Nokia announce skype phone, I-phone due this week, BT announce 12 'wireless cities' plan

It's all kicking off for mobile operators. Free calls on your mobile is right here and right now.
Over on Forum Oxford, Tomi Ahonen revealed that Skype and Nokia are collaborating to develop a new mobile Skype experience on the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, introduced on January 8.
This is different from Skype on your mobile via your 3G internet connection (though that's possible, too, just as it is on the N73 in 3's X-Series deal.) This is making use of the N800's effective wi-fi connectivity to give you really fast skyping - so video calls should be as easy as voice.
And that's inspired a flurry of speculation that the long-awaited I-Phone from Apple (though I don't expect it to be called that, someone else registered the name long ago...) will be announced this week too (the CES conference is on in Las Vegas this week where such things occur, I am reliably informed).
And, Stef Coetzee tells us, BT has announced its Fusion phone is now going on sale in Phones4U stores and that they are rolling out 12 'wireless' cities where by March next year there will be consistent wireless coverage in city centres. BT offers calls on this wireless network at the rate of four mins for the price of one of their ordinary ones. It's hoping the growth of wifi handsets will inspire lift off.
So not only do we now have free-at-the-point-of-use internet access on 3G (X-series on 3), we're going to get wi-fi coverage (at least in cities) which should offer really fast access in double quick time.
Surely it's now just a matter of time before an operator offers a fixed charge for it all - mobile web, calls, text, wi-fi.
It's one more reason why your mobile will become not only your primary communications device but also your primary point of access to the internet. And it's happening faster by the day.
Plan for this, design for it too.

My lovely new phone, er, computer, er...

Since I made such a song and dance about 3's fixed-price mobile internet access (describing it as the single most important digital development of recent times, and being quoted across the blogosphere for saying as much...), I thought I'd better share a few of the realities now I have a Nokia N73 in my sweaty paws - and the Gold X-Series package.
Setting up Orb has been an adventure in internal IT limitations (our XP build, I believe - have asked internal IT to resolve asap).
But Skype was up and running in an instant (used it yesterday, too) and I've set up a useful homepage for myself, created using google's personalised homepage for mobile.
Access to my home email was a doddle - sending or receiving - and I found myself checking my home email and sending replies from my phone/computer last night in front of the Chelsea game.
ebay is fine - but the text a little small. I used it to check my latest buyer had recieved their goods and was happy with the outcome.
There's an awful lot to discover on the X-Series N73, it's pretty much like getting yourself a new PC - with a new-to-learn operating system.
But the more I get to grips the more I like. Already it's meant I didn't turn on my home (fixed line) pc last night. Is this a glimpse into the future?
I'll bring you more on how it changes my internet use and the uses I find for it as regularly as I'm able.

Someone asked me this morning how much hassle it was having to text-type in all your usernames and passwords etc
Made me wonder how many people 'typed' before they were forced to do so by the desirability of accessing content on the internet via a pc.
People seem ever adaptable - provided the end result is what they want.

3 accelerates mobile web in the UK

Sounds to me like 3 may have hooked up with orb.com (see post below, oh and here's the confirmation)... given that their new package appears to include the ability to access your home pc from your mobile.

The BBC reports that you'll also be able to make free internet calls from 3 mobiles (via a deal with Skype).

You'll be charged a flat-rate monthly fee (can't find anywhere saying how much!)

Here's the '3' webcast on the subject

And here's the full 3 promo for the X-series:

And me? I've just done another deal with 02 for 12 months - a company which had to have its arm twisted to let me have a 3G phone for less than £140 and which has a set data price!

Anyway, 3 looks the way ahead. Interesting that they describe themselves, not as a mobile network service provider or operator, but as a mobile media company.

Perhaps those who couldn't quite believe the predictions that mobile web would outstrip fixed web within two years can start to see the sense now? (See previous post).

Right of this minute, I think this is the single most significant digital development I've heard of since I started this blog.

The implications include:

a) the massive potential acceleration of mobile internet

b) A solution to the mobile memory problem (see post on orb.com, below)

c) A solution to potentially off-putting run-away data charges (though it remains to be seen how much 3's set price is

d) An answer to the 'problem' (for network providers) of free internet calls and access which would inevitably be made through wifi connected mobiles accessing the internet.

And of course (a) takes us rapidly to Tomi T Ahonen's conclusions about how websites will inevitably be designed for mobile as their primary access point within two years. Two years? Perhaps he'll have a recount.

Google to buy YouTube? Is 'Me too' dead?

Google's much-rumoured plans to buy YouTube raises some questions about the value of brands, established routes to market, marketing (full stop) and me-too-ism.
Why has YouTube been so much more successful than google's own video offering? Technically there is little to choose between them. And you'd have to say that google would have an advantage in route-to-market terms.
As far as I understand it (and please do correct me if I'm wrong) google video arrived on the scene approx six months after google video. Six months. All google's advantages wiped out in just six months?
Perhaps it is that google is now seen as 'establishment' - YouTube was/is the dude.
Perhaps it is this, and the way YouTube functions much more intuitively as a social network than google video, that has given it this victory.
Maybe me-tooism no longer has sustainable currency. Innovation - being first with something which truly engages and which can be rapidly and swiftly marketed by those who try it and love it, perhaps these are the advantages YouTube created?
The asking price is in the region of £850 million - and google are only one in a queue of potential purchasors.
You'd have to expect that yahoo are one of them - even though they are trying a bit of me-too-ism themselves: Click here
We've seen this before, with flickr being bought by yahoo, MySpace by Murdoch. You've got to wonder - did these guys ever have a long term plan to make money - or did they just hope someone would come along with a big bag of cash?
Even if they did, these businesses only have value if you have something else you can offer these audiences - earning revenues from them.
The challenge is doing this in a way that doesn't have them abandoning ship and going looking for the next dude. Ask Ruper Murdoch.