Asia growing dominant in mobile innovation

SINGAPORE--Asia's large mobile population, and the different needs and use cases that come with it, are helping to drive innovation in the region's mobile industry. This has led industry watchers to predict that "true innovation" will emerge here rather than in western economies.

George Kellerman, partner of 500 StartUps, a startup incubator based in California, U.S.A., said countries with large populations such as India and Indonesia, where most people using the Internet do so with their mobile devices, are becoming catalysts for mobile innovations. The executive was speaking at a panel discussion during the Techventure 2012 conference held here Thursday.

One example of "true innovation", which is not a mere rehash of existing technology, is the SIM-based mobile payment service offered by Malaysian startup Tootpay, noted Kellerman. The company enables any mobile handset to make financial transactions via a sticker placed on one's SIM card. The sticker will send financial details to the company's backend mobile payment platform, which will then channel the transaction to the relevant bank, the startup stated in its Web site, according to a report in ZDNet.  >>More here

SOURCE:  zdnet.com