5 things to know today …
1. Smartphone apps that will let you draw cash out of your bank at an ATM are coming this year, according to Bank of America. The nation’s second-largest bank says it will test the technology with its own employees in select markets next month, then launch it more broadly this summer.
Bank of America made its announcement on the heels of reports JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, is working on its own smartphone-activated ATMs. Cardless ATMs are expected to use near field communication chips, the same types of chips that enable smartphones to be used for mobile payments in retail stores.
Getting customers to download and learn to use a new app could be an obstacle to adoption of smartphone-based ATM transactions, so banks may piggyback their services on existing mobile payment apps. Bank of America and Wells Fargo are both said to be talking to Apple about connecting their ATMs to Apple Pay.
2. Apple is reportedly at work on wireless charging technology that would charge a phone without any physical connection to a charging pad. The company has already filed a patent for technology that would use its personal computers as remote wireless charging stations for iPhones and iPads. The company is not expected to launch remote wireless charging until next year.
Right now the iPhone 6 can be charged by third-party wireless charging pads that retail for less than $20. Samsung also offers wireless charging pads for its smartphones sold under its own brand.
3. Crown Castle said this week CFO Jay Brown will succeed Ben Moreland as CEO. The transition is set to take place in June, and the company is currently looking for new CFO. Ben Moreland, who has led Crown Castle for eight years, will stay on its board as executive vice chairman.
Crown Castle also reported a 9% year-on-year increase in site rental revenue for the fourth quarter, with $785 million in site rental revenue and $372 million in adjusted funds from operations. The company reports AFFO because it is a real estate investment trust. AFFO measures income from operations minus recurring capital expenditures that maintain the quality of the REIT’s assets.
For the current quarter, Crown Castle projects $788 million to $793 million in site rental revenue, and for all of 2016 the company projects $3.1 billion in site rental revenue.
4. Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia’s handset business has not revived the Lumia Windows phone line. The software giant said it sold 4.5 million Lumia phones in the most recent quarter, less than half the number it sold one year ago. That gives Lumia roughly a 1% smartphone market share.
Nokia was highly successful in the feature phone market, before the smartphone market took off without it. Microsoft continues to sell Nokia feature phones.
Meanwhile Nokia itself is now free to launch a branded smartphone. It agreed not to sell Nokia phones as a condition of the sale of its handset business to Microsoft, but that restriction ended at the beginning of this year.
5. Sony cited a slowdown in the smartphone market during an interview following its most recent earnings report. The company makes image sensors for Apple and other customers, and said its sensor business was off due to a slowdown in the high-end smartphone market.
