Global Envision: Mobile Technology

Mobile
Technology

Subscribe to Mobile
Technology blog feed

Mobile Technology

Mobile money soars across borders, but not between banks

Over 12 billion dollars in remittances are sent each year via mobile phones. But mobile providers must embrace the next big innovation: interoperability.

African communities are becoming increasingly mobile-centric. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/70292973@N07/7192931934/">The Reboot (flickr)</a>

Youth Skills

Windows to the world: Why Microsoft's $75 million mobile drop matters

Microsoft will spend $75 million to put tens of millions of smart devices into the hands of African youth by 2016, the company announced Monday.

Kids teach themselves the alphabet using tablets. Photo: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/olpc/2884605787/in/set-72157608680464156”> One Laptop per Child (Flickr)</a>

Youth Skills

The power of play: Touchscreen apps teach kids their letters

Give a kid a tablet and they’ll teach themselves to read.

Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/abufaiqa/4434157815/sizes/z/in/photostream/">Salim Photography (Flickr)</a>

Mobile Technology

From designer crops to social stocks: Our top five posts of 2012

It's holiday season here at Mercy Corps headquarters—time for the Global Envision team to look back on our work this year and look to what's next.

Mobile Technology

4 surprising ways mobile phones are used in Africa (calls not included)

Africa has been called not just "mobile-first" but "mobile-only", and it's made the continent a hothouse for mobile innovations.

Billions of dollars are zooming around the world from one wallet to another. Photo: <a href="http://worldbank.tumblr.com/post/36217284197/which-developing-countries-received-the-most?cid=EXT_TWBN_D_EXT">The World Bank</a>

Mobile Technology

Follow the [mobile?] money

According to a new World Bank report, most remittances are flowing to India, China, the Philippines, Mexico and Nigeria, most of it in cold, hard cash.

Mobile phones are one of the ways ADB says will increase microfinance availability among the poor. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cimmyt/8048414699/">CIMMYT (flickr)</a>.

Financial Inclusion

MFIs should offer more than just microfinance, study finds

Despite the surging popularity of microfinance in the last several decades, access among the poor in Asia and the Pacific remains low. A new report says technology and livelihood programs will put it in the hands of more people.