Staff Reporter

Speaking at the Nokia Connections event in Helsinki earlier this month Nokia senior vice-president of imaging and multimedia Juha Putkiranta agreed Nokia had taken its lead from other manufacturers in the design of its new 6260 clamshell phone.

Sometimes we innovate said Putkiranta. Sometimes we pay attention to what others are doing and copy with pride.

The swivel design of the new Nokia 6260 business phone launched in Helsinki with four other handsets resembles the Samsung P730 and the Motorola V80.

The 6260 can be used like a normal clamshell or opened up and folded flat so that the display faces up and it can be used as a bar phone. The display also twists 90 degrees for the camera/video function.

Kai Öistamo senior vice-president for mobile phones at Nokia said:

You have to take good ideas from wherever they come. You have to take good ideas and create something new.

We have always been open to ideas from other places. You could argue that this swivel function actually comes from video cameras. This whole movement and innovation originates there.

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Mainline will run a series of ads in trade publications aimed at raising awareness of the uses of mobile phones and technologies in business.

Business customers responding to the insertions will be directed to a website and then forwarded on to their local Mainline dealer.

The marketing campaign is one part of its new b2b dealer programme called Business Mobile. Business Mobile also provides selected Mainline dealers with Orange accreditation and gives them extra dealer incentives.

We are confident that dealers involved will get a considerable number of leads from the marketing support we are providing through Business Mobile said Mainline head of marketing Gail Hollinshead. An increase in Orange connections should reflect that.

The seven top performing dealers selected for the Business Mobile campaign are In Touch Phone Box Lister Communications Geko Direct Direct Telecoms Phone Works and Redline Communications.

The racket was earning the gang 1 million pounds profit.

The trial and sentences follow an 18-month investigation codenamed Operation Zarzu that tracked down the men following a spate of burglaries at mobile phone shops across London between November 8 2001 and September 30 2003.

The Carphone Warehouse was one target with outlets in Richmond Woolwich Streatham Harrow Clapham Kingston Coventry Ilford Hampstead Swiss Cottage and Bexleyheath all hit by the gang.

Phones 4U shops in West Ealing Eltham Tooting Streatham Ilford Kingston and Battersea were also burgled. Other burglaries took place at the Vodafone shop in Orpington and Jessops in Kingston.

Police arrested the gang in November and they were sentenced earlier this month at Blackfriars Crown Court.

The crooks would target a prospective phone shop and carry out reconnaissance of the property often using several vehicles including vans and stolen vehicles some of which were later seized by police.

Two or more of the group would stalk the shop during the night setting off the alarms and disabling the security devices.

Police believed the gang had good knowledge of the security systems of the mobile phone shops.

The gang would hide and wait for the arrival of police or security having scaled either the roof of the building or found access to the rear.

The gang members would communicate with each other via walkie-talkie.

A police patrol would check for obvious signs of entry at the shop and finding none would leave. The gang would then break in and grab specified mobile phone handsets to order. These were then delivered to a business address in Middlesex registered to businessman Abdul Awada.

The handsets would be unlocked and re-packaged alongside bona fide and legitimately purchased mobiles that were to be exported. These boxes would then be packed into large laundry style bags and smuggled out of the country for sale abroad.

Awada 39 of 13 Corfe Close Hayes Middlesex pleaded guilty to conspiracy to handling stolen property and was sentenced to18 months

Peter William Clarkson 49 of 10 City View East Dulwich pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and received an 18 month suspended sentence.

His son Peter Dennis Clarkson 26 of 134 Axminster Crescent Welling Kent pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and received a five-year sentence.

William Dove 22 of 134 Axminster Crescent Welling pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and received three years.

Joseph Reed of 8 Wayhill House Lough Road Camberwell was sentenced to four years.

The chief investigator detective inspector Martin Ford said: This investigation led to the arrest of a prolific and highly professional team of burglars culminating in guilty pleas before the Crown Court.

Ex-Phones 4U shop assistant Kevin Addison earlier this month pleaded guilty to 30 counts of fraud and theft and was fined 400 and ordered to pay 1200 compensation.

Addison forged more than 30 contracts and stole handsets. He left the chain last September.

A Phones 4U spokesperson said:

Any Phones 4U employee found to be involved in this type of activity will be dealt with in the strongest manner possible and will be reported to the police.

Its almost official – Motorolas new products are scoring hits with consumers.

Findings last week from research and analysis firm Gartner Group show that after a stream of disappointing quarters Motorola has turned the tide with strong sales in Western Europe of the V300 V500/525 and V600 phones.

Motorola VP for personal communications for Europe the Middle East and Africa Ron Garriques gave a cautious welcome to the report.

Its just one quarter where weve had a little bit of momentum. We are trying to improve quarter by quarter.

Its down to two things. We really focused on the European market this time and on our UMTS handsets and value-added services. Four years ago we werent number one in the world anymore.

We set ourselves the target of getting back to number one in North America Latin America and China. We looked then at the European market and changed our mindset.

Garriques went on: We said that when Europe switches from GSM to UTMS we will be there. To change to UMTS was a major undertaking because we changed the whole software platform. It took us two years to nail it which is not an unreasonable amount of time.

The price cuts by our competitors have generally been on candy-bar phones so it doesnt actually affect us so much. We are pretty confident with out UMTS offerings and value-added services.

We have strengthened our handset portfolio across the board including our smartphone offerings and young-professional category. We are attacking four spaces in which we havent previously been so strong said Garriques .

According to Gartner Nokia suffered a decline in market share because of decreased sales in Western Europe and North America but worldwide sales were up by five million units.

Nokias dramatic drop in market share resulted from a weak product portfolio and the decision by operators in Western Europe to source more phones from Nokias competitors said Ben Wood principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner.

The challenge for Motorola is to maintain this strong performance. Now that it has started to regain the trust of key global operators it must keep its promises.

Jas Singh managing director of London dealer Microline says Motorola sales are improving but he adds that Motorola still has improvements to make before its phones will really appeal to consumers.

Motorola is asking us to sell more phones and is giving us extra commission but it still has a long way to go. It is resolutely sticking to its guns when it comes to its menu and its a real shame because its just not user-friendly.

Phones are becoming more complex and users need to be able to access information. Consumers love Nokia because its menu system is so simple. Motorola should follow suit.

Nokia director of corporate communications Mark Squires claims that by the end of year weak will not be a word anyone will use when talking about Nokias product portfolio.

We have another 30 product launches still to come this year he said. If you look at the uptake of the 7200 in the consumer market and the 6230 in the business market you will see the welcome they have received.

Tomo chairman Richard Emanuel has altered his original vision for a nationwide chain of retail outlets.

Tomo last week opened two new stores in Emanuels hometown Glasgow creating 50 new jobs.

These are much smaller than Tomos existing stores in Nottingham and East Kilbride. Although expansion is on the agenda the chain dismisses the idea that it will establish a UK-wide presence in the near future.

Our approach now is a case of suck it and see said a Tomo spokesman.

The idea of a national chain is still there it will just be a more slow and measured approach. The north of England is definitely next on the agenda but if the markets not ready we wont race ahead.

The market isnt as it was in the 1990s. Richard [Emanuel] forecast a 3G revolution but the roll-out of 3G services has been slower than he anticipated. The industry is more sophisticated now. Theres no point trying to create a national chain if the markets not ready for it.

The two new stores are in the same location as two of Emanuels former DX Communications outlets. As well as reducing the scale and rate of Tomos projected expansion Emanuel has decided to reduce the size of the new stores compared with Tomos vast retail spaces in Nottingham and Kilbride.

We have refined the original model from two years ago said the spokesperson.

The original idea was that we would open Tomo stores that were three or four times the size of existing mobile phone outlets.

The Nottingham store has the highest footfall in the country after Oxford Street in London. But in other UK streets such stores wouldnt be viable.

The two new stores in Glasgow are significantly smaller than the other Tomo stores but theyre already doing fantastic business. Richard knows what works and what doesnt work and these smaller stores do work.

We have retained the concept of highly trained staff with a real passion for the industry.

North London-based distributor Avenir Telecom UK is to increase its sales team from eight dealer managers to 12.

It is also increasing the number of sales executives from six to 12 and the number of corporate sales managers from two to six.

The move comes as the company was confirmed as having become 3s largest distributor for the first quarter of the year. Avenir also represents Vodafone O2 Orange and T-Mobile.

Avenir Telecom UK sales and marketing director Tanny Price said:

As well as experiencing significant and sustained growth across all five networks we are putting a strong emphasis on developing new business. In particular we are looking to widen our rapidly growing base of independent dealers.

We have already set the recruitment wheels in motion. Growth however will also go hand-in-hand with further improving the service we provide to our customers.

Dealer managers and sales executives will now operate across smaller geographical areas and be able to work in greater depth with each customer concentrating in particular on individual services and products.

Dealers report that 40 per cent of their connections are on 3 up from 10 per cent three months ago reports James Blackman.

But the growth driver is not advanced 3G video services but voice calls – largely at the expense of Orange.

Consumers are still not persuaded by 3s 3G offering despite massive increases in 3 connections dealers indicate.

The vast majority of customers are coming to 3 for the handset and the cheap voice package said Mark Whitaker of Findaphone in Accrington.

Customers arent that impressed by 3s services yet. It will take them a long time before they switch to 3 because of its multimedia services.

He added that 3 was now up to around 40 per cent of his total business and it was growing fast.

On Saturday alone we did seven upgrades on 3 and over the past week weve done almost 30 connections with most switched from Orange said Whittaker.

The spike in 3 connections has coincided with the launch of the LG u8110 on 3 in May.

Dealers say that for the first time they have been able to promote a 3 handset that compares well to a GSM phone.

The 3G services arent a huge factor admitted Bob Sweetlove business manager at 3 distributor Hugh Symons. The consumer wants a cameraphone but not 3G services. The LG competes with any 2.5G kit that is available.

Gary Bridger of Airwaves Communications in Yeovil said:

Customers are coming to 3 because of the cheap tariffs. It will take 18 months before customers take on 3 because of its 3G services. They switch to 3 because its value for money.

Matt Chambers of The Phone Shop in Welling said:

3 made up 10 per cent of our business six months ago. Its now up to around 40 per cent. The tariff packages get people interested. Anyone with a year-old phone wont think twice about switching to the LG.

Surrey-based dealership ETC Communications reports steady 3 growth at the expense of Orange.

In March ETC connected 100 customers to 3 compared with 1235 for Orange. That month total 3 connections for March were 8.1 per cent the total number of

Orange connections.

But in May ETC connected 170 customers to 3 and 737 customers to Orange. The first week in June showed total 3 connections of 109 compared with 384 Orange connections – showing its share had risen to 28.4 per cent.

There has been a significant shift in business from 3 to Orange in the past month-and-a-half said ETC sales manager Andy Harding. There are many reasons for it.

These include good commissions which since the LG u8110 superseded 3s old handset portfolio include upgrade commissions.

We are very positive about the way that 3 is behaving. All dealers should be looking to push 3. They are supporting us on 3s upgrade policy. This is the way Orange started. Youd be a fool to write 3 off.

3 accepted that the deciding factor for the consumer when switching to 3 is not its 3G services yet but interest in 3G will grow following awareness of the technologys benefits.

The thing that drives consumers to switch is what they already understand which means pricing and the form factor of handsets said a 3 spokesperson. It doesnt mean that services are incidental to those factors.

Genesis currently has around 60000 Vodafone customers on its base. Vodafone is believed to be apprehensive about the close ties between Genesis and O2 and the revised contract is believed to have closed loopholes that might have let the SP move users to O2.

Dixons head of press and PR Hamish Thompson commented:

There is no change to either the level or the extent of the service that we provide to customers. From a customer level absolutely nothing has changed.

Thompson would not discuss the specific detail of the contract as it was commercially sensitive saying only: I am not in a position to discuss contractual negotiations. The long-term contractual agreement remains the same.

Vodafone declined to comment on the new relationship between the two organisations.

There has been much industry speculation on the relationship between Genesis and Vodafone with rumours that Vodafone was on the brink of buying Genesis.

Another rumour was that Genesis was running up to 9000 GSM gateways without authorisation from Vodafone.

Gateway devices are becoming popular in the SME and corporate marketplace. They convert a fixed-to-mobile call into a mobile-to-mobile termination allowing fixed-line phones to connect to the mobile network at prices lower than normally charged by networks.

Unique Games the content arm of Unique Distribution has signed a content deal with North American mobile games publisher and developer Sorrent which distributes games from Atari Fox Sports and others.

The deal gives Unique the chance to distribute the anticipated Atari game Driv3r. More than 12 million units of Driver and Driver 2 have been sold worldwide.

Unique Games technical director Mark Watts said:

Titles such as Driv3r highlight Uniques commitment to providing consumers with quality titled games for mobile gaming. The agreement with Sorrent ensures we are at the forefront of the mobile games industry.