Mobile

Mobile Networks Faster Than Wi-Fi

Posted on by Andy Miller

A report by OpenSignal has highlighted how the fact that smartphone users in 33 countries get faster average download speeds using a mobile network than Wi-Fi means that mobile operators and smartphone makers need to ensure that consumers’ smartphones aren’t simply pushed onto a Wi-Fi network, only to receive a worse experience than the mobile network.

Assumption Wrong

The report, by Ian Fogg of OpenSignal, highlights the fact that the long-held industry assumption that Wi-Fi is better than mobile networks in almost every way appears to be wrong in today’s environment.

For example, the report showed that in 33 countries, or 41% of the 80 countries analysed by OpenSignal, mobile delivers a faster download experience than Wi-Fi.

Also, the report shows that it appears to be hard to categorise the range of countries where mobile offers a faster download experience for smartphone users.  For example, according to the report, these range from richer markets and industrialised economies e.g. Australia, the Czech Republic, and France to countries across every continent, and a range of demographics (income, and state of development) e.g. UAE, Turkey, Kenya, Myanmar and Mexico.  The report did find, however, that there is a correlation between higher per capita GDP and more time spent on Wi-Fi, mainly because of the presence of a suitable Wi-Fi network rather than by a consumer’s decisions to connect to Wi-Fi.

Big Changes in 10 Years

The OpenSignal report acknowledges that while the assumption that Wi-Fi is better, faster, and cheaper than a mobile network may have been true 10 years ago, some big changes in the connectivity environment mean that is no longer the case.

For example, 4G networks have launched and boosted the quality of smartphone users’ experience, almost everyone now owns a smartphone, and mobile video and consumption has exploded as smartphones have become a mainstream way to watch TV (Netflix is even trialling mobile-only tariff plans).

Some A ‘Dead Heat’ With Wi-Fi

It was also noted in the report that in four countries – Hungary, Bangladesh, Belgium and Norway – there is no real difference between the Wi-Fi and mobile download speeds experienced by smartphone users.

What’s The Problem?

The problem, therefore, is that the failure to take into account the current connectivity environment, and operators working on what may now be a mistaken assumption is that smartphone users have actually been given a worse experience as they are dumped onto Wi-Fi wherever possible.

Not All The Same

The report did find, however, that not all operators always switch users to Wi-Fi.  For example, Huawei switches connections from a slow Wi-Fi link to a faster cellular connection.

Why Are Cellular Phone Networks Faster?

Reasons why cellular networks are faster with 4G in some countries (e.g. in Brazil, Finland) is that it’s easier to lay the (fibre) cables there, smartphone design priorities don’t always focus on Wi-Fi in those countries, and many smartphones there don’t work on 5 GHz Wi-Fi.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The report indicates that there needs to be a re-think about when and how to use Wi-Fi to complement the mobile experience, and it may be necessary for operators to challenge the old assumption that Wi-Fi is best.  To provide the best experience to their users in today’s environment, the report notes that operators need to become smarter with Wi-Fi offload strategies.

Also, Operators will need to deliver good in-building mobile network coverage from now on, because consumers will increasingly override their smartphone’s automatic Wi-Fi choice in favour of selecting cellular in order to get the fastest download speed.

It is also likely that smartphone makers are will be changing the designs of smartphones to allow the use of both Wi-Fi and mobile network technologies simultaneously to deliver the fastest data experience.

For those users of mobile services, the realisation by mobile manufacturers and operators that they must change their products and services to rely less on Wi-Fi is likely to bring a better experience going forward.

New App-Based Banking Platform For SMEs From NatWest

Posted on by Andy Miller

NatWest bank is reported to be testing a new app-based banking platform called ‘Mettle’ that combines banking with other business services, and is specifically aimed at the needs of SMEs.

Mettle – Independent From NatWest Bank

Mettle is the first standalone banking app to be launched by one of the UK’s big retail banking brands, and is described by Mettle as a “forward-looking business current account”.

The new SME-focused banking platform is to be run independently from NatWest, is not a bank but operates as an agent under an e-money licence held by PrePay Solutions, and is being developed in partnership with 11:FS and Capco.

The pilot of the new mobile-app based Mettle service has been rolled out to between 100 and 150 existing and new customers, and their feedback will be taken into account before a general roll-out to the public.

Why?

According to Alison Rose, CEO of commercial and private banking at NatWest, the premise for the Mettle banking app is that it will provide customers with data they can use to make business decisions and to let “customers focus on forward-looking finances, combining technology and proactive insights so that SMEs can make better decisions and run their businesses more successfully”.

Other reasons for introducing Mettle are that:

  • Greater awareness of and trust in fintech (financial technology) in the market place, and rapidly advancing technology and a trend towards ‘mobile everything’ mean that traditional banks need to adapt to more customer-focused services, and feel that they can now diversify their offerings.
  • Large banks such as NatWest need to head-off the threat of fast-growing challenger banks such as Monzo, Starling and Revolut.

About Mettle

Apart from the obvious convenience aspect of being able to use a mobile banking app, some of the key features that could make Mettle popular among SMEs are:

  • The account is free and fast to open, and can be operated just using a mobile app and a debit card.
  • Receipts can be added to customer transactions and expenses can be tracked straight from the phone.
  • Customers can lock and unlock their card from their phone with a single tap.
  • It offers other business tools to help SMEs stay on top of a current account.
  • It offers SMEs a maximum balance of £50,000 and a maximum pay out of £10,000.
  • Mettle has the backing of a big banking brand.

Limitations (many of which may be temporary due to it being at the pilot stage) include that Mettle:

  • Offers no overdrafts or interest.
  • Limits cash withdrawals to £500 a day and £4,000 a month.
  • Is currently by invitation only (after interest has been registered online).

How To Open A Mettle Account

At the moment, opening a Mettle account involves going to www.mettle.co.uk, clicking on “register your interest” and entering your email when prompted. After this, Mettle will email you a list of questions to understand the nature of your business, and will let you know whether you can be part of the first group of users with early access.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

If you’re an SME, this kind of account could provide a much faster and more convenient way of operating and staying on top of your finances, and it has been designed specifically with the needs of SMEs in mind. It also offers other helpful business insights that a simple bank current account doesn’t and, therefore, could help SME business decision-making.

For the big banks, app-based systems enable them to keep up with consumer trends and needs, aid customer retention and with the attraction of new customers, and fight-off competition from the other big banks and fast-growing challenger banks.

Mobile Working Causes Absenteeism

Posted on by Andy Miller

Research by B2M Solutions has concluded that instead of saving costs, mobile working could be costing UK businesses £1.18 billion per year, as 40% of mobile workers attribute time taken off work to stress and anxiety caused mainly by reliability issues with mobile devices.

The Research

The B2M Solutions ‘Mobile Impact Survey’ gathered the opinions of 200 mobile workers in the US and UK who said that the mobile device they used at work was a critical tool that they needed to complete their work tasks, and that device reliability was of the uppermost importance.

What’s The Problem?

According to the B2M Solutions research, there are several elements involved in causing stress and anxiety-related ailments in mobile workers including:

  • Not offering employees the resources they need. The research indicates that although businesses are giving more responsibility and arguably more freedom to their employees, there is a lack of investment in tools to ensure that the critical mobile devices needed to perform these new tasks are operating correctly, and can be depended on. When the devices don’t perform as they should, this creates frustration and stress in users. The B2M research showed, for example, that device issues in the field like battery failure (40%) or poor Wi-Fi coverage, and crashing apps, led to 16% of mobile workers taking at least one day off work in the last year. This figure includes the 7% who took six or more days sick leave as a result.
  • Always being connected to work and switched-on. The blurring of lines between work time and your own time, and always being reachable by employers / colleagues makes it difficult to escape an underlying level of stress.
  • Being unable to complete tasks, as well as customer anger and rudeness as a result of mobile device failure causing increased stress and anxiety levels.

Didn’t Tell Managers

The research also revealed that a quarter of mobile workers haven’t told their managers or IT departments that their equipment is failing because they didn’t think that anything would be done about it.

Huge Cost To Business

In addition to the human suffering caused by stress and anxiety, the cost to businesses, many of which are unaware of the problems because their employees haven’t told them and / or because they haven’t checked, is estimated to be huge. For example, according to the research, if the findings are applied to the entire US mobile workforce, the cost of sick leave from stress or anxiety caused by device reliability problems to the US economy is around $8.6bn per year. If you add this figure to the UK research results, the coat to both economies is $10.2bn.

In fact, even the ‘True Cost of Ownership’ figures from the research don’t include additional potential financial impacts e.g. paying overtime to remaining workers to pick up their sick colleagues’ excess work, any financial penalties for missing customer deadlines, any brand reputation damage, insurance claims or even the cost of out of court settlements for some workers who can’t return to work.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

It is likely that we all have some experience of the frustration and stress that technology failures and hold-ups can create, particularly when we are against the clock and a customer / colleague / boss is waiting. The cumulative effects of this kind of stress over time, coupled with a feeling that you’re on your own i.e. nothing will be done even if you report it, is bound to be demoralising, and it is no surprise that absenteeism from stress and anxiety and the knock-on financial impacts on the company are the results.

In the light of this research, businesses may benefit from taking more proactive steps to predict and prevent mobile related issues before they impact the mobile worker. Also, the fact that many businesses are unaware of the impact that mobile device issues actually have on productivity and worker health suggests that better device monitoring is needed.

Resurrecting An Old Android Phone Is Easier Than You Think

Posted on by Andy Miller

Many of us have an old Android phone somewhere in the house, doing nothing. Rather than leaving it there to add no value to your life and work, you may find that it’s much easier than you think to resurrect it.

Look Beyond The Launch

Even though your phone may have been the greatest and the fastest when it was launched, the passage of time doesn’t necessarily mean that it has become obsolete.

Performance issues can, of course, be exaggerated by age and resource limitations, but there are some steps you can take to clean-up your old android phone and bring it back into active service. These steps could include:

  • Freeing -up storage space. Begin this process by backing up the media that you have on the phone. This can be done by opening Google photos, selecting “Settings,” “Back up & sync” and activating the toggle that appears. This will allow you to back up your photos and images to the cloud. Get Google’s free Files Go app, open it, grant the app permission to access your phone’s storage, and from here you will be given suggestions for freeing-up space on your device. For example, this can include removing junk and duplicate files, removing downloaded files and large files, and deleting the photos and videos (now that you have back-up copies).
  • Getting rid of unused apps. This is a good move on any phone anyway as a way to improve security. In the case of refreshing your phone, the Files Go app can show you which apps are unused and therefore suitable to uninstall. You can also regain more phone resources by clearing out your app clutter. For apps that came pre-installed (and can’t be uninstalled), look for a button to disable those apps.
  • Using ‘lite’ app alternatives. Using ‘lite’ versions of the apps that you’d still like to have on the old phone e.g. Facebook, Google Maps and Skype lite, can mean that you get plenty of basic functionality, but take up less phone resources.
  • Reducing background activity / check-ins by certain apps. This can make the phone run faster, and can reduce monthly bills.
  • Making sure your apps are up to date. Checking-in with Play Store and making sure you have the newest (lite) versions of apps on your old phone can prevent many of the problems caused by less optimized older versions.
  • Making sure the home screen is up to date and not slowing things down. You may want to use a third-party launcher e.g. the free Lawnchair Launcher.
  • Keeping the software animations to a minimum. This will involve accessing the system settings ‘Drawing’ section, but could help towards speeding your old android phone up.
  • Trying a ‘factory reset’. This can make the phone run faster. Again, this is likely to involve accessing the ‘System’ section (after making sure everything important is backed-up).
  • Adding new, efficiency-enhancing apps.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

A succession of updated models, the need (or, being convinced by marketing of the need) to constantly upgrade to the next best model, along with a throwaway society means that there is so much wastage when it comes to devices, especially mobile phone handsets. This is why many businesses have seized the opportunity of refurbishing and re-selling them e.g. smartfonestore.com, Second-hand Phones.Com, envirofone.com and more.

There’s no doubt that smart-phones have become an important part of our lives with 78% of all adults now owning one, and with each of us checking our phone once every 12 minutes on average during our waking hours (Ofcom). Web browsing and using chat and other apps (WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger) are now equally as important as actually being able to make a call, so as long as your re-conditioned / resurrected phone has the storage space, speed, and available resources to accommodate modern apps (lite versions), you could be saving yourself money and making life easier for yourself by bringing it back into use.

Apple Apps Taken Down For Spying

Posted on by Andy Miller

The Mac App Store has taken down a number of well known security apps for the Apple Mac after it was discovered that they are being used to spy on the browsing habits of their users.

Which Apps?

It has been reported that Dr Unarchiver, Dr Cleaner, Adware Medic, Adware Doctor and App Uninstall have all been removed from the Apple-curated Mac App Store on the grounds of spying on users.

Rumbled

A researcher in Germany, identified only by their @privacyis1st twitter identity is credited with alerting the Mac App Store to the fact that the Adware Doctor app attributed to a company called Yongming Zhang (the name of a well-known Chinese serial killer) and the Trend Micro apps were linked to the same suspect IP address in China.

It has also been reported that suspicions and concerns about the apps go back some years. For example, online reports about Adware Doctor from 2016 indicate that the app was using AppleScript to perform actions in violation of Apple’s App Store Guidelines. It has also been alleged that the glowing reviews of Adware Doctor and other applications by the same developer may have been faked.

How?

It has been reported that the suspect apps were able to spy by first tricking the user into giving them macOS home directory access with virus scanning and clear cache options. When this permission was granted, the apps were able to abuse access privileges by gathering browser-history data from Chrome, Firefox and Safari. This data was then sent back to suspected malicious operators.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This is not the first time that there have been reports of dodgy apps lurking in legitimate stores. For example, back in January, 36 fake and malicious apps for Android that could harvest your data and track your location, masquerading as security tools were discovered in the trusted Google Play Store. All had reassuring names such as Security Defender and Security Keeper, and many performed some legitimate tasks on the surface, such as cleaning junk, saving battery, scanning, and CPU cooling, but all were found to be hiding malware, adware and tracking software.

Apple generally has a good brand reputation with regards to security so it will undoubtedly be very unhappy to have its name and the store that it curates associated in any way with any malicious apps.

This story is another reminder that, when it comes to apps, even though the obvious advice is to always check what you are downloading and the source of the download, the difference between fake apps and real apps can be subtle, and even Apple (in this case) didn’t immediately spot the hidden aspects of the apps. Also, we often don’t have the time to make checks on the apps that we download, and good reviews and the ‘halo effect’ of the good name of the store that they’re in are often enough of a recommendation for us to act.

The fact that many of us now store most of our personal lives on our smart phones makes reports such as these all the more alarming, and can undermine our confidence in (and cause costly damage to) the brands that are associated with such incidents.

To minimise the risk of falling victim to suspect apps, users should check the publisher of an app, check which permissions the app requests when you install it, delete apps from your phone that you no longer use, and contact your phone’s service provider or visit the High Street store if you think you’ve downloaded a malicious / suspect app.

The bad publicity from this story may also make Apple keen to review its systems and procedures for checking the apps that are offered in the store that it curates.

Tech Tip – Send Texts From Your Windows 10 PC With ‘Your Phone’ App

Posted on by Andy Miller

If you’d like to be able to send phone texts from your PC without having to unlock your phone, you can do it with the Your Phone app for Windows 10. Here’s how:

– Open the Your Phone app.

– Click on Messages.

– Click on the See Texts button.

– Click on the Send Notification button.

– On your phone, confirm the notification to allow Your Phone app to access your text messages.

– To send a new message, click the New Message button.

– Type the phone number or search for the contact you want to send a message to.

– Use the reply box at the bottom to send the text from your PC.

Uber Moves Into Bikes & Scooters

Posted on by Andy Miller

Ride-hailing service Uber, which has until recently been associated with cars, has announced a shift in focus towards bikes and scooters in order to drive growth and keep people using the platform.

The Challenges

Uber has faced a number of challenges in recent times, some of which have been of its own making. These challenges have included:

  • Congestion in inner-city areas (particularly in rush hour), the exact places where many of its customers use the service in large numbers to travel short distances. Uber itself has been accused by Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, of adding to city’s congestion problems. This has resulted in another challenge in that city for Uber – a suggested cap on the number of Uber drivers. New York has also voted to impose a temporary cap on new licences for ride-hailing vehicles in order to tackle congestion
  • Trouble over licences, the effect on revenue, and associated bad press. For example, Uber only has a 15-month provisional licence in London which was only granted on appeal this year.
  • The need to get the company into good financial shape before it is floated on the stock market, with a value of up to $70bn.
  • More bad press and potentially costly problems relating to Uber resisting court rulings giving employment rights to its drivers.
  • The opportunity of getting a substantial piece of the mobility market, but not being in the ideal position to do so.
  • The need to keep engagement of customers with the company / brand.
  • The need to drive growth in the longer term.

The Solution

The solution for Uber, according to its Boss Dara Khosrowshahi, is to diversify into bikes and scooters. The main reasons for this is that they will be more effective and efficient than cars in congested city areas, they represent a way to get another slice of the lucrative mobility market, and they can be used to help shape consumer behaviour and keep levels of engagement high.

How?

Uber has already also invested in electric scooter company Lime, invested in several bike firms over last year (including spending $200m on bike-sharing firm Jump), and added e-bikes to its app in some US cities. This has already enabled Uber to offer Jump electric bikes in eight US cities, including New York and Washington, and soon Berlin.

Playing The Longer Game

Uber has admitted that although the shift in focus will not bring short-term financial benefits, it should take the company nearer to where it wants to be in the longer term.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This is an example of a business thinking with more strategic clarity, seeing their market as the whole ‘mobility market’, and finding a relatively simple solution for themselves to position themselves for a wider share of it through diversification, and in the meantime finding a way around some of the more immovable challenges e.g. congestion.

Uber has built a brand that has married new technology with existing technologies and services (mobile use and apps with car-hailing services), has experimented with future technologies e.g. driverless cars, but has also made the headlines for less positive reasons. Users of the service simply have a basic need to get from A to B as quickly, safely, and cheaply as possible, and bikes may well prove popular, as well as addressing some environmental concerns.

Google Location Tracking, Even When Switched Off?

Posted on by Andy Miller

An Associated Press report has accused Google of recording the locations of its users via their mobile devices, even when they have requested not to be tracked by turning their “Location History” off.

Discovered

The apparent tracking without permission was discovered as part of research, when a Princeton privacy researcher noticed in his account that Google has tracked his many different locations along a route after he had been travelling for several days, despite his Location History being turned off.

Also, research has revealed that, even when Location History is paused / switched off, some Google apps store time-stamped location data without specifically asking your permission. For example, Google stores data about where you are when you simply open the Maps app, automatic daily weather updates on Android can discover roughly where you are, and some searches apparently unrelated to your location can also pinpoint your exact latitude and longitude, and save it to your Google account.

Could Affect Billions

It is thought that this could affect around two billion Android and Apple devices which use Google for maps or search.

What Is “Location History” and Why Have It Anyway?

According to Google, Location History is one of several ways to improve the experience of users, and works for features such as Google Maps e.g. if you agree to let Google Maps record your location over time, it will display that history for you in a “timeline” that maps out your daily movements.

Google says that Location History helps you to find the places you’ve been and the routes you’ve travelled. Google states that, when you choose to enable Location History, it records your location data and places in your Google Account, even when you’re not using Google Maps.

What’s The Problem?

The problem is that Google also states that “You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.”

Also, researchers have discovered that two things (rather than one) need to be opted-out in order to prevent tracking. Users need to disable both “Location History” and “Web & App Activity” in order to opt-out. Some commentators feel that this has not been made clear by Google.

The Issues

The issues with this are that:

– In the UK, for example, this may constitute a lack of transparency, openness and fairness under GDPR about what users are being told is happening to their data and what is actually happening.

– Users appear to have chosen to opt-out of something / not give their consent to something that relates to their privacy and the security of their personal data, and yet have not been opted-out completely by the company (possible issues of GDPR compliance).

– Some commentators have described it as ‘sneaky’ and it could certainly be an issue that affects the trust of users.

– Location data of this kind has been used by police (in the US) to track suspects, and could also potentially be used by other players e.g. cyber criminals if they had access to the user’s account. This could put users at risk.

– Location data can also be used to target people with location-based advertising. This may be something that users would like to avoid.

What Can You Do To Avoid Being Tracked In This Way?

The Associated Press has produced a guide which details what actions you can take to avoid being tracked by Google, even if your Location History on your mobile device is paused / turned off: The guide can be found here: https://www.apnews.com/b031ee35d4534f548e43b7575f4ab494/How-to-find-and-delete-where-Google-knows-you’ve-been

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This story should be a reminder, particularly since the introduction of GDPR, that people value their privacy and security, and that businesses now have a strong legal responsibility to take this seriously. Transparency, fairness, and openness are vital when telling your customers what you’re doing /what you plan to do with their data. The issue of consent i.e. your customers choosing to withdraw consent and your business complying fully with those requests should be now be treated very seriously, and there must be consistency with what your company says it is going to do and what actually happens.

Sadly, it appears that all too often, large organisations / companies don’t appear to be handling our data in a way that we would like or have requested. For example, Facebook’s sharing of the personal data of 87 million users with Cambridge Analytica caused widespread outrage, and recently the ‘Deceived By Design’ report by the Norwegian government-funded Consumer Council has accused tech giants Microsoft, Facebook and Google of being unethical by leading users into selecting settings that do not benefit their privacy.

It may be that we have to wait a little longer and see a few more big tech companies being properly held to account before things start to really change for the better for users.

‘SiliconX’ Next-Generation Battery Material Discovered

Posted on by Andy Miller

Norwegian scientists at IFE claim to have discovered a new wonder-material for future battery production that they have dubbed ‘SiliconX’.

Years Of Research

The new material, discovered by scientists at Norway’s Department of Energy Technology (IFE) reportedly offers a way to stabilise silicon anodes for Li-ion batteries. This is an aim that years of targeted research and experimental trials with nano-particles has been intended to achieve.

The Challenge

The challenge has been that silicon anodes can far-exceed the lithium ion storage capacity of carbon anodes, and the change in size as they absorb the ions causes a physical swelling and shrinking that can destroy the structure of a Si-Li-ion battery.

The Solution – SiliconX

The solution that the Norwegian scientists claim to have found is to use nano-particles in a finely divided mixture of silicon and another material that the scientists have called ‘the matrix’. It is this matrix that helps the silicon to withstand the big volume changes, and thereby solve the bulging / shrinking problem that would normally wreck the battery.

Much Greater Charge Capacity

The end result has been, as well as the stability, that the new SiliconX battery is reported to have three to five times the charge capacity of the negative electrode compared to common graphite technology.

Freedom From Daily Phone Charging

In short, if your smartphone battery was made from SiliconX that behaves the way that the Norwegian scientists claim, you would not need to charge that smartphone every day.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Problems with phone batteries have damaged the performance of many phones, and tarnished the reputation of their manufacturers e.g. Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 batteries catching fire.

The obvious benefits of a SiliconX battery for business users are the convenience of not having to keep charging your phone, and the elimination of the worry that a lack of sufficient battery charge will leave you incommunicado when you’re not near a charging socket / in the middle of nowhere, and / or in the middle of / needing to make calls that are vital to the business.

The fact that the battery materials are more stable may also eliminate some of the safety worries about batteries that have been in the back of many users’ minds since the Galaxy Note 7 fire incidents.

First Blockchain ‘Cryptocurrency’ Smartphone

Posted on by Andy Miller

Taiwanese electronics company Huawei Technologies Ltd. (HTC), and Swiss-based Sirin Labs are both introducing blockchain smartphones.

HTC

HTC’s Exodus blockchain smartphone, which it is believed will be priced at around $1,000, and is reported to have “tens of thousands” of reservations globally. The smartphone, from the world’s third largest phone manufacturer, will be released this year, will come with a built-in (offline) wallet for storing cryptocurrencies, and will act as a computer node in a blockchain network.

What Is Blockchain?

Blockchain is an incorruptible peer-to-peer network (a kind of ledger) that allows multiple parties to transfer value in a secure and transparent way. Blockchain’s Co-Founder Nic Carey describes Blockchain as being like “a big spreadsheet in the cloud that anyone can use, but no one can erase or modify”. Blockchain is the technology at the heart of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, is open-source, and free.

Why A Blockchain Phone?

Giving a phone a blockchain element means that it has access to blockchain applications such as a crypto wallet, secure exchange access, encrypted communications and a P2P resource sharing ecosystems for payment and apps. It can also be used for cryptocurrency mining.

The built-in wallet for the HTC phone for example, will enable it to store bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital tokens.

Sirin Labs – The Finney Phone

The other blockchain smartphone, which is likely to be launched after HTC’s, is the ‘Finney’, named after the late bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney.

This smartphone, which also has a $1,000 price tag, has been described as an “ultra-secure blockchain smartphone”, and has been specifically designed to get around what Sirin Labs believe to be 2 main obstacles to mass market acceptance – security and user experience.

Sirin Labs even launched an initial coin offering / ICO (crowd funding from early backers of tokens for a new cryptocurrency) to fund the Finney. This resulted in over $157 million being raised.

The Big Advantage – The OS

Sirin claims that its big advantage with the Finney is not so much the phone, but more the Operating System (OS) that it claims, thanks to partnerships it is making, will soon be included in phones by other top OEM phone developers.

Security

In terms of how secure the phones are, the main question will be how both companies will keep sensitive cryptocurrency data secure. For example, unless a phone is in flight mode, there’s always a connection of some kind, and that offers a lot more attack surfaces than something like a USB stick that’s only occasionally connected.

Niche Product For Rich Enthusiasts?

Some critics have said that a blockchain smartphone is too much of a niche product that may just appeal to enthusiasts and speculators rather than a mass market, and that most people may struggle to understand what blockchain is and how / why they should use cryptocurrencies.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For HTC, many see this as being a way for the company to find a way back into the smartphone market, where it’s been struggling in recent times, but this time with a differentiated product that is a market first, ahead of competitors.

For Sirin Labs, it could also be a way to get into a new section of the market ahead of the competition, but many are sceptical as to whether the Finney will get the mass market acceptance that Sirin Labs hopes.

Most business people in the UK, for example, may be unlikely to see why they would need a blockchain phone with a crypto-currency wallet as part of their daily working life. If they’re going to spend £1,000+, they may be more likely to opt for new models of more familiar phones with more standard features e.g. iPhone or Samsung Galaxy.