Strategy Analytics predicts that, globally, combined consumer and advertiser expenditure on mobile media—which includes handset browsing, mobile applications, mobile games, mobile music, mobile video, mobile TV, ringtones, wallpapers and alerts, and associated data—will rise at a 8.4% compound annual growth rate, from below $150 billion at the end of 2012 to $224 billion by 2017.
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Imagine being able to end your three-year smartphone contract early without fuss or hassle—and only pay up to a modest $50 in cancellation fees. Nova Scotia is hoping to make this pipe dream a reality.
The province has proposed numerous new safeguards in an effort to enhance consumer rights. The main changes are letting customers cancel their contracts "at any time" and limiting cancellation fees to "no more than $50." (Note that customers would still have to buy out their subsidized device with an early exit).
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Research In Motion will make a comeback. It just won't be for another few years.
That's the sentiment of Prem Watsa. The head of Fairfax Financial Holdings, Prem owns north of 5% of RIM thanks to a few recent investments of substantial size.
He says RIM has no shot of turning around in three or even nine months. Rather, the timeline for a comeback looks more like four or five years. RIM, he affirms, will end up "an amazing success story" in the long run.
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Professionally minded social network LinkedIn has at long last launched an app dedicated to tablets. Available for iOS on the iPad and on Android devices, the tablet-optimized app is slick, featuring a Flipboard-style news feed and sleek design throughout.
LinkedIn also revealed an interesting statistic: 22% of the site's traffic comes from mobile devices. Knowing this, it becomes surprising that LinkedIn waited to long to release an iPad app. But with how polished this first version appears, it seems that they simply decided to take some time to get it right.
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Had a bad restaurant experience? Want to thank a retail employee that went the extra mile but have no time to fill out a comment card?
ChattBack may be able to help you out.
The Vancouver startup makes it possible to give instant feedback, via a text message, directly to the owner. With ChattBack customers can privately text head honchos compliments, complaints, and suggestions, all on their smartphone.
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If apps and devices have the power to make our lives easier and more enjoyable, they also have the power to change people’s lives. Putting new technology to good use, the Société de Transport de Laval, which manages the city’s public transit system just North of Montreal, is working on an app aimed at travellers with mental disabilities and pervasive development disorders.
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Loyalists and investors of Research In Motion await with baited breath news of BlackBerry 10, the Waterloo company's next-gen mobile software platform that will lead a wave of new devices and - hopefully - restore RIM to at least some of its former glory. New rumours have now surfaced, offering these patient folks a possibly accurate timeline.
According to sources cited in N4BB, the first BB10 device will be announced in August. A product launch will follow this roughly two months later in October.
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It was a long-winded legal battle. But Wind won.
Today, the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge from the CRTC and discount carrier Public Mobile to a government decision that allows Globalive - which owns and operates Wind - to offer wireless services in Canada despite substantial foreign funding. It was a lengthy seesaw battle that began years ago when Egypt's Orascom Telecom Holding SAE's funding allowed Wind to buy spectrum in the last government wireless auction.
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Toronto-based Bee Media has acquired Adcentrcity for an undisclosed sum. Bee Media, previously a personal shopper and location-based deals companny, will leverage its acquistion of Adcentricity, a location-based digital media firm, to complete somewhat of a pivot: the company is "in the process of expanding into an exciting, leading-edge, location-based digital media company that delivers targeted advertising and offers a fully integrated platform and ad network."
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Well over 60 million tablets were sold in 2011. By 2016, this number is expected to soar to more than 230 million, according to new data from Futuresource Consulting.
While these numbers include commercial, industrial, and institutional sales, consumers will continue to drive the bulk of tablet sales. Consumers accounted for roughly 90% of all tablet sales last year, Futuresource says.
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