Author: Denny

Mobile payments show fragmentation in the US

| May 11, 2013

Mobile Payments ReportReport highlights fragmentation in mobile payments

Mobile payments have been showing strong growth throughout the U.S., but this growth has not been as steady as had initially been expected. This week, the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and Atlanta have released a new report concerning the expansion of mobile payments. The report suggests an emerging fragmentation in the mobile commerce sector that has served to derail some of the progress that has been seen in mobile payments over the past few years.

Mobile commerce shows modest growth over past two years

According to the report, entitled “U.S. Mobile Payments Landscape — Two Years Later,” the mass adoption of mobile commerce is unlikely without strong support and collaboration from multiple organizations and industries. Over the past two years, mobile payments have grown more popular but have done so under harsh criticism. Mobile commerce has been dogged by concerns regarding security and many of the issues that consumers have with mobile payments remain unresolved due to the lack of interest many companies have in this field.

Multiple approaches lead to slower growth

The report claims that the advent of mobile devices has created an effective way to create a dynamic marketplace for consumers. As mobile commerce entered the limelight, companies, particularly banks and telecommunications organizations, began teaming up to engage consumers in a new form of commerce. Various such partnerships and collaborations have formed over the past few years, with each partnership experimenting with ways to make mobile payments more attractive to consumers. This has lead to some fragmentation as the various parties focus on very particular aspects of mobile commerce.

Non-banks introduce more risk to mobile payments field

While innovation has been encouraged in mobile commerce over the past two years, this also comes with significant risks. Non-bank organizations that are getting involved in mobile payments represent the majority of the risks associated with this sector. This is due to the fact that these organizations rarely have the security experience that financial institutions have and are not held to the same laws that banks are.

Havok aims to make mobile games more flexible

| May 9, 2013

mobile games new generationMobile games may enter a new generation with new engine from Havok

Havok, a popular software developer in the game industry and subsidiary of the Intel Corporation, recently unveiled its new Project Anarchy game engine. The engine is designed to be a powerful development solution for small and independent teams that are interested in mobile games. Havok claims that the Project Anarchy engine will be capable of bringing high quality 3D games to mobile platforms for the first time. The company is now focusing on making the engine more flexible in order to accommodate various kinds of game developers.

Havok sets sights on flexibility

Havok believes that flexibility may be the key to success for mobile games based on the Project Anarchy engine. Many developers have begun to seek out new talent in their bids to enter into the mobile games space. Several of these developers have been putting more focus on 3D mobile games based on HTML5 engines. The C++ language has long been the standard of the game industry as a whole, but the advent of mobile games had lead to more flexibility in the programming space. Havok believes that this flexibility could be beneficial for the Project Anarchy engine.

Engine may appeal to broader range of programmers

Not only is the engine being designed to help developers focus more on high quality mobile games; it is also being designed to be more attractive to a broader range of programmers. As such, Havok believes that the engine will appeal more to the game industry as a whole rather than a particular demographic of developers that are focused on a singular programming language.

Game market continues to show strong lean toward mobile games

Havok claims to be responding to emerging trends in the gaming market. The industry has been showing signs of becoming increasingly mobile over the past few years. As such, developers are beginning to value tools designed specifically for the mobile space. The Project Anarchy engine may be able to accommodate the needs of these developers and bring a new level of quality to mobile games. As quality increases, so too do the prospects of generating more revenue through mobile gaming.