GPS-enabled handsets skyrocket

Berg Insight (www.berginsight.com) reports that global shipments of GPS-enabled GSM / WCDMA handsets jumped 178.6% in 2008 to 78 million and will grow at a CAGR of 46.5%, reaching 770 million units, in 2014. Berg says GPS technology has become standard in the smartphone segment and will begin its appearance in mid-range handsets in 2009.
-Stuart Whitaker

Google expands further into mobile

Following Google's (www.google.com) optimization of search results for iPhones and Android devices in the US in December and in twenty countries in March, Google has now delivered the new search format on all (feature phone) mobile devices in over sixty countries and thirty-eight languages.

Google places a high emphasis on the value of what it calls its "universal search" results, which delivers web results along with news, images, groups, maps, books, and video on the same page. Google says delivering universal search has been one of its biggest architectural, ranking and interface challenges. New features provided include:

- news, images, blogs, video, and product results on the results page;
- many popular features appear in the first result;
- Google says it continues to optimize results for mobile, such as, presenting easy-to-select phone.
-Stuart Whitaker

Mobile Money Exchange to Further Global Development

The GSMA (www.gsmworld.com) has launched a Mobile Money Exchange initiative designed to help financial services companies who are entering the mobile environment by providing a common voice and formal business forum for business collaboration. The Mobile Money Exchange will feature an online knowledge portal with social business networking and community functionality.

Visa and Globe Telecom are the first two founding partners. The Mobile Money Exchange builds on the Mobile Money Program launched by GSMA in 2006. Fundamental principles and requirements that are not currently being met, such as fragmentation and lack of ability to scale, will be addressed, according to GSMA chief commercial officer, Bill Gajda.

The Mobile Money Exchange is open to any organization and seeks to establish a broad-based stakeholder community that comprises key areas including mPayments, mBanking, Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU), and Mobile Money Transfer (MMT).

The Mobile Money Exchange was announced at the GSMA Mobile Money Summit, which was sponsored by Visa, and organized by Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) (www.cgap.org), the UK Department for International Development (DFID) (www.dfid.gov.uk), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) (www.ifc.org/).
-Stuart Whitaker