According to TelecomTV, 3G is unlikely to take off this year even if prices fall below the $200 mark � a price point championed and cited by Qualcomm and others as the tipping point for popular uptake of the technology. This is the stark warning from Ron Garriques, the president of mobile devices at Motorola. Mr. Garriques says, "People continue to say if you could only hit a certain price point things could take off and fly. But I say low prices alone are not enough to make the market take off in the second half of this year." Mr. Garriques said 3G handsets must become simpler and lighter before mass acceptance will kick in. "I believe that size, weight, battery life, compelling applications and design are just as important as price points," he said, suggesting most subscribers are actually already very satisfied with 2G and 2.5G services. Motorola intends to sell a 3G version of its slim RAZR handset in the fourth quarter this year.
The BaaS model has been adopted across a wide range of industries due to its ability to streamline financial processes for non-banks and foster innovation. BaaS has several industry-specific use cases, where it creates new revenue streams. Banking as a Service (BaaS) is rapidly emerging as a growth market, allowing non-bank businesses to integrate banking services into their core products and online platforms. As defined by Juniper Research, BaaS is "the delivery and integration of digital banking services by licensed banks, directly into the products of non-banking businesses, commonly through the use of APIs." BaaS Market Development The core idea is that licensed banks can rent out their regulated financial infrastructure through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to third-party Fintechs and other interested companies. This enables those organizations to offer banking capabilities like payment processing, account management, and debit or credit card issuance without