Mobile-related technologies for the past week, in 3 (or almost) words: App Usage Increase, T-Mobile Is Not An Operator, Ephemeral

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THE WEEK IN 3WORDS

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WEEK #38

3. APP USAGE INCREASE
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Several surveys, compiled in this article*, show that users spend
more and more time in applications. The average session length
is up to 21% in one year, according to mobile marketing platform
Localytics.
Most popular applications (in terms of usage) are music
applications and social network applications. Health-based apps
are strongly increasing, as wearable devices become more
efficient and affordable.
Obviously, this session length increase benefits more the apps
users have already installed on their smartphones than new
apps: users are loyal to the apps that answer their needs and
don’t try too many new apps, especially from the same kind
(music, health, etc.). (*) http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/10/forget-the-apple-watch-think-drones-in-the-enterprise

5. T-MOBILE IS NOT AN OPERATOR
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T-Mobile is moving toward being a new kind of operator, making
announcements that give nice options to consumers.
Among such options, the possibility to upgrade a device twice a year,
international data/texting free, paying early termination fees for
customers that change their operator for T-Mobile, unlimited data for
some music apps, the last one moves one step forward in mobile
technology: whenever a Wi-Fi access point is at reach, the phone
switches automatically to Wi-Fi voice and text.
This may be a hint of how the mobile network may look like in a couple
of years. It is likely that operators will have to move from carrier
providers to providing other kind of value-added services, since the
carrier will be handled by Wi-Fi access points to the Internet.

7. EPHEMERAL
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Social Networks are being more and more about privacy:
Snowden’s revelation about US security agencies spying
Facebook or Twitter accounts made user’s privacy a must have
and even a argument for new social applications: Snapchat,
Secret, etc.
But the issue with major social networks remained:
users cannot be guaranteed their privacy will be
secured. A very clever application, developed by two
Dallas students, Xpire, makes it possible to control to
life time of Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr posts. Your post
gets automatically destroyed after a certain amount of
time, configured in the application.
It’s a very simple approach, yet addressing a prominent user’s
requirement.