Type of Article: MacTech Blog

A new Gatepoint Research study (http://tinyurl.com/kllawxg), commissioned by cloud billing expert Aria Systems and released today, finds that a significant percentage (42%) of respondents from the high tech, telecom, and retail sectors are experiencing frustration with their current billing systems when trying to use them to support new recurring revenue models. Often at the heart of the problem are legacy billing systems that limit a business’s ability to adapt quickly and flexibly to changes in their marketplace.

Call it a tipping point — more than half (51%) of the U.S. population (ages 13 to 54) now watches TV programs or movies using streaming video at least once a week. Connected TVs, mobile devices, videogame consoles, and streaming services such as Netflix have helped turn a “tecchie” phenomenon into a mainstream entertainment source.

According to a just-released GfK report, “How People Use Media: Over-the-Top TV 2013,” the weekly streaming audience for TV and movies in the US has risen from 37% three years ago to 48% in 2012, and edged over the halfway point in the past year.

The worldwide semiconductor market is expected to grow 3% from 2012 to 2013, according to ABI Research (www.abirsearch.com). There has been sequential market growth from 1Q13 to 2Q13 and the vast majority of the top 20 vendors are expecting 3Q13 to grow revenues again.

The next five years will see a major shift towards smartphone- based mHealth, where hardware attachments link to companion app on the smartphone, according to a new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com).

The report forecasts that by 2018 there will be 96 million users of app-enabled mHealth and mobile-fitness hardware devices, up from 15 million this year. In the healthcare sector, app-enabled mHealth will be used to enable services ranging from remote patient monitoring to mobile ultrasound services.

NumberCop (www.numbercop.com), a mobile security company dedicated to combating phone spam, has announced research findings that reveal the amount of spam calls arriving on mobile phones is increasing on a daily basis.