South Africa observes high mobile banking usage
Cellphone banking has increased in the past year, as South African consumers gain confidence in their handheld devices as a tool for both communications and efficiency.
According to research, among urban cellphone users, 44% now use cellphone banking services, compared to 27% a year earlier. In smaller centres and towns, 27% now use cellphone banking, suggesting that rural areas lag urban users by about a year in take-up of these services. In total, 37% of South Africans in urban and rural areas aged 16 and above now use cellphone banking.
As per sources, predominant customer base resides within the mainstream market: 65% of 2.6 million banking customer base earns less than US$13,721 per annum and are between the ages of 18 – 40 years old. Cellphone Banking is becoming the preferred alternative as people across the board are driven by the ‘anywhere, anytime’ concept of banking.
Usage of cellphone banking peaks in the 26-34 age group, at 41%, and drops to 11% in the over-45 group. Male usage far outpaces that of females, at 56% against 44%. While education is a factor in usage of cellphone banking, with 43% of cellphone banking users having matric, and 38% with post-matric qualifications, the biggest proportion of cellphone banking users – no less than 27% – earn less than a US$137.21 a month.
The vast majority of cellphone banking customers still use the basic services, such as balance enquiries (78%) and notifications (58%).
However, transactional services are for the first time major components of cellphone banking services, with half of respondents buying airtime, 24% paying accounts, and 17% transferring funds between accounts. Emerging Mobile commerce transactions such as purchases and sending money to another persons’ cellphone are also appearing on the radar screen for the first time. 12% of cellphone banking users also send money to other individuals, and 11% making a purchase via their cellphone.
For most of these services, urban respondents are far more likely to have made use of them, except in the case of sending airtime to someone: 33% of rural users of cellphone banking have done so, versus 22% of urban users.
Cellphone sanitizer hits the market
As per the recent studies conducted by various research centers, claims that mobile phones are saturated in germs and can even spread the flu and other illnesses. To overcome this fear here comes Violight UV Cellphone to sanitize anything – from your Cellphone to iPods to even ear buds.
Since the time hand sanitizers have hit the market, people have had the urge to use them as frequently as they can. Fact is that no matter what our hands touch, we are bound to gather and spread germs everywhere.
With technology going all advanced with touch-screens and devices which operate solely on touch basis, it has been impossible to forget about the germs which these devices carry. Cell phones and smart phones are everything. They’re our maps, our pens, our paper, our portable lifelines. A touchscreen is practically a veritable septic tank of germs.
The latest innovation from Violight will solve this problem as well. Their newest hit, the Violight UV Cellphone will be available in the market for US$50 which would function to sanitize anything. The technology used consists of two ultraviolet lamps powered by three AA batteries which would mutate the DNA of the bacteria and other harmful microorganisms present on the device. This will prevent the bacteria, viruses and germs from replicating.
The technology is called UV sterilization and believe it or not it has been in the market for quite some time initially introduced to produce clean drinking water and Sonicare brushes.
Violight clinically proved that with this technology, 99.9% of germs can be eliminated in just minutes. All you need to do is to place your cell phone into the cradle, close the lid and turn it on. After three minutes your device is ready and disinfected. The Sanitizer is using the same UV light technology that is used in hospitals to decrease the number of strep, E. coli, salmonella, listeria, and H1N1 virus germs and other awful bacteria’s.
China Mobile and AT&T to launch OPhone smartphones
China Mobile will be introducing eight Motorola phones based on the OPhone smartphone platform sometime next year, according to a report by Reuters.
OPhone is a lower-cost cellphone platform developed by California based firm, Marvell Technology.
AT&T Mobile has certified the OPhone platform for use on its network. Other carriers in the US, Asia and Europe are also considering similar moves.
Motorola and Dell are among the handset vendors currently working on the Ophone platform. Dell chose the OPhone platform to make its foray into the handset business.
Motorola one of the most trusted wireless brands in U.S.
What kind of cellphone do you use? If you’re in the majority, it’s a Motorola handset. Motorola now has — by far — the largest share of the handset market in the U.S. and appears to be making a global run at Nokia to try and regain the top global spot for the first time in a decade. The jury is still out on whether Motorola can do this, but if the ultra-popular RAZR phenomenon continues — and it does almost two years after release — then Motorola will continue to make headway. It’s rare that a single product carries a company like this, but just like Apple’s iPod, Motorola’s RAZR re-defined the category.
But it does not stop there. According to Forrester Research, Motorola is one of the top trusted brands in the wireless market, which includes hardware manufacturers and wireless carriers alike, from Motorola and Samsung to Sprint Nextel and Cingular Wireless. Samsung and Sprint Nextel rank among the least-trusted brands in the U.S., while Motorola and Verizon Wireless coming in at most-trusted levels, with Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile also pulling the same score. Just slightly off was Sprint Nextel, but that slightness was enough for a “least trusted” rating.
How about wireless handset manufacturers? In what I consider more perception than actual reality, handset makers Palm scored 4.3 and a B+ overall, while Motorola — maker of the RAZR and other popular offshoot handsets, scored 4.2, for an overall grade of B. LG Electronics and Samsung fared the worst, both scoring 4.0, for overall grades of C- and D-, respectively. The “aura” around the Treo line of smartphones and the RAZR line of phones is probably due to the enormous loyalty customers have to both brands when such a subjective topic of “trust” comes along.
Samsung and LG and other makers have wireless handsets that topple the Motorola RAZR and other phones in terms of features and ease-of-use, but the sheer popularity and loyalty Motorola users have cannot be underestimated. If you create the market — like the RAZR did for slim phones and the Treo did for on-the-go productivity — then customers will always have “trust”. MOT shares seem happy these days as a result.
Source- http://www.bloggingstocks.com
Technorati : LG, Motorola, Samsung, USA, Verizon Wireless, operator
