Guardian communications editor Richard Wray is in Barcelona this week for 3GSM - the mobile industry's annual get-together. Thankfully for us, he's reporting back every day for Technology Blog - click here for his updates.
Just about every executive at 3GSM is banging on about how important it is to sell services to consumers rather than trying to flog them technology but there is a real dearth of good service ideas at this year's show.
Yes the music industry has been here in force - although they are all jumping on planes this afternoon to get back to attend The Brits - and film has been amply represented by both the Sundance organisers and some of Bollywood's leading lights; but there has been little in the way of innovative service ideas. One notable exception - and it's a British company - is Omego.
Putting together mobile phones and children is always going to raise hackles, but accepting that parents are going to want to be able to keep in touch with their kids, and the kids themselves are certainly going to want a phone, raises the question of how to deal with the obvious consequences: kids being mugged for their phones, bullied by text message, running up huge bills and the ever-present danger of undesirable elements calling them up.
Omego has come up with an innovative solution to these problems. It has teamed up with Texas-based kids phone maker Enfora to produce a walkie talkie-like handset with two buttons and a Blackberry-style rocker wheel likely to appeal to pre-teens but which - to be honest - no mugger would want to steal. The phone is "controlled" through a website which parents access using a password. They can use the site to set the numbers which can call and text the phone and set the numbers which the phone itself can call and text.
Should the handset be stolen - or lost - it will only ever be able to call these programmed numbers, making it effectively worthless to anyone else.
The phone can even be programmed through the website to switch off at certain times - such as during lessons - so it does not create a distraction.
Parents can also keep an eye on their child's phone bill online, set monthly spending limits and top-up the phone if necessary.
Omego hopes to launch in the UK in time for the next school year. It plans to charge a £2.99 monthly subscription for the website functions, while call charges will depend on which network a customer is on. Several High Street retailers are understood to be very interested in stocking the phone.
Omego is backed by Andrew Wolfson, a member of the family which founded Great Universal Stores at the turn of the last century, so is not short of a bob or two.
