The J220 J230 and Z300 are all models with basic functionality. None of them features a camera for instance.

These phones are all relatively low down on the portfolio said Sony Ericsson vice-president of product marketing Steve Walker.

But theres still a market where less is more he added.

Walker explained that the phones which he insists still hold true to the companys commitment to fashionable design and good build were not targeted at any particular customer demographic.

Walker brushed aside fears that higher-end devotees will be discouraged by the brands more mass-market strategy.

With these handsets weve tried to show a stronger link to the higher-end of the market. Its very important to be well-represented in all markets.

Mark Ryan chief executive of 20:20 Distribution; Tim Whiting group managing director of Phones 4U and Mark Ormerod group managing director of Dextra Solutions and 4U spoke to Mobile News in the wake of chairman John Caudwells announcement of his intention to sell the group.

Caudwell has made it known that he prefers to sell to a private equity company rather than a rival industry player. Apax Apollo Blackstone Carlyle and Permira have all been put into the frame as possible bidders for the group.

John has said he wants to sell the business as a single entity to a private equity firm. This is positive because it will be looking for the biggest return on its investment so it wont want to alter the structure of what is already a very profitable successful company said Ryan.

They say equity companies buy people and I definitely believe the strength of management is one of the key aspects that makes the Caudwell Group such an attractive buy. The term management buy-out is always a strange one but I know that myself Tim and Mark will be fully involved and locked into the sale.

Whiting added: As far as a management buyout is concerned the process was undergoing and was being tracked off. What is most likely is that a venture capitalist will be interested and the management team will be of value to it.

All the group MDs will be fully involved in the sale process with John said Ormerod. I look forward to continuing to build the group both in the UK and abroad now and in the future.

All three believe that even with a new owner the Caudwell culture will remain long into the future.

Anyone seriously interested in buying this business would need to understand the culture John has created because thats the key to success said Ryan.

Im not concerned that a new buyer will have a huge impact on the corporate culture added

Whiting.

Its the strength and depth in the management here thats resulted in tremendous performance. Any organisation looking to buy the group would look at the performance of the group and the value of the entire management team.

See interview page 10

JAG managing director John George revealed that he would know by today (November 18) whether or not a deal for the stores could be completed. JAG is already supplying stock and promotional material to a dozen KJC outlets.

George said: We are trying to do a deal for between 10 and 15 stores but we are dealing with administrators and unhappy landlords so it is unclear at the moment when it will go through. I hope to make an announcement on Friday.

He added: The sites we are interested in are not necessarily the best-performing ones in the big towns. They are located in smaller towns and have no crossover with our own footprint. But they are active stores with staff. We want to take over the stores and re-employ the same staff.

KJC went into administration in April. It has 29 stores though four of those have closed down in the last few months. KJC parent company Calipso Communications was unavailable for comment.

JAG has 71 retail outlets at present. It acquired the Communications Centre retail chain in June and southwest rival West Talk in May last year.

Meanwhile Paignton-based dealership Intek has taken over a KJC store in St Austell Cornwall taking its total number of stores to 25.

Intek managing director Manny Hussain said: We are continuing with organic growth. We are not in direct negotiations with KJC. We will look at the sites when the landlords start to market them.

Intek is currently negotiating five other leases in the South West with a view of opening up stores in the next few months.

Nokia UK group business director of multimedia Andrew Connell said: We are expanding our channel model not breaking it. We have a trial under way at Jessops which will stock the N70 N80 and N90. We will look at the results in January. The fact that they are being sold on contract makes them much more affordable.

Connell added: We are in discussions with high street music stores now. If you look at where the Apple iPod was stocked last year most of the mobile phone retailers had it because of the margin available on it. The N91 holds 3000 tracks and it has better sound quality than the iPod.

Nokia is looking to bundle the N91 with high quality headsets and speaker systems from the likes of Sennheiser and JBC next year.

Music will be our second focus said Connell then smart applications such as consumer e-mail. So we will also look to stock Nokia devices in computer outlets.

The adjudication follows a similar complaint brought by O2 over Vodafones claim for call success rate superiority in September (see Mobile News issue 350).

The ad headlined The best call success rate ever cited figures from an Oftel report spanning April to September 2003 which showed O2 had a call success rate of 99.2 per cent. The ad featured a birds eye-view of a city with high-rise buildings signifying full signal bars.

The complainants claimed that the data was not comparative that the data was out of date and that the ad was misleading by implying that the figures had been officially published by Oftel.

While the ASA granted that O2 had used data that was independent and comparative and did not think that the imagery used implied that O2 had a stronger signal than that of other operators it objected to the age of the data noting that other operators could claim even better success rates using the same methodology more recently.

The ASA concluded that superiority claims on call success rates can be misleading because the methods of measurement are not precise enough to justify an unquestionable claim.

Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said: We have a good business in Sweden but the industry structure and regulatory environment mean it makes more sense for our customers our employees and our shareholders for a player like Telenor to own the company.

The sale is expected to be completed by the end of 2005.

The sale follows Vodafones acquisition of 10 per cent of Indian mobile phone giant Bharti Tele-Ventures for 820 million. The deal means that Vodafone is able to tap into a largely nascent market in the fourth largest economy in the world.

We are entering a relationship with a major company which shares our vision and values and understands the enormous potential of mobile telephony in society said Sarin.

See Business Watch page 16

Vodafone has struck a deal with Universal Music Group International which includes Eminem U2 and Gwen Stefani on its roster.

3 said it would premier Madonnas latest single Hung Up on the back of its tie-up with Warner Music.

3 CEO Bob Fuller said: 3G mobiles mean that record labels can make money from videos which were traditionally only promotional material.

Vodafone said it expected to make over 100000 new audio downloads available from its Vodafone live! portal within a matter of weeks boosting the overall catalogue to over 600000 tracks.

Vodafone global terminal and consumer marketing director Guy Laurence said: We know our customers will enjoy the benefit.

From this month new customers signing up to Video Talk &Text 350 700 and 1100 will receive 10 worth of downloads for the first three months of their contract compared with the previous offer of 5.

Customers can choose to spend their 10 a month on whatever they want. For example 10 would buy 20 Barclays Premiership highlights videos two games to download and keep or four ringtones or wallpapers.

As part of the networks Christmas pre-pay promotion all new customers will receive 30 of pre-loaded credit on their handset with 60 days to use it. Pre-pay customers who port their number to 3 will also receive a 10 top-up voucher.

3 is also introducing two new all-cash vouchers worth 10 and 20. Once activated customers can use them on any of 3s communication entertainment and information services. The vouchers also have no expiry date but must be activated within 90 days of purchase.

3 UK COO Gareth Jones said: Our new pay-as-you-go vouchers mean for the first time on 3 you can top up just 10 and use the all-cash value whenever you want. With double downloads were offering contract customers the best of our entertainment services when they sign up to a new contract.

Jones said 3 would continue to offer three months half-price line rental on selected price plans throughout November.

The move follows a spat with the Advertising Standards Authority over adverts directed at children (see Mobile News issue 349). The Jamster First service allows parents to cap spending to 6 a month. It has also established a hotline for parents to get help on organising their kids budgets.

The service is based on individual purchases and is not bound by a subscription. Jamster First is an extension of the companys Guardian service which allows parents to block downloads to a specific mobile number.

Jamster COO Markus Berger-de-Leon said: Our products appeal to individuals of various ages and we recognise the need to help bill-payers control how much their family spend on mobile content.

Many dealers have yet to break into the B2B market said Mainline head of marketing Gail Hollinshead.

Mainline deals with 46000 SME customers and sells around 185000 handsets a year. Mainline Business Mobile dealer account manager Jo Love said: We want to specialise in B2B and this helps spread the word to dealers.

Workshops are free although there is a refundable 100 deposit.