Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of June 3, 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 British Post Office, a company that can trace its roots back to 1660, is leaping with both feet into the 21st century and the NFC payments game. The post office is rolling out NFC-compatible payment systems to each of its branches across the country starting this week. Read Original Content

In the United States, nearly half of the nation (48 percent) is interested in a mobile wallet, based on a representative sample of 605 consumers conducted by Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group, a financial services industry consulting firm. Read Original Content

D TECH, a manufacturer of automated data entry, mobile payment, point of sale, and secure payment devices, has introduced a new line of Bluetooth devices which support magnetic stripe and barcode reading technologies. 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

Marvell has announced a new 802.11ac-enabled chip that includes NFC and Bluetooth, all in one. The Avastar 88W8897 is geared at mobile devices and aims to compete with Broadcom's own chipsets, which are already being sold inside "5G Wi-Fi" routers. Read Original Content

Security Service Federal Credit Union has formed a partnership with Tyfone Inc. to introduce a host of mobile financial services to its members. Security Service customers will be able to check their balances, review account history, transfer funds, lookup branch and ATM locations, set up customizable alerts and pay bills. Read Original Content

Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly – Week of June 3, 2012

The Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to field mobility 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 Mobile Commerce News Weekly 
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

The tourism department in Gujarat, India is planning a 24x7 call center, a mobile app and GIS mapping of the tourist destinations of the state to help the tourists get information about destinations, facilities and hotels.  Read Original Content

M2M communications are predicted to be among the four major areas driving new growth, according to a survey by Frost & Sullivan of four hundred players in the information and communications technology industry.  Read Original Content

Transcore has launched a mobile app to manage real-time traffic situations.  The TransSuite advanced traffic management system mobile app is designed for use on Apple’s iPad, but can also be used on the iPhone and iPod touch.  Read Original Content

Since 1995, Syclo has enabled hundreds of companies in 37 countries and industries supercharge their businesses with mobility.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Syclo.

DLI has announced the launch of the DLI 9000 Rugged Mobile Tablet, which includes a 5-in-1 mobile payment module option.  Read Original Content

Daimler has launched a new speed control system on their long-haul trucks that utilizes GPS data to automatically choose the right gear for going up or down a hill.  Combined with the “EcoRoll” function, which lets the truck coast in neutral when safe to do so, the system provides a three percent improvement in fuel economy.  Read Original Content

Navman Wireless has partnered with TransitPro Logistics to provide an integrated fleet tracking and Medicaid billing solution for school transportation.  Read Original Content

Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly – Week of June 3, 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
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Also read Mobility News Weekly

The Chinese government has officially announced the country now has over one billion mobile phone users.  According to the CTIA Wireless Association, the U.S. trails by far with 330 million mobile phone users.  Read Original Content

Estimates by eMarketer forecast online ad spending in China will reach $7.36 billion in 2012, and by 2016 will more than double to $16.48 billion. Read Original Content

The online ad market in China reached $2.2 billion in the first quarter of 2012, a year-over-year jump of 56 percent, according to the Beijing Review.  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.

The results of the TCS GenY survey of 12,300 high school students in India reveal that 79 percent of respondents own mobile phones, and more than 40 percent use mobile phones to access the Internet.  Read Original Content

Microsoft has launched Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure in India, a program under which 10 technology startups leveraging cloud technology for verticals like e-commerce, mobile, media, social applications, gaming, education and healthcare, enterprise and telecom, will be selected for a four-month incubation program.  Read Original Content

Reports from Marbridge Consulting indicate Microsoft may be set to expand its MSN business in China, pushing into e-commerce and increasing integration with Windows phone.  Read Original Content

Mobile Health News Weekly – Week of May 27, 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

The healthcare industry increasingly sees geographic information system (GIS) software as a tool to improve the quality of care by tracking and analyzing area trends, according to an article published in The Atlantic Cities.  Read Original Content

A Manhattan Research survey of more than 3,000 practicing physicians in the United States indicates that 62 percent of physicians actively use tablets for professional purposes, and half of them have used the device at the point of care. Read Original Content

Since having a heart attack, Bill Davenhall has traveled the globe speaking to audiences and advising governments on geo-medicine, an emerging field that uses GIS mapping to correlate environmental conditions to health risks like heart attacks and cancer. Read Original Content

Webalo technology eliminates the need for traditional mobile application development tools and custom programming to provide in hours, instead of weeks or months, mobile access to the specific enterprise data and functions that smartphone and tablet users rely on to do their jobs.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Webalo, www.webalo.com.

The PocketHealth app is a mobile personal health record platform designed for individuals or families who want to personally control and manage their health and wellness. Read Original Content

A recent report from Englewood, Colorado-based research firm, IMS Research, is predicting that medical devices utilized by the consumer to self-monitor their health, rather than those used in managed telehealth systems, will be the biggest opportunity for wireless technologies in healthcare over the next five years. Read Original Content

Mobility News Weekly – Week of May 27, 2012

The 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 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 Mobile Health News Weekly

The latest report from IDC says Android and iOS control a whopping 82 percent of the smartphone market. Android and Apple devices simply dominate with a combined market share of 82 percent.  Read Original Content

IDC has released new numbers showing that Android now has a 60 percent market share, while BlackBerry has fallen to a meager 6 percent.  Read Original Content

According to a report from advertising network Chitika, the share of internet-connected mobile devices has risen to 20 percent in the U.S. and Canada, a large portion of which are Apple products like the iPhone and iPad.  Read Original Content

ClickSoftware is an SAP mobility partner and the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by ClickSoftware - http://www.clicksoftware.com/.

Smartphone sales will total between 750 million and 800 million units and reach over $230 billion during 2012, according to Richard Kramer from Arete Research. However, Apple, Samsung Electronics and HTC are the only vendors making money, he said.  Read Original Content

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, said its third-generation Galaxy S smartphone went on sale Tuesday in 28 European and Middle Eastern countries, hoping to cement its lead over Apple’s iPhone.  Read Original Content

New York Times has reported that Facebook may come out with its own smartphone next year. Employees of Facebook and engineers briefed on Facebook's plans, say the company hopes to release its own smartphone by next year.  Read Original Content

Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly – Week of May 27, 2012

The Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to field mobility 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 Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

The new Cyber Navi GPS system uses an augmented reality heads-up display attached to a vehicle’s sun visor and displays the map and directions right in front of the driver.  Read Original Content

 A barcode app that assists users in reading what is written in barcodes reached 1 million downloads in 2011.  The “Bar-Code” app, created by a self-employed developer, provides a method to use the scanned barcodes in other software.  Read Original Content

The rugged “Presto” tablet used by E La Carte allows diners to view and order from a digital menu, and pay using the in-built card reader and is now used in 600 restaurants in the U.S. and worldwide.  Read Original Content

Since 1995, Syclo has enabled hundreds of companies in 37 countries and industries supercharge their businesses with mobility.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Syclo. http://www.syclo.com/.

Nielsen has released figures illustrating how consumers use their smartphones when shopping – comparing prices, scanning barcodes and redeeming coupons.  Read Original Content

Major Software as a Service benefits to mobile workforce management include:  Fast deployment, improved reliability and paper reduction.  A whitepaper, “Mobile Workforce Management Gets SaaSy”, is now available from TOA Technologies.  Read Original Content

The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina has found that the iSynergy and iScan electronic content management solution saves time and money, allowing patrol officers with in-car computers to access important information immediately from the field.  Read Original Content

Mobility News Weekly – Week of May 20, 2012

The 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 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 Mobile Health News Weekly

The Apple iPhone continues to lead mobile video messaging usage, increasing from 7.4 percent to 23.6 percent since August 2011. However, the use of Samsung devices is quickly gaining ground, increasing from 2.9 percent to 21.9 percent over the same period.  Read Original Content

Worldwide enterprise wireless local area network segment recorded a growth of 27.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012 over the first quarter of 2011, according to a report by the International Data Corporation.  Read Original Content

Google has announced that the acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. has closed, with Google acquiring MMI for $40 per share in cash.  Read Original Content

ClickSoftware is an SAP mobility partner and the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by ClickSoftware - http://www.clicksoftware.com/.

Chief executive of ARM - Warren East - in an interview with Dow Jones news agency, said he expects companies making ARM-based chips to capture about 10 percent to 20 percent of the notebook PC market by 2014 or 2015.  Read Original Content

Android smartphone sales were up by 61.3 percent in 2011, and it has been estimated that 700,000 new smartphones are activated every day. This benefits Google, whose Android operating system was on 56.1 percent of the smartphones that were sold in 2011.  Read Original Content

Samsung continues to pump out mobile phones like there's no tomorrow, while Nokia's global market share continues to slip. Apple now gobbles up 7.9 percent of the market with its iPhone, and Research In Motion keeps on flailing.  Read Original Content

Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of May 20, 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 survey from ABI Research shows that smartphone users with a retailer-branded app are better customers, with 45.8 percent of respondents saying the app caused them to visit the store more. Read Original Content

A new study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau points to the strong use of mobile by consumers while they are inside a retail store, with 73 percent of respondents saying they have used their mobile in store. Read Original Content

Flash Valet, an Austin, Texas-based company, will be launching an app soon that lets users get rid of paper tickets, long waits and scrambling for cash to pay for valet parking. 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

Mitek Systems Inc., a mobile imaging software solutions provider, have announced that approximately $10 billion in mobile deposits have been enabled by its mobile imaging technology. The company also said that its transaction volume increased more than 143 percent during the six-month period ending December 2011. Read Original Content

Tyfone has been awarded two U.S. Patents for its new miniaturized NFC antenna design. Specifically designed for use in MicroSD cards, the mini antenna works with any smart card secure element, across multiple mobile devices and on any NFC reader without the need for external booster antennas or after-market battery covers. Read Original Content

Parkmobile USA is bringing its mobile payment service to Oakland, California. The new service supports NFC-based contactless payments, allowing customers to wave or tap their phone on any of Parkmobile’s NFC-enabled stickers. Read Original Content

Mobile Health News Weekly – Week of May 13, 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

Telit Wireless Solutions and CardioNet have partnered to provide a method to capture and transmit cardiac data while the patient is fully ambulatory, helping doctors manage heart health. Read Original Content

A new mHealth study from GlobalData says that the market is set to explode, thanks in large part to public and private investors who have helped to move healthcare technology to the next level. Read Original Content

Adding to a stable of mobile health tools that includes an Android app and a mobile-optimized website, Kaiser Permanente executives have announced the launch of an iOS health management app, available free of charge in the Apple iTunes store. Read Original Content

Webalo technology eliminates the need for traditional mobile application development tools and custom programming to provide in hours, instead of weeks or months, mobile access to the specific enterprise data and functions that smartphone and tablet users rely on to do their jobs.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Webalo, www.webalo.com.

By the end of this year, the planet Earth will have more mobile devices than people, one of several factors driving telecommunications companies to make a big bet on wireless health, according to a telecom executive. Read Original Content

Physician use of tablet computers has nearly doubled since 2011, according to a new report by Manhattan Research. Read Original Content

Scott Wilson, who leads technology, media and telecommunications research for Deloitte Research, believes mHealth is the next frontier for mobile service growth. Read Original Content

Mobility News Weekly – Week of May 13, 2012

The 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 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 Mobile Health News Weekly

App stores for consumers have worked for Apple, Google and others, but the jury is still out on the business market simply because this market is just getting started. Business software maker ClickSoftware Technologies is one of the first to jump in. It launched its mobile app store April 17. Read Original Content

As smartphone ownership rises, almost three-quarters of smartphone owners use their phone to get real-time location-based information, and almost one in five use a geosocial service like Foursquare.  Read Original Content

With over 140 million active users worldwide, Twitter has revealed that out of the 10 million active users based in the UK, 80 percent of them access the site through mobile phones. This is significantly higher than the global average of 55 percent.  Read Original Content

ClickSoftware is an SAP mobility partner and the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by ClickSoftware - http://www.clicksoftware.com/.

Forrester Research says apps generated in 2011 from purchases and ads had revenue of $6 billion. Forrester expects app revenues to double this year, to $12 billion—an incredible figure for a market not yet four years old.  Read Original Content

Samsung produced approximately 40 percent of the Android-based smartphones sold during the first quarter, according to new stats from Gartner. No other vendor nabbed more than 10 percent of the global market.  Read Original Content

Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly – Week of May 13, 2012

The Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to field mobility 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 Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

B&B Electronics Manufacturing Company has launched an 802.11 b/g WiFi access point to provide M2M equipment with wireless networking capabilities.  B&B is a developer of rugged wireless and M2M solutions for harsh environments. Read Original Content

The proliferation of M2M devices is one of three technology trends converging to take building automation to the next level. Read Original Content

Novatel Wireless and NexTraq have signed an agreement for Novatel to provide its MT 3000 device for NexTraq’s GPS fleet tracking solution. Read Original Content

Since 1995, Syclo has enabled hundreds of companies in 37 countries and industries supercharge their businesses with mobility.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Syclo. http://www.syclo.com/.

Several technological advances are showing that RFID is living up to the hype.  The integration of ePaper with RFID tags, thin film technology/printed electronics and thin film technology/nanotechnology will all have a significant effect on the future of RFID. Read Original Content

Walt Disney World in Florida is testing a new FastPass system with RFID technology and iPad devices. Read Original Content

Benchmark Electronics has developed a reference design, the Grizzly Tablet, for key markets such as medical and industrial control equipment, including aerospace and defense. Read Original Content

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

Mobile Health News Weekly – Week of May 6, 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

Rogers Communications will enable wireless infant pajamas in Canada later this year as part of its M2M mobile health portfolio. Read Original Content

Telit Wireless Solutions announced its CC864-DUAL cellular module will connect the next generation Mobile Cardiac Outpatient Telemetry from CardioNet, Inc., a wireless medical technology company with a current focus on the diagnosis and monitoring of cardiac arrhythmias. Read Original Content

The Department of Defense released a mobile app to help service members adjust to life at home after returning from combat deployments. Positive Activity Jackpot, developed by the National Center for Telehealth and Technology, uses augmented reality with a smart phone’s GPS to help find nearby activities and diversions for someone used to the high tempo of combat life. Read Original Content

Webalo technology eliminates the need for traditional mobile application development tools and custom programming to provide in hours, instead of weeks or months, mobile access to the specific enterprise data and functions that smartphone and tablet users rely on to do their jobs.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Webalo, www.webalo.com.

Mobiquity, a professional services firm creating mobile solutions, announced Dr. Stephen Ferzoco has joined the company as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Ferzoco will help Mobiquity tap the vast potential of the mHealth industry, estimated by analysts to top $4.6 billion by 2014. Read Original Content

The future of the mHealth space is, in a word, "growth," which is exemplified at this week's International CTIA Wireless 2012 trade show in New Orleans. The mHealth market is expected to grow from just $500 million in 2010 to $8 billion by 2018, according to a report from Global Data. Read Original Content

Float Mobile Learning’s most recent quarterly report on mobile applications for wellness, home care, emergencies and hospital management reveals a trend toward “do-it-yourself” medicine. Key findings show a movement toward patient-centered healthcare, with mobile devices placing medical knowledge in the hands of patients. Read Original Content

Mobile Expert Video Series: Harish Rau, Part 2

This is Part 2 in this series with Element Five Solutions' Harish Rau.  In this segment, he shares advice and lessons learned during implementations of the Sybase Unwired Platform. He is a true enterprise mobility expert.  By that I mean, he has been down the path and lived to share his experiences with you and I.

*************************************************************

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.

Mobility News Weekly – Week of May 6, 2012

The 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 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 Mobile Health News Weekly

Apple is in roughly the same position it was last quarter, with an 8.8 percent share of the market in terms of units shipped (according to IDC) and a share of profits (according to Dediu) down two percentage points to 73 percent.  Read Original Content

comScore announced the U.S. launch of Mobile Metrix 2.0.  Mobile Metrix 2.0 brings comScore's Unified Digital Measurement to smartphone devices, combining passive on-device measurement with census-level data to provide one of the most accurate and detailed views into actual U.S. mobile media usage across apps and mobile browsing.  Read Original Content

A new Canalys report reveals worldwide smartphone shipments in the first 2012 quarter have reached 146 million units, which means a 45 percent year-on-year growth. In the U.S. the industry grew by 5 percent.  Read Original Content

ClickSoftware is an SAP mobility partner and the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by ClickSoftware - http://www.clicksoftware.com/.

Buoyed by its successful launches, Samsung Electronics hopes to increase its share in the 18 to 19 million unit Indian smartphone market to 60 percent in the current year.  Read Original Content

Lenovo wants a piece of the smartphone pie and has confirmed it’s willing to spend the dough to get a taste of the action with an $800 million investment in a smartphone division.  Read Original Content

By the end of 2017, smartphone shipments will reach 1.7 billion units, research firm Ovum predicts. That would represent a staggering compound annual growth rate of just under 25 percent for the period of 2011 to 2017.  Read Original Content

Mobile Marketing News Weekly – Week of May 6, 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

Internet Broadcasting, provider of digital publishing technology and services and one of the world's largest digital advertising agencies, has unveiled a new family of interactive mobile-marketing products that enable advertisers to offer text-based solutions for digital marketing campaigns. Read Original Content

Amtrak, the government-owned corporation that oversees the nation’s railroad train services, has been training conductors since November to use the Apple handset as an electronic ticket scanner on a few routes. By late summer, 1,700 conductors will be using the devices. Read Original Content

With nearly 80 percent of the population owning a mobile phone, major brands, retailers and start-ups are using SMS to interact directly with consumers and drive new business. 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 advertising spending has been growing between 50 to 80 percent year over year and, according to eMarketer, it is set to reach 2.6 billion this year and 4.3 billion in 2013. Read Original Content

This week Web.com Group, Inc. published its latest Small Business Mobile Survey. According to the survey’s findings, 69 percent of small businesses consider mobile marketing “crucial to their growth in the next five years.” Read Original Content

Facebook will play up its prospects for expanding in mobile advertising when it begins pitching its initial public offering to investors in New York, Boston and Silicon Valley next week. Read Original Content

Worldwide advertising dollars devoted to mobile devices are expected to leap 85.4 percent this year to $11.6 billion, according to a study by market research company Strategy Analytics. Read Original Content

Mobile Expert Video Series: Harish Rau, Part 1

I had the honor of interviewing Element Five Solutions' Harish Rau last week.  He is one of those rare people that have a lot of experience implementing SAP's mobility platform including SUP (Sybase Unwired Platform).  He has a great deal of real world experience and is the guy to speak to about the good, bad and ugly of implementations.  The value he brings to us, is real world advice.  I hope you enjoy.

*************************************************************

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 May 6, 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

Kiwibank's first mobile banking app may make banking relationships more intimate. Due to be released this week, the bank's iPhone app has the unique feature of assigning customers their own online relationship manager to help deal with any queries via text or email. Read Original Content

Forrester Research has just released its 2012 U.S. Mobile Banking Functionality Rankings report, which indicates that approximately 17 percent of American adults are currently using their smartphones and tablets in order to interact with their financial institutions. Read Original Content

DropWallet is introducing M-Commerce to the publishing industry, starting with Real Simple's new Mother's Day Gift Guide app for iPhone. By powering an in-app shopping experience, DropWallet's digital content commerce solution enables publishers to diversify their revenue. 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

NFC phones developed by HTC, Intel, LG Electronics, Nokia, RIM, Samsung and Sony have all now been certified for contactless payments — and have the right to carry a new “MasterCard PayPass Ready” logo. Read Original Content

Web.com Group, Inc. published its latest Small Business Mobile Survey, which looks at small business growth and the tools and resources being used to drive that progress. According to the survey’s findings, 69 percent of small businesses consider mobile marketing crucial to their growth in the next five years. Read Original Content

The mobile payment landscape is rapidly evolving. Many smartphone users welcome the convenience of mobile payments (87 percent in the UK), while others worry about the privacy factor (79 percent in Asia). In the U.S., 49 percent of consumers found shopping on a smartphone awkward. 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.

Avengers (Super Heros), Enterprise Mobility and Network Centric Warfare

In the new movie titled, The Avengers - super heroes Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow, Thor, Nick Fury and Hawkeye all work together to fight bad guys.  The first thing I thought about when I read the plot was, "How do all these super heroes communicate with each other and coordinate activities when they are running around saving civilization?"  Now I must admit, I seem to be the only person left in the world that did not see the movie this weekend.  My excuse, I was getting organized for the next leg of my "Free Range Eggs with Benedict - Mobile Strategies Speaking Series."  Next up, speaking on mobile strategies in Las Vegas, Spain and The Netherlands.

The military has also been struggling with the challenge of keeping all of their forces informed and connected.  Since the 1990s, however, it has embraced the concept of "network-centric warfare." Here is how it is described on Wikipedia:

Network-centric warfare, also called network-centric operations, is a military doctrine or theory of war pioneered by the United States Department of Defense in the 1990's.  It seeks to translate an information advantage, enabled in part by information technology, into a competitive advantage through the robust networking of well informed geographically dispersed forces.

Specifically, the theory contains the following four tenets in its hypotheses:

1. A robustly networked force improves information sharing;
2. Information sharing enhances the quality of information and shared situational awareness;
3. Shared situational awareness enables collaboration and self-synchronization, and enhances sustainability and speed of command; and
4. These, in turn, dramatically increase mission effectiveness.

On a side note, ClickSoftware has a whitepaper titled Networked Field Services that explores how this theory is applied to field services.  You can download it here.

Do you see why I wondered about the Avengers?  How were they informing each other and providing situational awareness?  What networks were they using?  How were they using these networks to support their mission?  I guess I should probably just watch the movie.

Field services organizations face similar challenges.  How do you "robustly network" with your field services technicians and improve information sharing.  Are there ways that your field service forces would benefit from working closer together to "increase mission effectiveness?"

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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.