Review TechRadar: Phone and communications news 08-25-2013

TechRadar: Phone and communications news TechRadar AU latest feeds

MVNOs won't be around much longer, says Vodafone Australia CEO Aug 25th 2013, 08:15, by Farrha Khan With the chaos surrounding the end of ISPOne and Kogan Mobile, Vodafone Australia CEO Bill Morrow believes that the time for MVNOs is near over. "I don't believe that MVNOs, the way they are structured today, are going to be around too much longer," Morrow told TechRadar. Speaking of Kogan and Telstra, he said: "I just don't think that what Kogan is offering from a price point of view, with the way consumers would use their product, is a sustainable model." He explained, however, that the market is moving to become data-centric, but due to the cost of the data network, MVNOs are no longer a good business model. "I know the cost of the [data] network… You can't stay in business if you can't recover the cost of what the network is. It doesn't surprise me at all that Telstra is taking the position they are, that ISPOne is having to do what it is having to do right now." "So I think it is quite normal, and is market forces doing what they should do." Shifting focus With the closing of Vodafone MVNOs Red Bull Mobile and Crazy Johns earlier this year, Vodafone's position was reinforced by Morrow, who said that Vodafone Australia will not be signing on any more MVNOs in the future. "Our strategy is not to go out and sign up any more MVNOs. That is not a key focus." But while he said that Vodafone will retain a number of the telco's current MVNOs, each contract will be re-evaluated as their time comes up. "There's a few of them that are really particularly niche players, and those I'd love to sign back up. But it is not going to be huge discounts - it's going to be taken into account the data consumption, the data cost. So there's definitely going to be some changes going forward," he said. The VoIP competition While Kogan has itself expressed concern about the end of network competition for users as MVNOs disappear, Morrow believes there will be a new kind of competition in the market. "I think competition is good, and having choice is really important for consumers - but I think a different type of competition is going to come in," he said. He believes that on-top VoIP and messenger apps, like Viber and Whatsapp, will be the new frontier for voice and text/SMS use, with network carriers shifting focus to data. "No longer the MVNO classic, but an over the top application type of application," he said. "This is a fundamentally different market place for MVNOs. Mark my words, there's going to be far fewer." CEO Bill Morrow has validated our thoughts on the bleak future of MVNOs. Life in the old Droid yet? Qwerty slider Droid 5 reportedly snapped Aug 24th 2013, 19:00, by Chris Smith Motorola may be planning to launch a fifth version of its classic Droid QWERTY slider handset, judging by pictures leaked online this weekend. Snaps posted on Chinese social networking site Weibo, show a Moto-branded device with an apparent laser-cut, five-row keyboard along with a 4G LTE sticker on the rear. As Engadget points out, the handset appears to be rocking a 4.3- to 4.5-inch screen along with a slightly different camera interface to the one seen on the latest Droid family devices, revealed last month. The major design change from last year's Motorola Droid 4 appears to be the lack of capacitive buttons on the face of the device, which now appear on the touchscreen. Legacy Despite the Google takeover Motorola is still placing plenty of focus on the family of devices it has presented in recent years. Just last month, the company unveiled the Droid Maxx, Droid Mini and Droid Ultra touchscreen handsets, prior to the launch of its customisable Moto X handset. Is there still a market for Android devices with a physical keyboard? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. There may be one more on the way, but until then, meet the new family of Moto Droid devices. Instagram tools up to improve video editing with Luma acquisition Aug 24th 2013, 18:21, by Chris Smith It wasn't so long ago that Instagram was the start-up being courted by the web's big boys, but now the shoe is on the other foot, with the video and photo-sharing app making an acquisition of its own. The Facebook-owned company has has moved to purchase the video editing application Luma, for an undisclosed fee, presumably with the intention of integrating the tech into the Instagram app itself. Video on Instagram arrived in June to challenge Twitter's Vine, allowing users to upload filtered videos either as a single shot or as a montage of clips up to 15 seconds in length. However, finely trimming the videos is difficult due to the lack of editing tools available within app. The Luma buyout will enable users to add a little more finesse to there creations. Realising the mission In a post on its official website the Luma team revealed it would be removing the app from the App Store, but would continue to support exiting users until December 31 this year. The company wrote: "Eighteen months ago, we embarked on a mission to make capturing and sharing beautiful videos easy without expensive software or heavy equipment. By joining the exceptionally talented team at Instagram, we're taking another big step towards realising that mission." TechCrunch, which broke the story on Friday, believes Instagram is already using Luma's image stabilisation technology within its app. Instagram might be mounting a challenge, but Vine is still No.1, recent stats show.

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