Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly – Week of January 10, 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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Square, the mobile payment start up from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, announced today that it has raised a new round of funding that values the company at about $240 million.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/01/square-keith-rabois-mobile-payments.html

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Mopay Inc., a payment service provider for online merchants, forecasts considerable momentum and movement in the global mobile payments industry in 2011. The massive growth of the market in North America, increased consolidation and lower transaction costs are the top trends that will have a significant impact on the blossoming mobile payments industry in 2011

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/mobile-payments-industry-to-experience-monumental-growth-in-2011-mopay/

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Last year, only 4.1 percent of mobile phones shipped had near field communications capabilities. That number is expected triple to 13 percent in 2014, according to ISuppli.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2010/tc20101231_921299_page_2.htm

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ForeSee Results conducted a study of nearly 10,000 visitors to the biggest e-commerce sites in the U.S. and found that during this holiday season, a total of 11 percent of Web shoppers reported having made a purchase from their mobile phones, compared to only two percent a year ago. Fifty-six percent of shoppers also used their mobile phones to check prices, and 27 percent used them to read product reviews.

http://emoney.allthingsd.com/20110110/shoppers-using-phones-to-make-buying-decisions-survey-says/?mod=twitter

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Intuit is positioning its mobile payment GoPayment service to compete with the likes of Square and Verifone’s PAYware Mobile by offering a free version of the service for a limited time. The move may only be temporary, but it underscores the growing attention to mobile payments from companies across the mobile ecosystem.

http://gigaom.com/2011/01/10/intuit-takes-the-gloves-off-in-mobile-payments-push/

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eBay has announced that global mobile sales generated nearly $2 billion in 2010, up from $600 million in 2009. To be clear, we’re not talking revenues here but gross merchandise volume. This looks like a clear sign that mobile e-commerce has reached a tipping point.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/06/ebay-mobile-sales-2010/

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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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Payment is the next frontier of mobile technology and is becoming a hot area for innovation helping to make carrying a wallet obsolete.

http://mashable.com/2011/01/06/smartphone-payment-security/

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One in five mobile users will use some kind of financial service on their device by 2013, according to a study by Juniper Research. Juniper says money transfers, bill payments and airtime top ups are the three most popular facilities and account for 60 percent of all mobile financial services.

http://digitalmedia.strategyeye.com/article/FsbW9Gvc0o/2011/01/11/20_of_mobile_users_to_use_financial_services_by_2013/

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O2, the UK’s leading provider of mobile phones and broadband, is expanding its near field communications team as it prepares to launch mobile payments services later this year.

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/communication-breakdown-10000030/o2-to-boost-mobile-payments-team-ahead-of-nfc-launch-10021454/

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Google may launch a service for making purchases with smartphones, instead of a credit card or cash, aiming to get a head start on emerging mobile payments technology. The new service, which could debut this year, would conveniently store data on payment accounts, gift cards, store loyalty cards and virtual coupons -- all in one place.

http://www.mobiledia.com/news/79221.html

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China Banking Corp. has launched its own brand of speed banking for people on the go with the debut of China Bank Online for Mobile – a mobile-optimized version of China Bank’s award winning internet banking service.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=646918&publicationSubCategoryId=74

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The Royal Bank of Canada has launched iPhone and BlackBerry apps to cater to the increasing number of Canadians who are banking from their smartphones. The apps allow customers to view account balances and details, pay bills, transfer funds and send email money transfers. RBC says the service is as secure as the bank’s online banking site.

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/launches+mobile+banking+apps+iPhone+BlackBerry/4004664/story.html

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Mobile banking is the latest trend in the industry, building on the popularity that online banking has enjoyed in the last decade. Nine banks in the Savannah, Georgia area now offer free on the go banking, including heavyweights Wells Fargo and Bank of America.

http://savannahnow.com/exchange/2011-01-04/text-message-banking-rise

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According to a new study from ForeSee Results, about three times as many people are using their phones for product research purposes (30 percent in 2010, 11 percent in 2009). Use of retailer-developed mobile applications has increased seven fold (from one percent to seven percent), and purchasing from phones has quintupled (from two percent to 11 percent).

http://www.marketingvox.com/marketing-data-roundup-social-media-priority-for-smbs-mobile-retailing-on-strong-growth-trajectory-048478/

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Mobile retailing has exploded in the past year with almost a third of respondents to a recent survey indicating they have used their mobile phone to access a retailer website. An additional 32 percent indicated they planned to access retailer websites or mobile apps by phone in the future.

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1048351/third-consumers-shopping-via-mobile/

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IMPORTANT! In the upcoming webinar Implementing SAP Enterprise Mobility in Fortune 500 Companies-Ten Lessons Learned, Smartsoft Mobile will share the top ten lessons learned from implementing SAP enterprise mobility solutions in Fortune 500 Companies. If you are a systems integrator or an end user, you will value from learning what works and what doesn't work in deploying mobility solutions. This webinar will also include an overview of the enterprise mobility industry in 2011 by SAP Mentor Kevin Benedict.

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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.

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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
Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly
Kevin’s M2M News Weekly

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility group 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.