On Thursday, Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), surged 1.50% to $111.86.
While Sony Corp. is scaling back its global smartphone ambitions, the company still wants to contend with Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. on mobile payments in Asia. Its method for getting there is public transportation, according to Bloomberg.
Sony is trying to make its FeliCa contact-less payment technology as ubiquitous in the rest of Asia as it is on Japan’s railway network. The system uses chips that can be embedded in smartphones and wallet-sized plastic cards, and Sony wants to expand their use in Southeast Asia, starting with an Indonesia train system by March.
Transit networks can be a springboard for attracting merchants into the FeliCa system, as a wide commuter base encourages retailers in train stations or bus depots to take part, said Kazuyuki Sakamoto, a Sony senior general manager in charge of FeliCa operations. The potential market is huge: Southeast Asia needs to spend $60 billion annually on roads, rails and other infrastructure, according to the Asian Development Bank. Bloomberg Reports
In other News Report, Apple® declared that ResearchKit™ is enabling new research studies on autism, epilepsy and melanoma. ResearchKit turns iPhone® into a powerful tool for medical research by assisting doctors, scientists and other researchers gather data more frequently and more accurately from participants using iPhone apps. With ResearchKit, study participants can review an interactive informed consent process, easily complete active tasks or submit survey responses, and choose how their health data is shared with researchers, making contributions to medical research easier than ever. Researchers and developers have already contributed to ResearchKit, with more than 50 researchers adding to the open source framework.
“We’re honored to work with world-class medical institutions and provide them with tools to better understand diseases and ultimately assist people lead healthier lives,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice president of Operations. “In just six months, ResearchKit apps studying everything from asthma and diabetes to Parkinson’s disease, are already providing insights to scientists around the world and more than 100,000 participants are choosing to contribute their data to advance science and medical research.”
With user permission, researchers designing studies using ResearchKit can also access data from the Health app such as weight, blood pressure, glucose levels, and other data measured by third-party devices and apps, to capture real-time data right from the iPhone. Access to the accelerometer, microphone, gyroscope and GPS sensors in iPhone deliver additional insight into a participant’s gait, motor impairment, fitness, speech and memory, delivering more objective data to medical researchers.
Apple Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, watches, and portable digital music players worldwide. The company also sells related software, services, accessories, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications.
On other hand, Shares of Ambev S.A. (NYSE:ABEV), surged 4.59% to $5.01.
Ambev, recently closed at market price of $5.01 with a 1 year price target of $6.23. The company has a market cap of $78.66B. The forward P/E ratio is 18.56. Its 52-week range is $4.41 - $6.86. 52,711,478 shares were exchanged as compared to its average daily volume of 20,032,300 shares, which means the company traded on unusual increase in volume. More investors preferred this stock Thursday.
Ambev S.A., through its auxiliaries, produces, distributes, and sells beer, draft beer, soft drinks, other non-alcoholic beverages, malt, and food in the Americas. The company operates through Latin America North, Latin America South, and Canada segments. It offers beers primarily under Skol, Brahma, Antarctica brands, Brahva, Brahva Beats, Brahva Light, Extra, Budweiser, Becks, Corona & Stella Artois, Presidente, Brahma Light, President Light, Bohemia, The One, Corona, Stella Artois, Quilmes Cristal, Paceña, Taquiña, Huari, Becker, Báltica, Pilsen, Patricia, and Bud Light, in addition to Labatt Blue, Alexander Keith’s, Stella Artois, and Kokanee brands.
