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Big news in the mobile world this week that Orange and T-Mobile will be joining forces to create a mammoth-sized network with around 28.4 million customers combined, covering 37% of the UK mobile market. Currently, market shares for the major players look like this:

Vodafone – 27%
O2 – 25%
Orange – 22%
T-Mobile – 15%

The merger will bring the UK network selection down from 5 to four (excluding mobile virtual network operators such as Tesco and Virgin).

Although the merger will reportedly cost between £400 million and £600 million, it’s expected to deliver savings of around half-a-billion pounds per year by 2014, saving on duplicate shops, base stations and customer service facilities.

But what does all this mean for shoppers? Let’s start with the potential negatives:
- Less choice. We all like to have a good range of products and services to choose from and this will reduce our options considerably
- It’s possible that with less competition in the market, we might be looking at higher prices for handsets and contracts
- Uncertainty for current contract holders
- What on Earth will happen to Orange Wednesdays! I have to admit, this is a huge cause for concern. The midweek bargain pizza and film have provided THE single form of weekly entertainment for millions.

And the good points:
- Hopefully less pylons all over the place
- Better reception
- Potentially better customer service
- A greater range of handsets
- An end to the exclusivity deals with O2? It would be good to share the handset love. So far, O2 has the most anticipated handsets like the iPhone and the Palm Pre.

Of course, none of this is finalised yet. Things should go ahead in November and if they do, each company will keep its individual name for at least 18 months. After that, who knows what they’ll come up with. Any ideas for the new name? I think I’ll be boring and go for Orange Mobile…or maybe Trangbile. Nice!

Rumours have been flying around about a Google Android mobile for ages now but it seems that it may all come true sooner than we thought. Earlier today, Reuters leaked a story that Google and T-Mobile are on the verge of releasing the first mobile equipped with Android. The sleuths believe that we could hear news as early as the 23rd September.

Much to my disappointment, the rumours suggest that it will run on an HTC handset – not the most exciting of prospects but we know the technology will be worth it. Let’s hope the handset’s not too clunky.

Just in case you haven’t heard about Google Android, it’s an open source operating system and software platform for mobiles. Among other cool things, it will allow you to combine applications – so you could be looking up a contacts address and need to find where they live. With a simple click, you will be taken to the map application which will show you exactly where to go. You can also quickly switch your view to ‘street level’ so that you can see what the place looks like too. Very handy.

There’s also text chat that shows up at the top of the screen whenever you get a ‘notification’.

There are loads more features and functions – check out this video to see Google founder Sergy Brin and Steve Horowitz talking about Android with a demo:

You can also find out more on the Android website.

End of the week funnies courtesy of shoppers’ reviews on Reevoo…

"Just about as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike" T-MOBILE USB Modem

"It didn’t cry real tears…so it had to be sent back" Interactive Baby Annabell

"Maybe a little over complicated, however, it is better than hanging clothes over our picture rail" Hotpoint VTD60G

"In my opinion, the times given by the unit could only have been achieved with the help of a police escort" Garmin Nuvi 300

"It’s got such wonderful suck!" Karcher VC6300