The latest offerings from Apple, mobile in South Africa, Britain is dominating Euro Fintech, Twitter users in Indonesia can buy mobile minutes & data plus all the week’s global mobile stories…
Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news you may have missed, the latest market insight and data nuggets, the Global Mobile News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.
Global News Stories
From TVs to the work desk, Apple wants iOS everywhere to be your companion for life
The Drum
Apple has claimed the pocket and the wrist, now it’s pursuing the TV screen and the work desk in an attempt to establish itself as the operating system that ties a person’s digital activities together.
If there was ever any doubt about the scope of Apple’s mobile plans beyond incremental hardware innovation then tonight’s latest announcements have laid them to rest. Make no mistake, Apple is looking to be the digital companion to people; whether its on their sofas as they watch TV or displacing laptops with iPads for people at work, the event served up enough nuggets to show that its iOS-everywhere strategy is whirring into gear.
The ‘so what’ marketing analysis on the growth of mobile in South Africa
memeburn
It’s an obvious truth that South African mobile penetration is at an all-time high. The Cape Times has just reported a 100% rise in mobile commerce since 2013. The latest stats from eMareketer show 72% of the population are using mobile devices and MMA figures report a household penetration of 97% with local consumers spending an average of nearly two hours every day on their devices.
While the same research suggests that this penetration is flattening out – the forecast is set to peak at 75% in 2019 – the migration to smartphones is still on an explosive growth curve with more than 50% of the market expected to be using them by 2019.
This map shows just how much Britain is dominating European fintech
Business Insider
Ahead of London Fintech Week next week, the organisers have on Thursday put out some research into global fintech (financial technology) investment over the last 5 years.
The research, from consultancy William Garrity Associates, shows pretty clearly that Britain is a huge hub for investment.
Over 10% of global fintech investment has gone to the UK and startups based here have pulled in more than the rest of Europe combined.
Twitter now lets 68M people in Indonesia buy data, minutes, and SMS packages via DM
VentureBeat
Twitter announced a new partnership Monday that allows the 68 million subscribers of Indosat, one of Indonesia’s largest carriers, to top up their phones through its direct messaging (DM) feature.
The company lifted the 140-character DM limit in June, seemingly paving the way for new business opportunities such as this.
Indonesia is an emerging market that the microblogging platform is known to have been eyeing. Last week, Twitter’s managing director for Southeast Asia, India, North Africa, and the Middle East, told The Wall Street Journal that the country of 250 million is “the next phase of our growth.”
Apple’s Ad-Blocking Feature Is Sending Publishers Scrambling
Bloomberg Business
Seth Weintraub has made a career of reporting on Apple. His website, 9to5Mac.com, is one of the go-to places for news about the company. But in an ironic twist, a feature tucked inside Apple’s latest software for the iPhone and iPad threatens to undermine the way his site makes money.
IOS 9, which is set for a Sept. 16 release, will allow owners of Apple’s newer mobile devices to download Web browser extensions that can block advertising from being shown while they browse the Web. The prospect has set off alarm bells at many media companies, but Apple extended an olive branch in the form of an app within the upcoming operating system called News, which will allow publishers to bypass blockers to serve their own ads or let Apple sell ads and share the revenue.
78.5 Million Remote Monitoring Tools Users Predicted by 2020
mHealth Intelligence
One of the key strategies the healthcare industry is using in order to improve access to care is to adopt technologies capable of providing consultations and oversight regardless of where a patient is located. No longer does a patient need to come into the primary care practice or a specialist’s office to receive much-needed care.
Telehealth technology, for example, allows patients to consult with physicians remotely using videoconferencing. Additionally, remote monitoring tools enable providers to track patients’ health and vital signs when they are residing at home.
Mobile Commerce Fraud Is On The Rise In Asia
Mobile Commerce Press
In Asia, smartphone penetration is accelerating and these devices are becoming more popular for those that are interested in shopping online. By 2018, Asia is expected to account for half the world’s mobile users, with many people beginning to use their smartphones and tablets to play games, purchase products, and use social networks. As mobile adoption rises, however, fraud is becoming a greater problem in the mobile commerce space in Asia.
Google now helps you easily look up details for 900 illnesses
The Verge
A new Google search feature is making it easier to find details on more than 900 different health conditions. These include everything from common conditions like pink eye to tropical diseases like dengue fever.
Earlier this year, the company introduced a new search feature specifically for medical information. Whenever people search for certain diseases or health conditions, a separate box pops up to the right of the search results, with details like symptoms and treatments. Initially, the feature was available for 400 conditions — but now Google is more than doubling that number.
Baidu unveils Siri-like service ‘Duer’ to Chinese market
e27
Plans for Duer were announced yesterday at Baidu’s annual corporate conference. The new feature will be added to the 6.8 update of Baidu’s mobile app.
Duer is a voice-enabled virtual assistant that helps users with a range of commands. Different from cutie chatbots available on the market, it is positioned as a professional searching service power-packed with multiple practical functions, said Baidu’s CEO Robin Li.
The CEO summed up the new project’s features in three elements — accessibility to services across a wide range of industries, a powerful search engine supported by data mining technology and smart human-machine interaction.
Global News Round-up – These articles are not written by MEF and do not represent any views of individuals, members or the organisation.