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 …

Mobile market stats round-up: September 14 – 21

Every week, MEF Minute scours the web for the most relevant industry data so you don’t have to. Today we take a look at the future of enterprise messaging, the mHealth market, the continued rise of the mobile camera, location based services and more... Enterprise messaging will generate $70.32bn in 2020 Never mind all those stories about the decline of ‘personal’ SMS - the ‘application to person (A2P) is flying. Transparency Market Research says the global A2P SMS market will surge to $70.32bn by 2020. It generated $53 billion two years ago. Its report studies to impact of A2P SMS on …

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 …

5 Minutes with… Humley

In our 5 minutes with profiles, MEF members talk about their business, their aspirations for the future and the wider mobile industry. This week, Michael Tomlins, CEO, introduces Infomedia Group subsidiary,  Humley. What does your company do? Humley develops solutions designed to deploy diverse mobile context and apply real time Big Data to deliver improved consumer engagement and retention for content providers, OEM’s, and Operators. We curate highly targeted communication on behalf of our partners to cultivate an intimate customer journey and thereby deliver deeper value to the end …

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 …

Finalists announced for 12th Annual Meffys

It's here! Finally. After record entries from over 30 countries and extensive judging by the independent panel of judges consisting of over 40 journalists, analysts, accelerators and VCs from around the globe, MEF Minute can exclusively unveil the finalists of the 2015 Meffys. The ultimate winners of the 15 categories will be announced on October 19th 2015 in London at a Gala Dinner taking place in London and  hosted by the legendary multi award-winning musician, beat-boxer and musical mastermind, Beardyman. Congratulations to all the finalists, see you at the bar! Meffys 2015 …

Six Essential Insights into the Indonesian App Market

Josh Fenn, Senior Marketing Manager at internet giant & MEF Member Baidu, shares his six tips for understanding the burgeoning mobile applications market in Indonesia, as well as a wealth of data from the MoboMarket Android App store, which boasts 4 million monthly active users in Indonesia. With a population of over 250 million people, Indonesia is an increasingly important market for mobile developers. But it’s difficult to know the most effective way to reach Indonesian users unless you can get an inside peek into how people there are searching for, downloading and updating …

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 …

Mobile market stats round-up: September 7-14

Every week, MEF Minute scours the web for the most eye-catching industry data so you don’t have to. In today’s section we look at sales and projections for mobile video, smartphones, India, wearables and more... 27 per cent of Android owners switched to iOS across Europe’s big five markets last quarter Android is losing market share to iOS across Europe's big five markets, says new smartphone sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. It reports that for the three months ending July 2015 the platform lost ground in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. The firm reckons market …

5 Minutes with… Crazy4Media

In our 5 minutes with profiles, MEF members talk about their business, their aspirations for the future and the wider mobile industry. This week, Tom Horsey Founder & CEO introduces Crazy4media. What is Crazy4Media? Crazy4Media is a group of four specialist digital media companies, comprising of C4M Online (dedicated to the monetization of online advertising inventory for publishers), C4M Mobile (specialized in mobile entertainment and billing solutions), C4M Marketing (Social Media & SEM experts, focusing on performance marketing campaigns for e-commerce clients), and C4M Software …

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 …

Smartphones in mobile-first markets: it’s complicated

It’s one of the great truisms of the mobile industry: smartphone ownership is rocketing in developing markets. But is it true? Well, kind of but not really. At least according to the operator panel convened at the MEF Global Forum for Mobile First Markets earlier this summer. The event in Bangalore brought together Vodafone India’s Prakash Sayini, Turkcell’s Tahsin Akar, Ooredoo’s Thomas Chevanne and Etiselat Nigeria’s Adia Sowho to debate this question: Are mobile first markets ready for the smartphone revolution? The panellists answers would surprise anyone who has only read …

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; …

Helping Users Build a Locally Relevant Web

The lowering cost of smartphones and cheaper data plans is fuelling the growth of mobile first markets - where the mobile device is the primary and often the only way of getting online for massive consumer segments. One company at the forefront of this undertaking is the Mozilla Foundation. Here Ben Moskovitz, Director of Development Strategy - speaking at MEF's recent conference, MEF Global Forum Mobile First Markets - shares insights into the work and philosophy behind bringing the internet to market for the first time, and the role mobile plays in that vision. In the next ten years, the …

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 …

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 …

Interactive Entertainment in Mobile First Markets – MEFTV interviews Blippar & Deezer

Last month MEF hosted the inaugural MEF Global Forum Mobile First Markets in Bangalore, where members and delegates came together to discuss the mobile opportunity across South East Asia, Middle East, Africa and of course India. Here MEFTV speaks with two more of the speakers, Arnav Ghosh, Regional Director, India for Blippar, who speaks at length about the opportunities and challenges of bringing cutting edge AR services to India, and Steven Frank; Business Development, APAC, for music streaming giant Deezer, who likewise discusses strategies for tackling mobile first, developing …

[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 …

10 trends that will impact mobile money in 2015

Mobile Money is taking off.  Buoyed by the launch of NFC payments from the likes of Apple and Google in developed markets and the lowering cost of smartphones in growth markets, it offers convenience, financial inclusion and incredible reach. Yet the technology is typically fragmented and necessarily has varying levels of government regulation to protect consumers. Here, Adel Shahin, Research Manager MEF member and mobile money provider, Novatti discusses the 10 key trends that are shaping mobile money. Mobile money generally refers to financial services provided by Mobile Network …

The next big thing – MEFTV interviews Hungama & Turkcell

Last month MEF hosted the inaugural MEF Global Forum Mobile First Markets in Bangalore, where  members and delegates came together to discuss the mobile opportunity across South East Asia, Middle East, Africa and of course India. Here MEFTV speaks with two more of the speakers, Neeraj Roy CEO of Hungama who moderated an excellent debate on the next big things for mobile-first markets and Tahsin Akar who shared his insights from operator Turkcell in a panel asking if mobile first markets are ready for the smartphone revolution. Hungama - Neeraj Roy, Managing Director & …