Updated regularly to give you the latest from MakeOverMy - FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY http://www.makeovermy.com/ Copyright: (C) MakeOverMy It looks like choppy waters ahead for the mobile phone manufacturers as slowing growth in mature markets starts to take its toll. Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor, is suing Motorolaas part of a proxy battle to win four seats on the board. The documents being demanded by Mr Icahn – who upped his stake in the company from 5 per cent to 6.3 per cent earlier this month – include the strategy for the firm's loss-making mobile phone business, and come against a background of calls for the spin-off of the division.Although Motorola retains its second-place ranking in the world's handset league, it has serious problems. In the three months to December, mobile sales were down 38 per cent year on year, leaving a loss of $388m (£194m). And the third quarter was little better, with sales down 36 per cent and a loss of $138m.Analysts blame the problems on complacency after the whirlwind success of the Razr handset, which became the world's top-seller when it was launched in 2004. And at the end of January, the firm announced plans to explore "structural and strategic realignment", including the possibility of separating its mobile phone business.But Motorola is not the only manufacturer that is suffering. Last week Sony Ericsson, which has about 9 per cent of the global market, issued a warning predicting pre-tax profits for the first quarter this year to between €150m (£117m) and €200m, compared with €362m for the same period last year. The company is blaming slowing sales of its mid to high-end handsets in mature markets.The mobile phone industry is in a period of change as the precipitous growth in developed economies flattens off. A number of European countries, including the UK, Italy and Ireland, have penetration rates of more than 100 per cent – that is, more than one phone per head of population – and growth in the region was just 2 per cent last year. In the UK, there are some 72 million mobile phones, and 1.4 subscriptions per user. In Japan the trend is even more pronounced, with sales down by 3.6 per cent in the last quarter of 2007, according to the analyst Gartner.Not only is the consumer market saturated, but manufacturers are also being hit by network operators' attempts to boost margins by pushing up contract lengths and spreading the cost of handset subsidies over as much as two years. In the UK alone, customer acquisition costs the industry more than £1bn per year, so the operators have much to gain, but slower churn is bad news for device suppliers. There is also the pressure of "convergence" – single multi-function devices combining voice, internet browsing and entertainment such as music and video. Apple and Research in Motion – makers of the iPhone and Blackberry mobile email device respectively – both made it into Gartner's top 10 suppliers for the first time in the last quarter of 2007. And as voice-only handset sales slow, next-generation devices are showing strong growth.Customers are also becoming more sophisticated. "Devices now tend to be higher-end and therefore more costly, but with a higher cost at the outset, users are holding on to them for longer," Andrew Parkin-White, a principal analyst at Analysys, said. "The average phone life of 14 months is increasing and the average replacement cycle is longer."But despite the gloomy signs, there is plenty of life in the old dog yet. Global growth in 2008 will be slower than last year's 16 per cent, but is still expected to run at a healthy 10 per cent, according to Gartner. And the emerging economies, particularly India and China, have by no means exhausted their potential. The mature markets already account for only 30 per cent of the world total, and a massive 112 million units were shipped in Asia-Pacific in the last three months of 2007 alone.One of the success stories is Nokia. The Finnish giant met its target to take 40 per cent of the global market in the fourth quarter of last year – more than twice the share of its nearest rival – and shipped more than 133 million phones across the world.The company is as much a bellwether as Motorola or Sony Ericsson, according to Carolina Milanesi, a research director at Gartner. "Nokia has been able to have profit margins going up even with average sale prices going down," she said. "If Nokia starts to struggle then we really need to worry, but it is in a strong position because of its range – if top-tier handset sales go down, then it will make up for it with lower end devices in different markets."And the size of the global market is such that it can absorb some slower growth. "Even if it reduces in size, it will still be one of largest consumer electronics sectors, because very few devices sell more than one billion units per year like mobile phones do," Paul Lee, director of telecoms research at Deloitte, said.The shift is more about a change of dynamics. One of the reasons for Sony Ericsson's problems is that it has a narrower product range than, for example Nokia, and its higher-end focus is gaining less traction in the developing world, say analysts.Even the pressures in the mature markets may not be all they seem to be. The correlation between rising sales of converged devices and a drop-off in standard voice phones is not black and white. There is already more than one mobile phone per user in the UK, and there is no reason such expansion will not continue, according to Mr Lee. "Mobile data devices are good at email and phones are good at calls. If you have one converged device and the service is lost, then you lose everything," he said.The biggest manufacturers are also looking at ways to diversify their services. Nokia launched OVI last August, which gives customers access to internet sites, as well as the firm's own music and games portal and navigation services. There is also scope for including mobile phone-type devices in all kind of different machines from parking meters, for payment authentication, to GPS navigation systems, for real-time traffic updates, to domestic cars, to run telemetry systems for maintenance or even insurance purposes."There are lots and lots of different machines that manufacturers could put a mobile phone capability into and work out a way to make money," Mr Lee said. http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=409 Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC It might not quite be April Fool's Day just yet but that hasn't stopped an unknown source in Italy from launching an email hoax on George Clooney. A mysterious company sent out an email yesterday claiming that George Clooney was launching a men's and women's fashion brand, GC Exclusive by George Clooney, which happens to be a porky pie. "I have no connection whatsoever with any clothing line bearing my name, and more specifically, GC Exclusive by George Clooney," said the actor. Initially the email, which was poorly translated from Italian to English, also claimed Clooney's fake collection would be launched at a fashion show in Milan, where he would be present. http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=407 Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC GIRLS as young as seven are being targeted for a controversial online game where characters get breast implants, stay “waif thin” and constantly visit tanning booths. The Women's Forum Australia has condemned the MissBimbo game, in which millions of players around the world guide their "bimbo" through a variety of tasks. Some of the tasks include starting and ending relationships, constant dieting (but "every girl needs to eat, every now and again") and constant visits to a tanning salon. Bimbos also need to undergo two operations to make themselves more "beautiful" before reaching the end of the game. "Are you the most beautiful? You will be soon! Have a nip and tuck operation for a brand new face," the game says. "Bigger is better! Have a breast operation." Women’s Forum director Melinda Tankard Reist said the game was damaging to the health and wellbeing of girls. “The MissBimbo game helps entrench the belief that a girl’s sexual currency is her primary allure,” Ms Tankard Reist said. “It promotes being sexy and hot as the ultimate ideal for girls, diminishing their value and worth. “The game even promotes plastic surgery for girls who are only seven… it is irresponsible.” When players reach one of the levels, their bimbo must go on a diet after breaking up with her boyfriend: “After you broke-up with your ex-boyfriend you went on an eating binge!!! Please don't comfort eat with all that chocolate! Now it's time to diet.” When NEWS.com.au registered to play the game using the date of birth of a 6-year-old, the website requested an email address for a parent. The email that was sent to the given email address made no mention of some of the tasks were included in the "fashion game". "MissBimbo is a virtual fashion game for girls – mostly girls between 7-17 years old (who) hail from 200 different countries," the email said. "You have to manage a doll, dress her, feed her, find a good job to buy some nice fashion clothes." Ms Tankard Reist said the way women were portrayed in games like MissBimbo had a huge impact on young girls. "Research shows that the widespread objectification and sexualisation of girls and young women is contributing to eating disorders, self-harm, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and poor academic performance," she said. The game also helps turn girls against each other by competing to be the hottest bimbo who "skyrockets to the top of fame and popularity." http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=408 Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC Music company Sony (NYSE:SNE) BMG wants to launch a subscription plan to give clients unlimited access to its digital catalogue, chief executive Rolf Schmidt-Holtz said. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, Schmidt-Holtz said: 'We are working on an online music subscription service. 'The simplest option would be a flat rate under which a monthly payment would provide access to our entire music catalogue for all digital players, including Apple's Ipod,' he added. 'It is even possible that clients could conserve some songs indefinitely, that they would own them even after the subscription expired,' he said. Typical subscription fees could run from six to eight eur, he suggested. The project could get off the ground this year, Schmidt-Holtz said, adding that his company was in talks with other major music distributors on the subject. Cooperation agreements with mobile telephone manufacturers is also possible, he added.tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.comCopyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News. http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=410 Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC China Mobile, the country's largest cell phone provider, is trying to explain why around 200 million mobile phone users were sent unwanted advertising. The incident, labeled "Text-message Gate" has elicited apologies from the companies involved and a government call to put public interest in front of profit.While admitting ads were sent to mobile phones without permission, a spokeswoman for Focus Media Holding Ltd., told the AP "there was nothing pornographic in the messages, only messages."However, China Mobile has cut Focus Media's ability to send text messages to the more than 555 million cell phone owners, a penalty reserved for the worst offenders.In a statement, China's State Council's Office for Rectifying Malpractice, urged the companies and carrier to increase spam prevention. The government called this recent event an example of "profit-seeking in defiance of public interests." http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=404 Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC George Clooney appears to be the latest victim of an email hoax. The actor and director made it clear Monday that a report about him getting into the clothing-design business was a hoax. The Hollywood heart-throb and star of the upcoming film "Leatherheads" issued a short statement denying a report that he would soon be launching a clothing line called "GC EXCLUSIVE by George Clooney." "This is a hoax," Clooney said. "I have no connection whatsoever with any clothing line bearing my name, and more specifically `GC EXCLUSIVE by George Clooney." The rumor apparently began with a mysterious -- and poorly written or translated -- e-mail announcing that the clothing line would be unveiled during a fashion show in Milan. According to Women's Wear Daily, the e-mail stated that the line would include "luxury clothing for men and women. Luxury fashion accessories." http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=403 Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC The family of Bob Marleyhave had a long-standing policy not to license his music for any film ortelevision production whereby there is an actor portraying Bob Marley. Dueto this policy, the family will not issue, and have not issued, anylicenses for his music to be included in any such film. There have beenseveral requests over the years from different companies and individuals tolicense Bob Marley music for different projects and all of them have beendeclined, including the proposed Weinstein production of Rita Marley's book'No woman no cry.' "When I sold the film rights to my book the contract did not includeany rights to use my husband's music," states Rita Marley. "Though I am thehead of the Marley family each decision is made democratically amongst allof us, I requested an exception be made for my book to be turned into amovie but that request was declined." Tuff Gong Pictures, owned by the Family entered into a co-productionagreement with Steve Bing's Shangri La to produce a Martin Scorsesedirected documentary of the legendary Bob Marley and they have agreed tolicense his music. "All our efforts and support are currently directed towards thedocumentary that we are working on with Shangri La, directed by MartinScorsese. We believe that this project is the best way to represent ourfather's life from his perspective and any other film project pertaining toour father will be empty without his music to support it," said ZiggyMarley. http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=406 Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC With MySpace, Sprint mobile users will now be able to keep in touch with their social life through their favorite social networking site being available on the tip of their fingers. Sprint Mobile users will be the first ones to experience MySpace on their Sprint phones. MySpace mobile users will now get almost the same features that they used to get on their computers. MySpace mobile allows its users to read, write and reply to the mails and also allows users to view each others pictures using the ‘My Photos’ link. Using their Sprint phones, now users can search for their friends on MySpace mobile and also post blogs and comment on the blogs too. MySpace mobile allows the users to invite and add their friends to their profile and you can also approve any pending friend requests from the phone itself. Now with MySpace going mobile, Sprint mobile users can forget their bulky computers and socialize with just a click on their mobile phones. http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=405 Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC Fashion designer Jasper Conran is due to collect his OBE from Buckingham Palace.The 48-year-old son of designer Sir Terence and writer Shirley Conran has won numerous awards for his work, including British Fashion Council designer of the year.His first women's wear collection was in 1978, and his range now includes homeware, fragrance and jewellery as well as clothing for men, women and children.Those also receiving honours from the Prince of Wales at the investiture ceremony include David Adjaye, the Tanzanian-born, London-based architect, who receives an OBE for services to architecture.His public buildings include the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in north London and the education centre in memory of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, in south east London.The managing director of the Barbican Centre in central London, and former director of the BBC Proms, Sir Nicholas Kenyon, will receive a knighthood for services to classical music.The ceremony will feature a number of other people who have been honoured for their services to the public.Leicestershire chief constable Matthew Baggott will collect a CBE for services to the police.Paul Young, chief fire officer of Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, also receives a CBE, for services to local government.Nichola Kirkham, a special constable with South Yorkshire Police, who was involved in the response to the floods last year, will receive an MBE for services to the community. http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=402 Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC BBC3 has commissioned two reality series from UK indie Love Productions (The Baby Borrowers) – one in which disabled women try to convince the fashion industry they are models in waiting, and another where comedians try to convince farm animals they are one of them. The tentatively titled five-parter Britain's Missing Top Model follows the basic format of the Top Model franchise with the twist that the eight women living together and being put through their modelling paces are all disabled in some way. "This series aims to challenge the artificial boundaries that seem to exist in the beauty and fashion industries," said BBC3 controller Danny Cohen, who commissioned both series. The winner of Missing Top Model will star in a high-fashion photo shoot with a top industry photographer to feature in a spread in a top mainstream women's glossy. "Our intention is to empower both the women featured in the project and thousands of others, who shouldn't be invisible to the fashion industry just because they are disabled people," said Richard McKerrow, Love's creative director. The BBC's disability website Ouch will support the series, which will run in conjunction with a BBC Learning campaign that will aim to bring the topic of disability in the beauty and fashion industries into the spotlight. Love's second new commission from BBC3, My Life as a… (4x60') will see two young comedians each week move in with a group of animals, one of them on an upmarket free-range farm and the other on a basic working farm. In the first episode they hang out with pigs. Animal behavioural specialists will study the animals and teach the comics how to imitate and communicate with their new neighbours. The comedians must try and convince the animals they are all the same species. http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=398 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC Following its debut title in 2005 with 'Getting Up' for Atari, Marc Ecko Entertainment has confirmed a deal with HBO Showtime to adapt the serial killer brand Dexter into a videogame. Dexter show will become a game The brand, based on a series of books by Jeff Lindsay, follows Dexter Morgan, a blood splatter expert for the Miami Police Department who also happens to be a serial killer.Trained by his father to focus his sociopathic urges through deadly vigilantism, Morgan only kills those who he thinks have escaped justice."'Dexter' is the extremely rare TV show with enough layers of action and tension to translate perfectly into a compelling videogame," said Marc Fernandez, Vice President of Marc Ecko Entertainment. http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=399 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC Last month the mobile industry headed to Barcelona for the annual Mobile World Congress. Neil Tyler reports. According to the event’s organisers this year was the most successful yet, with an estimated 50,000 visitors. For the UK, with almost 200 companies exhibiting, the country’s presence was one of the biggest at the show. However, while it was certainly busy there were few announcements that generated any real excitement.While the number of 3G subscribers has increased to over 300 million globally, along with 600 million broadband users, the industry finds itself in a tough position. The mobile market is saturated, companies are seeing margins eroded and soon the handset you use wont matter as most will be able to support the host of applications either currently in the market place or under development.As the devices become more commoditised Nokia, among others, is expected to move their focus to services and applications. But outside of certain niche markets it is unlikely users will be willing to pay for all the new applications on offer. So the big unanswered question at this show was where the money was going to be coming from to pay for all of this.While the next generation of mobile technologies is being lined up it will be interesting to see how quickly they are developed and rolled out into the market place.The big issue for many mobile phone operators was whether they can stop online firms, consumer device manufacturers and software companies turning them into ‘big dumb pipes in the air’. With the advent of new services - the demand for popular video sharing sites, communities, social networking and personalisation is continuing to grow - why should operators like Vodafone and T-Mobile take a slice of any deal done that involves the use of the mobile internet? “Our focus is on the end-user experience,” says Michel Quazza, Chief Executive Officer at Surfkitchen. “With subscribers demanding ‘zero-click ‘access to an increasingly broad range of rich services, operators are seeking to mobilise popular Internet services. Operators need to offer users a compelling experience. The key issue is latency. The immediacy of response raises a user’s attachment level. http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=401 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC The Taleban are flexing their muscles again in southern Afghanistan, attacking what is undoubtedly the most dynamic sector of the economy - mobile phone companies. Over the past week, four transmission masts belonging to different phone companies have been destroyed – two from the country’s largest service provider, Roshan, one belonging to its close competitor the Afghan Wireless Communications Company, AWCC, and one owned by the relative newcomer Areeba. The attacks have taken place in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, where the Taleban have their stronghold and hold down large swathes of the countryside. But in targeting mobile networks, the Taleban may be losing one of their most precious assets – the tacit support of the local population. While villagers in Helmand may turn a blind eye to public executions and grudgingly let their beards grow as the fundamentalists demand, they are extremely unhappy at the prospect of losing their phone service, for many their one link with the outside world. “This has affected people very badly,” said Nazar Gul, a resident of Helmand’s Nad Ali district, where phone services were interrupted last week. “Our phones didn’t work and we couldn’t contact our relatives. This must not be repeated. The Taleban should pursue their aims in some other way. If they continue doing this, people are going to get upset and they will withdraw their support.” Afghanistan leapt headfirst into the mobile phone age after the Taleban were ousted in 2001. After two decades of war, the country had little in the way of infrastructure and almost no land lines. Two providers, Roshan and AWCC, shared the fledgling market for three years, investing hundreds of millions of US dollars to get the industry up and running. It was a huge success. Now, after close to one billion dollars in investment, Afghanistan has four major providers with close to five million subscribers. From illiterate farmers to government ministers, everyone seems to rely on the cell phone for almost all communications. The Taleban themselves are customers. In past years, spokesmen for the insurgents could only be reached via satellite phone. Now they have several mobile phone numbers through which they communicate with media outlets and each other. In late February, though, the Taleban issued a warning to cellphone companies, demanding that they switch off their services between five in the evening and three in the morning, in order to prevent foreign military forces from tracking their movements through phone signals. Hours after a deadline set by the Taleban expired, militants took out a phone mast belonging to Areeba in Kandahar. Two days later, a Roshan relay mast was destroyed, also in Kandahar. Over the next few days, Roshan and AWCC masts came under attack in Helmand. “The companies did not comply with our demands,” explained Qari Yusuf, Taleban spokesman in the south. “We ordered them to stop the service at night. If these companies do not observe our rules and principles, we will attack them in all the regions under our control.” http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=400 Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC Facebook is approaching big record companies about creating a music service on the social networking site, according to several people familiar with the matter.The approach has come in the past week and was described as “preliminary”. It follows similar moves by MySpace, the leading social network site, which is discussing a MySpace Music joint venture with the four largest record companies – Universal Music, Sony BMG, Warner Music and EMI.The record companies, all of whom declined to comment, view the recent talks as evidence of the importance of music to social networking sites as they vie for young audiences. They are hoping that the sites, which have mostly served as promotional platforms for artists, will become sources of revenue at a time when their sales of physical albums are in decline. They are also eager to encourage a counterweight to Apple’s dominant iTunes store.Facebook, which declined to comment, has been working in recent months to bolster its music offerings. In November, it introduced a way for bands to create their own home pages similar to those found on MySpace. It also has links to iTunes and offers applications from several internet music companies, including iLike, Last.FM and Pandora.However, Facebook does not yet have licensing relationships with the big record companies. While details remain vague, record executives said that they expected a service would offer consumers free streams of music, supported by advertising, as well as the ability to pay for downloads in MP3 format, which can be played on any device.Those are the rough outlines of the MySpace Music service, which is still being discussed. The News Corp-owned site could also include a subscription service and allow fans to buy merchandise and concert tickets, according to people familiar with the matter. One hurdle to a deal is the fact that Universal, the largest music company, is suing MySpace for alleged copyright violations.A handful of online start-ups are already trying to build a profitable business based on an advertising-supported model. So far, they have had mixed results. Yet none of those sites boasts the reach of MySpace, which has 110m users worldwide, or Facebook, which has 66m.Social networking sites allow consumers to share playlists and recommend songs to friends. Record executives are hoping to harness that behaviour to promote new artists and to drum up sales. http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=397 Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC Singer/songwriters Lionel Richie and Steve Miller will receive lifetime achievement honors at music industry group ASCAP's annual awards ceremony in Hollywood next month. They will be presented with Golden Note Awards, which go to songwriters, composers, and artists who have achieved "extraordinary career milestones," ASCAP said in a statement on Wednesday. Previous winners include Tom Petty, Stevie Wonder, Jermaine Dupri and Quincy Jones. ASCAP -- the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers -- collects royalties on behalf of its member songwriters and publishers from the public performance of their compositions from such outlets as radio, TV and Web sites. The ceremony, to be held on April 9 at the Kodak Theatre, will honor the songwriters and publishers of ASCAP's most performed pop songs of 2007. Richie, a former member of Motown group the Commodores, enjoyed huge solo success in the 1980s with such tunes as "All Night Long (All Night)" and "Hello." Miller is famed for such rock-radio staples as "The Joker" and "Fly Like an Eagle." http://www.makeovermy.com/news/news_article.php?id=393 Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:00:00 UTC