Carphone Warehouse is Coming to the US

It wasn’t too long ago that Cingular was making a bid at a European Cell Provider, I think it was Orange, but that never went through. It looked to me like Cingular was trying to take over the world and not just the USA. Now Cingular is AT&T.

Well, Carphone Warehouse is talking about opening up stores in the US. I will admit, being that I am not in Europe, I know very little about this company. I do know that they sold the iPhone when it was launched over there.

According to Electronista, Carphone Warehouse is planning to open 1,000 stores in the US. That is one hell of an invasion. Good luck.

Europe’s Carphone Warehouse is coming to the US, reports say. The company is an independent cellphone vendor, and has some 2,300 stores scattered throughout European countries. It is now planning to open almost 1,000 stores in America, thanks to a partnership with big-box retailer Best Buy, which owns a 3 percent stake in Carphone. Some of these will be boutiques within Best Buy shops, but others will operate separately in different locations. The first American outlets should launch later this year.

With Best Buy backing this, they should stand a chance. I think Circuit City has done a great deal for Verizon.

Source: Electronista

Carphone Warehouse and RIM Launch Sunset-Coloured BlackBerry Pearl 8120 Smartphone in the UK

The Carphone Warehouse and Research In Motion (RIM) announced today availability of the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 smartphone from The Carphone Warehouse stores across the UK, and online at www.carphonewarehouse.com.

A sleek, small and elegant smartphone, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 provides the powerful functionality users have come to expect from the BlackBerry wireless solution, coupled with rich, new multimedia features and Wi-Fi� connectivity support. Capturing video clips and still images is a breeze with the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 smartphone’s 2 megapixel camera. These images and video clips can also be easily shared with friends and family using email, web upload or MMS; alternatively users can save and store these files, together with their favourite music, on a microSD card that easily slides into the side of the smartphone. These new features, along with a large, bright high-resolution display add to the renowned BlackBerry� smartphone experience for email, phone, messaging (SMS, IM, MMS), web browsing, organiser and other mobile applications.

[Read more]

Bad night for Apple in the UK

With iPhone sales slowing in the US, tonight was going to herald glorious sales in the UK, as the iPhone was launched by O2 and the Carphone warehouse (on O2).

Except it went badly

The planned queues of people never happened. And it didn’t get any better. After just one hour of sales the number of staff in the two branches of Carphone warehouse in Liverpool was more than the number of customers there. And they were customers who were looking rather than buying. The cash register was very quiet.

One poor sole was dressed up as Mowbli (right) in an attempt to attract peoples attention, while others tried to drag anyone into the store to just look at the iPhones. Huge stacks of leaflets went unused.

A CPW staff member later said that their target for the night had been halved to 36 at the last minute, although he didn’t think it had been reached. ‘I really hope tomorrow is better, it has to be’ he said.

The O2 store in Liverpool city center looked a bit better, with the number of people in it looking like an average Wednesday afternoon. But again not many people seemed to be leaving the store with carrier bags.

If this is reflected around the country then both Apple and O2 are in serious trouble… and may have  to change the whole iPhone business model

Oh, bop, do do do do do do do do Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion

Welcome to “silly songs with Psionandy”.., the part of Mobilitysite where Psionandy sings a silly song.

Due to a mix-up between my MP3 player and my RSS reader, today’s news will be in the form of a song.. (with Apologies to David Bowie)

There’s some brand new phones
and you’ll all know their names

(Designer Ted Baker, Samsung, Carphone warehouse and HTC to team up to make Windows mobile fashion phones)

That people with no sense
Buy again and again

(Carphone warehouse to get exclusive rights to the Levi Phone for 3 months. �300 sim free. and nothing special about it apart from the label)

They’re big and they’re tasteless
Those fake Ipods this year

Following leaked photos of a faked fat Ipod Nano. Uniea has come up with a range of cases for the device that Apple say doesn’t exist.

They sell them over there, but we can’t buy them here
(and speaking of unloved MP3 players.. Still no Zune for Europe)

Fashion! Turn to the left

(Swarovski headphones and Flash drives anyone?)

Fashion! Turn to the right
(Nicole Richie leaves jail with her Blackberry)

Oooh, fashion!
(LG WM6 Prada 2 could land in the UK before the iPhone)

We are the phone squad
and we’re coming to town
(It’s the IFA consumer Electronics show in Berlin)

Beep-beep
Beep-beep
Listen to me - don’t listen to me
Text to me - don’t talk to me
(insert joke about Naomi Campbell and mobile phone here)

Dance with me - don’t dance with me, no
(From today, Westminster City Council will use Bluetooth technology to send a message about the dangers of Soho’s notorious clubs to the owners of mobile phones or BlackBerrys who wander within a 30-metre radius of three venues.)

Beep-beep

Tune in Next week to hear Psionandy sing… “Lets Dance… Pick up your Smartphone and Dance”

Sources: Jason Langridge, Yahoo, Mobile today, Celebrity blackberry sightings, Tech Digest: Daily Mail Pocket Lint, The Register, Gear digest , Slashgear:

Dell Signs Deal With British Mobile Retailer

Dell Inc. has signed a deal with a U.K. mobile phone retailer to distribute free laptops with the purchase of a broadband Internet access subscription, continuing the company’s push into the retail market. Starting in September, consumers who buy a two-year contract for America Online Inc.’s broadband service through the Carphone Warehouse Group PLC will get a coupon for a free base-model Inspiron notebook from Dell. AOL broadband costs #19.99 (US$41) per month.

The Dell laptop comes with Microsoft Corp.’s Vista Home Basic OS, 1 G byte of RAM, an 80G-byte hard drive, an Intel Corp. Celeron processor and Wi-Fi. The laptop can be upgraded for a fee. Customers also get a wireless router, but have to pay a #14.99 laptop delivery fee.

Source: Yahoo news and Carphone Warehouse