App stores to generate over $100bn in revenue in five years
When apps first came to smartphones, it completely changed the ways users interacted with their devices. Mobile phones went from being just phones that could make calls and send short messages to devices that resembled miniature computers.
Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store saw a dramatic rise in the number and quality of the apps they offered almost instantly. For many users, apps have become commonplace and they no longer hold our interest or excitement as they once did.
Online banking: How secure is it?
The latest bank in the UK to fall victim to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack was HSBC. It claimed that no customer data was compromised. In July last year, RBS and NatWest were also hit by DDoS attacks, which flooded their websites with traffic, temporarily shutting them down. This resulted in bad publicity and complaints from many customers. Fortunately, customer accounts were not compromised so the bad publicity was all the damage the attack caused.
DDoS attacks, where bad guys flood a website with so much work that they fold under the pressure, aren’t even strictly a security issue on their own. Unless the DDoS is part of a recipe to steal stuff, it’s a nuisance that is more about someone flexing their muscles than doing damage. Luckily in the cases of RBS, NatWest, and HSBC, no data was stolen; however, they do raise the question of whether online banking is secure. So is there a security issue at hand?
How much do UK businesses spend on mobile devices per year?
An average business in the UK spends approximately £1,272 every year on a mobile device and all the expenses that come with owning one.
Those are the results of a new survey by mobile data security firm Wandera. Surveying 500 UK IT decision makers, Wandera’s survey has shown the true cost of ownership (TCO) of mobile devices for UK enterprise.
Is your business wasting the software budget?
No matter how much money your company spends on software, it’s likely to spend less if your boss reads this article.
A new survey by American software company Flexera Software suggests that most companies are wasting their software budget, and the software they buy is often either underused or overused.
Apple fiscal Q1 2016 by the numbers: Record revenue falls short
Three questions buzzed among investors and around the Interwebs ahead of today's Apple fiscal first quarter 2016 earnings report: Would iPhone momentum remain; how big could be revenues; and what would be guidance for the quarter in progress? Wall Street consensus was 76.54 million handsets sold and $76.582 billion in sales. Actual: 74.78 million iPhones and $75.872 billion revenue. More unsettling: Apple forecasts its first sales decline in 13 years; guidance is lower than analyst estimates.
After the closing Bell, Apple answered these questions. Revenue rose 2 percent year over, while net income climbed the same to $18.4 billion from $18 billion. Earnings per share of 3,28 nudged ahead of $3.23 consensus estimate. Gross margin reached 40.1 percent, up from 39.9 percent a year earlier.
Oracle reveals Google's revenue from Android
There’s been a new twist in the litigation between Oracle and Google over copyright infringement, after Oracle claimed Google breached copyright by inappropriate use of Java in Android.
A lawyer representing Oracle has now made the astonishing revelation, in court, that Google revenue from Android, since 2008, is $31 billion. This staggering figure relates to $22 in profit derived from Google’s two Android revenue streams, advertising on mobile Android platforms and the revenue it receives from sales on Google’s Android app store.
Barclays introduces virtual credit card replacement
All those who have a habit of losing their credit cards, only to end up somewhere without a means to pay, rejoice!
Barclaycard has announced a new service, UK’s first, which allows for the instant replacement of a lost credit card -- first virtually, followed by a real card replacement.
Apple's iAd may soon allow developers to keep all the revenue
Back in 2010, Steve Jobs revealed Apple’s new mobile advertising platform iAd. The goal of this new venture into advertising was to make the mobile ads that appeared in iPhone and iPad apps interactive and more stylish.
Apple users would also be able to remain within the current app they were using without being forced out of the app and into their browser. The iAd platform was able to achieve this but it came at a high cost and required advertisers to relinquish power to Apple, which had final say over which ads were approved. The company was also reluctant to share the marketing data it acquired through iAd.
The pros and cons of implementing a bug bounty program
A recent incident with the Facebook Bug Bounty program has led to many different reactions supporting both Facebook and the security researcher. Regardless of who is right in that whole story, the one fact is clear: the researcher went far beyond what the social media site had initially expected, and got access to the sensitive data the company didn’t really want to share with anybody, including the researchers’ community.
These days bug bounties have become very popular, raising more and more questions about their efficiency and effectiveness. We will try to understand how and if bug bounties can be used to test your corporate web applications. I intentionally omit bug bounties for stand-alone software (e.g. Chrome or various IoT applications) as it’s a different topic.
Apple announces record App Store revenue -- will that be enough to boost its falling share price?
Apple's stock has taken a huge hit in the past couple of months, with shares now trading close to the $100 mark. Investors seem to be overly concerned with the iPhone's performance in the last quarter of 2015, after analysts have delivered mixed sales estimates, and a so-called report of a 30 percent production cut for the first quarter of 2016 is only making things worse.
So, unsurprisingly, Apple is looking to reassure investors that it's in good financial health, revealing today a "record-breaking holiday season for the App Store". Is this the company's way of suggesting that hardware sales have actually been strong during the holiday season?
Walmart Pay takes a giant leap into the mobile payment industry
The upcoming launch of Walmart’s mobile payments service, Walmart Pay, is one of many signs that the mobile payments landscape is shifting in a curious direction. As one of the first US retailers to branch out on its own and create a merchant branded payment and loyalty application, Walmart is paving the way for other retailers to simplify payments and provide new ways of enhancing the consumer shopping experience. Following closely in Walmart’s footsteps is Target, with a recent speculation of a similar mobile wallet app in the works.
The introduction of Walmart Pay is significant to the payments market as it sends the message that Walmart is seemingly departing from the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) consortium and its pending CurrentC mobile payment platform, which has been plagued by numerous delays and concerns over the underlying technology platform. While Walmart will still continue its partnership with MCX, Walmart Pay will be the company’s main focus. This could mark the beginning of the end for CurrentC, an industry-wide payment system that was created for MCX restaurants and retailers, including Walmart, to utilize as a single payment solution.
Is your business ready for the cashless economy?
New research findings reveal that UK shoppers are dreaming of a cashless Christmas -- well, when it comes to their spending habits that is.
The survey, conducted by EE, found that 80 percent of shoppers this festive season expect to pay for any transaction using a credit or debit card. Furthermore, a quarter said they would abandon transactions if they couldn’t use their cards.
Return of investment for cybersecurity: Can we put a number on it?
Almost eight years ago, Bruce Schneier wrote a great article about the problems of ROI calculation for cybersecurity spending within organizations. Since then, both annual spending on cybersecurity and the cost of global cybercrime have significantly increased.
Despite that organizations increased their information security budgets by 24 percent in 2016, many security officers still have to justify to their management every extra thousand spent on cybersecurity. Traditionally, Europe is more conservative than US, and many more European security officers are asked to reduce their initial cybersecurity budgets by removing some items or replacing them with less expensive alternatives.
The benefits of Blockchain for financial services
"Blockchain is ready to take centre stage", declared a recent Goldman Sachs report, just one of many indications that this virtual system has captured the attention of the financial services industry.
It is certain that Blockchain has the potential to transform centuries-old mechanisms for transferring money. Our latest research, which surveyed over 300 banking executives on the current payments landscape across Europe, found that cryptocurrency and Blockchain technologies are now seen as real drivers for change.
Samsung Pay will have 50 percent market share in Asia
Maybe Samsung isn’t doing all that great in the smartphones department, but it has high expectations from its mobile payment service that will be introduced in China early next year.
So high, in fact, that Hyundai Securities is predicting a 50 percent market share in China, and a significant share globally, too. The news was first reported on by ETNews.
Recent Headlines
BetaNews, your source for breaking tech news, reviews, and in-depth reporting since 1998.
Regional iGaming Content
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. About Us - Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy - Sitemap.