Type-approved mobile devices: NCC advises consumers - ITREALMS

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The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has advised telecommunications consumers to verify their desired mobile devices to ascertain if they are type-approved before purchase is made, reports ITREALMS.

Director of Technical Standard and Network Integrity, Engr. Bako Wakil, gave this advice on Monday in a video chat, saying that telecom consumers could make this confirmation on NCC’s website before completing payment for a transaction.

Nigeria’s financial sector faces Gamarue threats, mobile devices remain high priority - CheckPoint

ITRealms:

The top malware in Nigeria in the month of May has been revealed to be on financial sector, known as Gamarue, just as attacks on mobile devices remain high-priority, reports ITRealms.

The Check Point Software Technoogies latest report, the malware, Gamarue, is a modular bot that hides in trusted processes and could be used to harvest financial information.

According to the Area Manager for East and West Africa at Check Point Software Technologies, Mr. Rick Rogers, attacks against mobile devices also remained a high priority as Android malware HummingBad persisted in the overall top 10 of malware attacks across all platforms during the period.

“In both Kenya and Nigeria, Hummingbad ranks as the fifth most common malware form,” the checklist revealed, pointing out that this is happening despite only being discovered by Check Point researchers in February.

“It has rapidly become commonly used; indicating hackers view Android mobile devices as weak spots in enterprise security and as potentially high reward targets,” Rogers said.

He further believes that both of these threats are significant in the African context as Android phone sales and banking inclusion continue to move up the ladder.

“As Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) continues to be a trend and smartphone penetration on the continent grows, companies are at an increased risk from Hummingbad in particular, and other malware. Combined with the growth in malware family numbers overall, this represents a significant business risk. Enterprises of all sizes must educate themselves on the security threats they face and invest in solid measures to protect their networks and corporate data,” Rogers said.

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Yudala comes to town with Mobile Monday

ITRealms:

Nigeria’s first true composite online and offline retail chain, Yudala,  would on Monday, February 1, 2016 come to town with its Mobile Monday, a weekly mega sales promotion being positioned as the largest single day sales of mobile devices on the continent, reports ITRealms.

The Marketing Communications Manager, Yudala, Afam Anyika, said, Mobile Monday comes with a surprise in the mobile segment of our total products basket, stressing that Nigerians and corporate organizations will have the advantage of buying mobile phones, tablets, laptops, accessories and other consumables of different international brands in large quantities as over 500,000 units will be on sale every Monday. 

“It is a platform to express our confidence in the digital world and avail Nigerians the opportunity to buy at right prices. This is another corporate initiative from Yudala to stimulate transition from analogue to digital world and moving customers from 2G to 3G in order to enhance their communication profile and lifestyle as this century demands,” he said. 

Anyika also confirmed that Yudala is partnering with many international original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on the project.

Anyika further said, Mobile Monday will run throughout 2016 to compliment other lead products offerings by Yudala such as the Neighbour to Neighbour Mega Deals, Monthly Midday Madness Sales, Yu-jara – Nigeria’s single largest festive season sales promo, amongst others being launched. 

“As an innovation-driven composite e-commerce company, we shall be rolling out more products which will certainly add value to Nigerians especially in this period of discomfort in terms of earning in the nation’s history. What is special about Yudala is that customers have a choice – you can buy and pay on delivery, you can pay online and collect from any Yudala Experience store near you. You can also walk into our store, pay and collect or where the product is not in store, you can pay and we deliver. No other company in Nigeria offers this e-commerce experience,” he explained.

ITRealms recalls that Yudala launched precisely five months ago with the greatest marketing skill and style ever seen in the Nigerian corporate market and successfully enhanced confidence in the e-commerce sector with her products offerings and 24 hour delivery target.

With several awards to her credit within its few months of existence, the company has become one to watch closely, with Mr. Anyika disclosing that the second quarter of the year will define the Yudala blueprint in the e-commerce landscape for the benefit of all Nigerians. 

ITRealms further recollects that with its headquarters in Nigeria, Yudala which means Best wishes, Peace of mind and Prosperity has carved a niche for itself by being the first organization to combine a real-time online shopping platform with offline stores located in major cities across the country, with further expansion into other major African capitals. Backed by its multi-pronged yet standardized business model, the company has a bold ambition to dictate the pace and set new milestones for online and offline retail business, with the delivery of world class products and services in every Yudala store and on the online platform.

+ITRealms DSA +Remmy Nweke (ITRealms)  

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iPhone most stolen mobile devices, women top victims

Half stolen mobile devices in the United Kingdom are iPhones, reports TechWorld, making it easy to resell afterwards, while women top the victims list.

According to the report, bad elements in the Britain’s capital city have been reported to have stolen 157 mobile devices on daily basis.

London’s Metropolitan Police stunned newsmen when it released the latest statistics, indicating that an astonishing 79 of which are iPhones, new statistics from

The report also added that in the six months to September 2012, a total of 56,680 mobiles were stolen from users in the city, 28,800 of which were desirable and easy-to-resell iPhones.

By the end of December, 2012, the latest month for which figures were recently released, crimes involving mobile device theft reached 9,751 for the month, mostly from young professionals between the ages of 20 and 30, with women the most likely to be targeted by thieves.

 

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Samsung Galaxy S3 enters Nigeria

The latest in stock of Samsung Electronics, the Galaxy S III smartphone is now available in Nigeria, according to the Head, Corporate Marketing, Samsung Electronics West Africa, Mr. Donald Etim.

He said at the unveiling in Lagos that the Samsung Galaxy S III has been designed to respond intuitively and naturally to human use and interaction.

He said that this came a few weeks after its European launch, adding that the much expected device is now available at Samsung Brand Shops at The Palms Shopping Mall in Lekki and Ikeja Shopping Mall, in Alausa, Ikeja, both in Lagos.

Etim noted that the new phone is the follow up to the very popular Galaxy II, which was critical to Samsung overtaking Nokia to become the world’s best-selling mobile phone maker.

Samsung, he said, hope to consolidate the success achieved with Galaxy S II by enhancing some of its most popular features in this latest device.

“Galaxy S III comes with a 4.8 inch (12.2cm) screen, an increase on the 4.3 inch screen of its predecessor, and much bigger than the 3.5in display on the iPhone 4S,” he said, stressing it is one of the largest screens on smartphones ever.

The availability of this smartphone in Nigeria, Etim further said,rrival of the phone on Nigerian shores put paid to speculations as to when mobile phone users in the country can have access to the Smartphone which has enjoyed rave reviews across the world.

 “Once again, we are putting the ‘Next Big Thing’ in the hands of consumers. The Galaxy S III introduces a completely new way of sharing and socializing that no other mobile phone can. The device essentially balances ergonomics with intuitive use, making it an extension of the user,” he said.

DigitalSENSE News recalls that Samsung Electronics overtook Apple Incorporated in the last quarter of last year to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor amid a widening technology and legal battle between the two companies.

During the period, Etim pointed out that Samsung shipped 27.8 million smartphones, taking 23.8 per cent of the market, according to the United Kingdom- based renowned research consultancy, Strategy Analytics.

Apple’s 17.1 million shipments, comprising 14.6 percent of the market, pushed Apple to second place, the firm said, adding that Nokia maintained its third position.

Equally speaking, Olumide Ojo, Head, Smartphones, Samsung Electronics, West Africa said, “Nigeria is very important to us and we are delighted to bring this incredible device into the hands of Nigerians.”

He maintained that Samsung’s adoption of Google’s Android software has proved very useful to boost sales of its Galaxy smartphones and tablet computers, just as the company has managed to incorporate a number of features that proved popular with phone users.

Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Cyber threats: Nigeria ranks 59th - Symantec

Roundtable: Symantec Channel Manager, Nigeria & Ghana, Adeyemi Adeleke

and Symantec Territory Manager, IWECA (Indian Islands, West, East and 

Central Africa),  Sheldon Hand during the Company's Media Roundtable at 

Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Ikeja, Lagos Thursday.

Leading cyber security solution company, Symantec has ranked Nigeria 59^th on its latest ranking from 66 position recorded at the same period last year.

Disclosing this in an exclusive interview with ITRealms Online during his working visit to Nigeria last week, the Territory Manager, Symantec Pty Limited in-charge of Indian Ocean Islands, West, East and Central Africa (IWECA), Mr. Sheldon Hand, said in Lagos that with this ranking, Nigeria’s position has actually increased in the cyber threat sphere.

He explained that the way the ranking work is that if a country is ranked first, it means it’s the most country with security threats.

He also adduced some reasons for the Nigeria’s position, listing the booming economy, advent of more bandwidth routes and explosion in mobile devices.

For him, Internet security threats have actually tripled due to avalanche of technologies, especially mobile devices.

According to him, Symantec recently, released a report which is an analysis of all the threats on the internet, based on its deployment systems to scan over 8 billion electronic mails (emails) per day.

“We have more than 240,000 censors in 200 countries. These censors are networks in strategic places, and what this allows us to do is gather a tremendous amount of information and intelligence about the threats that are happening in the world on the internet,” he said.

Mr. Hand also affirmed that Symantec has specific statistics for Nigeria, which shows that in 2011 Nigeria was ranked the 66^th, which means that is the 66^th highest country with internet threats, but this has increased.

He explained that this does not meant that security threat ranking of Nigeria has gone down.

“No, If you ranks number 1, it means you have the most security internet threat, so Nigeria has gone from 66 to 59 which means security threats have increased,” Mr. Hand said.

As said by him, the reason for the aforementioned ranking based on Symantec perception are in three-fold, namely, the first one “is Nigeria’s economy is booming, it is estimated that about 2015 Nigeria’s economy will be bigger than South Africa’s economy, this is estimated by Morgan Stanley Research.”

He pointed out that over a couple of years, there have been an increase in the broadband capacity in Nigeria.

“So, the internet with broadband is a platform for malicious activities for security threats in one of two ways,” he said.

Lastly, he said, there is an increased security threat in Nigeria because of the adoption of mobile devices which has increased significantly as there is a lot of people using android, iphone, blackberry, tablets and many others.

 Remmy Nweke

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Samsung overtakes Nokia in handset sales, as anxiety greets Galaxy S III

Galaxy S III smartphone

The latest report from Strategy Analytics has pronounced Samsung leader in handset marketing, just as Galaxy Note sales soars into profit with high expectation on Galaxy S III smartphone.

Part of the report made available to ITRealms Online by MobileWorld, showed that strong smartphone sales led to record operating profit at Samsung for the first quarter (Q1) as the South Korean company exceeds Nokia’s record of world’s largest handsets vendor.

Noteworthy is that Samsung could not break out device sales figures as at the time of filing this report, but Strategy Analytics estimated that the firm shipped 93.5 million units in Q1 2012.

This gives Samsung a 25.4 per cent share of the global market ahead of the 82.7 million units reported by Nokia (22.5 per cent) and Apple’s 35.1 million iPhones (9.5 per cent).

It was also gathered that this was the first time Nokia is being overtaken from the number-one spot in the past 14 years.

Further, Samsung’s operating profit reportedly reached an all-time high of KWR5.85 trillion, representing a 98 per cent increase year-on-year. While the revenues rose 22 per cent to KWR45.27 trillion, even as the net profit almost doubled to KWR5.5 trillion.

ITRealms Online investigations revealed that Samsung’s IT & Mobile Communications unit accounted for over 70 per cent of operating profit (KWR4.27 trillion) and over half of sales (KWR23.22 trillion), offsetting weaknesses in some of Samsung’s other divisions.

The electronic device company while reacting to this development noted in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online that growth in shipments of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy Note and Galaxy S II and other premium mobile devices yielded high returns, with significant growth in China, Central and South America, the Middle East and Africa.
 

The firm also confirmed it would unveil the next Galaxy device at an event in London by Thursday, May 3, expected to be the long-awaited Galaxy S III smartphone.
 

Tom Kang, director at Strategy Analytics, emphasized that they expected Apple to grow further in the second quarter of the year, but the upcoming launch of Samsung’s new Galaxy S III flagship model could slow iPhone’s growth in some regions if it is well received by operators and consumers.

Remmy Nweke

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D