This week in mobility – February 20th, 2015
All aboard the mobility express! It’s been another smashing week for all things mobility, so the journey’s looking very pleasant indeed.
It’s also been a great week for all things mobile and money – RBS and Natwest have announced that customers will now able to access accounts via smartphone using just fingerprint recognition technology, while Samsung has purchased US start-up LoopPay in a move that hopes to bolster the company’s efforts to compete with Apple Pay.
In other news, BlackBerry has continued its enterprise mobility push with the appointment of a new Chief Security Officer, who will lead the company’s security initiatives.
Here’s what else we’re covering off on our whistle-stop of all things mobility:
- By the end of 2015 a third of the world’s population will be able to access 4G networks, according to mobile industry body GSMA. It predicts that by 2020, 30% of the world’s mobile devices will be connected to 4G, with China set to overtake the USA as the country with the most 4G browsers. The number of Chinese 4G users is set to hit a staggering 300 million by the close of the year.
- Mobile provider EE, meanwhile, is taking things one step further – Professor Andy Sutton, the company’s Principal Network Architect, has outlined EE’s plans to pioneer 5G in the UK. The team is working on a number of projects, including the 5G Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey, to develop what it describes as ‘ground-breaking’ technologies.
- According to new research by App Annie for the Financial Times, the UK app economy is expected to be worth a huge £31billion by 2015. The number of UK apps downloads grew 5% in 2014, with revenues seeing a 30% surge. The research also revealed that the app industry employs around 11,000 people in the UK, 4,000 of which are still at school.
That’s your lot! Be sure to let me know your thoughts on this week’s mobility stories. Do you have access to a reliable 4G network – and do you see 5G becoming a nationwide reality any time soon? Are you one of the people who’ve made Candy Crush Saga the UK’s most popular app? If not, what have you been downloading? Let me know by tweeting @GrahamFranklin or @CiscoUKI.
