Find out the week’s top mobile stories from around the world. Stories this week include… FCC rejects Dish 5G plan that could have made Starlink broadband “unusable”, the race to bring generative AI to mobile devices, 5G growth demonstrates cellular IoT market bifurcation and much more…
FCC rejects Dish 5G plan that could have made Starlink broadband “unusable”
Ars Technica
The Federal Communications Commission sided with Starlink in a battle against Dish Network today, rejecting a Dish proposal that could have degraded Internet service for Starlink satellite users. In a 4-0 vote, the FCC decided not to authorize high-powered terrestrial mobile service in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band that is already used by Starlink customer terminals for downloads.
The vote “ensure[s] the present and future of satellite services in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band. We recognize that millions of people rely on services in this band—and we want to see that continue,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said at today’s meeting. The band is also used for satellite TV.
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The race to bring generative AI to mobile devices
Financial Times
The race is on to bring the technology behind ChatGPT to the smartphone in your pocket. And to judge from the surprising speed at which the technology is advancing, the latest moves in artificial intelligence could transform mobile communications and computing far faster than seemed likely just months ago.
As tech companies rush to embed generative AI into their software and services, they face significantly higher computing costs. The concern has weighed in particular on Google, with Wall Street analysts warning that the company’s profit margins could be squeezed if internet search users come to expect AI-generated content in standard search results.
Running generative AI on mobile handsets, rather than through the cloud on servers operated by big tech groups, could answer one of the biggest economic questions raised by the latest tech fad.
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5G growth demonstrates cellular IoT market bifurcation
IoT Business News
The total number of cellular IoT connections (including NB-IoT and LTE-M) will grow from 1.5 billion at the end of 2022 to 6.1 billion at the end of 2032. However, by 2032 the composition of the market will be rather different from today, being highly dominated by 5G.
In this article we examine how 5G will come to dominate the space, and in so doing demonstrate a key trend in IoT connectivity: a bifurcation between high value and low value use cases. 5G is the Fifth Generation of the technology standards for cellular communications, developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) grouping of standards bodies. The 5G standard was introduced in Release 15 in 2018 and is undergoing further refinements.
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Mobile banking, not USSD is way to go, says Agbaje
The Nation
The notion that the continuous application of the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) in transferring funds would deepen the cashless policy being pursued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is not correct, the Group Chief Executive Officer, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Segun Agbaje, has said.
Agbaje, who spoke yesterday in Lagos while presenting GTCO’s financials to the media, said the future, and the best way to have financial inclusion and increase literacy is to crash the cost of data, “so the data becomes more affordable.” He said what obtains in India is that it has the same demographics as Nigeria.
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Branding And How Marketers Can Stay Relevant – And Profitable – In A Post-Privacy World
Forbes
Until now, marketers have lived in a world where they thought they had a binary choice. They could harness quantifiable and measurable performance marketing, or they could invest in brand marketing that was sure to move the hearts and minds of audiences – but not the needle on their KPIs. Or, at least, that was the popular perception in a world of near-perfect performance marketing.
That’s not the world marketers live in anymore. The data-driven construct that allowed companies to plan and spend with high confidence has been replaced by a new model and a new reality. Marketers exist in a privacy-first world where data is constrained, and the big wins don’t come easy.
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Apps Like TikTok and Instagram Drove Nearly $220 Billion in Advertising Spend in 2022
Business 2 Community
Apps like Instagram and TikTok captured the lion’s share of advertising spend in 2022, driving nearly $220 billion in ad expenditures.
According to data.ai’s new State of App Revenue report, mobile advertising reached a staggering $336 billion last year, with apps like Instagram and TikTok accounting for around 65% of that tally.
Games accounted for the remaining 35% of ad spending, which marks a stark contrast to the in-app purchases, where games represent the majority of the app store consumer spend at 66% while apps take up a smaller portion at 34%.
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UK shoppers rack up £4.9bn Buy Now Pay Later debt in four months – report
UK consumers racked up over a billion pounds a month (£4.9bn) in Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) debt in the first four months of 2023, according to the latest Adobe Digital Economy Index (DEI) data from the UK. This represents 15 per cent of a total of £32.6bn spent online in that period.
The BNPL figure for April remained high at £1.3 billion. April also saw a 2 per cent increase in average order values using BNPL compared with March, and an acceleration in the amount spent using BNPL from 20 April onwards. For the final 10 days of the month, order values using BNPL were around £8 higher on average than the period from 1-19 April, indicating that consumers are more reliant on BNPL services in the run up to payday.
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Rising from Legal Skirmishes: 2023 as a Pivotal Year for Mobile Gaming in India
Times Now
Mobile gaming is incredibly popular in India, catering to more than 13 crore users, with the market valued at INR 34,600 Crores (i.e., 346 Billion!). With mobile device penetration at its highest, cheap data, and a young demographic, India can be the biggest worldwide market for mobile device games. Mobile gaming is deep rooted too, and “Tier 2” and “Tier 3” cities account for 50% of mobile gaming footfall.
Content creation for mobile games relies on India’s hefty pool of coding talent. Given India’s historical obsession with cricket, it is no surprise that fantasy cricket draft games are a popular pastime. Laws, as always, are late in catching up to the market when it comes to mobile gaming.
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New data laws have redefined mobile marketing – here’s how to adapt
For The Drum’s Deep Dive, The New Data & Privacy Playbook, Fred Simmons (communications manager, Remerge) talks to Pan Katsukis (CEO, Remerge) about how new regulations are impacting the way mobile marketers look at user data and privacy. Here’s what you need to know to ensure that mobile channels remain a successful part of your marketing mix.
The use of data has changed the face of digital advertising and given way to highly effective marketing strategies such as retargeting. However, policy and regulation has been quickly catching up in a bid to protect user privacy. In 2021, Apple responded by implementing a new privacy feature called ATT (App Tracking Transparency). Since its rollout, anyone who installs an app on iOS is prompted to decide if they want their cross-app activity to be tracked by advertisers.
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