Christmas opening hours and helplines

Just in case you get struck by the sudden desire to buy a computer or by lightening, causing a power surge that knocks out your new PC, here are the sales and support contact details for UK vendors. AJP Opening times: Mon-Fri 9-5.30pm Sat 9-2pm (Sales, Technical Support & Demo Room) Over Christmas closed from 23rd December - 4th January. ...more

Operators line up for mobile commerce

European telcos form association to push m-commerce. Orange, Telefonica, T-Mobile and Vodafone have teamed up to create interoperable methods of secure payments over mobile phones. The Mobile Payment Services Association is looking at ways of creating open technologies to enable payments both large and small over mobile networks. ...more

Waterstone's ditches Amazon to go it alone

Waterstone's has severed its link with Amazon and will launch its own online bookshop later this year. HMV, which owns the high street bookseller, said that the company had underestimated the impact that the Internet would have on its business. 'The Amazon partnership has been good but when we first entered into it we felt that online sales would not get to more than 10 per cent of the UK books market,' said chief executive Alan Giles. ...more

UK broadband users rate ISP customer service poorly

Broadband customers are finding poor customer service an increasing problem, according to research from Point Topic. Recent analysis from the group shows that users who reported being 'very' or 'fairly' dissatisfied with the 'after sales support' rose from 7 per cent in February 2006 to 18.3 per cent in December 2006. ...more

Interview: Sony Ericsson marketing VP Alex Rodriques

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, a joint venture between Sony of Japan and Ericsson of Sweden, currently stands as the world's fifth-largest mobile phone vendor with a 5.4 per cent market share. Alex Rodriques, the company's vice president of marketing, chatted with DigiTimes on the company's mobile phone development plans and market assessment for 2003. ...more