[caption id="attachment_5532" align="alignnone" width="300"] Huawei P20[/caption]

Huawei stepped up efforts to develop an alternative to Android, with the company preparing to launch its own operating system by the fourth quarter or early 2020, Nikkei Asian Review reported.

Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, said the OS will be compatible with its handsets, tablets and PCs, the newspaper said, citing Chinese media reports.

The company could be left seeking an alternative to Google’s platform after being blacklisted by US authorities.

Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said the company can and will develop its own operating system, local media reported. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported Huawei’s VP for Europe Abraham Liu said at a launch event an “alternative option will naturally come out, either from Huawei or someone else”, if its devices are blocked from Google services.

The vendor declined to comment on its OS efforts, so it’s unclear if it is working on an entirely new OS or an Android fork, which analysts reckon is more feasible.

In 2018, the company played down reports it was planning to develop its own mobile platform to reduce its reliance on the Android operating system.

Limited impact
Richard Windsor, founder of research blog Radio Free Mobile, said in a post the immediate impact of the Android ban will be negligible, as current devices will be unaffected and Huawei has launched its main models for 2019.

He noted the company won’t lose access to Android itself, which is open source, but Android devices outside of China must offer access to Google services “to have any prospect of being sold”.

In a statement, the vendor said it will continue to provide security updates and after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphones and tablets.

Source: mobileworldlive.com

Apple expanded the reach of Apple Pay by enabling it as an option to complete transactions on the company’s services, including the App and iTunes stores.

In a support document released by the company, Apple said its mobile payment service can be used to make purchases from Apple Store, iTunes Store and Apple Books, along with buying iCloud storage.

The move comes as Apple prepares to launch a new credit card designed to work with the iPhone and delve deeper into the payments market.

As an incentive to use the Apple Card, Apple is offering cash rewards on purchases, with 2 per cent offered on those made with Apple Pay.

The card is due to be available this summer.

Transactions made on the card will be logged in the Wallet App, which will track transaction history and colour coded into different categories, such as spending on food and shopping.

The new features are rolling out in a number of markets, including the US, Canada, Hong Kong and Australia.

Source: mobileworldlive.com

MTN Ghana has launched its 2019 Internet Festival, dubbed: “iFest” in Accra to educate customers on the relevance of using the internet to enhance their everyday lives.

iFest 2019, which is the ninth in the series, focused on three thematic areas of; Educating customers on internet usage; How to access data and smart devices; and Enhancement in technology and infrastructure to support the drive in data penetration.

Mr Bless Sefenu Agordjo, the Senior Manager of Products and Services, MTN Ghana, said the telecom company had 1.5 million subscribers using internet services in 2011 when iFest was first introduced, however, more than 13.5 million subscribers were currently using the service.

“It is for this reason that MTN saw the need to educate internet users, especially those on the network, on how they could acquire knowledge, learn skills and do businesses with the internet to ensure their welfare,” he said.

Mr Agordjo said the MTN was setting up experiential zones for customers to experience its fast internet services.

The iFest 2019, he said, was part of the company’s way of celebrating customers this year, as 2019 had been declared as the “Year of the Customer”.

He advised customers to submit their mobile devices to MTN customer care centres or experiential zones for 4G networks to be set up for them.

Mr Agordjo encouraged all MTN users, including educational institutions, students, and traders, to use the internet to learn, improve on their technical and vocational skills as well as trading activities.

Source: GNA

[caption id="attachment_5515" align="alignnone" width="300"] A cross-section of stakeholders and invited guests at the meeting[/caption]

Mr Ishmael Yamson, Chairman of MTN Ghana Tuesday said the company recorded a strong financial performance in 2018 with profit before tax increasing by 16.5 per cent to GH¢1.6 billion, while earnings per share was GH¢0.067.

He said the performance was a testament to the disciplined execution of the company’s strategy of maintaining a strong balance sheet, improving profitability and driving operational efficiencies.

Speaking at the company’s Annual General Meeting in Accra, Mr Yamson said, at the close of 2018, the company had a market capitalisation of GH¢9.7 billion, making it the third largest listed company on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

Touching on dividends, Mr Yamson said the board declared an interim dividend of 2 pesewas per share after reviewing the 3rd quarter performance of the company.

“After reviewing the full year performance of the company in 2018, the board shall be recommending a final dividend of 3 pesewas on ordinary shares, bringing the total dividend for the year to 5 pesewas per share or 81.2 per cent of profit after tax”, he added.

Touching on the share price performance, he said the company’s share price recorded a 5.33 per cent price gain for the year ended December 31, 2018, with a 52-week high of GH¢0.93 and low of GH¢0.75, and a share price at the end of 2018 was GH¢0.79.

On corporate governance, he said the company remained resolute in upholding high standards to drive sustainable growth, and would continue to embed a culture of no tolerance for corruption through its robust conduct management framework.

He said the company had invested in relevant tools needed to provide an integrated approach to the management of governance, risk and compliance across the business space.

Focusing on the country’s political and economic performance, Mr Yamson said the country sustained its democratic credentials and remained politically stable and vibrant.

“We urge the government to work with parliament to give sustained assurance to long-term investors, as the country gets closer to its Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 2020”.

He said the establishment of an Independent Fiscal Responsibility Council and a Fiscal Stability Council by government must provide anchors to fiscal prudence and if pursued with rigour, the company would see macroeconomic stability for the rest of 2019.

Mr Selorm Adadevoh, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana said Mobile Money (MoMo) subscribers increased by 17.8 per cent to 13.6 million supported, by consistent service delivery across all channels.

He said the increase in subscriber resulted in a 23.5 per cent increase in the service revenue as recorded and it was driven by the strong growth in voice, data and digital revenue including MoMo.

MoMo revenue, he said, increased by 60.3 per cent year on year, adding that, MTN MoMo supported digital growth and increased its contribution to 17.7 per cent of total revenue.

He said for the company to maintain its relevance in the telecommunications industry, it would have to continue to innovate, create and build meaningful relationships to improve customer experience.

He said the improved network, coupled with aggressive marketing, sales and products, had resulted in growth in subscriber base.

Mr Adadevoh said the National Communications Authority opened a tender for the 800Megahertz spectrum of three blocks of 2x5MHz, and that MTN Ghana was excluded from the tender on the basis that it already holds spectrum in the 800MHz band.

He said only one lot of the 2x5MHz was taken up by Vodafone Ghana and so MTN Ghana is interested in acquiring the remaining spectrum for network expansion and quality of service improvement.

Some of the stakeholders commended MTN Ghana for the achievements and called for increment on their dividend.

They urged management to institute proactive and effective governance management measures to ensure sound fiscal performance.

Source: GNA