Mobile Commerce News Weekly - Week of January 9, 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 News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

Mobile commerce sales in the United States are expected to hit $5.3 billion in 2011, up 83 percent from a year ago, according to Barclays Capital. Read Original Content

In a recent study, IBM found that online shopping jumped 16.4 percent on Christmas Day over the same time in 2010. The dollar amount of those purchases using mobile devices increased 172.9 percent. Read Original Content

eMarketer estimates that mobile commerce will increase from $6.7 billion in 2011 to $12.6 billion by 2012. Read Original Content

Pyxis Mobile provides an agile, powerful, and secure mobile enterprise application platform.  It enables rapid cross-platform application development, unlimited data integration, enterprise-grade security, and the unique ability to change and update applications in real time.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Pyxis Mobile, http://pyxismobile.com/

Mobile payment device maker-Square has agreed to sell their devices at both UPS and Office Max stores totaling 1,000 new locations. The company now has over 10,000 retail stores selling their devices. Read Original Content
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Mobile Apps the Front End to Big Data and Artificial Intelligence

I wrote an article last week called, The Value in a Mobile Enterprise Solution in which I penned, "I proposed that the core value in an enterprise mobility solution is in the back end systems.  The back end systems are where the business logic, business processes, big data and business analytics are primarily located.  Most enterprise mobility solutions are extending back end systems.  This may seem like an obvious thing, but for many it is not."

Why do I believe that?  I recognize the value that real-time enterprises can gain from receiving assistance in making real-time decisions in uncertain environments.  Silicon Valley investor Vinod Khosla writes,  "The venture capital business has injected a lot of new energy and exploration for using experts and expert systems, probability and statistics, machine learning, self organizing machines and many less-discussed and some yet-undisclosed systems. Data, and big data especially hold “truths & likely correlations...”  VCs recognize we need help making real-time decisions in uncertain environments.

Khosla believes many tasks can be preformed better and faster by machines.  He listed areas such as medicine and education that can benefit greatly from artificial intelligence and the analysis of big data.  I would add to those tasks, field service management.





As you change physical locations and job statuses, so also should the instructions in your mobile app change.  Instructions such as the location and time of your next job.  The predicted parts and expertise needed.  The best location and price to buy parts and replenish supplies.  The optimal route for driving to the next job.  All of these instructions should be determined by a system benefiting from artificial intelligence, GPS tracking and one that utilizes big data in real-time that can find "truths and likely correlations."

More from Khosla's article The Surprising Path of Artificial Intelligence, "We essentially let the computer “figure it out” using lots of past problems and solutions that include probability assessment systems beyond any hard-coded rules. Reasoning under uncertain conditions underlies a major area of recent progress." 

Today, investors are funding companies with solutions that provide "reasoning under uncertain conditions!"  The 20th century military strategist John Boyd would appreciate this focus.  Here are a few of his relevant thoughts and strategies:
  • How one thinks about uncertainty, imprecision, and mismatches is critical to success. 
  • Not being able to read the environment and take advantage of opportunities that it presents is the definition of failure. 
  • Life is defined as a process of adaption.  Some adaption is successful.  Some is not.  The key is the capacity for the combination of analyses and syntheses that enables us to exploit changes.  This in turn leads to successful adaption...
  • Advantage in observation and orientation enable a tempo in decision-making and execution that outpaces the ability of the competition to react effectively in time.
Human weaknesses, biases and frailty impact our ability to make good real-time decisions in uncertain environments.  Uncertain environments is what we often find ourselves in outside of the four walls in mobile and remote places.  It is difficult for us to process large volumes of data to find "truths and correlations." 

Artificial intelligence systems using big data that are connected to GPS enabled mobile devices can offer enormous value to the mobile workforce and the enterprises that employ them.  Let the fun begin!




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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
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.
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Enterprise Mobility is Not for Everyone, Just Most

Sybase's Willie Jow
A couple of months back I listened to a presentation by Sybase's VP of Mobile Solutions, Willie Jow, and later interviewed him at the Enterprise Mobility Exchange.  During his presentation he emphasized that enterprise mobility is for nearly everyone in a company, not just a select few.  On one of his presentation slides (see image), he listed various roles in most enterprises that can benefit by having mobile solutions:

  • Business leaders
  • Managers
  • Knowledge workers
  • Marketers
  • Sales
  • Plant Operators
  • Warehouse staff
  • Field technicians
  • Partners
  • Consumers

I took note of this list.  Why?  Because in my mobile strategy consulting with large companies, they have rarely considered mobile solutions for more than a few of these categories.  For example, seldom have they ever considered how their partners and suppliers could benefit from mobile solutions.

However, I was consulting with a large water utility in Europe yesterday that was, in fact, planning to provide mobile solutions for their partners.  These partners provided important services and were a critical part of their service delivery system.  They had the same need to have real-time access to important back office data on mobile devices as the FTEs (full time equivalents).

Supporting partners has its own set of challenges.  It is hard to dictate what mobile devices partners should use.  They most often have their own preferences.  The water utility I mentioned above is looking to utilize mobile HTML5 apps so their partners can easily utilize them on a variety of mobile device platforms and operating systems.

The list above highlights the large variety of users, use cases and potential mobile apps.  It also emphasizes the importance of enterprise mobility to the future of businesses.  Companies that don't support enterprise mobility in these areas will suffer.  It is impossible to manage a real-time enterprise that involves a mobile workforce without supporting mobility.



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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
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.
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Mobility Charts Weekly - Week of January 9, 2012


The Mobility Charts Weekly is a weekly publication of charts depicting the current and future status of the enterprise mobility market.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.


According to IDTechEx the real time location systems market will increase over the next ten years, eventually rising to $4 billion by 2022. This market includes devices that help track items, animals and people in real time. Read Original Content




eMarketer expects the mobile commerce industry to rise through 2015 to eventually reach $31 billion. At the same time the company believes this figure still represents a very small level of overall consumer spending. Read Original Content



Flurry Analytics has gathered data surrounding the amount of time consumers spend on mobile apps versus web browsers. In their findings they discovered that the average consumer spent more time on mobile apps than on web browsers during June 2011 than during June 2010. Read Original Content

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
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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.
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Enterprise Mobility Asia - Week of January 9, 2012

This is my first edition of Enterprise Mobility Asia.  Asia is predicted to be the fastest area of growth for enterprise mobility between now and 2016, so it seemed like a prudent time to start reporting on this growth on a weekly basis.  If your company would like to be a sponsor of this weekly newsletter, please email me.

China Telecom Corp Launches in UK and has Plans for France and Germany
China Telecom plans to launch mobile services in the UK during the first Quarter and they are looking at also expanding to France and Germany to help drive overseas growth. Read Original Content

GlobalOne announces Mobile Cloud Services

GlobalOne announced a new practice, GlobalOne Mobility, which will offer professional services for building, deploying and maintaining mobile cloud apps for both consumer and enterprise environments.  The new group will help clients build a vision and roadmap for mobile enterprise apps, and mobile social enterprise apps, and then develop and deploy them in cloud environments. Read Original Content







Galaxy Tabs in the Indian Educational Market
Samsung has unveiled its smart solution for the educational market. This solution includes customized software applications on its Galaxy Tabs.  Samsung is targeting 20,000-plus education institutes in India. Read Original Content

Mobile Payments in the Indian Market

Some projections have mobile payments replacing credit and debit cards and hard currency as the primary mediums of monetary exchange over the next five years. However, in a country like India, where the masses don’t use relatively expensive smartphones, the concept of mobile apps will not work. Nokia, the manufacturer of some of the most widely used mobile phones in India, is seeking to address this under served market with its recently launched mobile payment service, Nokia Money. Read Original Content

Starbucks Uses Mobile HTML5 Ads in China

Mobile ads were placed in three mobile apps for a Starbucks Christmas promotion in China. Starbucks rewarded customers with a bigger size of drink for their social check-ins at over 200 Starbucks stores across Shanghai, Jiansu and Zhejing provinces. Read Original Content




Research Firm Predicts Asia-Pacific Lead in Enterprise Mobility Growth

Global market research and consulting company, MarketsandMarkets, predicts that the growing acceptance of enterprise mobility by large, small and medium businesses, plus the introduction of sophisticated mobile devices and solutions will fuel growth in the Asia-Pacific markets. The Asia-Pacific market is predicted to lead the world in enterprise mobility growth rate. Read Original Content

Preludesys India files for IPO to Accelerate Development of Enterprise Mobility Solution 
Preludesys India, has filed documents in preparation for an IPO.  They intend to use the proceeds for setting up a global delivery center, paying back loans, opening 8 branches across USA and Asia Pacific regions and accelerating the development and go to market efforts of their enterprise mobility solutions. Read Original Content

The Role of Mobile Technology in mHealth in International Development
mHealth is making a difference around the world and especially in Asia. In Afghanistan, health workers are receiving training via SMS.  In South Africa, Project Masiluleke sends text messages with important information about HIV.  In South Asia pregnant women are receiving important maternal health information also via text messages.  In Cambodia, a solution called FrontlineSMS, allows health workers in Cambodia to report cases of malaria in real time using a text messaging system that sends texts between groups of people and online mapping systems like Google Earth. Read Original Content

DoCoMo and Chip Makers Join in Smartphone Venture
Demand for mobile devices is expanding rapidly, and as a result, a group of Asian electronics companies are teaming up with Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. to develop semiconductors used in smartphones. Read Original Content



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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
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.
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