28 Февраля 2013

These days, LG is all about different “series” of devices, each catered towards different kind of buyer. The Korean company looks more serious than ever as it tries to cover every possible segment of the market. Whether you’re looking for a first smartphone to buy, want a high-end model like Optimus G Pro, or something in between – LG has a device to sell you.

Their booth reflected these different series and their well-prepared staff was there to explain us whom they are targeting with which device range. While most of our attention was on the Optimus G Pro, we did manage to spend some time with other devices, as well.

But I said it enough. Check out LG’s booth from few photos below…

MWC 2013: LG booth tour originally appeared on IntoMobile.com on 2013-02-28T15:41:38Z. FV1gMYsz9b5j

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28 Февраля 2013

Huawei had one major device announcement during this year’s Mobile World Congress – for the Ascend P2, though many other devices were also on display in Barcelona.

Just like ZTE, Huawei has also advanced through the years and we even tend to think of it as a better of the two major Chinese handset makers. At least we find Huawei-made products looking much better than those made by ZTE. And it was interesting to watch the evolution of Huawei’s MWC booth…

Just few years ago, they’ve been showcasing entry- and mid-level devices; that changed in 2012 when the company effectively entered the high-end market with its Ascend D quad. And despite failing to bring it to market on time, we were pretty impressed with what these folks could do. Now if they could also bring their products faster to market, they could easily outsell some of their competitors (though not all).

Here are few photos of Huawei’s MWC 2013 booth…

MWC 2013: Huawei booth tour originally appeared on IntoMobile.com on 2013-02-28T15:37:37Z. FV1gMYsz9b5j

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28 Февраля 2013

The GSMA’s Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme released the findings of its second annual Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey to analyze the state of the mobile money industry in 2012.

The research shows the number of active mobile money users grew impressively with more than 30 million people undertaking 224.2 million transactions totaling $4.6 billion during the month of June 2012 alone. The impressive figure exceeds the 196.3 million transactions performed by PayPal customers on average each month during Q3 2012.

The study demonstrates that the mobile money industry continues to expand at an unparalleled rate, with 150 live mobile money services for the unbanked, 41 of which were launched in 2012. In addition, the industry is also becoming increasingly competitive, with 40 markets identified as having at least two different mobile money services available.

GSMA’s report counted 81.8 million registered customers globally and the number of deployments on a global basis growing by almost 38%. There are also 6 services with more than 1 million active customer accounts and in the last 12 months, three of these services have crossed the 1 million active customers threshold.

It’s also worth adding that in some countries — including Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania and Uganda — there are now more mobile money accounts than bank accounts. In fact, the total value of mobile money transactions is equivalent to a significant proportion of the country’s overall GDP — in June 2012, it was equivalent to more than 60% of GDP in Kenya, more than 30% of GDP in Tanzania, and more than 20% of GDP in Uganda.

And you can get the full report from here.

There were 30 million active mobile money customers in 2012 originally appeared on IntoMobile.com on 2013-02-28T15:23:03Z. FV1gMYsz9b5j

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28 Февраля 2013

Pandora is struggling to pay royalty fees and it looking to mitigate that cost by limiting the amount of time mobile users on a free account can listen to music. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Pandora will limit mobile listening on a free account to 40 hours each month. This change should only affect 4% of Pandora users as most  users only consume 20 hours across all devices each month.

Pandora co-founder Tim Westergren justified these changes by noting that royalty rates have skyrocketed 25% in the past three years and are slated to go up another 16% in the next two years. Westergren argues that this new limit is the company’s best option to “manage these escalating costs with minimal listener disruption.”

[Via WSJ]

Pandora to impose 40-hour listening limit for free mobile users originally appeared on IntoMobile.com on 2013-02-28T14:49:26Z. FV1gMYsz9b5j

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26 Февраля 2013

Instagram’s level of success continues to rise at a rapid pace despite reports claiming the opposite a few months back. The startup announced today on its blog that the app now has 100 million monthly active users, meaning 100 million people are using Instagram at least once a month and many are probably using it more often.

Instagram launched in the fall of 2010 has an iOS-exclusive photo-sharing app and has since expanded its set of features and its horizons to other platforms, namely Android. This helped Instagram grow even faster, though it was never slouching to begin with.

Just over one month ago we reported Instagram hit 90 million active users and those users were sharing 40 million photos per day. So in that small amount of time from then to now, the app gained another 10 million active users. Even more staggering: the current number of active users is three times more than the total number of signed up users ten months ago on Instagram.

After some privacy concerns toward the end of last year there had been rumors that Instagram lost 25 percent of its total user count, which Instagram denied and is clearly now false. The $1 billion startup is doing just dandy.

“So from our team to the hundred million people who call Instagram home, we say thank you. Thank you for sharing your world and inspiring us all to do the same,” wrote Kevin Systrom today, co-founder.

[via MobileBurn]

Instagram bolts to 100 million monthly active users originally appeared on IntoMobile.com on 2013-02-26T23:47:34Z. FV1gMYsz9b5j

Read: IntoMobile