If you run a small business and been tempted by a BlackBerry but couldn’t justify the cost of the push email then Orange may have a deal.  Until the end of March if you take out a business contract with a BlackBerry handset, you get the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) thrown in free of charge for the duration of the contract.

This is very useful if you are running POP or IMAP accounts.  Though it saves £4.25 (+VAT) per month, make sure the rest of the tariffs suit your needs before committing to a 12 month contract.

Research and development, so critical to Nokia’s success in the past, is taking another knock from the accountants.

Following the lead set by the car industry, Nokia have decided to temporarily lay off employees at their manufacturing site in Salo to bring production in line with demand.  This mainly affects high end handsets which are viewed as particularly susceptible in the current recession.

Potentially more problematic is the mobile device R&D centre at Jyväskylä will be closed affecting the 320 employees based there.  Nokia admit that the Jyväskylä team has been contributed to the success of many of their hit products.  So is it a good idea to disband a successful team especially as the success of Nokia has been in its innovation?  Time will tell.

http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1289393

With the recession deepening  Gartner predicts that video telepresence could replace 2.1 million airline seats per year by 2012. 

Telepresence has had a chequered history producing some very strange and strained conversations.  Trying to hold a video conference with none of the pre and post amble associated with social interaction has been seen to be a problem.  A recent case of the potential pitfalls was illustrated when a Fenland councillor conferenced into a meeting from Australia creating some bad feeling.

But the accountants will want to save money and travel costs absorb a lot of it and keep people away from their colleagues and family; though some will say this gives everyone a holiday.

Pondering for a moment though, if video conferencing does become acceptable and users adjust to its constraints and foibles, could this stimulate mobile video calling?  Probably not, as even if you have remembered to smarten yourself up, the unfortunate angles the mobiles are place will do little for your personal image, or grooming habits.