Mobile Expert Interviews: Vaidy Iyer on Cloud Mobility and PaaS

I had the privilege of interviewing mobility expert Vaidy Iyer today.  He is the founder and CEO of AppsFreedom a company focused on providing enterprise mobility solutions in the form of Multi-Channel, Multi-Device Platform as a Service solutions to the SAP community.  I asked if they could compete with SAP's mobile solutions - you should hear his answer!  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vj35zoQ7bE&feature=share


The True Cost of Mobility - Companies are under tremendous pressure to develop and deploy mobile apps for their business systems, yet the traditional approach to mobile app development typically costs $250K+ and takes 6+ months for a single app. Today IT professionals are exploring platforms that radically reduce costs and time-to-market for their mobile initiatives, especially around complex applications such as SAP, Oracle, or custom applications.

Download the whitepaper - https://www.capriza.com/resources/whitepapers/?resource=true-cost-of-enterprise-mobility&adgroup=MES
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Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant

View my profile on LinkedIn

Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

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Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Health News Weekly – Week of July 8, 2012

The Mobile Health News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to mobile health that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Enterprise mobility is evolving so fast that I thought it prudent to conduct a mid-year enterprise mobility survey with 20 short questions and share that information with you.  For that purpose,  I would be most grateful if you would take a few minutes to answer these questions and share your insights.  I will compile the survey results into a report and share it FREE with all survey participants. Please take the survey here.

Healthcare Finance News has outlined five ways telemedicine can play an important role in decreasing overall healthcare spending. Read Original Content

Healthcare is in the middle of a mobile revolution. Doctors are adopting mobile apps that make them more effective, and patients are taking to ones that give them more control over their healthcare. Here are 11 apps that stand out from the crowd. Read Original Content

According to a recent survey conducted by Wolters Kluwer Health’s Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 71 percent of nurses are using smartphones for their job. The survey included responses from 3,900 nurses and nursing students. Read Original Content

Antenna Software provides a complete cloud-based enterprise mobility suite that enables both IT pros and business executives alike to create and manage mobile apps, websites and content across the entire business.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Antenna Software.

Check out these five reasons why the Surface tablet could be first Microsoft product doctors embrace. Read Original Content

Although they make up just 1-2 percent of the entire market for mobile apps, healthcare apps are expected to grow 25 percent annually over the next five years, compared to still-impressive 23 percent growth estimated for the standard apps market. Read Original Content

A new report by a national health policy institute, NEHI, provides a glimpse of how mobile technologies are reshaping diabetes management. Read Original Content

President Obama has signed the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act, The Hill's Healthwatch blog reports, shoring up the FDA's role in creating guidance for mobile medical apps. Read Original Content

Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of July 8, 2012

The Mobile Commerce 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.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Amazon’s augmented reality app Flow has now come to Google Play. By launching the app and pointing your phone’s camera at a product, you can instantly view more information about the product, its Amazon price, and even related photos and videos.  Read Original Content

Mobile payments have more than doubled in popularity, reaching more than 33 percent of U.S. residents, according to the results of a report, “Business Strategy: Results from the 2012 Consumer Payments Survey” by IT research firm IDC’s Financial Insights division. Read Original Content

Telefónica Digital and Visa Europe have agreed a wide ranging strategic partnership to drive new business opportunities with both companies to co-invest in the development of products and services in areas such as mobile wallet, NFC, acquirer services for mobile point of sale, and merchant offers. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

Orange, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica’s O2 are all pushing ahead on their own mobile payment services, but in a bid to outpace companies like Apple and Google, these carriers are also working together. Read Original Content

Apple’s decision not to include mobile payments in its new Passbook iOS feature was a deliberate strategy by the company’s executives that flew in the face of a more aggressive approach favored by some engineers, according to the Wall Street Journal. Read Original Content

Customer adoption of mobile payments is growing fast, and banks need to respond with products and services to cater to this growing demand, according to a new report released by financial researcher and consultant IDC Financial Insights. Read Original Content

Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of July 1, 2012

The Mobile Commerce 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.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Results from a joint survey by inMobi and Mobext indicate in-store shopping has been affected by mobile devices. Twenty-two percent of tablet users claim they have shopped less in physical stores since purchasing a tablet and 55 percent of tablet owners make purchases on their device in an average month. Read Original Content

The UK's NatWest Bank is to begin a four-month pilot trial of contactless NFC mobile payments with 1000 customers using the iPhone. Read Original Content

Credit card giant MasterCard and mobile carrier Deutsche Telekom announced they are teaming up for an effort to advance mobile payments across Europe. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

Kiwibank has released its mobile banking app for iPhones. The app is part of a suite of online innovations from the bank intended to revolutionize how people bank online. Read Original Content

The news that MasterCard and Deutsche Telekom are working together on a mobile payments framework to enable consumers to use their mobile phones as a way to buy goods and services is just another precursor to a gradual revolution that will see telcos become our future banks. Read Original Content

American Express announced its network roadmap to advance EMV chip-based contact, contactless and mobile payments for all merchants, processors and issuers of American Express-branded cards in the U.S. Read Original Content

Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of June 24, 2012

The Mobile Commerce 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.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly

Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly

Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly

Also read Mobile Health News Weekly

Also read Mobility News Weekly

The Yankee Group estimates that the worldwide transaction value of mobile payments will total nearly $1 trillion by 2014, up from $162 billion in 2010. But then why does it seem that the only people using it are customers purchasing their double-caffe skinny lattes at Starbucks? Read Original Content

Near field communications mobile payments will exceed $180 billion worldwide in 2017, according to a May 2012 report by Juniper Research. Read Original Content

Merchant Warehouse, a leader and innovator in payment solutions, announced a partnership with VeriFone Systems, Inc. as a preferred hardware provider for the Genius platform. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

Mobile payments are popular among the Girl Scouts of America, allowing scouts with the know-how and resources to sell more cookies than their cash-only counterparts. Read Original Content

A recent study from Juniper Research forecasts that mobile contactless payment transactions are expected to reach nearly $50 billion worldwide in 2014 and NFC solutions will be launched in 20 countries within the next 18 months. Read Original Content

With interest growing in mobile banking, retail banks plan to invest more in mobile technologies, according to a new report by Forrester Research. The survey released June 20 showed retail banks plan to spend one-third of their total digital budget on their mobile channels this year. Read Original Content

Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of June 17, 2012

The Mobile Commerce 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.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

While the mobile channel is not yet the preferred vehicle for small business banking, 54 percent of small businesses are expected to use the mobile channel by 2015. Read Original Content

Airtel Chad has associated with ECOBANK, one of the leading banks of Africa to launch Airtel Money in the West African nation. The service will allow subscribers to carry out financial transactions on their mobile phones. Read Original Content

Online payment service provider GlobalCollect has selected BOKU as its global mobile payments partner and use BOKU's payments platform into its international payment network, allowing online merchants to accept mobile payments at checkout. Read Original Content

Samsung has joined forces with Eurosport to bring a free app to the Galaxy S3, enabling owners of its flagship smartphone to watch the London 2012 Olympics for free. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

All the participants in a small four-month mobile payments trial conducted by BNZ, Vodafone, Visa and Paymark in Auckland and Wellington said they were likely to recommend the service to friends and 14 percent said they would be willing to pay a small fee for the service. Read Original Content

Stockholm-based mobile payment company iZettle announced it has closed a 25 million euro ($31.4 million) series B funding round. The investment was led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Greylock Partners and European tech investment firm Northzone, but MasterCard was also involved in the funding round. Read Original Content

Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of June 10, 2012

The Mobile Commerce 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.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

It is estimated by 2016, application-to-person messaging – messages between a user and an automated application – will transform industries such as financial services, advertising, marketing, business administration, ticketing, television voting, bill payments and more. Read Original Content

The new Quarterly Benchmarking Index from IMRG and Capgemini has revealed that transactions completed on smartphones and tablets skyrocketed by an astonishing 2,000 percent in two years and accounted for 8.2 percent of total online shopping during the first three months of this year. Read Original Content

A new mobile payment network is leveling the paying field.  Called LevelUp, the network generates unique QR codes on consumer smartphones that can be read by merchant devices.  Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

My Mobile Payments Ltd, has launched a new mobile wallet service in India that can be used by customers of any mobile operator or bank (you don't need be with any bank at all), the service called 'Money on Mobile' or MoM, can be used by mobile subscribers to make bill payments, purchase goods and services without the need of cash, check or credit/debit card. Read Original Content

Sprint is working on a mobile-payment service that could take on Google Wallet and countless other competitors in the marketplace, according to a new report from Android Central. Read Original Content

Mobile banking is growing all the time. Not only can you organize your money on your mobile with online and SMS banking, some customers can also use their devices to make payments using NFC. And now, NCR Corporation has announced they will allow their customers to use their mobiles to withdraw money from their account at an ATM. Read Original Content

Benedict's What's New in HTML5 - Week of May 20, 2012

Rotterdam at the
Enterprise Mobility
Exchange 2012

This week I was the Chairman of the Enterprise Mobility Exchange in Rotterdam.  During this event HTML5 was a popular topic.  Most of the CIOs and other mobility thought leaders were predicting HTML5 is and will play a big role in their enterprises.  I also spoke to Gil Bouhnick, Mobility Product Manager for ClickSoftware in Spain 2 weeks ago and he was telling me about several large field services implementations they had recently deployed using HTML5.  He also says there are still some unique security issues that need to be addressed by vendors using HTML5. I see progress.

As I am writing this article, I am noticing a trend.  There are several media and advertising companies announcing the use of HTML5 apps and platforms.  Interesting!

Now for the news...

Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs predicts that more than 2 billion mobile devices will sport fully compliant HTML5 browsers by 2016, and states that HTML5 “will usher in an explosion of innovation”.  Read Original Content

According to IDC Research, 79 percent of mobile app developers surveyed plan to integrate HTML5 in the apps they will launch in 2012; there will be more than 1 billion HTML5 mobile browsers in the market in 2013; and over 80 percent of all mobile apps will be wholly or in part based upon HTML5 by 2015.  Read Original Content

When it comes to streaming video, HTML5 wins out over apps as the best way to provide content to readers and viewers, states Jason Pontin, editor-in-chief and publisher of Technology Review, which is published by MIT.  Read Original Content

Digital advertising company Exponential Interactive has launched a mobile advertising division, Appsnack, which provides advanced HTML5 rich-media advertising.  Read Original Content

Gaming Club Casino has gone mobile with an HTML5-based mobile casino game platform.  Read Original Content

LEAD Technologies has launched two new HTML5 add-on products for multi-platform and mobile device application development, a document HTML5 module and a medical HTML5 module.  Read Original Content

Facebook has announced its new App Center, which will include free and paid Facebook apps plus HTML5 apps that exist within the Facebook app itself.  The App Center is expected to officially open in late May or early June, 2012.  Read Original Content

In a decision based in part on user input, Bank of America has opted to develop functionality in HTML5.  Read Original Content

The Elinext Group is striving to increase involvement with HTML5 technology for mobile, web and television app development.  Read Original Content

The DevCon 5 HTML5 and Mobile App Developers Conference will be held July 23-24, 2012 in New York.  “DevCon5 will offer attendees a comprehensive HTML5 program; from HTML5 design and execution, to gaming and animation to building new HTML5 business models for the mobile web”.  Read Original Content

SAP has recently launched many new mobile apps, and HTML5 versions of its SAP Store for iPads.  SAP has and is a vocal advocate of HTML5 for enterprise mobility.  Read Original Content

FunMobility has opened a new division, FunMobility Professional Services, which will offer HTML5 cloud-based mobile solutions.  Read Original Content

Internet Broadcasting has announced the launch of a group of mobile advertising products created in HTML5, “the emerging standard for interactive media on smartphones and tablets”.  Read Original Content

A video from the recent Tizen Developer Conference showcases HTML5, with the OS running HTML5-based apps “as smoothly as if they were written in native code”.  Read Original Content

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Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

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

Mobile Marketing News Weekly – Week of May 20, 2012

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

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

A recent study estimates mobile advertising will be a $5.04 billion industry by 2015. HighTable, a startup social website for professionals, compiled data about key factors in the growing mobile marketing space in an infographic. Read Original Content

The Holy Grail of marketers used to be a home telephone number and address. Direct mail and telemarketing, despite being some of the most hated forms of advertising, are historically effective. Now mobile takes marketers closer to consumers than direct mail ever will. Read Original Content

The Australian group buying industry generated $123.5 million in Q1 2012 representing a 72 percent growth over the same period last year. Despite the phenomenal growth, the market contracted by 14 percent on last quarter. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

Facebook shares fell 11 percent Monday, highlighting the challenges the No. 1 social network faces to live up to its frothy market value. Facebook already has some 488 million mobile users, its fastest-growing platform, but hasn't yet unveiled a strategy to make money in the field. Read Original Content

Tremor Video, the largest independent online video technology company, has announced the launch of its Mobile Creative Platform, a toolset that helps advertisers build and deliver interactive video across all mobile devices and operating systems, without sacrificing ad functionality or viewer experience. Read Original Content

Kevin Benedict's Video Comments: Optimized Intersections and Mobility

I believe that it is important to understand high level concepts in order to make sense of detailed plans.  Last week, I was in Spain attending a field services related conference and listened to a field services manager explain the importance of teaching service technicians the economics of service businesses.  He wanted his team to understand what it meant to optimize their business, and the role that mobile technologies played in that optimization effort.  I agreed!

In this segment of the Video Comments, I share the concept of Optimized Intersections.  Optimized Intersections consists of the following:

• Mobilized workforce
• Latitude
• Longitude
• Altitude
• Time
• Mobilized Objects

I hope you find this concept useful.

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Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

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

Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of May 13, 2012

The Mobile Commerce 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.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

MasterCard, the No. 2 payments processor, has unveiled PayPass Wallet Services, its own take on the digital wallet. The wallet will allow users to store all of their cards, and MasterCard plans to distribute developer tools to allow other wallets to work with its network. Read Original Content

BlackBerry is hoping to steal a march on Samsung by heavily pushing its NFC enabled devices ahead of the Olympics. The launch of the campaign comes shortly after BlackBerry devices were certified with MasterCard PayPass technology, which will debut in the UK in the third quarter. Read Original Content

Canada’s six-largest lenders including Royal Bank of Canada, Credit Union Central of Canada and Desjardins Financial Group agreed to voluntary guidelines to develop mobile payments at retail outlets across the country, the Canadian Bankers Association said announced in a statement. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

Last week Virgin Mobile put up a pre-order for its first phone with NFC support, a device called the LG Optimus Elite. Well, it appears that Virgin might have a hit on its hands as pre-orders for the Optimus Elite has sold out ahead of its launch. Read Original Content

A study released by payment technology provider ACI Worldwide and research firm Aite Group has defined a new species known as a “Smartphonatic” by looking at the mobile banking and payment adoption rates in 14 countries and has found the creature is driving the demand for mobile payments and banking. Read Original Content

Guidance on Selecting a Mobile Solution Vendor

Last week while working on a mobile strategy project in Scotland, I was reminded of a few things companies should ask vendors when they are in the RFI process.

1. Do you support HTML5 today, in all products or a limited subset?  Which products support HTML5?
2. Do you have a hybrid mobile app development capability?  If so, how does it work and what are the limitations?
3. What versions of Android do you support today?
4. Where is your support center located?  I learned of a recent situation where support was only given during India's business hours.
5. Do you have your own proprietary MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) or do you embed another market leader's?
6. What IDE (integrated development environment) or SDK (software development kit) can be used to edit mobile application and develop new ones?
7. How do you secure your Android devices today?  Are they secured through software or a specific hardware level partnership with a manufacturer?
8. What specific mobile operating systems and versions are supported today?
9. Ask the mobile solution vendor for a list of third party software components in your solution.  Get a list of software vendor dependencies that must all work together in order for your solution to be effective.
10. Ask about R&D funding.  This might be an uncomfortable discussion, but being a mobile solution vendor in 2012 means large amounts of resources need to be invested into research and development to keep current with the rapid developments.  This often requires external funding sources to keep up.
11. Do you have a connection at the top of the company that you can contact for big and important mobile projects?  You don't want to get assigned a junior sales assistant (three weeks on the job) for a mobile project involving ten thousand mobile users.  
12. How soon can the mobile solutions vendor support new versions of popular mobile operating systems?  Do they take 90 days, 9 months or three years?
13. Understand the mobile vendor's expertise with integrating into your specific ERP or backend business solution.  Often, the mobility vendor does not have expertise, and you will need to find it.
14. How do you get your new feature requests on the product roadmap?  How does the process work? Can you add new features yourself, that may provide competitive advantages, or must you wait for the vendor to add it to a roadmap?
15. What is your mobility vendors core focus?  Is it enterprise asset management?  Is it workforce scheduling?  Is it B2C solutions?  Is it mobile banking?  You need to understand what expertise you are getting with the relationship.
16. Is your mobile solution expertise coming from the solution vendor or a third-party system integrator?  There are advantages for both, but it is just important to know who your experts are.
17. Ask you mobile solution vendor what percentage of their annual revenue comes from software and what portion comes from services.  This might help you understand if you are truly buying an off-the-shelf solution, or a long term services relationship.
18. Ask for a list of all products and services sold by the mobility vendor that are likely going to cost you.  This is important to try to uncover any and all anticipated costs up front.  Ask for a typical break down of expenses for a similar project.
19. Is the annual software maintenance fee charged the first year, or does it start on the second year?
20. We all know and want our mobility vendors to make money.  We want them to be financially healthy and investing in R&D.  What are their business models?  How do they charge for their solutions?  Do they charge by mobile client?  Do they charge a server fee?  Do they charge a subscription by the month, but paid annually?  Do they charge for development environments?  Do they charge for their IDE/SDKs?  What is their annual maintenance costs?
21. Upfront, getting-started costs are important to understand.  I know some mobile platform vendors that want to charge you hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of platform before there are any mobile apps.  To me this is difficult to swallow. There is no ROI on a mobile platform without apps.  I would rather pay for the platform as part of an app.  I want to pay when my ROI starts.
22. Scalability for your mobile platform is very important to understand.  Does it take one server to support an average of 1,000 mobile users, or does it require one server to support every 100 mobile users?  This can make a huge difference in total cost of ownership.  Schedule and insist on interviewing real users that have the same numbers of users that you may require.  Don't take promises, interview real users.
23. Often mobile solution vendors have many different products, and each product has its own feature list.  Often they do not support all the same devices, operating systems, security solutions and capabilities.  If a vendor has 25 different mobile solutions, then you need to review each to see what their capabilities are.  It is very easy to assume that because one of the products supports Android, that the other 24 products support Android.  That is rarely the case in the real world.
24. Ask the mobile solution vendor which mobile platforms they support for each of their products. 
25. Some mobile solution vendors only support online solutions only.  This is important to understand if you require offline support.  Ask if they support offline/online solutions or connected/disconnected solutions.
26. Ask vendors if there are hardware dependencies in their solutions.  I know some solutions are only available on Windows Mobile 6.x operating systems.
27. If you get a bad RFI or RFP from a good vendor.  Reject it and go higher up in the vendor's organization.  Don't give up on doing business with a good company just because one of their junior level people can't write or answer written questions.

I expect this list to continue to grow over the next few days as I think of more questions.  Can you think of more important questions?  Please add them to the comment section here and share!  Thanks!!!!

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

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

Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly – Week of May 6, 2012

Welcome to the Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly, an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility in Asia.  Asia is predicted to be the fastest area of growth for enterprise mobility between now and 2016.

Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Singapore’s EpiCentre is moving into the mobile commerce arena, allowing retail transactions to be made using mobile devices. Read Original Content and Read More Original Content

Apple reports that iPhone sales in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong increased five-fold during the first quarter of 2012. Read Original Content

The National Payments Corporation of India is requesting approval from the Reserve Bank to make mobile payment services provided by banks and telecomm companies work together.  Read Original Content

Ericsson has signed a framework agreement with China Mobile and a letter of intent with China Unicom for equipment and services. Read Original Content

Some of the key trends contributing to the rise in enterprise mobility in India are:
Predicted accelerated growth in mobility among larger enterprises; increased start-up activity in mobility; and concerns on security and integration. Read Original Content

Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of April 29, 2012

The Mobile Commerce 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.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

WorldPay has released its new survey, The Global Online Shopper Report, which surveyed 19,000 consumers and 153 senior decision makers from global retailers to identify the online and mobile shopping habits of consumers in the U.K., U.S., China, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Canada, Argentina and India. Read Original Content

NFC-enabled mobile payments may not have the kind of immediate impact the likes of Google and Isis are hoping for, according to Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers fellow Jack Winters. In an interview with Network World, Winters said that he sees no reason to switch from credit cards to NFC mobile payments, and that the technology won’t have a major impact on the payments landscape until it is available everywhere. Read Original Content

According a study from the University of California, Berkeley — which surveyed 1,203 "adult internet users" in the U.S. and was fully funded by Nokia — 74 percent of those questioned say that they don't plan on adopting any sort of mobile payment service. The main issue appears to be one of privacy. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

According to the Financial Times, Google and PayPal have reportedly been whispering to the EU that allowing the UK operators to band together and promote NFC payments would be anti-competitive and shouldn't be allowed. Read Original Content

Another major acquisition has been confirmed in the mCommerce space. Precision consumer marketing firm Catalina Marketing Corporation announced its acquisition of mCommerce outfit Modiv Media. Read Original Content

Research In Motion has announced a new device called the BlackBerry Music Gateway that can stream music wirelessly using NFC and Bluetooth technology. The gadget will cost $50 and debuts in June. Read Original Content

Enterprise Mobility, Mobile Sensors and Data Collection

I am reading a book titled Spying with Maps.   It details the amazing sensors that are available on cameras and infrared scanners today.  Perhaps not on your typical handheld camera, but if you have a heavy duty spy camera or infrared scanner hanging from an orbiting satellite you could have these capabilities.  Here are some examples:

• sensors able to distinguish camouflage from natural vegetation
• sensors that can pinpoint distressed crops
• sensors that can identify heat loss and soil moisture
• sensors that can identify and classify vegetation
• sensors that can detect changes in objects (the object moved since yesterday)

A Whitepaper by Kevin Benedict

Perhaps you are scratching your head wondering how this will be useful at your next family reunion, but it gets even better!  In this MacWorld article titled Photo Measures and Measured for iOS, the author describes several new mobile apps that enable you to take a photo and add measurements and angles to the image so you can see the dimensions of objects including the girth of Uncle Charlie.  It is very useful for contractors and real estate agents that need to regularly record, save and share measurements.

The only thing missing from the sensors above, is a fashion accessory.  Something that you can wear.  Relax! I have found that too.  It is from a company called Shimmer.  Shimmer's wearable sensors can collect many different kinds of sensory data such as wireless ECG, EMG, GSR, Accelerometer, Gyro, Mag, GPS, Tilt and Vibration sensors.

Wireless data collection sensors that can record all of these different kinds of data, upload it in real-time to a server, where it can be analyzed and shared with the field force in near real-time presents a near limitless amount of possibilities for enterprise mobility.  It is intriguing to me how these sensors, big data, business analytics and mobile devices can all work together to augment our reality.  It is now up to all of you visionaries out there to define the best use cases!

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

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

Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of April 15, 2012

The Mobile Commerce 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.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

A new study from Juniper Research indicates NFC technology will facilitate transactions valued at $74 billion by 2015, as NFC is increasingly used to pay for goods in store, and for transport ticketing. This is over treble the estimated value of this market in 2011. Read Original Content

In RichRelevance’s “The 2012 Q1 shopping insights mobile study,” the company looked at how iPad shoppers are responsible for a solid chunk of browsing and buying on mobile. The study also looked at the buying habits of iPad owners, which has clear implications on how retailers should be developing tablet-specific efforts. Read Original Content

Intuit is extending its mobile commerce strategy with a new deal to acquire shopping application AisleBuyer. According to reports, Intuit and AisleBuyer have been piloting an integration of the app’s mobile check-out technology with Intuit’s products. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

A new report from KPMG predicts that mobile commerce will grow by 97 percent per year over the next three years, with revenue from mobile commerce expected to hit £591 billion by 2015. Read Original Content

Nokia and Microsoft are jointly jumping onto the NFC bandwagon with the next version of the Lumia 610. Slated to debut in Europe sometime this summer, the new version of the 610 will be the first Windows Phone handset to let users pay for goods on the go via NFC. Read Original Content

NFC technology is slowly being incorporated into mobile phones to create an electronic virtual wallet. Simply pass your phone over a reader and money is extracted from your funds that are stored on a computer someplace else. Those who don't think this is a disaster waiting to happen do not understand technology. Read Original Content

What's New in HTML5 - Week of April 16, 2012

SAP has become a big advocate of HTML5 for enterprise mobility.  Many of their recently announced partnerships with mobile vendors include strong endorsements of HTML5.  I also see HTML5 playing a very important role for mobile applications developed in house.  It is very hard to justify creating native applications for all platforms when you are only distributing the mobile apps internally.  The economies of scale that mobility vendors can receive, are often not possible when developing for internal customers.

Information visualization firm Periscopic has worked on a number of HTML5 sites developed for the iPad.  They found that switching from Flash to HTML5 was not as bad as they feared.  Read original content

Sencha reviewed Apple’s new iPad and iOS 5.1 and results of the HTML5 Scorecard indicated the new product and OS were a “mixed bag at best and a disappointment at worst”.  Read original content

Cisco predicts that the number of mobile connected devices will exceed the world’s population in 2012.    This article provides five reasons to turn to HTML5 for building a mobile site.  Read original content

The University of Notre Dame has redesigned its website using a mobile first approach that provides content on any device.  Read original content

With the border between desktop and mobile quickly fading away, the best way to provide content to the end user regardless of desktop or mobile is with HTML5.  This article explores five reasons why HTML5 matters for meeting expectations and providing users what they want, keeping clients focused on your service, product or website.  Read original content

Stating that “we believe that web technologies are important to the future of mobile and that we can help to make HTML5 a well-supported platform for mobile developers to build upon,” Facebook has open-sourced Ringmark, its browser test suite for developing mobile applications.  Read original content

Software company CodeBaby has announced that its 3D virtual assistant technology is now available for mobile devices.  The company’s 3D interactive characters will be implemented on mobile devices through the emerging HTML5 video standards.  Read original content

Speakers at the India Software Developer Conference in March provided advice on developing mobile apps using HTML5, with presentations such as “Building Mobile HTML5 Apps in Hours, Not Days” and ““Cross platform Mobile App Development with HTML 5”.  Read original content

The Pacific Asia Travel Association has launched a real-time travel data platform that travel industry professionals can use on their mobile devices.  PATAmPOWER was created in HTML5 and is available for smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops.  Read original content

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

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