Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 16th February

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories Health features for Apple Watch dramatically scaled back after repeated failures, report says VentureBeat After attempting for years to create a wearable device that would focus on health and fitness, Apple was forced to fundamentally change its vision for the Apple Watch when many of the features simply didn’t work. That news …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 10th November

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories Facebook Now Has 1.1B Messaging App Users After Messenger Hits 500m Tech Crunch Another billion-user milestone for Facebook: The company now has over 1 billion messaging users, after today announcing that it has passed 500 million monthly active users for Messenger, on top of the 600 million active users that Facebook-owned WhatsApp …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 3rd November

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories Sub-Saharan Africa will have half a billion mobile subscribers by 2020 Memeburn Africa is a mobile continent. It’s something we’ve heard so often that it’s become a cliche. Like many cliches however it’s based in truth. And for evidence of that, you don’t need to look any further than figures from a new GSMA report which shows that …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 27th October

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories Apple Pay Runs Afoul of MCX, a Group With a Rival Product New York Times One week after its debut, Apple’s new mobile wallet is showing promise with consumers. Apple’s rivals in the payments industry, meanwhile, are scrambling to prevent it from being too successful. Even before Apple Pay was announced, a coalition of retailers …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 14th July 2014

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories Microsoft calls end to Android Nokia X smartphones BBC Microsoft is to stop developing Android-powered smartphones beyond those already available, the BBC understands. Nokia X models will now become part of the Lumia range and run the Windows Phone operating system, although existing Android handsets will continue to be supported. …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 17th February

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories Why did Facebook buy WhatsApp? Techradar Facebook's purchase of WhatsApp for $16 billion (about £9.5b/AU$17.7b) isn't supposed to change the popular instant messaging app, but it certainly changes the landscape of the real-time messaging services. That's because the world's No. 1 social network just bought its way into the hands …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 10th February

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories BEACONS: What They Are, How They Work, And Why Apple's iBeacon Technology Is Ahead Of The Pack Business Insider To state the obvious: Modern, smartphone-toting humans spend most of their time indoors. But indoor spaces often block cell signals and also make it nearly impossible to locate devices via GPS. Beacons are a …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 3rd February

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories Apple removes world's most popular bitcoin wallet from App Store Wired Apple has removed the world's most popular bitcoin wallet from its App Store. Late Wednesday (5 February), the tech giant yanked the Blockchain app from the popular mobile app marketplace and did not provide a specific reason, says Nicolas Cary, the CEO of …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 27th January

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories Facebook Shares Surge On First Ever $1 Billion Mobile Ad Revenue Quarter Business Insider Once again investors underestimated the size of Facebook's business — the company posted a huge beat over expectations on revenues and earnings per share in its Q4 announcement. Shares went up immediately  nearly 10% in after-hours trading. …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 13th January

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories 10 things you need to know about digital wallets The Guardian Barring a few changes – such as chip-and-pin technology, contactless payments – the standard mix of loyalty cards, credit and debit cards, and cash in a wallet is much the same as it was 20 years ago. But there's a big prize waiting for the first company to convince us to …

CES 2014: Mobile Round up – Wearables & Tablets dominate

Last week, the world’s tech firms descended on Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Always a good indicator for the year ahead, the latest cutting edge technologies are typically unveiled, and 2014 didn’t disappoint with attendees wowed by the latest in curved TVs and new gaming technology plus a plethora of exciting gizmos and innovations. While the main event in the mobile event calendar remains some weeks away, mobile tech also had a strong showing at CES with two themes in particular standing out in the extensive media coverage - the explosion in wearable technology …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 6th January

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories Apple: $10B In App Store Sales In 2013, $15B Paid Out To Developers To Date Tech Crunch CES? What CES? Apple never goes to the great big noisy consumer electronics show-off in the desert. But all the non iDevice-makers do — which is one reason it’s chosen today to make some noise of its own. In a release just put out, Cupertino said …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 1st Jan 2014

Each week the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot. To kick-off the New Year in suitable fashion this week we have selected a round-up of the world’s media stories that take a look at what’s in store for the mobile industry in 2014. MEF’s own predictions for 2014 presented by the Global Board heralded a new era of mobile – Mobile 3.0 as consumer activity becomes truly mass-market expanding beyond one-off purchases and digital downloads, with mobile becoming the primary tool for engagement and transaction in consumers’ digital …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 9th December

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories We’re All Mobile Now Mobile Marketing Magazine Mobile phones are more addictive than crack cocaine. That’s my reading of the stats anyway. More phone connections than babies born, more mobiles than toothbrushes, we look at our mobiles more than 150 times a day – yada yada. You’ve been to the presentations. Media types get …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 2nd December

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories Tablets Are Becoming More Important Than Smartphones For Online Shopping, But Retailers Aren't Ready Business Insider This year will mark a major milestone for tablets and their influence on Internet retailers. We believe tablets will draw even with smartphones, and account for 50% of the total value of U.S. retail sales made over …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 25th November

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories Premium SMS flameout opens door to improved opt-in rates Mobile Marketer With AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon all dropping most premium SMS billing, this could open the door to higher opt-in rates for mobile programs and the loosening of regulation around these programs. Last week’s announcement that the carriers would stop …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 18th November

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news you may have missed, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories End Of An Era, As Nokia Shareholders Approve $7.2BN Deal For Sale Of Devices Business To Microsoft Tech Crunch Nokia’s shareholders have approved the sale of its devices & services unit to Microsoft at an EGM held today in Helsinki, the FT reports. The transaction is still expected to close in the first …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 11th November

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories Snapchat Reportedly Turned Down A $3 Billion (!) Offer From Facebook Huffington Post Snapchat, a smartphone app that has yet to make any money, turned down an offer from Facebook to be bought for $3 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. That's "billion" with a "B." Did we mention that Snapchat has exactly $0 in …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 4th November

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories 20 Per Cent of UK’s Online Christmas Sales will be Mobile Mobile Marketing Magazine UK consumers will make 20.4 per cent of their online Christmas purchases using their mobile in 2013, according to Adobe. The projected average across Europe is 12.4 per cent, growth of 68 per cent from 2012. While in the US, 14.4 per cent of online …

Global Mobile News Round-up – Week 28th October

Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.  Global News Stories China's Smartphone Explosion: The Top Opportunities In The World's Largest Mobile Market [report] Business Insider Smartphone growth is slowing across the U.S., Europe, and Japan. The mobile industry needs to shift its center of gravity to China, which has already overtaken the U.S. as the world's largest smartphone market. App …