Mobile News Round-up: Mobile Marketing and Security

Sifting through all of the content regarding mobile and apps can be a chore. There's so much information out there, it's easy to feel like a kid in a candy store, eyes wide and mouth gaping at all there is to see. Thus, we thought we would share with you the content we found to be the most interesting and/or noteworthy over the past week. We do this every week, so be sure to check back often.

Enjoy!

Mobile Marketing

Optimising Campaigns Based on Mobile App Usage, Not Installs by Romany Reagan - Exchange Wire, April 25, 2017.

On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone at the Macworld convention – an announcement that also ushered in the birth of the app market, an industry that may top USD$77bn (£61.6bn) in 2017.

More Than Half of Digital Advertising Is Mobile by Mike Shields - The Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2017.

Digital ad spending in U.S. surged 22% to record $72.5 billion in 2016, according to a new report from the IAB.

Tanzania: How Mobile Technology Has Changed Market Research by Edwin Bruno - The Citizen, April 26, 2017.

Market research is absolutely critical for the growth of all businesses and organizations because it puts you inside the mind of your consumers. The concept of research has changed thanks to the growth of technology. We are now leaving the world of pen and paper, and moving to a place of mobile apps, SMS data collections, and USSD technology.

Enterprise

New Technologies: What Will Impact Your Business? by Pratibha Salwan - Information Week, April 26, 2017.

Chatbots, IoT, predictive analytics, and virtual reality/augmented reality all are poised to change how businesses are run and how business and the consumer interact.

Hospitality and Retail

Improving Mobile App Aptitude Yields ROI from Hospitality Technology, April 26, 2017.

More than half of restaurants (53%) are planning to either add, upgrade or change mobile apps in 2017, according to HT’s 2017 Restaurant Technology Study.

Report: Retailers move toward giving associates mobile solutions by Deena M. Amato-McCoy - Drug Store News, April 27, 2017.

More retailers are putting mobile devices into their associates’ hands.

Security

DarkMatter's Katim Handset Brings Mobile Security To Smartphones by Monty Munford - Forbes, April 27, 2017.

What do you buy the person who has everything, especially the person who is responsible for their country's or company's sensitive information? That, probably, would be a cell phone that nobody could listen in on and nobody could hack.

Retail Banking & Financial Services

Weighing the Risks of Mobile Payments at Your Small Business from Small Business Trends, April 27, 2017.

Regardless of their industry or size, merchants from all over the world are beginning to embrace mobile payments, thanks to benefits like accepting payments wherever you want and improving the customer experience. That doesn’t mean that there’s not a downside to mobile payments, particularly security concerns.

Mobile devices are changing how we bank online by Abigail Elise - KETV, April 26, 2017.

Three out of four people use PCs, laptops, tablets or smartphones to monitor accounts, but people under the age of 45 are more likely to use tablets or smartphones.

Trends and Technology

Rural Indian women are lagging far behind their urban counterparts in mobile phone usage by Ananya Bhattacharya - Quartz India, April 26, 2017.

In India, less than 46% of women own and use a mobile phone, according to the fourth National Family Health Survey (NFHS) dated 2015-16.

T-Mobile’s new rural network could be live by the end of the year by Chris Mills - BGR, April 26, 2017.

The worst thing about T-Mobile has long been the one thing that’s out of its control: the network. T-Mobile’s network relies almost entirely on mid-band spectrum, which is worse at travelling long distances and penetrating buildings than the low-band spectrum used by Verizon and AT&T.

Current’s stylish new backpacks keep your cell phone charged in the wilderness by Kelly Hodgkins - Digital Trends, April 27, 2017.

Smartphone owners may appreciate a bag with an integrated charger, but these bags are typically high on functionality, but low in fashion. When entrepreneurs Jack Perkins & Eric Anwar saw the current lineup of these charging backpacks, they were compelled to make a change. The result was Current Bag Co., a startup backpack company originating in California.

App stores saw record revenue and downloads in Q1 2017 by Sarah Perez - TechCrunch, April 27, 2017.

Mobile applications saw a record number of downloads and revenue in the first quarter of the year, according to a new report from app store analytics firm App Annie out this morning. Across both iOS and Android, downloads grew by 15 percent year-over-year to reach nearly 25 billion worldwide – a figure that includes only new downloads, and not re-installs or downloads from prior quarters.