Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sybase's Bryan Whitmarsh

Boise, Idaho
This morning I was able to catch up with SAP Mentor Bryan Whitmarsh for an interview.  I conducted a video interview with Bryan last year at Sapphire which you can watch here.  Bryan works for Sybase's product management team and reports to Tony Kueh, who I interviewed last week.  Bryan lives in Boise, Idaho (also my fair city), which he has called home since 1992, when he moved here from the Seattle area.

Note:  These are not Bryan's exact words, rather my notes from our interview.

Kevin: What is your role and area of responsibility at Sybase?
Bryan: My title is Mobility Product Management.  Last year I was focused on mobile email, but this year I am working with the platform team on SUP (Sybase Unwired Platform).  It is my job to interpret the market, meet with customers, communicate the road map, both internally and externally, define product requirements and help marketing communicate information about the products.



Mobile Expert Interview Series: Sybase's Tony Kueh

Sybase's Tony Kueh
I met Tony Kueh (pronounced Koo-ay) from Sybase's product management team at TechEd in Las Vegas this year.  He is a long time Seattle native, now residing in California.  This week he accepted my invitation to be interviewed.

Note:  These are not Tony's exact words, rather my notes from the interview.

Kevin: Tony, what is your role and areas of responsibilities at Sybase?
Tony: I am the product manager for enterprise mobility which includes SUP and Afaria.  I report to Raj Nathan, who is the interim head of the mobile applications group and EVP and CMO at Sybase.

Kevin: What mobile device(s) do you have and carry?
Tony: An iPhone, an iPad, a Droid and a MacBook Pro.

Kevin:  A Droid?
Tony:  Yes, for those occasions when I really don't want to be disconnected.

Kevin: Is that all?

Mobile Banking is Here!

Mobile Banking Apps
In the past couple of years, mobile banking has grown rapidly among smartphone users, and 2011 promises even faster growth.  During 2010, roughly 10 percent of households in the United States used mobile banking features on their smartphones.  Expect to see significant increases in those numbers in 2011.

During 2007 there were 10 million global users of smartphone banking.  By next year 150 million people will be checking their bank accounts on mobile devices, and by 2013 that number will increase to nearly 400 million. These figures are truly impressive.

With the rapid increase of mobile banking, financial institutions are realizing that customer satisfaction lies in mobile apps.  Approximately 1,000 U.S. banks now offer some type of mobile app for account management, but 29,000 more banks are expected to develop mobile banking applications within the next year.

Sybase's Strategy with John Chen - Version 2

John Chen
CEO Sybase, an SAP company
John Chen, CEO of Sybase Inc., an SAP company, wrote an interesting article that I read last week.  Here are three excerpts:
  1. Until recently application platforms dominated the enterprise mobility story. Vendors like Sybase sold them and corporations bought them — to build mobile apps in-house.
  2. Packaged mobile apps will soon replace custom-built ones as the predominant deployment model inside the enterprise. This will not only slash the cost and time needed for organizations to roll out mobile apps, but will also kick-start a new phase of rapid growth for enterprise mobility.
  3. Sybase is out in front of this trend as it revolutionizes the mobile space.
I understand that John was making general comments, but as a veteran of the mobile industry I started pondering the challenges he will face.  I wondered how packaged mobile apps would be configured to work with customized SAP environments.  If I remember right, about 70 percent of SAP customers customize their systems.  Packaged mobile applications would need to be able to be customized quickly to "slash" the costs and time needed for organizations to roll out mobile apps. This means someone must be trained to customize mobile apps.  Who is that someone?  What do they need to know?  What SDK will they use?  Who should I call?
 
I also wondered, since Sybase has not traditionally been a mobile application company, how they could be "out in front" on this trend.  Many of us have been developing and deploying mobile applications for the past decade and have never recognized Sybase as a major player in that space.  Yet, a reader pointed out that most companies are barely starting their mobility projects, so packaged mobile apps would be a great start.
 
It also occured to me that many "outside-the-four-walls" business processes are not commonly supported by SAP today.  There are many field services, project management, inspections, asset tracking and other kinds of business processes that fall outside of SAP's umbrella. Will Sybase try to support these, or just those processes supported by SAP? 

SAP resells ClickSoftware's Workforce Scheduling and Optimization solution.  ClickSoftware has already developed mobile applications for the SAP Workforce Scheduling and Optimization solution.  This solution supports "intra-day dynamic mobile workforce scheduling."  This is not an area that SAP supports themselves.  Will Sybase develop mobile apps for SAP's partner solutions, or leave this up to the partner?
 
Syclo is SAP's co-innovation mobility partner for EAM (enterprise asset management).  Enterprise asset management is a big and high priority market for mobile applications.  In many cases Syclo's mobile clients may need to connect to both SAP and non-SAP EAM systems.  Will SAP simply excuse themselves from the EAM category in favor of their partner, or compete against them?
 
Many other mobile markets, such as retail, require support for features and processes not always covered by SAP's systems.  For example, large retailers looking to provide consumer focused mobile applications may work with retail experts like Smartsoft Mobile (an SAP services partner) to provide branded mobile applications that incorporate loyalty programs, location-based services, coupons, deals, catalogs, etc. 
 
Even SAP partners that focus on "inside the four walls" solutions like Open Text (an enterprise content management vendor) already have mobile solutions for SAP customers.  Open Text is the developer of SAP's Vendor Invoice Management systems, among other solutions.  They have developed a mobile solution called Open Text Everywhere that I wrote about here

Open Text is an example of a vendor developing their own mobile applications for their own enterprise solutions.  However, in Open Text's case, some of their ECM (enterprise content management) solutions are embedded in SAP.  As a result, the user must decide if they will use Open Text's packaged mobile application, build their own, or wait for Sybase to develop a mobile packaged application.

I don't think Sybase would try to mobilize SAP solutions and business processes that are provided by partners that have their own packaged mobile apps like Open Text or ClickSoftware.  At least they wouldn't seem like high priorities.

It appears that Sybase will focus first on extending simple SAP business processes and workflows out to mobile devices.  Second, develop mobile applications for the high priority business processes and include mobile SDK support for customizing these apps. Third, provide the mobility platform (not the mobile apps) for rich and complex mobile applications, that require deep industry knowledge, customization, support for field specific business processes, and integration with non-SAP backends, non-SAP business processes or multiple backend systems. This third area of applications will likely remain the competitive playground of the SAP enterprise mobility ecosystem vendors, not Sybase.

Do you agree or disagree?  Let me know what you think!

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly – Week of January 3, 2011

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Kevin’s Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Also read Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly
Also read Kevin’s M2M News Weekly

Apple expects to ship 20 to 21 million iPhones around the world next quarter, with nearly 25 percent of them CDMA phones.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20026643-37.html

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Americans are connected at unprecedented levels — 93 percent now use cell phones or wireless devices; one-third of those are "smartphones."

http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/parenting-family/2010-12-30-1AYEAR30_CV_N.htm

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Robert Hamilton of Google predicts that, "By next year, five billion mobile phones will be in service, out of a total world population of about seven billion. By 2014, there will be more mobile internet users than desktop internet users.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2011/jan/03/google-robert-hamilton?CMP=twt_fd

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November data indicates that Apple’s iOS has captured 28.6 percent of the smartphone operating system market share. RIM’s BlackBerry operating system is second with 26.1 percent of the market share, and Google’s Android finished third with 25.8 percent of the market.

Enterprise Mobility in Australia

Mastering SAP Technologies
March 21-23, 2011
I will be in Australia speaking on enterprise mobility at the Mastering SAP Technologies March 21-23, 2011.  I will be the keynote speaker on Monday, March 21st at 10 AM, and will lead a session on Tuesday, March 22nd at 2:10 PM.  I would love to meet up with any folks interested in discussing enterprise mobility while I am there.  Also, if you would like to schedule time with me either before or after the event let me know by contacting me here.


***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly – Week of January 3, 2011

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking and mobile security that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

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PayPal saw a 300 percent increase in mobile payments from the official start of the shopping season on November 15 through December 15 compared to the year ago period. PayPal is expecting to close the year with more than $700 million in total payment volume via the mobile medium.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/paypal-reports-300pc-growth-in-mobile-payments-over-last-holiday-season/

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A recent poll by Scanbuy on Twitter and Facebook proves the influence that mobile bar codes are having for retail outlets trying to improve the customer shopping experience.  The poll revealed that there is significant interest in using mobile bar codes while shopping, with more than half of those surveyed having scanned a bar code.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/mobile-bar-code-scanning-became-mainstream-this-holiday-season-scanbuy/

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Google is considering building a payment and advertising service that would let users buy milk and bread by tapping or waving their mobile phones against a register at checkout. It is based on near field communication technology, which can beam and receive information wirelessly from four inches away.

Kevin’s Mobile Retailing News Weekly – Week of January 3, 2011

Kevin's Mobile Retailing News Weekly is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile retailing applications and mobile marketing applications that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

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CKE Restaurants Inc.’s Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s restaurants are driving consumers in store via Happy Star Rewards, a GPS enabled loyalty program that rewards users for checking in at the fast food chains’ locations across the United States.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/carls-jr-and-hardees-mobile-loyalty-program-to-drive-in-store-traffic/

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Online retailer Buy.com has launched its new app for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. Using barcode technology and an advanced voice recognition platform from MeMeMe Inc., the Buy.com app makes mobile shopping easier and faster than ever before.

http://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/article/178376/New-Buy-com-mobile-app-features-barcode-scanning-voice-recognition

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A KPMG survey shows mobile devices are slowly gaining ground as the preferred media for e-commerce. Compared with only 18 months ago, the global percentage of respondents who have used their mobile device for banking has more than doubled from 19 percent to 46 percent, while the percentage that have used it to buy goods and services has gone from 10 percent to 28 percent.

Mobile Expert Interview Series: Aberdeen Group's Andrew Borg

I was fortunate to have had the opportunity last week to interview Andrew Borg, senior research analyst for Wireless & Mobility at the Aberdeen Group (Twitter @mobileaberdeen). We discussed research they had recently conducted on the subject of enterprise mobility. 
Andrew Borg


Here are some of the findings from their research:

1) Mobility is a core strategic imperative for the enterprise. It is well past the point of early adopters. Less than 2% of Aberdeen’s survey respondents say they have NO intention of adopting mobility. It is now a given. There are new and increasing pressures on the corporation to accommodate mobility.

2) In 2011 enterprise mobility is not a nice to have, but a business requirement.

3) Security for mobile devices, mobile applications and mobile content is a big concern for the enterprise. As important as having secure mobile devices and apps are, it is even more important to have secure data. For this reason, Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solutions will be increasingly important for all enterprises. Managing the entire data lifecycle on the mobile device becomes critical. Enterprises cannot effectively manage data security until they have an EMM in place that they can use to build and enforce an enterprise security policy. Some of the EMM vendors Aberdeen is following are; Sybase’s Afaria, BoxTone, Zenprise, Good Technology and MobileIron.

Aberdeen studies the behaviors of the best-in-class as well as the industry average and laggards. Aberdeen found that best-in-class companies are 1.6 times more likely to have implemented EMM solutions than all other repondents. 2011 is expected to be the year of EMM, with the management of mobility becoming a core IT function in 2011.

4) The costs of a single mobile data compliance lapse, according to a recent Aberdeen survey, at the low end is estimated at $140,000, and at the high end over $1 million.

5) Today, when properly configured Apple iOS 4.2 is virtually equivalent in security to the BlackBerry system. Android remains behind, but Aberdeen believes they will catch up.

6) Aberdeen believes that SAP/Sybase’s Afaria product is a very powerful and complete EMM, but they cannot sit on their hands as there are many competitors rising up to challenge them on pricing, business models and functionality.

7) IT organizations are much more open to having third parties manage IT systems today than in the past. Systems integrators will play an increasingly important role in implementing, supporting and maintaining enterprise mobility solutions in the future.

8) Andrew believes the acquisition of Sybase by SAP was brilliant. If SAP executes it will be a market changer.

9) 62% of best in class (top performers) are deploying tablets. This is the fastest adoption of new technologies Aberdeen has seen. 2011 will be a banner year for tablets. iPads are ahead of the pack, but competition is coming on quickly and strong.

10) The secret to the iPad’s success is the large number of applications. This will help the iPad maintain its current momentum in the tablet market.

11) There is a huge security need for tablets. 76% of best-in-class companies using iPads are not securing them today. Unsecured tablets will become a big issue in 2011, as they are too oftenbeing used for business purposes without being properly secured.

Aberdeen Group conducts their research in a methodical and scientific manner. They get their information by surveying end-users directly, and focus on the business value of technology adoption. They document the best practices of best-in-class companies, as well as the processes, technologies, and services needed by the industry average and laggards. Companies are ranked based upon their overall business performance.

I want to thank Andrew for taking the time to share Aberdeen Group’s insights with us.

***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Predicting 100 Percent Mobile Application Development?

Mobile App Development
Israel Benjaminy from ClickSoftware recently published a blog article with the following statement, "Various studies predict that 70% or more of all workers will use modern mobile devices (smartphones and tablets)."  I heard additional supporting evidence of increasing popularity of mobile technologies while conducting an interview last week with Andrew Borg, senior research analyst, Wireless and Mobility, Aberdeen Group.  He stated that 62% of best in class (top performing companies) were deploying tablets.  This is the fastest adoption they have ever seen of new technologies. 

Benjaminy predicts, "It is the desktop client which is fading into the status of exception and "special case".  In this new world, there will be only one kind of client. It will treat all devices as mobile devices – whether you happen to use the software on your desktop computer with 21" display, your mobile tablet (usually 7"-10" display) or your smartphone (typically 3"-4"), you get access to the same functionality and just about the same user experience."  What do you think of this prediction?  Can you image a software development strategy that covers all devices including desktops?

Benjaminy continues, "This implies several more characteristics which will make the new breed of enterprise software much more useful as well as much more fun, due to the rich context available to a mobile device:
  • Location, movement (e.g. driving, walking, sitting down)
  • Status (e.g. working alone, working at customer location, in a meeting, on the phone, or off-duty)
  • Environment (e.g. in an office, a restaurant, a lecture room or a vehicle) etc.
The user interface will make full use of these rich cues to configure itself to our needs, infer the next steps we may wish to take, and select the right user interface action."

Benjaminy envisions a world where there is only one kind of mobile application that fits all devices and desktops.  He sees ERP solutions having an application layer that utilizes the mobile device features to add value to common everyday processes.  The data collection functions and feedback available in mobile devices can be integrated with content management, business intelligence and geospatially aware features to develop more intelligent applications.

I read another article last week about the economics of mobile applications.  The article suggested the economics of application development would trend toward one development strategy and methodology that would reduce the amount of work needed to support a wide variety of device types and operating systems.  This article supports Benjaminy's prediction.

What do you think about it?


***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin’s M2M News Weekly – Week of January 3, 2011

Welcome to Kevin's M2M News Weekly, an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to M2M (machine to machine) and embedded mobile devices that I read each week. I aggregate the information, include the original links and add a synopsis of each article. I also search for the latest market numbers such as market size, growth and trends in and around the M2M market.

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The global market for M2M device connections will grow from 62 million devices in 2010 to 2.1 billion devices in 2020. With a year on year growth rate of between 36 and 52 percent, M2M seeks to be one of the fastest growing connectivity sectors in the next decade.

http://www.analysysmason.com/Research/Content/Reports/RRE02_M2M_devices_forecast/

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Recent Berg Insight research indicates that two percent of mobile network connections worldwide were used for wireless M2M communication at the end of 2010. In fact, the number of M2M subscribers increased by 46 percent year on year to an estimated 81.4 million.

http://blog.connectedplanetonline.com/unfiltered/2010/12/31/the-internet-of-things-coming-to-fruition-two-percent-of-mobile-connections-are-m2m/

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A recent report from Pike Research forecasts that, while private networks will continue to represent the majority of the smart grid communications market, the revenue opportunity for service providers will increase significantly, rising from $2.2 billion in 2009 to $4.9 billion by 2016.

Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly – December 30, 2010

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Kevin’s Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Also read Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly

Mobile Applications recently surveyed more than 2,400 business and IT professionals, of whom 37 percent worked at companies with annual revenue of $1 billion or more. The results indicate an impressive uptick in enterprise adoption of mobile applications.

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/22787

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Apple has been hit by a lawsuit that alleges the company and its partners are surreptitiously collecting personal information from the users of iPhones and iPads.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/215041/apple_hit_with_privacy_class_action_lawsuit.html

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CEOs running VC backed companies are optimistic about the opportunities next year, with 58 percent predicting an increase in investing and 64 percent planning to raise VC capital in 2011. The results mark a turnaround for the VC market, which experienced a big slump in 2009 as the economic recession hit.

The Internet of Things (M2M)

Click Image to Enlarge
I read several very interesting articles on the Internet of Things today.  I found them on the website, http://www.readwriteweb.com/.  The Internet of Things (IoT) is described as, "A term for when everyday ordinary objects are connected to the Internet via microchips.  The technologies include sensors, RFID and smartphone standards like NFC.  The use cases are still evolving, but over 2010 we saw large organizations like HP and IBM build out impressive platforms for the Internet of Things."

Why are HP and IBM building out Internet of Things platforms?  According to Richard MacManus, "HP is building an 'Internet of Things' platform because it sees that the coming data explosion will lead to huge demand for more powerful computers and better processing of all that data."

SAP StreamWork, Social Intelligence and Mobile Devices

StreamWork on a
BlackBerry
If you are not yet familiar with SAP's StreamWork solution, it is worth investigating.  As an SAP Mentor, I use this solution a lot when SAP Mentors from around the world are working on a collaborative project.  SAP StreamWork is a collaborative decision-making solution that brings together the people, information, and proven business approaches to drive fast, meaningful results.  The mobile client is marketed with the following description, "Keep collaborating with your team and driving activities forward, even if you're not at your desk."

The mobile client enables the following:
  • Create an activity directly from email
  • Upload content and add work items
  • Add participants to an activity
  • View and comment on work items
  • Create and view action items
StreamWork is very intriguing to me.  A group can work on making a decision together no matter where each group member is located.  The group can create an activity and then all members can start sharing ideas and linking documents and other content to be shared with the group as tools for making decisions.  You can comment, see the profiles of members, etc.

I believe companies have never effectively taken advantage of the talent and intelligence of their organizations.  Often a person with valuable knowledge may not share it if they are not in the right geographical area, position or group.  There must be ways that you can harvest more of the social intelligence of your organization.  I think StreamWork is a step in the right direction.

***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Kevin’s Mobile Retailing News Weekly - December 29, 2010

Kevin's Mobile Retailing News Weekly is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile retailing applications and mobile marketing applications that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

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A recent survey by GfK Roper Poll found that three in ten Americans currently use a smartphone, such as an iPhone or BlackBerry. Among consumers with those devices, 30 percent said that, while shopping, they used their phones to try to find better deals elsewhere; and 40 percent used their phones to compare prices.

http://www.jckonline.com/2010/12/27/more-shoppers-researching-mobile-phones

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Thirty percent of respondents in a recent survey said they expected to use mobile coupons during this holiday season, according to a new study by mobile marketing agency Briabe Media and mobile social networking company MocoSpace. Interestingly, only 14 percent said they normally use mobile coupons.

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1932818/holidays-report-mobile-shoppers-coupons

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A recent survey indicates that 79 percent of smartphone users would like to be able to download discount shopping coupons to their mobile devices and 73 percent would like to receive money off coupons on items they see while shopping in a store.

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly – December 28, 2010

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking and mobile security that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

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2010 was a turning point for mobile shopping with 44 percent of smartphone users downloading shopping apps and m-commerce sales increasing to $3.4 billion from $1.4 billion in 2009.

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/12/23/best-of-2010-mobile-commerce/

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To thrive in today's ultracompetitive and economically uncertain market, Wall Street firms need to adapt to the desires of bankers, traders, advisers and clients to always be connected while on the go.

http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/it-infrastructure/228900082

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The Royal Bank of Canada has become that country’s first bank to launch a mobile banking application for select smartphones — namely, BlackBerry devices and iPhones, iPod Touch and iPad.

http://www.mobile-financial.com/node/13311/Apple,-BlackBerry-Smartphones-Get-Mobile-Banking-Apps

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Research published recently by Forrester shows that mobile banking provision in Europe is gathering pace. This refers to all three of the main mobile banking services – mobile web, mobile app and text-based services.

http://www.finextra.com/community/fullblog.aspx?id=4832

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In an era of busy work days and short weekends, getting all the errands done has become more and more challenging. To help keep that to do list short, banks have begun launching applications that allow customers to deposit checks from their smart phones.

http://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/article_1c864842-b945-502e-9716-57da1cf95468.html

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Ebay sees growth in mobile payments pushing its PayPal service toward the offline world, as merchants begin to allow consumers to pay for physical goods with a wave of their smartphone at the cash register.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10941154/1/ebay-sees-mobile-payment-growth-offline.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN

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Visa is in a position to make a large profit from the payment processing of mobile transactions as this sector continues to grow in popularity.

http://www.pivotalpayments.com/ca/industry-news/visa-set-to-benefit-from-growing-mobile-payment-processing-800311152/

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Last month, an unlikely partnership of Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile announced a new initiative called Isis that will create an NFC contactless payment network for the three companies’ combined 230 million customers.

http://mashable.com/2010/12/15/smartphone-wallet/

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For many people, smartphones are almost as indispensable as wallets, and your smartphone could soon replace your wallet. A collection of the biggest wireless carriers, handset makers and software developers are putting their weight behind a technology called near field communication.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/122310dnbusdigitalwallet.3044eaf.html

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Of the top 100 financial institutions, nearly 40 percent offer access via mobile web, while 32 percent offer SMS banking and/or alerts and 32 percent offer apps.

http://www.firstannapolis.com/2010-Mobile-Banking-and-Payments-Study

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PayPal is announcing that its payments business is flourishing throughout the holiday shopping season, with a 300 percent increase in mobile payments from November 15 through December 15 compared to the same period last year.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/17/paypal-holiday-mobile-payments-up-300-percent/

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Smartsoft Mobile empowers some of the world’s largest multi-national organizations to extend and improve business processes by providing mobile solutions to their employees and customers. Smartsoft has more than 700 experienced ERP/mobile consultants with over 5,000 man years of experience helping 400,000 plus mobile users achieve their business goals with powerful mobile B2B and B2C applications, designed and developed specifically for today’s popular consumer and industrial grade mobile devices. For more information please visit, http://www.smartsoftmobile.com/.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Smartsoft Mobile Solutions.

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Google Android operating system 2.3, nicknamed Gingerbread, enables near-field communication as promised, but the final release only allows consumers to receive NFC transmissions, not send them. That makes it impossible for consumers to load payment data onto the handset and use that in lieu of credit card

http://www.creditnet.com/credit-news/latest-android-os-won-t-support-mobile-credit-card-payments-800280884.php

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Cellphones functioning as "electronic wallets," shopping carts that provide recipes and a greater ability to command electronic devices with human gestures are some of the technological trends expected to emerge in the coming year and beyond.

http://www.timescolonist.com/life/Cellphones+will+become+wallets+2011+forecast/3979201/story.html

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, mobile industry analyst and experienced mobile industry executive, offers both one and two day onsite workshops designed to educate and inform executives and management teams on enterprise mobility and mobile strategies for businesses. This workshop is designed to provide a complete overview of enterprise mobility and what it means to the business. The workshop is customized based upon the needs of participants. For more details visit http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/workshops.html.

Recent Articles by Kevin Benedict

MeLLmo the Maker of the RoamBI Mobile Application Closes More Funding
Leadership Change in SAP's Mobility Business Unit - Again
Which Mobile Application Company Will SAP Acquire Next?
QR Codes and Mobile Retailing Applications
eBay Mobile Commerce - Real Time Data from Six Global Markets
Changing Attitudes of Mobile Shoppers
Tablets, Mobile Applications and the Enterprise
Wall Street Analyst and SAP Enterprise Mobility
The Global Market for M2M Devices is HUGE!


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You can follow me on Twitter @krbenedict and read my blog, Enterprise Mobility Strategies.

Also available are Kevin’s Mobile Retailing News Weekly and Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly.

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I have added a feature to my blog site that supports email subscriptions. You can now receive all blog articles directly via email. If you are interested, click here.

*************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The Global Market for M2M Devices is HUGE!

The global market for machine-to-machine (M2M) device connections will grow from 62 million devices in 2010 to 2.1 billion devices in 2020, according to a new report from Analysys Mason (London, UK). With a year-on-year growth rate of between 36 percent and 52 percent.  M2M is predicted to be one of the fastest growing wireless connectivity sectors in the next decade.

Wireless M2M Sensors


Some of the biggest enterprise M2M markets are the following:
    
  • energy and utilities
  • security and surveillance
  • health care and acute disease tracking
  • in vehicle GPS and entertainment systems
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the above-listed markets are huge!  M2M is another category of enterprise mobility that takes advantage of mobile technologies and miniaturized sensors and monitoring equipment to send and receive data wirelessly to and from a centralized server.  On the server is management software that allows the human to understand what is going on in remote locations.


Wall Street Analyst and SAP Enterprise Mobility

Happy Holidays
from Kevin Benedict!
I received an interesting call yesterday from a Wall Street analyst.  He wanted my opinion on SAP's acquisition of Sybase.  His premise was that there was not $5.8 billion worth of value in Sybase.  I responded that I had no expertise in valuation so could not help him in that determination.  However, I did have more than enough opinions on enterprise mobility to share.

I provided him the following list for his consideration during his valuation exercise:

1)  Had he looked into the potential value of Sybase's 365?  I said much of the world, and the fastest growing segments of the mobile market (LDC - less developed countries), are increasingly using SMS for mobile banking, money transfers, mobile payments, and many enterprise applications like field services, inventory, database queries, sales reports, etc.  He had not considered this.

Changing Attitudes of Mobile Shoppers

Mobile Shopping
Cameron Franks, area vice president of sales for the Americas at Sybase 365, an SAP Company, recently spoke about a survey they conducted with 1,000 consumers on mobile holiday shopping.  The key finding of the survey was that 32 percent of consumers, if offered mobile-based deals, coupons or alerts, could be persuaded to make a purchase on their mobile device. 

Another recent survey by mobile marketing agency Briabe Media and mobile-social networking company MocoSpace, they found that 30 percent of survey respondents said they expected to use mobile coupons during this holiday season.  Also in the survey, 62 percent said they planned to use mobile phones as a shopping tool prior to entering a store; and 46 percent stated they would use their phones for store or product research.

Tablets, Mobile Applications and the Enterprise

I have been reading several articles lately that talk about how popular tablets are predicted to become in the enterprise market.  Here is an excerpt from one article that I read this morning:

More than one in five Americans will own a tablet by 2014, and 37 percent of them will own them for business use, according to a recent survey.

Current business use of tablets:
  • Business correspondence (58%)
  • Online meetings/Web conferences (37%)
  • Marketing (34%)
  • Training (33%)
  • Finance/accounting (32%)
  • Sales (27%)
  • Graphic design (27%)
  • Inventory management (27%)
  • Customer support (24%)
Another article stated, "Apple could sell 21 million units of its iPad tablet next year as half of the largest and most prominent companies in the world begin testing or deploying the iPad for corporate use, according to an analyst with Wall Street firm Piper Jaffray."


Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly – December 23, 2010

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Kevin’s Mobile Retailing News Weekly
Also read Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly

Expectations for the tablet market in 2011 are positive, but to put things in context tablets will still be niche devices, maybe 15 percent of smartphone sales. We’ll see more supply than demand in 2011, and probably some vicious price competition because Apple will remain the leader in style, features and shipments.

http://blogs.gartner.com/nick_jones/2010/12/16/too-many-tablets-too-few-buyers/

eBay Mobile Commerce - Real Time Data from Six Global Markets

Ben Lee over at Smartsoft Mobile Solutions recently directed me to the eBay Mobile Commerce site.  On this site you can see mobile purchasing data from six global markets in near real time.  Very interesting!  I watched for some time the interesting data coming across their digital ticker tape along the bottom of their chart.  Here is some of the data about eBay purchases via mobile devices:
  • Australians bought the most sporting goods via mobile devices in December 2010.
  • Auto parts were the top selling products via mobile devices on Cyber Monday in Germany.
  • The iPhone was the leading mobile platform for mobile sales on December 12, 2010.
  • Toys made up 8.6 percent of mobile sales in France on December 10-11, 2010.
  • December 12 was the busiest mobile shopping day so far in 2010.
  • In the USA auto parts made up 8.3 percent of mobile purchases in 2010.
  • In the USA cell phones and accessories made up 6.5 percent of mobile purchases in 2010.
  • In the USA vehicle sales made up 16.5 percent of mobile purchases in 2010.

QR Codes and Mobile Retailing Applications

Home Depot iPhone App
I was sitting in my office chair today reading mail.  I received a magazine that had a QR code prominently displayed on a page.  I grabbed my iPhone 4, opened my Red Laser application and snapped a photo of the QR code.  A message instantly popped up asking if I approved - I said yes.  Immediately, my browser launched and a person was talking to me about their product.  I LOVED IT!

Think of the way companies can change their marketing and sales approach by having their very best sales and marketing spokesperson deliver key product messages to anyone with a smartphone and internet connection anywhere in the world.  No longer do you have to ask the sixteen year old sales assistant complex questions.  You can simply open a mobile application that supports QR codes, click on a sign or advertisement and learn about the product from an expert.

Which Mobile Application Company Will SAP Acquire Next?

I was speaking with an SAP executive last month about SAP's partner strategy for enterprise mobility.  The executive said that SAP ecosystem mobility partners would be well served to focus on building vertical industry specific business processes into their mobile applications, as SAP would be focusing more on horizontal business processes.  The executive went on to say that SAP would seek to partner first for vertical expertise and then consider acquiring select companies that showed success and penetration in key SAP markets.

This conversation got me thinking.  Which vertical industries would be the likely targets of mobile applications that SAP might want to acquire?  Could it be one of the following?
  • Oil and Gas
  • Utilities
  • Retail (Location-Based Services, Coupons, Mobile Marketing)
  • Plant Maintenance
  • Chemicals
  • Mining
  • Transportation
  • Facilities Management
  • Enterprise asset management

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly – December 23, 2010

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking and mobile security that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

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This holiday season consumers are beginning to shop and make purchases on their mobile phones. The shift from buying presents in front of the computer at home or work to doing it during bus commutes or while standing in line at cafes is small but noticeable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/technology/18mobile.html?src=busln

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PayPal has announced a whopping increase in mobile payments this festive season. In the month to December 15 the online payment processing company registered a 300 percent rise, compared to the same period last year.

http://www.bizreport.com/2010/12/more-mobile-users-shopping-via-phone.html

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A new ABI Research report calls the short term growth of mobile online shopping "nothing short of phenomenal." Purchases in the U.S. attributed to mobile online shopping, excluding travel, grew from $396.3 million in 2008 to $1.4 billion in 2009. ABI expects full year 2010 sales will more than double again, to more than $3.4 billion.

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