Asia - Europe Business

Mobile Banking And The Emerging Markets

The ability to check account balances, transfer money and pay utility bills via mobile phone has reduced the need to bank at physical branches. Mobile banking means something far more profound in emerging markets (Brazil, Russia, India, Pakistan and China, and on the continent of Africa), the difference between banking or not banking at all. Read more...

Lisa

Apple unveils iPad tablet device

  Apple last night unveiled its 9.7-inch touchscreen tablet computer called the ‘iPad.’ The device, which looks like a large iPhone, can be used to watch films, play games, browse the Web and is also set to take on Amazon’s Kindle in the e-reader market. Apple has done deals with publishers including Penguin, Macmillan and Harper Collins, as well as newspapers such as The New York Times, to allow e-books and content to be downloaded directly through a new iBook store. Demoing the iPad at the San Francisco launch event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs pitched the new product as a “third category” between smartphones and laptops, taking aim at the nascent netbook and smartbook sectors. Mr Jobs dismissed netbooks as "just cheap laptops,” adding that "netbooks aren't better at anything - they're slow and have low quality displays... They're not a third category device, but we have something that we think is."

 

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Where are Apple's 78 million handsets?

The answer is mostly in the U.S., the next four biggest markets were the U.K., France, Canada and Germany, but Japan, France, Australia and China are coming on fast, one reported by AdMob.

Please read.

Lisa

3G LTE Migration Costs

Many 3G mobile operators are considering the cost of migration to 3G LTE networks. With the economice down many 3G mobile operators are focussing on reducing capital expenditure and any way of rolling out 3G LTE – such as network sharing – are being scrutinised.

 

The significant investment required for LTE deployment could also see mobile operators globally embracing network sharing as a means of reducing CAPEX and OPEX. Other innovative ways of lowering costs include the automation of key optimisation processes through the roll out of self-organising networks (SON) and the deployment of femtocells within a network to cost-effectively provide macro network offload capabilities as well as indoor coverage solutions.

 

LTE represents a major evolution and mobile operators must take an intelligent approach to network migration. With careful planning however, LTE will deliver sufficient network capacity and data speeds to further enhance the delivery of high bandwidth services to consumers globally.

 

 

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Study Predicts 913 Million Mobile Banking Users by 2014

­According to a new research report by Berg Insight, the worldwide number of users of mobile banking and related services is forecasted to grow from 20 million users in 2008 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 89% to reach 913 million users in 2014. Asia-Pacific is expected to become the most important regional market, accounting for 65 percent of the total user base.

Mobile banking is also anticipated to play a key role in bringing financial services to people in the Middle East and Africa. In Europe and North America, the technology will mainly serve as an extension of existing online banks as mobile handsets become more widely used for Internet access. By 2014, Berg Insight forecasts that mobile banking will attract 110 million users in Europe and 80 million users in North America.

Besides traditional retail banking, the report also identifies international money transfer as a potential revenue source for mobile industry players. Berg Insight forecasts that 5–20 percent of the international money transfers currently handled by various formal or informal agent networks will be carried out using a mobile handset by 2014, generating US$ 170–680 million in service revenues.

Lisa

3G iPhone arrives today at All Apple Store

The long-awaited 3G version of Apple's iPhone went on sale in 22 countries today amid reports of long queues at stores and many operators already running low on stock. The launch coincided with the arrival of Apple's new 'App Store,' offering around 500 applications made by third-party developers for use with the iPhone. The applications, which include many from high-profile Internet names such as Facebook, Flickr, Cisco and eBay, are the first to be developed using Apple's iPhone Software Developer Kit (SDK), which was made available earlier this year. Google is also offering a search application that scours the user's iPhone and the Web and can offer map information based on the user's location.

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NTT DoCoMo Decides On Super 3G / Long Term Evolution Vendor

Panasonic Mobile Communications and Nokia Siemens Networks have agreed to cooperate on LTE base station products. The companies jointly responded to the request by Japan's biggest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo, Inc. for its Super 3G(LTE) Base Station project, and Panasonic Mobile Communications has been selected as a supplier.

LTE is the next generation system for mobile networks like GSM, W-CDMA/HSPA and CDMA. It improves the delivery of new multimedia and rich call applications by enhancing data transfer speeds, reducing latency and building on a scalable flat network design.

Panasonic Mobile Communications has developed W-CDMA base stations for over ten years based on NTT DoCoMo's requirements and has delivered equipment for the operator's FOMATM network. Panasonic Mobile Communications also joined standardization of LTE technology and development of elements from the early stage.

Nokia Siemens Networks is the forerunner in flat architecture networks with its I-HSPA innovation, providing a smooth migration path for operators to LTE. Nokia Siemens Networks was the first to demonstrate LTE technology in 2006 with data speeds in the 160Mb/s range, and the first to demonstrate a handover between LTE and HSPA in 2007.

"We will collaborate on LTE development, and also leverage both companies' capabilities to deliver high quality and timely solutions that meet operators' requirements in a cost-efficient way," said Mr. Nobuyoshi Ito, Director and Member of the Board, Panasonic Mobile Communications Co., Ltd.

"We are extremely proud to cooperate with Panasonic Mobile Communications and NTT DoCoMo on the development of LTE. This collaboration is a significant step for us and underpins our commitment to technologically advanced Japanese market," said Ari Lehtoranta, Head of Radio Access, Nokia Siemens Networks.

Lisa

Mobile WiMAX: It Begins

Commercial Mobile WiMAX/WiBro service took off like a shot this week in Seoul, Korea, with the launch of WiBro broadband wireless service, which combines WiFi speed with cellular range.

It was a shot heard round the world. According to EE Times, KT and SK Telecom launched WiBro at several high-demand areas in and around Seoul. Both companies plan to expand coverage throughout Seoul and surrounding cities by the end of this year. They'll take it nationwide by 2008.

Please visit the web site.

Lisa

4G Development Group is Coming

While much of the world awaits 3G to grace their airwaves, a coalition of companies in the wireless industry are putting together a nonprofit organization in the UK this month to promote the development of 4G. The "Next Generation Mobile Networks" group, consisting of founding members KPN Mobile, Orange, Sprint Nextel, Vodafone, and T-Mobile plus add-ons China Mobile and NTT DoCoMo, is looking to 2010 for the commercial deployment of 4G devices -- that's less than four years away, folks. We're somewhat skeptical 4G is going to come together for any substantial population in that amount of time, but just in case, we're going start compiling our list of things to do with 2.5Gbps of WWAN bandwidth now.

Lisa

100 million 3G Users This Month

Nearly six years after UK operators spent the GDP of a small country on buying 3G licences - £22bn to be exact - the number of 3G subscribers is set to pass the 100 million mark this month.

According to research from analyst house Strategy Analytics, subscriber numbers will reach 102 million subscribers, due to heavy promotion from operators and an expanded, more appealing portfolio of 3G devices.

The analyst also points out that 3G is now growing faster than GSM – the 2G standard used in most of the world – did in the early 90s.

Most of the 3G population is still located in Japan and South Korea, where operators DoCoMo, Hutchison and SK Telecom are pushing 3G. The US and Western Europe are starting their own 3G switch though, led by Verizon and Vodafone respectively. Vodafone recently announced it now has 7.7 million 3G device users outside of Japan.

Separate research from ABI Research predicts that by 2011, there will be one billion 3G users worldwide.

Lisa