About me

I am a freelance journalist with many years of experience in the mobile technology industry, starting out as a columnist in the UK’s leading mobile telecoms trade newspaper Mobile News and then writing for the leading consumer title, What Mobile, where I became editor until 2011.

Until June 2014, I worked as Senior Editor for Steel Media Ltd, a company behind a number of websites specialising in the mobile app/game space, including Pocket Gamer, PocketGamer.biz and AppSpy. 

My work for Steel Media also included me working as Hardware Editor for Pocket Gamer, reviewing smartphones, tablets and accessories, plus working on special projects within the company. Steel Media has clients including Nokia, Samsung, Sony, Rovio, Microsoft and many more.

If you want a printed guide, digital magazine, a branded website run by people who understand all of these things extremely well, or to get involved with one of the many events the company now organised throughout the world, you should get in touch with Steel Media.

• See my LinkedIn Profile.

Until September 2011, I was the Editor of What Mobile magazine – a magazine I started writing for not long after it launched in May 1993. I was then involved with the title until late 2011, having become Technology Editor and then Editor for both the print and digital sites.

In my freelance capacity, I have written for many magazines, newspapers and websites, such as Stuff, Know Your Mobile, The Daily Telegraph, The Sun, and Daily Mail. I am also heavily active on a number of forums, including Digital Spy, Xda-developers, Mobile & Gadget and more.

I’ve also done consultancy work for a number of companies, some that I can talk about (e.g. Samsung Mobile) and others that hired me for private options and advice. As someone who has been in the mobile industry since the start of the 1990s, having covered everything from analogue mobile phones to LTE today, I have seen a lot of things come and go, and history repeating itself a number of times!

And before I got into mobile, I started out selling computers, consoles and peripherals under the business name New Age Computing. Later, after starting my writing, I began to sell mobile phones – initially connecting to Vodafone through a service provider, and then Orange from April 1994.

My new business was called JM Communications, the very same site that you’re on right now, albeit a little more basic looking from the very beginning (much of it managed using Microsoft FrontPage or even manually using Notepad!).

My company made its success by selling phones not only to consumers, but also supplying NHS, local authorities, and the police and fire services. With my journalist links, I also made a number of sales within the media, selling phones to TV and radio presenters, celebrities and even having the privilege of visiting the late Stanley Kubrick’s home near St Albans so he was able to test (Orange) mobile phone coverage throughout his estate.

Virtually all of the business conducted was from word of mouth, meaning almost no money spent on advertising. Ironically, what little advertising the company did do was in – yes, you guessed it – What Mobile! (And, yes, it was paid for too!).

Constantly reducing profit margins and increased competition made me take the decision to discontinue selling mobile phones and concentrate on writing, a decision I am extremely glad I made given the near total eradication of the independent mobile phone dealer.

Going further back still, while still at school, I edited an amateur computer game fanzine, and regularly worked at exhibitions to promote this and other small magazines from other like minded individuals, all under the umbrella of the Federation of Small Computer Magazines (FSCM).

During this time, also while at school, I ran a bulletin board called ‘Treasure Island‘ using a Commodore Amiga, and a bunch of US Robotics Dual-Standard modems and phone lines.

I became a member of a group called Fairlight, going by the alias ‘Executioner’. This BBS ran until it was ‘closed down’ in 1993 and shortly before the Internet would render all bulletin boards obsolete. However, Fairlight still lives on to this day, albeit in a rather different form.