Louise Forbes joins the company from Wellas consumer products division where she oversaw the styling shampoo and conditioner portfolios of brands such as ShockWaves and Silvikrin.

She now has responsibility for the Siemens brand marketing team which oversees a portfolio of marketing activities including advertising sponsorship PR and events.

This is an exciting time for the mobile devices sector but with so many new products coming on to the market only those with a strong USP and communications strategy will succeed in winning and retaining customers she said.

With a clear focus on design Siemens has a long heritage of innovations that have shaped the market and captured the imagination of the consumer. In an increasingly competitive field these are the strengths that will set Siemens apart and will form the cornerstone of our strategy.

Forbes will also be responsible for driving channel marketing activities and plans to use forthcoming trade initiatives to reinforce Siemenss ongoing commitment to on-the-ground support for dealers retailers and networks.

The service won the Mobile News Award for Innovative Service last year.

Shazam allows people to use their phone to identify a track simply by pointing it at the music source and dialling a short code – 2580. They receive an SMS tag within seconds giving details of title and artist.

The service is supported by four UK mobile networks and is recognised as a valuable promotional tool within the music industry

Reaching a million callers highlights the strength and loyalty of our UK customer base which is repeatedly turning to Shazam and adopting the service as part of their mobile life said Jerry Roest CEO of Shazam Entertainment. Shazam was launched just over two years ago and generates revenues from the music that customers buy.

Smartnav operates at the touch of a dashboard button ( top left above). This connects the driver to a Smartnav operator who takes destination details verbally. The route is calculated using Trafficmasters traffic information and uploaded to the vehicle.

Under its terms the network will match any money raised through sponsored events by staff.

MmO2 will also add 20 per cent to any regular charitable contributions that come out of an employees monthly salary. The scheme also takes advantage of tax rules that maximise contributions to charity.

About 60 mmO2 staff will be advisers to the Weston Spirit the charity set up by Falklands War veteran Simon Weston that works with mmO2 to help disadvantaged young people.

Million-2-1 is acquiring tens of thousands of new customers each month he claimed.

The challenge for the business is how to accelerate and service that growth and customer base. I will be helping Million-2-1 to become a key partner for media owners who are looking to grow profitable revenues from interactive services.

Million-2-1 was set up in 2000. It runs fixed-odds betting prize competitions and lotteries both online and over mobile phone.

In June 2004 the company launched The Manchester Lottery a non-profit lottery for local charities in the Greater Manchester area.

The e616V has two zoom cameras and a camera light which enhances images captured in low-light conditions. It also features GPS functionality for location-based services and can be connected to a PC via a USB cable.

It will also unveil a new 9000 sq ft office and warehouse facility on a new Daventry retail park in the next month.

The new stores will be in Louth Daventry Northampton Richmond Leeds Hull Selby Mansfield Northampton and Kettering.

The openings which are set to be complete by December will take its total retail base to 25 stores.

Go Mobile chairman Iain Humphrey said the company had spent three years working on an automated distribution and retail system called Sellfone 3G.

This lets dealers monitor the flow of business through their stores in real time.

Sellfone is a live retail system that lets dealers understand where their businesses are on a day-to-day and hour-by-hour basis said Humphrey.

It offers more security and detail about stock and commissions.

Our systems know exactly what accessories are relevant to which IMEI numbers and it calculates discounts for the customer if they choose to buy certain extra products with their phone. It also orders stock depending on what a store sells.

He claimed no other distributor was offering this kind of system.

The independent dealer is looking for the kind of stability that lets them know whats going on with the networks.

Sellfone 3G was developed by Go Mobile distribution arm Shebang of which Humphrey is managing director and Northampton-based PC Control Systems.

It links in to Shebang and other distributors and is online in 200 independent dealerships at present.

O2 has increased the business tariffs and sharetime commissions it pays to its dealers to bring it closer to rival Vodafone.

Dealers recently received their commission structures from the network outlining what they will earn for putting connections on certain business and sharetime tariffs.

O2 has doubled commission for secondary connections from 100 to 200 to bring it closer to the commissions Vodafone offers. An O2 spokesman admitted that the network hoped it would close the gap on competitors.

Feedback from our sales channels suggested we were losing substantially valuable connections due to our secondary connection commission being uncompetitive he said.

We have increased commission for secondary connections. We continue to monitor the market to ensure we remain competitive.

But as O2 is bringing its commissions up Vodafone is bringing its own down. The network has made adjustments to the commissions it pays for the same tariffs. Vodafone has kept the commission it pays for secondaries the same but clipped the commission it pays for lead connections which dealers say means some deals will earn them more money on O2.

Ian Robinson of MoCo Cell Link said: Basically it depends on the deal but if you have more sharer connections when compared side by side with Vodafone youd earn more by connecting to O2 by a nose.

The company was formed in 1998 when the acquisition of Peoples Phone by Vodafone led to the entire installation department being made redundant. Managing director Mel Brown said staff had spent two years training auditing and writing new procedures to qualify for the award.

Siemens has issued a warning to all users of the 65 series in Europe and Asia that if a telephone call cuts off automatically because the battery has run down a disconnection melody could play loudly and in extreme cases actually cause hearing damage.

Siemens points out that this only happens if the handsets are held close to the ear for a prolonged period.

No one has actually suffered any hearing damage from this said a spokesman.

It was discovered through lab testing. Our primary aim is to communicate the issue to consumers make them aware of how to de-activate the specific shut-down melody and provide them with an approved free software upgrade by September 6 at the latest.

We are not talking about a product recall. The products involved only started seeding into the channel from June so we are not talking about a large volume of handsets. Future handsets will not be affected.

In the UK only the C65 CX65 and M65 have been affected. The full list of affected handsets is: C65 CX65 M65 S65 and SL65 as well as all provider variations such as the CV65 CT65 CXV65 and CXT65.

Jeremy Newing Siemens marketing director Northern Europe commented:

From a financial and market share point of view it is too early to tell whether this will have any implications for us.

Siemens found that during a telephone call the battery has to have run down to such an extent that the warning signal notifying has rung three times in the space of a minute.

After this the call is automatically disconnected.

Shortly before the phone finally shuts down it plays the disconnection melody – in certain cases at high volume. If users are still holding the phone up to their ear during this time it can lead to hearing damage.

To solve the problem Siemens recommends deactivating the melody or the animation function.

In addition it says that the phone call should be terminated as soon as the first low battery signal lights up.

To deactivate the disconnection melody the user must first select the Setup item in the menu then Ringtones then More melodies and finally select Switch off.