Find out the week’s top mobile stories from around the world.
This week.. Google plans to train mobile app developers in India, Japan’s Line to raise £1 billion in IPO, the iOS App Store exceeds $71 billion, and much more.
Google plans to train two million mobile app developers in India
The Economic Times
Google has unveiled a slew of initiatives to educate and certify students and developers as part of its Android skilling programme in India, which aims to train 2 million mobile app developers.
The specially designed instructorled training programme on Android Fundamentals will be made available across public and private universities and training institutes of the National Skill Development Corporation.
Android dominates the global market for mobile operating ..
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TfL inks £15m licensing deal to take contactless payments global
FinExtra
Transport for London (TfL) has struck a multi-million pound licensing deal that will see the technology behind its contactless payments system used in other cities around the world.
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In-app purchases dwarf ad revenues, as iOS App Store exceeds $71 billion
MarketingLand
US mobile ad revenue in 2015 was approximately 35 percent total digital revenue, or $20.8 billion. However, revenue from in-app ads is dwarfed by in-app purchase revenue and paid apps, according to the AppsFlyer State of In-App Spending report.
The AppsFlyer study looked at “over 100 million users across over 1,000 apps that have in-app purchase activity.” The chart below shows the breakdown of mobile app revenue by category: ads vs. in-app purchases vs. paid apps. These models aren’t mutually exclusive; however, non-advertising monetization dominates on a global basis.
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Japan’s Line Aims to Raise £1bn in IPO
MobileMarketing
Japanese messaging app creators Line Corp is set for a dual initial public offering this week, appearing on both the New York and Tokyo stock exchanges with the hopes of raising over $1.3bn ($1bn) in capital.
The pricing for shares has been set at the top of its marketed range, reflecting a healthy appetite among investors to grab a piece of what is likely to be the world’s biggest tech listing of the year.
Line has set the IPO price at ¥3,300 (£25) per share, compared with its book-building range of ¥2,900 to ¥3,300, and a lower initial range that it bumped up last week after demand proved to be high.
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Pokemon Go wants to catch (almost) all your app permissions
TechCrunch
Let’s be honest, players of Pokemon Go aren’t going to care a Joltik or a Flabébé about the app permissions required to roam their neighbourhoods garnering the disproving glances of seniors as they fling invisible poke balls at the rose bushes.
But maybe they should — given the long list of permissions the app requires for its geocaching game of augmented reality and real-life activity fun to function, as flagged by Twitter user and security engineer Jason Strange…
As Strange goes on to point out, the permissions are almost as extensive as required by Google’s earlier (massively less successful) location-based multiplayer game, Ingress…
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Now, send SMS to get saplings at your home
The Tribune India
With a motive to increase green cover in the city, the local Municipal Corporation has come up with a new idea of SMS Tree Campaign under which residents can request for sapling of any variety from the civic body provided they give it in writing that they would care for it.
The Municipal Commissioner Sonali Giri said, “Residents can send their requests at mobile number 8054955463 mentioning their name, address and kind of sapling they want.”
She said, “Our people will contact the number from which this SMS is received . We will approach him/her to sign a pledge stating that he or she will take care of the sapling.”
The motive behing getting the pledge signed was to promote the idea of social responsibility towards environment, she added.
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ING and KBC to combine mobile payments and loyalty in Belgium
NFC World
ING and Belgian bank KBC are to launch a mobile payment and loyalty platform in Belgium that will combine ING’s Payconiqmobile payment app with loyalty platforms Qustomer and CityLife in a single service.
“These solutions are already being used in the Belgian market by over a million Qustomer, CityLife [and] Payconiq users at more than 6,500 stores,” ING says. “They can use it to save up loyalty points, make mobile payments or, at a select number of places, both at the same time.
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Starbucks’ China customers join the mobile fun
MobilePaymentsToday
Starbucks this week brought its popular mobile-payment system to China as more than 2,200 stores nationwide are now equipped to handle such transactions, according to a press release from the coffee giant.
“Our customers in China have a very high expectation of their digital experience and we are thrilled that the new mobile payment experience will enhance and transform the way we connect and build a meaningful relationship with them,” Belinda Wong, president of Starbucks China, said in a statement. “With the ongoing seismic shift in consumer behavior due to mobile technology, Starbucks is committed to exploring new ways to leverage digital innovations to deliver an elevated Starbucks Experience to our customers. We are confident our social, web, mobile, loyalty and card assets will deliver greater value and convenience to our customers, while further differentiating the brand in China.”
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Lithuania Post using SMS for notification of received items
Post & Parcel
Lithuania Post has announced that it is now using electronic communications such as SMS messages and e-mail to notify customers when their registered items have been received and are ready for collection.
“Electronic means of communication have become inseparable from our daily activities,” explained Mikas Jovaišas , the Head of Business Development at Lithuania Post. “Considering today’s Lithuania Post customer needs, we have created a possibility of getting informed about the received registered item by SMS messages or e-mail.
This service is free of charge, it can be chosen by customers wishing that the consignee of their sent item would be informed electronically rather than with a paper notice that is left in the consignee’s mailbox.”
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Net Neutrality Court Decision Yields Early Winners And Losers
Forbes
If you take the stock market as your guide, yesterday’s court decision to uphold the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality regulations was either completely unsurprising or completely uneventful.
Among the most directly affected ISPs (Internet Service Providers), Verizon, AT&T and Comcast were up very slightly (less than one percent), and Charter and Cablevision were down very slightly (also less than one percent). But this doesn’t mean we can’t pick out some early winners and losers from the decision.
