plea for mobile retailers to cut down on waste by not automatically bundling chargers when selling new handsets. Since all the mobile manufacturers in the world agreed that all mobile phones should use a common micro-USB charger, more and more people are able to forgo a new charger as they already own a compatible one. O₂‘s request comes after a three month long pilot on the HTC One X+ handset which has been sold through O₂ stores with only a USB cable included.

The company has previously said it will phase out new chargers with handsets sold in 2015. This noble effort could result in a significant reduction is waste as it will not require manufacturers to produce millions of duplicate chargers.

In the HTC One X+ trial, O₂ had predicted that only 30% of customers would want to buy a charger with their new phone. However, results actually turned out to be much better than predicted. In fact, only 18% of O₂‘s customers wanted a charger too.

Figures published by O₂ estimate that there are about a hundred million unused chargers in the UK. That takes up about the same size as 2000 elephants! O₂ has also claimed that if all retailers were to follow their lead and not bundle chargers with new phones, about 25 million fewer chargers would have to be manufactured each year for the UK market.

The only thing that will hamper further adoption of this eco-friendly plan is Apple. In 2009 all the leading phone manufacturers signed an EU resolution to use a single standard charger for all handsets. Apple has since reneged on their promise to support a common charger and introduced a proprietary Lightning connector on its range of iPhones. To use a standard micro-USB charger, customers have to fork out for an overpriced adaptor. As a result, most people don’t bother and Apple’s stubbornness is contributing to a significant amount of waste at the expense of the environment.

Still we support O₂‘s work on testing this out and promoting the savings that can be made. They have asked other mobile phone retailers in the UK to follow their lead and we would encourage this too.

How many phone chargers have you got at home? Does your current phone use a standard micro-USB connector? Do you think Apple should be forced to use one? And what do you think of O₂‘s proposal?

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In a recent interview with CBS, Bill Gates has admitted that Microsoft missed a trick with the popularity of smartphones. Gates, ex-CEO of Microsoft and the founder and funder of the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world was probably referring to quotes made around the time the iPhone originally launched.

Back in 2007, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the following in an interview:

There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.

It’s pretty clear now that Ballmer turned out to be completely wrong on all counts. And Gates admitted in a recent interview that Microsoft made a “mistake” by not foreseeing the influence and importance smartphones would play. Microsoft had invested quite a lot in tablets and normal mobile phones but was left floundering by the success of Apple’s iPhone. Even now, with the advent of the new Windows Phone 8 operating system, Microsoft still trails behind Android, iOS and BlackBerry in global phone sales.

At the time of the iPhone launch, Microsoft was pushing software called Windows Mobile. This was way before the advent of the modern Windows Phone OS and it paled in comparison to offerings from Apple and Google. Microsoft finally gave up on it in 2008 and took two more years to introduce Windows Phone. In the meantime, the smartphone market has exploded and, after initial gains by Apple, is now dominated by Google’s Android as well as Apple’s iOS.

The strategy Microsoft has used for mobile phones since hasn’t helped it gain much traction. They seem mainly concerned about making money from mobile rather than making the best possible experience for end users. While we applaud the fact that Bill Gates has admitted the mistake several year later, it remains to be seen whether Micrsoft’s position in the mobile market can ever recover especially after mocking the iPhone back in 2007.

Bill Gates recently revealed that he uses a Surface Pro to use the web when at home but he hasn’t said anything about what phone her personally uses even if it should be safe to assume he runs a Windows Phone.

And in case you haven’t got enough Bill Gates yet in this article, here’s a little something to leave you with:

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Eighteen mobile networks have pledged their support to the new Firefox OS for mobile phones. At the Mobile World Congress, many of the world’s mobile operator conglomerates have put their weight before the new mobile operating system.

It’s thought that many major networks are regretting supporting Apple’s closed “walled garden” system. As they lose income from voice and texts as people use more and more data, mobile networks are fed up with the greedy was Apple set up their digital ecosystem. Apple gets the whole share of revenues from app and content purchases made in iOS and the mobile networks now want their fair share.

At the massive Mobile World Congress, networks were heard attacking Apple and saying that the mobile market was moving backwards thanks to the dominance of iOS and Android. Amongst the networks calling for a more open market are 3 Mobile, T-Mobile and O₂.

The upcoming Firefox OS will take a while to come to the UK but it is designed to be a truly cooperative operating system. And at the Mobile World Congress in Spain, the following global mobile operators added their support to Mozilla’s new project: América Móvil, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Three Group, KDDI, KT, MegaFon, Qtel, SingTel, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia Group, Telefónica, Telenor, TMN and VimpelCom.

It’s easy to paint this as the operators actually being greedy instead and wishing they could tax the data we pay them to transmit for us, but Firefox OS has now got a lot of momentum. There are also concerns that Firefox will be slower than iOS and Android as it runs on an HTML5 browser rather than a kernel based on the low-level C programming language. However, better integration with the web is Firefox’s big promise.

Firefox phones will first come to the UK from O₂ stores.

What do you think about Mozilla’s new mobile operating system? Keep an eye on this blog as we report the latest news about the new Firefox OS as it happens. We’ll have screenshots and reviews soon.

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