40 per cent of mobile users in MENA buy apps: insights into the Middle East App economy

MEF Member On Device Research recently teamed up with ArabNet to take a look at the burgeoning App economy in the MENA region, and came up with some interesting insights. Managing Director MENA, Nader Kobeissi, presented the report's findings at the ArabNet Digital Summit in Dubai. Surveying smartphone users throughout the UAE, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the report shows that more than half are app-happy, with 52% downloading five or more apps in the last month. This is compared with a tiny 2% who have downloaded none at all. What's more, those users are happy to pay for apps; …

Path-To-Purchase: How Smartphones Are Disrupting Consumers’ Retail Journeys

A consumer’s journey, which was predictable and straightforward until a few years ago, has now become sketchy and complex. Driven by technology, the retail industry is undergoing a paradigm shift. The traditional, linear path-to-purchase is being replaced by the checkered path of the modern consumer whose purchase journey is across a multitude of channels from desktops and laptops to smartphones, tablets, connected televisions, and wearable devices. The biggest challenge faced by an advertiser is to understand a customer’s journey across these devices and deliver personalized content that …

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. …

InMobi Insights: The Dynamics of a Booming App Economy

With MEF Global Forum Mobile First Markets less than three weeks away, Pooja Kallor, Global Insights Analyst from MEF member, InMobi, continues an analysis of the global mobile app ecosystem, assessing the factors that are stimulating growth in emerging markets worldwide. In the previous blog, we laid out the regional landscape for app developers in terms of share, app install costs and app earnings. We also explored the OS landscape across regions. In this blog, we move forward and explore the dynamics of a booming mobile app economy - factors driving mobile app growth and it’s …

The top five EU countries for starting an mHealth business

As the mobile ecosystem continues to expand to include more and more vertical sectors, healthcare, perhaps more than any other, is emerging as an area that has the potential to deliver the most striking benefits to consumers. Recent research conducted by research2guidance in collaboration with health and IT body HIMSS Europe assessed the market readiness of the 28 EU member states for the adoption of mHealth into patient treatment and care against 26 different criteria. The study, which indexed the views of 5,000 participants, found that Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK …

Monetizing the Next Two Billion: Business Models for Emerging Markets – App Annie Insights

The scale of mobile has become a hot topic among technology investors, and rightfully so, with the mobile industry dwarfing the size of other technology sub-verticals. The smartphone installed base is quickly approaching 2 billion and may have already overtaken PCs. This is incredibly impressive given that the smartphone revolution only began in 2007, whereas the PC paradigm took hold decades ago. But we aren’t close to being done yet. As prices for hardware and data plans continue to drop, the smartphone installed base is expected to exceed 4 billion within the next five years. Feature …

There are already 50 billion sensors in *things* What will the connected future look like? [Infographic]

Sitting at the confluence of Big Data, Mobile and M2M, the Internet of Things is tipped as the next mega-trend.  Could 2015 be the year that it becomes table stakes for businesses?  There are an estimated 50 billion sensors in *things* already deployed and that figure is expected to grow to two trillion in the next few years.  This infographic explores how the near-IoT-future will look from the point-of-view of field technicians. Seen or created an informative mobile infographic? Let us know. …

Tackling the barriers to mobile payments

2014 was a big year for mobile payments, Apple made its hotly anticipated move with the launch of the NFC powered Apple Pay, stimulating consumers to reach for their phones to pay for goods at the checkout.  One recent study by Boston Retail Partners estimates that 38% of large US retailers will be accepting Apple Pay by the end of 2015.   Other mobile payments platforms are beginning to catch fire too.  Direct Carrier Billing for example is poised as a highly convenient way to make payments for goods and services in the physical world. Below, Oliver Schmitz, Global Lead KAM Online Retail …

Will a lack of trust eventually kill the apps market?

MEF today launched its third annual Global Consumer Trust Report in association with AVG Technologies. Analysing data from 15,000 mobile media users in 15 countries across five continents, it provides detailed insight into consumers’ behaviours and attitudes relating to mobile privacy and security - and analyses their impact on the global mobile apps and services market. Here are just a few of the standout points taken from the report and an overview of what the findings mean for the mobile ecosystem globally. MEF members can download the entire report free of charge, and non-members can …

The Landscape of Customer Identity [Infographic]

Facebook is shown to dominate social logins online, and especially on mobile, in this study from customer identity management specialists Gigya. Over 75% of mobile logins are attributed to the social networking giant, suggesting that their renewed mobile focus is paying off. Check out the infographic below which also looks at customer identity across a range of verticals and global markets. Seen or created an informative mobile infographic? Let us know. …

Worldwide Consumer Trends: Who’s doing what on mobile?

MEF has published a handy infographic highlighting the different consumer profiles worldwide when it comes to mobile content and commerce.  South Africans are 'mad for' apps, Brazilians are the biggest spenders in 2014 and Indian consumers lead the take up of education on mobile. The data is taken from MEF's annual Global Consumer Survey , which looks at the  consumer behaviour patterns of almost 15,000 mobile media users in 15 countries across five continents, including mHealth, mobile education, banking, the apps economy and entertainment. The study, now in it's 4th year was launched …

Mobile Dominates Black Friday + Cyber Monday [Infographic]

Last week's Black Friday and Cyber Monday promised to provide a big shot to retailers who were hoping to hit record takings in the run up to Christmas.  But with an increasingly central role in how and where consumers shop, mobile is the real winner.  Take a look at IBM's Black Friday and Cyber Monday infographics below to see how the small screen fared in the online retail weekend of the year.   Page 2 - Cyber Monday > …

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MEF Global Consumer Survey 2014: growth economies driving mobile adoption

Global mobile content and commerce activity grew slightly from 65 to 66 per cent in 2014, fueled by strong gains in growth markets. A lack of trust remains the industry’s biggest obstacle, increasing from 30 to 34 per cent year on year Download the executive summary here MEF has published the results of its annual Global Consumer Survey at MEF Global Forum held in San Francisco this week which brought together nearly 400 global mobile leaders, the hottest start-ups and industry executives. The study now in it's 4th year is the largest ever, surveying almost 15,000 mobile media users …

App Annie partners with MEF to highlight key growth markets for app stores

Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey and India are the next growth markets-to-watch for players in the mobile app economy. That's according to a new joint report from App Annie and MEF which details how the mobile infrastructure and  rate of development in these countries are creating significant new opportunities for app publishers. Based on App Annie’s Intelligence data (which analyses app downloads and revenues across Google Play and the iOS app store), China is highlighted as the largest of the growth markets, as identified by MEF - its downloads growing 10% in the last year, second only …

Still top dog in mobile payments: Direct Carrier Billing [Infographic]

With all the excitement in mobile payments focusing on NFC and mobile wallets, you might be forgiven for overlooking the most popular kind of mobile payment globally - direct carrier or operator billing. In this infographic, Amdocs puts things in perspective, highlighting the dominance of the payment channel such as its 5 x conversion rate when compared to credit card billing, as well as the still huge potential for global growth within app stores and in-app purchases as well as the purchase of goods and services in the real-world at the point of sale. Update: It's been pointed out in …

Mobile Messaging Apps In Indonesia – Functionality Over Features

MEF Member InMobi has taken a look at the digital habits of Indonesian mobile consumers in a study that marks it out as a market with enormous potential. In particular the study puts mobile customer acquisition and monetisation under the spotlight, sharing insights into the most popular apps and how Indonesians use them, as well as providing best practice tips for marketers and publishers. Indonesians are highly social digitally and as such have embraced this new generation of instant messaging applications with great enthusiasm. The latest available numbers illustrate the explosive demand …

Be Prepared for NFC Marketing [Infographic]

Since the announcement that the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch will be adopting the technology, all eyes are on the energised role of Near Field Communication (NFC).  Last week we found out what the industry thought of Apple's first serious foray in to the NFC mobile payments space, here, mobile marketing company Unitag bring us a guide to maxmising the potential of NFC marketing campaigns, including some useful stats on how fast the technology is predicted to spread (1.9 billion enabled handsets by 2018) and how to combine it with other technologies such as iBeacons and QR codes to bring in to play …

How Nigerians use their mobile phones [Infographic]

CoCreation Hub, Nigeria’s first "open living lab and pre-incubation space", has released this, the second in its infographic series looking at  how Nigerians use their mobiles, this time focusing on working professionals. 39.3% of the sample use their phones to access the mobile web - the most popular usage - and WhatsApp tops the list of apps with a 31.5% share of overall app usage. Seen or created an informative mobile infographic? Let us know. …

It’s a Mobile App World [Infographic]

While 82 per cent of app installs are organic, users who came from paid ad installs are 2.1 times more engaged.  That's according to a study by mobile ad tracking platform S4M, who also found that 45 percent of ad clicks fail to lead to a visit at all due to poor network speeds, unqualified traffic and "fat finger" false clicks! With just 0.12% of ad clicks leading to an install, mobile app marketers should pay attention to these and other findings, shared in the infographic below. Seen or created an informative mobile infographic? Let us know. …

Five Best Practices for B2B mobile Commerce [Infographic]

According to research by UX experts Usablenet, over half of B2B customers are using their smartphones to research products for their business.  But the ways B2B companies use mobile is also pushing the channel to become a central component in other core business activities including CRM, transactions, sales and marketing.  Check out Usablenet's five top tips to  get ahead. Seen or created an informative mobile infographic? Let us know. …