Tag: smartphone technology

A recent report has shown that 70 percent of consumers pay more than necessary for talk, text, and data.

Research by European firm, Consumer Champion, has indicated that between two thirds and three quarters (70 percent) of consumers in the United Kingdom are paying more than necessary for mobile technology services such as calling, text, and data plans.

It pointed out that many are paying for more services than they require and are locked into 24-month contracts.

Others, particularly children, have mobile technology service plans that are two low for their usage. This means that parents run the risk of regularly running up additional charges when they have exceeded their plan limits. The results of the study showed that an estimated 77 percent of consumers in the U.K. could be saving a minimum of £50 (around US$75) per year by changing their contracts. However, it also underscored the fact that there are some service providers that make it very challenging to switch, as they apply a charge to unlock handsets.

The result is that families across the country are paying billions of pounds too much for their mobile technology service.

The average savings, according to Consumer Champion, for seven out of every ten people, could be an average of about £159 (around US$240) each, simply by choosing a contract that better reflects their actual needs. For families that are paying for mobile service on four smartphones, that could bring about an annual savings of over £600 (about US$900), which is certainly nothing to laugh at.

Among the causes for the selection of the wrong plan by consumers is that the majority of smartphones – for example the Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone models – are sold along with 2-year contracts that require users to pay a monthly fee in order to cover their service and the cost of the handset, but that have a limit to the number of calls, text, and data usage that are included.

As many mobile technology users are on plans that will charge them more when they exceed the capped amount of calls, text, and data – particularly in the case of children – additional fees are run up that make the service far more costly than it would have been if they had upgraded their plans to something that covers a larger amount of service.

The chipmaker giant will be spending this massive amount over the next year to boost its hardware offerings.

Intel has already been making some important moves into the world of mobile technology, some of which have been making some rather important headlines, such as in the case of the wearables that it will be powering once they are released.

However, among its most recent mobile tech headlines has been the billions in investments it now plans to make.

The goal of the $1.6 billion in total investments will be to improve their position in mobile technology hardware development, with a particular focus on tablets and smartphones. ARM has already been taking in considerable successes within the mobile tech sphere, as the United States and the rest of the world find themselves being swamped with a nearly endless range of new products. Although Intel may not have been one of the companies that was first to move into this environment, it is hoping that by making a sizeable enough investment into the hardware in this category, it will be able to become a true competitor in this area.

Intel has also made efforts toward diversification within its new place in the mobile technology marketplace.

It has created a range of new relationships with Chinese businesses in order to be able to manufacture its new CPUs for mobile devices. The $1.6 billion that Intel plans to invest in smartphones, tablets, and other mobile gadgets will be spread out over the next decade and a half in order to create a new China based manufacturing facility that is going to focus on the production of mobile computer chips.

Intel is also hopeful that this facility will also be usable by other third party organizations, such as Apple. Principal analyst at Mercury Research, Dean McCarron, explained that “It makes sense because Intel likes to make manufacturing facilities in technically sophisticated markets, which China is.” McCarron also explained that if a company such as Apple were ever to step up to Intel and explain that they would like a custom part for a mobile technology device, then it is more than clear that Intel would be willing and able to manufacture it with such a facility in place.