Gadgets for your gadgets
As a science correspondent, it is not particularly surprising I really do like gadgets. But it turns out the gadget accessorises business (or gadgets for your gadgets) is very big business.
Ahead of Christmas I went to visit the team at mobilefun.co.uk, a Birmingham-based online retailer selling all sorts of cases, styluses, speakers and more for your mobile phone. It's a great place to take the temperature of a tech business ahead of the festive season.
Interestingly, the company started out selling ringtones and downloadable games and they still have one member of staff looking after that side of things. But most of the 50-odd staff work in the accessories business. And it's expanding.They now export to Germany and France via dedicated websites. And they're even opening a new website selling video-gaming accessories.
Although the last 18 months have been hard, the marketing boss Mark Riley told me the company is gearing up for the biggest Christmas in its 10-year history.
You might expect most of these accessories to be made in China. But in fact they also come from Japan, the US and the UK. In fact the team are currently trying to source something rather special created using some very traditional Midlands expertise. But more on that at a later date.
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~54~RS~)
I'm David Gregory, BBC Science Correspondent for the West Midlands. My first law states: "Science is the answer." There is no second law. Feel free to drop me a line: 
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Thanks for coming to visit us to find out a bit more about gamingzap.com. We'll keep you posted on how the site does this Christmas. It's going to be busy!
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dear david gregory
i really need help
i have been two days on the site you recommended. mobile fun
i think they are scamming me.
all i want is the ringtone to the ashes series.
i must have got 12 messages saying do it again.
do you really think they are reliable.?
where can i get this ringtone.
do the bbc do it
from lynda in sheffield
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Yep, and how about all those tablets nowadays...?! They're poppin' out like mushrooms from the ground... Apple surely is a trendsetter once again since they've practically created a completely new market of tablet PC's with their iPad. Now, other giants, and dwarfs, are rolling out their 'competitors' to the iPad, powered by Google's Android operating system. Brands like Motorola (with their Xoom) and Samsung (Galaxy S 2 & Galaxy Tab 2) compete with each other with their OEMs carrying pratically the same hardware, and software. Well, I like it! Let them compete, let more come, and bring the prices down and technological innovation forward.
Whether these developments will be better for the societies remains to be seen, I only hope we won't let degrade ourselves to anti-social automatons in the long run...
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I love the mobilefun website. They make beautiful stuff available to the masses. Still looking for a specific website though that sells nice and beautiful cases for devices that are not even launched like the [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]Samsung Galaxy S3 which will launch in the first quarter of 2012. That way we can preoder the phone, and preorder a case. So it arrives at the same time.
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