Ewan Taylor-Gibson of comparison site uSwitch.com says Sky's mobile proposition is pretty good -- as long as you're a Sky TV customer. "46,000 Sky customers [preregistering an interest] is certainly a head start out of the blocks," he said, "but if the TV giant really wants to appeal to data-hungry consumers it may have to offer bigger data bundles."Britain's phone market has been through a seismic shift in recent years. Of the major players, T-Mobile merged with Orange to become EE, which was in turn swallowed up by BT. Sky now joins the ranks of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), smaller networks that use the infrastructure of a larger network. Like rival MVNO GiffGaff, Sky Mobile will use O2's masts and infrastructure.

Sky's phone network launches with SIM deals and a dishful of benefits for Sky TV customers, Sky has launched its long-anticipated mobile network, Sky Mobile gives you the chance to roll over your unused mondrian iphone case data and watch on your phone the shows you've recorded on your Sky box, Back in January 2015, Sky announced that 2016 would see a mobile network joining its satellite TV, landline and broadband services in 2016, With a month to go before the end of the year, Sky Mobile scrapes in under the wire to launch for existing Sky customers and for those who have preregistered their interest, The full launch will follow in the new year..

Meanwhile, smartphone makers saw a slowdown in sales last year in mature markets, such as the US, China and Western Europe, where sales growth in 2015 was only in the single digits. Sales in these markets is expected to be even worse in 2016. Big manufacturers are feeling the pain as Apple and Samsung have each experienced significant declines in sales. Samsung saw its sharpest dip ever in the third quarter with a 14 percent decline in sales, according to market research firm Gartner. The slump is due, at least in part, to battery problems that caused some of Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 phones to explode or catch fire. Apple also saw a 6.6 percent decline in sales in the third quarter, in spite of the launch of its new iPhone 7.

The reason? The smartphone industry has been hit by "phone fatigue." Consumers in mature markets have been turned off by a lack of exciting features in new phones, causing more of them to stick with their current smartphones, At the same time, mobile carriers are doing away with subsidized plans, causing more customers to buy mondrian iphone case their phones at the full retail price, putting a damper on sales of expensive models, Phone sales for 2016 will likely be flat as consumers in the US and other established markets hang onto old phones..

Sales worldwide of smartphones have flatlined in 2016, but strong growth for 4G smartphones in emerging markets remains a bright spot. In IDC's latest forecast projecting sales for 2016, the market research firm reported worldwide smartphone shipments are expected to reach about 1.45 billion units. This represents a year-over-year growth rate of just 0.6 percent, a steep drop from the 10.4 percent growth rate the industry saw between 2014 and 2015, according to IDC. Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion.