Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
Nokia has been widely reported saying that fuel-cell powered cellphones are still several years away, but all these reports are based on an off-the-cuff remark by a Nokia researcher.
Tapani Ryhanen, head of Nokia's research centre in Helsinki told reporters at a seminar celebrating the 20th anniversary of the facility that fuel cell technology for cellphones was now mature, and this issue was more a supply chain issue than a technology issue: how to get fuel for recharging the fuel cells to the consumer. And he suggested consumers might have to wait "a few more years" before this one is solved.
It's not just a supply chain issue: the fuel is methanol and highly flammable. With all the furore right now about exploding laptop batteries (and fuel cells are being touted for this role too). It might not be politic to suggest that, in the near future, travellers could be trying to board aeroplanes carrying cellphones charged with flammable liquid.
And there's another reason to be circumspect about Nokia's comments on the arrival of fuel cell powered cellphones: just 18 months ago the company announced that it had dropped plans to commercialise the technology because it was "not mature" However Nokia's Matti Naskali said the firm had not abandoned the technology. "Fuel-cell technology is promising and Nokia continues to follow it closely."
Meanwhile competition to develop the first fuel cell powered cell phon is intense. In July NTT DoCoMo demonstrated a fuel cell recharger for a cell phone battery, which it said it intended to put into commercial production, but it has given no date for this.
Technology development in the cellular world takes place at a dizzying rate an there are few firms innovating faster than Nokia. If it really has solved the technical problems, it's hard to believe it will let supply chain issues hold back innovation for "a few more years".
David Bass
| ComOps, a leading Australian provider of business software products and services, has won a competitive tender to deploy its Salvus safety, r…
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