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Find out the week’s top mobile stories from around the world. Headlines this week include… Researchers find Apple Pay, Visa contactless hack, Today’s cars are mobile data centers, Facebook pauses “Instagram Kids” project  and much more…

Researchers find Apple Pay, Visa contactless hack

BBC

Large unauthorised contactless payments can be made on locked iPhones by exploiting how an Apple Pay feature designed to help commuters pay quickly at ticket barriers works with Visa.  In a video, researchers demonstrated making a contactless Visa payment of £1,000 from a locked iPhone. Apple said the matter was “a concern with a Visa system”. Visa said payments were secure and attacks of this type were impractical outside of a lab. The problem, researchers say, applies to Visa cards set up in ‘Express Transit’ mode in an iPhone’s wallet. “Express Transit” is an Apple Pay feature which enables commuters to make quick contactless payments without unlocking their phone, for example touching-in and touching-out at a London Underground ticket barrier.

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Today’s cars are mobile data centers, and that data needs to be protected

Help Net Security

In a recent report, AlixPartners estimate that the global microchip shortage will cost car manufacturers $110 billion dollars in 2021, through the lost production of around 3.9 million vehicles. The impact of this supply chain issue demonstrates how vital microelectronics and computational power have become within the context of modern vehicle design.

As hybrid powertrains and full electric drive extend across vehicle platforms in response to emissions legislation, the requirement to manage battery and charging systems and optimize performance will depend upon software running on an increasingly complex suite of computing resources.

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Facebook pauses “Instagram Kids” project

Mobile Marketing Magazine

Facebook is pausing its “Instagram Kids” project, which aimed to create an Instagram experience for children under the age of 13, the company has announced in a blog post.

In the post, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri, said that while Facebook stands by the need to develop this experience, it has paused the project to give the company time to “work with parents, experts, policymakers and regulators, to listen to their concerns, and to demonstrate the value and importance of this project for younger teens online today.”

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Ericsson IoT Accelerator Cloud Connect simplifies connecting cellular IoT devices to AWS

Ericsson

With an estimated five billion cellular IoT devices to be in use by the end of 2026, according to the Ericsson Mobility Report (June 2021), enterprises are increasingly outsourcing device authentication and data management to public cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Enterprises on Ericsson IoT Accelerator-managing cellular devices such as sensors, meters, or tracking devices now have a much simpler way to connect to the already secure AWS server through Ericsson’s IoT Accelerator Cloud Connect, which moves complex encryption from the device to the edge of the cellular network.

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App economy growing worldwide, but growth factors differ across regions

Telemedia Online

The app economy is expanding worldwide, even as growth drivers vary by geography – its not all just about gaming.

So finds a global study by mobile marketing analytics platform Adjust that analysed some 270 advertising networks with 6 billion paid installs from more than 5,000 apps, across nearly 250 countries and 12 verticals. “Globally, we’ve seen sweeping growth in the app ecosystem continue, with mobile poised to make up 75% of total digital ad spend this year. To make that as effective as possible, UA managers need best practices and common channels specific to their region and vertical,” explains Andrey Kazakov, Chief Operating Officer of Adjust.

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Adjust: Mobile gaming accounts for 50% of user acquisition spending

VentureBeat

Gaming remains the largest category for user acquisition on mobile devices — accounting for 50% of all user-acquisition ad spending — according to mobile marketing analytics platform Adjust.

To put gaming’s 50% share of user-acquisition ad spending into perspective, the second-place vertical (e-commerce) makes up just 16%. This is especially pronounced in the Asia Pacific region, where ad spend distribution for gaming apps measured by Adjust reaches as high as 64% (followed by publications at 11%). In North America, that number reaches 57% (followed by fintech at 14%), and in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, it sits at 39% (followed by e-commerce at 27%).

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How mobile banking has brought a revolutionary change in banking sectors

Business Review

It’s evident that Mobile banking is the use of smartphones for accessing banking services online. According to a report the number of users that use mobile banking is around a 57million. While the penetration of mobile banking for payment of services using the mobile app is 86% of the total transactions. From a report of CACI, mobile banking will be the largest channel for accessing financial services online.

The reports also suggest that smartphone users will rise from 41% in 2021 to 71% by 2024. Therefore this suggests the huge change and preference in the customer mindset for adopting banking services through smartphones.

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Analyst: Does Netflix have the right Africa strategy?

Advanced TV

The recent launch of a free offer in Kenya in this exemplifies the recent change in Netflix’s strategy to address the African market’s peculiarities.

Over the last few years, OTT and SVoD platforms have been growing steadily on the African continent but not as fast as expected, notes a report from Dataxis analyst Louise Jianoux. Showmax and Netflix are the dominant players in the SVoD market with a market share of 31.6 per cent and 29.7 per cent of subscribers respectively. Meanwhile, Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video are struggling to get a foothold in Sub-Saharan countries.

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Blockchain ‘is the new oil’, according to tech CEO

Arabian Business

Experts at the Africa-Dubai Investment Business Summit agree that infrastructure, specifically solutions that exist on the blockchain, must be developed and frameworks must be created

In Africa, where the unbanked population is high and nearly everyone owns a mobile phone, digital banking is set to boom, but risks need to be mitigated and education needs to increase, according to a panel of experts at the Africa-Dubai Investment Business Summit.

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MEF