Meffys 2015 Finalist Profiles: Innovation in Education

After record entries from over 30 countries and scrutiny by an independent panel of judges consisting of over 40 journalists, analysts, accelerators and VCs from around the globe, the 2015 Meffys finalists have been revealed. The ultimate winners will be announced on October 19th 2015 in at a Gala Dinner taking place in London,  hosted by the legendary musician, beat-boxer and musical mastermind, Beardyman. In the run up to the event we will be profiling the finalists in the different categories – Innovation Awards, Market Awards, Sector Awards. Today its the turn of the Innovation Award …

The MEF Guide To… Virtual Reality

This week, MEF Minute kicks of a new series, The MEF Guide To... giving you an essential primer on the technologies set to make an impact on the mobile ecosystem. This week the subject is virtual reality. There’s no doubt about it: virtual reality is the technology of the year. And the year is 1991. Readers of a certain age may smile at the sudden wave of enthusiasm for VR. All the excitement about the potential of this extraordinary tech has been seen before, over 20 years ago. Back then, the coin-op arcades began creating headsets that enveloped users inside a virtual world. …

Meffys 2015 Finalist Profiles: Innovation in Business Model

After record entries from over 30 countries and scrutiny by an independent panel of judges consisting of over 40 journalists, analysts, accelerators and VCs from around the globe, the 2015 Meffys finalists have been revealed. The ultimate winners will be announced on October 19th 2015 in at a Gala Dinner taking place in London,  hosted by the legendary musician, beat-boxer and musical mastermind, Beardyman. In the run up to the event we will be profiling the finalists in the different categories.  –  Today its the turn of the Innovation Award for best business model, recognising …

Meffys 2015 Finalist Profiles: Innovation in Apps

After record entries from over 30 countries and scrutiny by an independent panel of judges consisting of over 40 journalists, analysts, accelerators and VCs from around the globe, the 2015 Meffys finalists have been revealed. The ultimate winners will be announced on October 19th 2015 in at a Gala Dinner taking place in London,  hosted by the legendary musician, beat-boxer and musical mastermind, Beardyman. In the run up to the event we will be profiling the finalists in the different categories – Innovation Awards, Market Awards, Sector Awards. Today its the turn of the Innovation Award …

Future of TV? It’s the UI, stupid

Everyone’s trying to offer us new things to watch on TV. Great, but how about giving us a better way to find it, says Tim Green. And he thinks the mobile might be the answer... At home my TV offers me an array of special treats. Here’s what I can do: Browse the thousands of free TV and movie options bundled with my £5.99 Netflix sub. Browse the thousands of free TV and movie options .bundled with my annual Amazon Prime sub. Pay for a premium HD movie via Amazon Instant. Pay for a premium HD movie via Virgin broadband. Pay for a premium HD movie via Sony PlayStation. Watch again …

Infographic: The connected car market to 2020

By 2020 there will be an estimated 220 million connected cars on the road according to Business Insider.  And with connectivity comes all manner of IoT services.  Vehicle diagnostics, autonomous communication with a dealership for service notifications, smart cars communicating with smart traffic lights and more. And with more and more vehicles equipped with internet-enabled hardware, car dashboards will start to resemble and be operated like smartphone apps - providing all kinds of infotainment services.  This infographic by Business Insider explores what that (near) future will look …

Why nearly everyone is wrong about Apple Pay

From news reports, you might think that the main use case for Apple Pay is contactless payments. Well, it’s not, says exasperated industry watcher Tim Green... Almost exactly a year ago, Tim Cook unveiled Apple Pay. He showed a video of a woman struggling to pay in-store with a bunch of plastic cards. Then he showed the same woman taking a second to pay by tapping her iPhone. He whooped: “It’s so cool!” with all the charisma you’d expect from a man who really knows supply logistics. But despite Cook’s almost hypnotic lack of presence, there was huge and inevitable applause from the …

Why Google And Apple Want A Piece Of The Connected Car Pie

The Automotive industry is getting mobile.  Connectivity that includes WiFi, in-car entertainment and access to traffic information as well as M2M features like car diagnostics is already a feature of high-end vehicles.  What's interesting is how this market will be driven.  On one hand, car manufacturers are increasingly bringing in platforms that capture these features, on the other both Apple and Google, as well as mobile operators have made it clear - automotive is a market that they are interested in. BI Intelligence estimates that by 2020, 75 per cent of cars shipped globally will be …

Interview: how Ola is building an ‘Uber for India’

All over the world, ride-sharing apps are taking on powerful local taxi businesses. But in India, the situation is a little different: there are hardly any local firms to take on. So the challenge is more about establishing a market in the first place. Mumbai-based Ola Cabs is leading the charge. Anand Subramanian, director of marketing communications at Ola was interviewed by Shradha Sharma of YourStory Media during MEF Global Forum Mobile First Markets in Bangalore, and shared some of the company’s strategies and goals. In March of this year, Ola raised $400 million in Series E funding. It …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 10th August

Google-bet, Blackberry BBM payments, the top 18 mobile unicorns are worth an average $9.3 bn and more 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 Google to restructure into new holding company called Alphabet The Guardian Google is dead. Long live Alphabet. The tech company announced on Monday that it would rebrand itself …

[infographic] How healthcare professionals are planning in mobile transformation

As the mobile ecosystem continues to expand to capture more and more vertical sectors healthcare perhaps stands to benefit the most.  Interest in areas like remote patient monitoring with wearable devices through to managing appointments and sending out reminders can all deliver the kind of operational efficiencies that will save healthcare companies large sums of money. Its relatively early days.  Whilst most organisations acknowledge mHealth as a way to achieve these goals, many are still figuring out the ROI.  And yet in the US it is estimated that wearables could drop hospital costs by …

The Mobile Money Landscape Update

Since the last edition of MEF's Mobile Money ebulletin there have been many new milestones in the ever evolving space. Microsoft announced plans to introduce direct operator billing to all Windows 10 devices, claiming that the move will result in an 8X increase in purchases, while elsewhere Apple Pay continues its roll-out to more countries and Google announced the launch of Android Pay succeeding Google Wallet. The big difference between the two services is that AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile will pre-install Android Pay on phones when the service is ready later this year. Check out the …

There are more than 45,000 health apps – is data privacy being overlooked?

Spurred by the growth in wearables and health & well being apps, mHealth is growing fast, not just as a way to track personal fitness but as a way for medical professionals to improve patient care and remotely identify the signs of serious illness for example.  In the US it is estimated that wearables could drop hospital costs by 16 per cent over the five years, and remote patient monitoring technologies could save our healthcare system $200 billion over the next 25 years. What remains consistent is the need to generate and store vast amounts of patient data yet by its definition, …

Infographic: sponsored mobile data – the $6 billion Asian revenue opportunity

Mobile users in Asia are willing to accept sponsored mobile data packages and that could mean a significant revenue opportunity for mobile operators and content owners in the region, according to new research published by mobile technology firm and MEF member, Syniverse. The infographic below breaks out more on the research, detailing how the sponsored data approach is a major engagement opportunity for brands, businesses and mobile operators alike. …

14 stats that show why consumer trust and wearables go hand-in-hand

The wearables ecosystem continues to grow rapidly with all manner of connected devices from fitness trackers in trainers and connected eyewear and is of course buoyed by the recent launches of smartwatches from the likes of Apple and Samsung. What remains consistent is the inevitability of connected devices’ need to create and use consumer data to monetise the services that wearable hardware supports. Indeed the sustainability of this ecosystem is largely dependent on consumers sharing their personal data through the apps and services that they use. By its definition, personal data for …

16 reasons why FinTech, health and education are key drivers of innovation in mobile

Now in their 12th year, MEF’s annual awards, the Meffys is an industry benchmark for the evolution of our ecosystem. In 2005 the first dedicated Innovation Award was introduced to the Meffys and marked "an industry coming of age" according to the ceremony host, UK newsreader Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Fast-forward 10 years and it is the sectors that mobile now enables that is experiencing accelerated growth. The Meffys 2015 features seven Innovation awards including: App, Business Model, Mobile in Education, FinTech, mHealth, Mobile First Markets and Technology. Here we take a look at the …

Nine trends that are shaping the way consumers spend and bank on mobile

In June MEF launched its third annual Global Mobile Money report in association with Wirecard and authored by Tim Green from Mobile Money Revolution. The report, which studied 15,000 mobile users across 15 countries, shows that mobile banking and mobile commerce continues to engage consumers - especially in mobile first markets. 69% of mobile media users globally carried out a banking activity via mobile whilst 66% have carried out a transaction. As new mobile payment models come online, and more sectors embrace mobile as the primary channel for customer engagement and transaction, the …

Mobile payment drivers: why we need to incentivise users

Mobile payments are growing globally.  With Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay all maneuvering to capture market share, much of the future growth is touted to come from NFC payments - in-store (in developed markets at least).  For the consumer however the process of unlocking a phone, signing in, sending payment, receiving an e-receipt etc, is perhaps - when compared to tap and pay card payments- still a process that has *friction*. Here John Doornbusch, Solution Architect at global mobile payments provider and MEF member Novatti discusses what the mobile money levers are and how to …

Industry Views: the NFC payments opportunity

Last week MEF launched its annual Global Mobile Money report, which studied 15,000 mobile users across 15 countries.  The headline statistic is that mobile banking and mobile commerce continues to engage consumers - especially in mobile first markets. 69% of mobile media users globally carried out a banking activity via mobile whilst 66% have carried out a transaction. In tandem this year has seen the launch of Samsung Pay and more recently Android Pay, with Apple announcing its expansion plans for Apple Pay earlier this month.  Yet MEF's own report shows that in-store (where NFC payments …

Why mobile first markets are leading the mobile charge

Unencumbered by legacy internet infrastructure, in many markets mobile has taken off as the primary digital touch-point. As smartphones become cheaper and connectivity improves there has been a corresponding uplift in mobile device penetration in markets across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. And it’s that widespread adoption that characterises many growth economies as mobile first. Ahead of MEF Global Forum Mobile First Markets in Bangalore next week, we take a look at why India is one of the countries at the forefront of this trend. With its entrepreneurial mentality, millions of …