Mobile

Ukraine’s internet access suffering outages from Russian bombardment: Internet companies scramble to restore services but have to limit bandwidth. Skylink’s internet is helping fill gaps but could also be targeted.

The murky legal status of video game ‘loot boxes’ could impact brands: The publisher of an NBA video game is being sued for a feature often compared with gambling for minors.

List of Big Tech companies, carmakers shunning Russia grows longer: Services and apps go dark, putting pressure on Russian consumers. But will continued sanctions influence the Russian government?

Apple, carriers looking at massive 5G adoption from iPhone SE 3: The most affordable iPhone could come this month and bring over a number of holdouts seeking to upgrade, increasing market share.

New data collection strategies emerge from Apple’s privacy update: Advertisers and publishers are turning to ecommerce, direct mail, and other means to enhance their first-party information, our recent report finds.

Intel leads consortium for chiplet production: AMD, Qualcomm, Arm, TSMC, and Samsung make up a dream team of silicon producers, but the exclusion of Nvidia and Apple raises questions.

Uber’s new “Explore” tab makes it a major advertising player for events: The ridesharing app will recommend events and restaurants to users and allow them to purchase tickets.

Podcasts are an obvious play for Twitter but might not be a golden ticket: An in-testing podcast tab on the platform was leaked by a user.

HBO Max was the most downloaded US mobile entertainment app in 2021, with 46.0 million downloads and a monster growth rate of 101%. Second-place Netflix saw downloads drop by 15% year over year to 38.0 million.

Netflix’s gaming investments set it apart from streaming competitors: The company acquired a Finnish mobile games studio that it has worked with in the past.

Global iPhone production hits record growth despite chip, component crisis: Demand for iPhone 13 models, reduced pricing on older handsets, and Huawei’s declining market share help Apple reclaim smartphone leadership.

Verizon banks on private 5G for business: The carrier’s service in BlackRock’s offices will showcase an opportunity for 5G to shine while challenging Wi-Fi’s dominance in office, enterprise, and government use.

Big Tech faces dilemma in Russia-Ukraine conflict: While rushing to get refugees to safety, companies debate remaining neutral, which would seem like compliance with Russia, or leveling sanctions and risking retribution from the Kremlin.

On today's episode, we discuss how connected TV (CTV) advertising will scale and how AI is poised to help TV advertisers. Then for "In Other News," we talk about Google curbing cross-app tracking on Android phones and what to expect from the WarnerMedia/Discovery merger. Tune in to the discussion with chief product officer at MNTN Marwan Soghaier and our analyst Paul Verna.

India reaches 1B active mobile subscriber milestone: 350 million users are still on 2G, and India’s road to 5G needs to overcome infrastructure hurdles, which could prolong the adoption of data-rich apps services.

Ukraine conflict could bog down various supply chains: Russia and Ukraine are a significant source for materials and energy supplies, and continued conflict and Russian sanctions will lead to shortages.

FAA says airport 5G towers can interfere with Boeing 737 planes: New information could cause further confusion on 5G’s effect on airplanes as the industry awaits a definitive solution.

TikTok and Instagram were once again the top US social networking apps of 2021, downloaded 94.0 million and 64.0 million times that year, respectively. Snapchat took third place with a 10% jump in downloads, leapfrogging Facebook, whose downloads fell by 11%.