Find out the week’s top mobile stories from around the world. This week.. Apple to boost ads business as iPhone changes hurt Facebook, landline use in ‘terminal decline’ as mobile dominates, is mobile leading on climate change? and much more…
Apple to boost ads business as iPhone changes hurt Facebook
FT
Apple will expand its advertising business, according to two people familiar with its plans, just as it brings in new privacy rules for iPhones that are likely to cripple the ads offered by its rivals, including Facebook. The iPhone maker already sells search ads for its App Store that allow developers to pay for the top result. In searches for “Twitter”, for example, the first result is currently TikTok.
Apple now plans to add a second advertising slot, in the “suggested” apps section in its App Store search page. This new slot will be rolled out by the end of the month, according to one of the people, and will allow advertisers to promote their apps across the whole network, rather than in response to specific searches.
Read more…
Landline use in ‘terminal decline’ as mobile dominates
Tech Radar
Fewer Brits are using their landline than ever before, with the rise of mobile phones, and the threat of nuisance calls all contributing to what has been deemed a “terminal decline”.
Research from uSwitch found that the number of households with a landline had fallen by 15% from its 2003 peak to 22 million and a quarter of those did not have a handset attached.
A quarter (5 million) said they never used their landline for phone calls and a third only had one because they needed it for their broadband service.
Read more…
Blog: Is mobile leading on climate change?
Mobile World Live
You could argue quite strongly the environment has been significantly low down the list of priorities for governments across the world for decades. However, perhaps excluding a four-year rebellion by the US driven by former President Donald Trump, a shift among global leaders is taking shape.
Today, nearly all heads of state and leaders of companies big and small emphasise the importance of reducing carbon emissions within their operations, in line with the Paris Agreement signed in December 2015. UN figures show 189 countries signed the agreement, which involves commitments to lower emissions and collaborate to tackle the impact of climate change.
Read more…
Compliance with privacy laws is concerning majority of the mobile advertisers
Digital Information World
According to a new research work lead by AppsFlyer, a software based mobile marketing analytic as well as an attribution platform, the majority of the advertisers in US and UK (to be exact 73% of them) are anxious about obeying the new privacy changes. The white paper from the State of Measurement, Privacy and Compliance, revealed that the concerns being raised by the advertising companies are merit based and the probability ratio for carrying out the investigation for violating the privacy regulations is almost one in three.
Read more…
Ghana’s new mobile money rule could derail financial inclusion. But there are answers
The Conversation
Mobile money — a technology that enables financial transactions through mobile phones without a bank account — is driving financial inclusion, especially in developing countries. It gives more people a chance to use financial products and services.
In Ghana, there is a policy to encourage the use of mobile money and reduce the flow of cash. And mobile money has proved popular because of its advantages. People can transfer money or make payments wherever they are, in a simple, fast, convenient and affordable way. Mobile money has improved the efficiency of transactions and initiated some changes in traditional banking in the country. By 2017, Ghana had over 11 million active mobile money accounts.
Read more…
EC proposes tough new AI rules including 6% of turnover for violations
Mobile Europe
The European Commission is seeking to govern the impact of AI on humans and business.
The EC proposed new rules to cover the impact of AI on humans and businesses. It wants a trustworthy environment for the development of innovative products and services in the European Union (EU).
The EC said the rules would take a risk-based approach to AI, looking to balance promoting the technology – which it sees as key to economic growth in Europe – with protecting people. It also wants to be seen as setting a global standard.
Read more…
SMS traffic back to nearly 1 bln/day under new system to check pesky messages
Economic Times
India’s mobile SMS traffic has reached close to a billion SMSes per day, similar to the levels before the new regime was implemented on April 1, thus showing increased adaptability to the blockchain technology-based system to filter pesky messages.
The volume of SMSes delivered per day had declined almost 30% to 700 million in the first week of April as business entities held back on sending promotional SMSes to avoid failures. But now that the traffic has reached almost normal levels, experts expect the SMS channel to grow beyond 1 billion as Covid-led restrictions make it the most relevant choice for marketing needs of enterprises.
How Africa Is Getting Its Mobile Game On
Forbes
THE YOUNGEST continent in the world has a new obsession – mobile gaming. What’s newer is local content created by Africans for Africa. Take 39-year-old Khumo Moerane, the developer of Kea’s World and founder of the Africa Space Programme Video Games Studio in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is using a modern medium to tell old tales, celebrating and preserving African folklore among children and adults. Today, he solely designs and develops African video games. And has reached another level altogether. The scene was set in the late 1980s, in Ga-Rankuwa, a large settlement in the northwest of Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, when his parents bought him his first console, a third-generation 8-bit home video game called Sega Master System.
Read more…
PGC Digital: MENA games market to hit $6 billion in 2021
Pocket Gamer
The coronavirus swept the globe last year, causing numerous problems worldwide. However, the mobile market saw some benefits as a result of the pandemic.
As part of Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #6, Yoozoo Games’ CEO of YooZoo Turkey and MENA Arslan Kiran, took to the stage to deliver a session on expansion in mobile gaming through challenging times and markets.
Last year, $160 billion was generated in the global games market, the majority of which was earned in the Asia Pacific region.
Read more…
