Kevin’s Mobile Retailing News Weekly – December 7, 2010

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

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On Cyber Monday mobile commerce sales from eBay shoppers in the United States increased 146 percent year over year, with California, Nevada, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Florida leading the way as the top mobile shopping states.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/ebay-us-mobile-commerce-sales-soar-146pc-on-cyber-monday/

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IBM announced that the Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. website has experienced a double digit increase in sales using IBM software to advance its online and mobile commerce initiatives. Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. sells leading brands in apparel, cosmetics and home furnishings.

HTML 5 and Sybase Unwired Platform

Sybase, an SAP company, has made a lot of money over the years selling mobile client databases.  These databases (SQL Anywhere Database Client) reside on the mobile device and are synchronized with a technology called SQL Anywhere Mobilink.  I wonder how this revenue stream will be impacted by the emergence and adoption of HTML 5.

Does anyone dare share an opinion?

HTML 5 has a database built into it.  Every mobile client that uses this HTML 5 database means one less potential SQL Anywhere Database Client license for Sybase. 

I read this week on Gil Bouhnick's blog MobileFever, that ClickSoftware is releasing their first HTML 5 version of their ClickMobile solution.  Last month I saw a demo of their iPad version running HTML 5 and it was a great looking application.

I look forward to your thoughts and comments regarding the impact you believe HTML 5 will have on the enterprise mobility market.

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

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

Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly – December 2, 2010

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

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Analysts predict the mobile application market will be worth $4 billion by next year.

http://green.tmcnet.com/news/2010/11/25/5158630.htm

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Google's Android OS has successfully managed to dethrone Symbian as the most popular smartphone OS in Asia for the third quarter of 2010.

http://www.pcworld.in/news/android-most-popular-smartphone-platform-asia-41562010

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The iPhone's popularity in Japan is cracking open an industry long thought inaccessible to outsiders.

Facebook, Mobility and Field Services Applications

I have been watching with keen interest the convergence of social networking and enterprise mobility.  Recently, SAP mobility partner, ClickSoftware announced a social media extension to their SAP Workforce Scheduling and Optimization solution that is very interesting and worth highlighting. 

Customers can book and change service appointments directly on a service organization’s Facebook page.  Customers can receive reminders and notifications on the expected arrival time of the field service engineer to minimize wait times.  With this extension, Facebook becomes yet another interaction channel for ClickContact, which can also integrate two-way communication with company web pages, automated voice calls, e-mail and SMS. Customers may select their preferred channels of communication at any time.

Right now, Facebook does not support this application extension on the Facebook mobile application, but this is expected in the near future. So today the customer accesses Facebook from their browser and books or reschedules their appointment.  How does this relate to mobility?  Customers can configure the Facebook application to send notifications to their smartphones via email, voice message, Facebook notification or text.

Mobile Enterprise Management Platform

Is another mobile acronym on your Christmas list?  Great!  I have one for you, MEMP (mobile enterprise management platform).  A MEMP is designed to help you keep mobile systems, mobile networks, mobile devices and your mobile workforce working and productive.  This is not easy if you have several thousand mobile devices being used in mission critical roles across a wide geographic area.

When my family and I are traveling on trains in Europe, all of the rail staff that check your tickets and sell you snacks are carrying mobile devices.  Airports and airport gates are increasingly being operated by people with mobile devices.  Public safety and emergency responders are nearly all carrying mobile devices today.

If you have the good fortune of being the person responsible for keeping mission critical mobile applications and mobile devices operating, then you would appreciate the value of a MEMP.

Global Economic Development, Prosperity and Enterprise Mobility

In the book The Birth of Plenty, the author William J. Bernstein proposes that prosperity is based on the following four tenets:

1. Property Rights – Creators must have proper incentives to create.

2. Scientific Rationalism – Innovators must possess the proper intellectual tools in order to innovate and must be able to do so without fear of retribution.

3. Capital Markets – Entrepreneurs must have access to sufficient capital to pursue their visions.

4. Transportation/Communications – Society must be able to rapidly and efficiently move information and finished products.

Bernstein says that the presence of, or lack of, these four items determines the level of prosperity of a people or country.

When I read item four on the list I thought about enterprise mobility.  I have worked on, seen and heard about many mobile enterprise applications that have enabled economic development and a higher quality of life.  Let me share a few of them.

The Intangible Benefits of Enterprise Mobility

Click for Information

In an article re-published in The Wall Street Journal last year, The Secrets of Intangible Wealth, author Ronald Bailey writes the following, “A Mexican migrant to the US is 5 times more productive than one who stays home.”  Did your interest peak like mine when you read that line?  The data comes from research done by the World Bank.  Here is the reason why according to Bailey.  The average American has access to over $418,000 in intangible wealth, while the stay-at-home Mexican’s intangible wealth is just $34,000.

What is intangible wealth? The World Bank’s environmental economics department describes it as, “trust among people in a society, an efficient judicial system, clear property rights and effective governments.”  The value of these intangibles according to the World Bank is significant.  Who wants to invest in property if it can be taken away any time?  Who wants to develop a large manufacturing plant in a location where these intangibles are hard to come by?

Key Performance Indicators in Mobile Applications

Picture this - a service technician, Frank, opens his mobile application and sees that he is ranked sixth out of 18 service technicians in products and services sold.  He also sees that he is the fastest service technician at completing work on a particular piece of equipment.  Overall he can see that he is ranked number three when all of the figures are added up and weighed.  Now let me ask you, "Is this a good thing?" 

Is it useful to develop KPIs (key performance indicators) and then measure and share them?  Will it motivate positive performance?  One of the key challenges managers have is effectively managing a remote and mobile workforce.  Will KPIs that are measured and shared on mobile devices help?

Kevin’s Mobile Money News Weekly – December 1, 2010

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

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New forecasts from ABI Research indicate that in 2015 about 244 million people worldwide will carry out financial transactions using their mobile phones.

http://www.sys-con.com/node/1610685
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Google’s newest iteration of its Android phone OS will include a wallet that lets you use your phone to make payments by tapping it against a cash register.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/11/android-wallet

Execution in Enterprise Mobility

This weekend I read an article written by Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, called Africa Needs Aid Not Flawed Theories in the November 27-28 edition of the Wall Street Journal.  In it he criticizes author Matt Ridley’s ideas (found in the book The Rational Optimist) by saying, “He seems to think that innovation involves simply coming up with a new idea, when in fact the execution of the idea is critical.”

This got me thinking.  If the execution of the idea is what is critical, how does this relate to enterprise mobility vendors? 

I receive calls and emails from mobile start-ups weekly.  Many are convinced they have a better mobile application, a better strategy and a better team.  However, they have no money, only three people in the company, no brand recognition, and no global sales, delivery or support infrastructure.  I usually ask a few additional questions to learn if there is anything at all that might hint at their ability to execute.  Too often there is not.