A new breed of fintech startups with an innovative business model are attempting to take advantage of customer’s unused, ‘limitless’ text message contracts, leveraging them as an integral part of blockchain ventures, allowing users to essentially resell messages that would be wasted.
From one perspective, such services make use of messages that would go otherwise unused to make some money for users, while providing useful services for other businesses and consumers.
Recent hardware releases from some of the most influential players in the mobile ecosystem have introduced the latest wave of mobile and IoT technology with some eye catching features focusing on privacy, security and new ways for consumer’s to use their phones.
Google unveiled their 2nd generation of Pixel phones as well as a host of smart home hardware and peripherals just weeks after Apple’s annual event where they showed off the iPhone 8 and iPhone X and a new sim-ready watch. There was also a major hardware push from Amazon with a newly updated range of connected smart-home accessories.
We asked MEF Members for their thoughts on the new hardware and strategies – here’s what they said.
Last week’s ransomware attacks were aimed at vulnerabilities typical of big enterprises and government bodies, but the true impact was felt by consumers – cancelled trains in Germany, people forced to pay cash for petrol in China, missed hospital appointments in the UK, the list goes on, with poor user experience and damaging trust the result.
While the WannaCry attack was upon a very specific desktop vulnerability, the possibility of similar attacks on other operating systems, the media coverage and the effect on consumer’s perception of digital safety are lessons to be learnt. We asked what can mobile tech industries can do to better prepare for similar attacks and protect consumers…
Accenture’s 2017 Banking Technology Vision report explores the role of AI in banking and customer engagement. It found that 78 per cent of bankers believe AI will revolutionise the way banks gather information and interact with customers.
One of the key advantages highlighted was that whilst AI is increasingly automating customer interaction, it is also providing a more personalised experience.
Chatbots for example are increasingly used by banks to handle routine enquiries and represent a more personalised experience than visiting the modern day substitute for branch banking, a website or app, where customers interact with layers of screens and drop-down menus instead of a person.
Another Mobile World Congress is over. There was more of everything this year. More visitors (108,000 up 7% on 2016), more exhibitors, more keynotes and more announcements made. It can get very noisy.
But in amongst the noise the important technology trends emerged, trends that will shape the mobile ecosystem going forward.
2016 was an eventful year for technology innovation across the board. And whilst new models have come to the fore the global base of mobile users continues to grow, confirming mobile’s central role in how businesses innovate and monetise their services.
Everything has been fair game, from the collection and responsible use of user data through to new ways for consumers to perform everyday tasks like talking to their bank, ordering and buying a coffee or transferring money to a friend.
But how will the mobile ecosystem change in 2017? And what are the areas of the ecosystem that are ripe for disruption or collaboration? We asked MEF members to provide us with their thoughts on the big trends for 2017…
There is a growing trend for big mobile brands to develop lite versions of their apps to hook mobile users in emerging markets. Just last month Shazam and Facebook Messenger announced that they are going lite for example.
The logic is straightforward. Unlike saturated established app economies, these markets are mobile first and represent the next billion in terms of connected mobile users. Importantly they typically have poorer network speeds and lower levels of disposable income so lite versions of apps are offered as a low data and cost solution.
We asked MEF members and the wider mobile community for their thoughts.
No one disputes the TV, PC, Internet and mobile changed consumer lives. Every year, analysts share their predictions for the “next 10 big things” set to disrupt our world – from AI and AR to driverless cars to blockchain. But what can now really achieve mass-adoption and change consumer lives?
In 2016 much attention has been given to the Personal Data Economy – from Governments and regulators, to enterprises and developers all see the potential and the benefits.
Here we’ve collected the thoughts of some of the MEF members that are active in the debate.
MEF’s Mobile Messaging Fraud Report 2016 reveals the extent to which spam and phishing (SMiShing) across chat apps and SMS are pestering consumers around the world.
26 per cent of chat app users get an unsolicited message every day, while 49 per cent receive at least one a week. With SMS its 28 per cent every day with 58 per cent receiving one a week.
And while SMS is still the most trusted messaging channel, 33 per cent indicated that they had received a SMiShing message aimed at tricking them in to divulging personal data such as bank details or passwords for online services.
We asked MEF members and the wider mobile community for their thoughts.
Fuelled by the growth in personal mobile connections, M2M, mobile apps and services data traffic is expected to see an almost ten-fold increase by 2019.
All of that connected activity means that businesses are swimming in mobile user data, a trend that is only set to continue as we move steadily toward a hyperconnected world of ubiquitous computing.
