Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of July 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

AuthenTec, a U.S. mobile and network security provider has agreed to be acquired by Apple.  One of its key offerings is fingerprint sensor, which can be used for authentication and security in mobile payments by phones, and is seen by some analysts as a target of Apple's purchase. Read Original Content

In India, the number of bank transactions through mobile devices grew over two-and-half times to 3.34 million in May 2012 from 1.28 million in May 2011, according to the Reserve Bank of India. Read Original Content

Charlie Miller, a principal research consultant at security company Accuvant, demonstrated on July 25 how NFC can be used to hack into a smartphone and access user information. 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

M-commerce has quickly been adopted by 37 percent of U.S. consumers and is heavily driven by women and younger consumers (25-34). Driven by the popularity of mobile devices and the comfort consumers have found shopping on them, mobile commerce will continue to grow. Read Original Content

Worldwide Olympic and Paralympic partner for the London 2012 Games has announced mobile payments will be featured throughout the events to draw attention to the latest innovations for completing transactions and transforming the way money is exchanged and managed. Read Original Content

Mobile and online payments company payvia has come up with a new mobile payments solution. According to the company, it now offers a convenient option that complements merchant checkouts to reduce abandoned transactions, increase conversions and deliver more paying customers. Read Original Content

Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly – Week of July 29, 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

Companies and retail organizations are turning to RFID technology to prevent employee theft, especially of electronic equipment and sensitive files.  Read Original Content

The new Garmin fenix GPS watch, expected to launch in August 2012, could be a useful tool for Realtors.  The wrist top GPS with handheld capabilities can be used to program the geo-coordinates of the property corners right into the watch and the watch will navigate the user directly to the property boundaries.  Read Original Content

In an effort to stimulate the usage of 2D barcodes, the Open Mobile Alliance has developed a standard that it hopes will direct mobile phone users to websites more easily.  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.

Using an Intermec CN50 terminal and partnering with SkyWire, VISA Global Logistics has improved their service delivery to customers and the reliability of communication with their transport fleet.  Read Original Content

Some M2M applications benefit immediately from LTE data rates, which run up to 100 times faster than 2G technology; however, many of today’s M2M devices simply do not require LTE performance.  Read Original Content

GIS Cloud has launched the Enterprise Geo 2.0 Platform for “today’s expansive, distributed enterprise workforce”.  The platform will address “the diverse needs of segments ranging from transportation, utilities, municipal and local government, as well as other owners of geo-located assets”.  Read Original Content

Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly – Week of July 29, 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

Gartner forecasts an incredible rise in the number of global mobile payments users, with a predicted increase from 141.1 million in 2011 to 349.4 million by 2015.  The Asia Pacific region is predicted to remain the largest segment, with growth from 69.1 million in 2011 to 127.8 million in 2015.  Read Original Content

Arbitron Mobile Oy and iResearch Consulting have formed a partnership to jointly operate a syndicated, mobile media research service in China, the world's largest smartphone market.  Read Original Content

LetMobile has announced the opening of a new office in Sydney Australia, which will serve Australia, New Zealand and the growing Asian market.  LetMobile provides secure corporate collaboration solutions for mobile devices.  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.

Singapore’s Chan Brothers Travel has selected Amadeus Mobile Traveller to provide an integrated mobile application supporting pre-trip, in-trip and post-trip travel needs.  Read Original Content

HTC’s Ray Yam claims China could become the driving force in mobile innovation with all the elements in place to “ensure that the country will serve as a hotbed of future innovation for the global mobile industry”.  Read Original Content

According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India, the total mobile commerce market in India is Rs 400 crore and is predicted to reach Rs 2,000 crore by 2015. There are currently between 8 to 10 million mobile banking customers in the country, with that number expected to rise between 40 to 60 million in the next four to five years.  Read Original Content

Mobile Health News Weekly – Week of July 22, 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

Analyst forecasts estimate the potential value of the mHealth market will be $4.6 billion by 2014. Read Original Content

Azumio has acquired SkyHealth, the developer behind Fitness Buddy, the number-one ranked Health and Fitness paid app on iTunes, and Glucose Buddy, the most downloaded diabetes app in the world. Read Original Content

mHealth is taking the health care industry by storm, but "there are no rules to the game," said Joseph C. Kvedar, M.D., founder and director at the Center for Connected Health in a recent interview. Mobile health is a "game changer," he added, but there is a lot of hype because there are a lot of people developing health apps just to "get rich quick." 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.

There are going to be two mobile health markets, but investors may be challenged for some time to find a route to profit from either, despite revenue in the space that should double from about $718 million this year to $1.3 billion next year, according to Research2Guidance. Read Original Content

A recent article at Healthcare Collective takes the position – in asking the question, “What’s the Matter with Mobile Health Apps Today?” - that most mobile healthcare apps aren’t used, at least not beyond an initial download and trial, after which the apps are discarded as quickly as they were downloaded. Read Original Content

Vmersion-Health has released Gluco-Share, a mobile smart device application that connects people living with diabetes with their family and friends through a private and secure social media network. The Gluco-Share app is a free download available at the Apple iTunes store. Read Original Content

Kevin Benedict's What's New in HTML5 - Week of July 22, 2012

Here is the latest news and developments that I could find this week related to HTML5.  It seems everyone I speak to agrees these days that HTML5 hybrid apps will conquer enterprise mobility over the next 24 months.  That does not mean that native apps go away, just that the majority of enterprise applications will be HTML5 or HTML5 hybrids.

Now for the news...

Application development software firm Telerik has announced a major update to its framework for building HTML5 and JavaScript mobile apps and sites.  Kendo UI Complete was released on July 11, 2012 and includes support for tablet devices.  Read Original Content

Zeewe TV, the HTML5 social video platform, now has one million users, a milestone reached in one month.  The platform is available as a mobile app and on Facebook.  Read Original Content

Crocodile RCS has announced that its SuperNode cloud communications systems and hosted RCS service now support HTML5-based applications using RTCweb and WebSockets standards.  Read Original Content

Moodle HQ is ending development of native My Moodle mobile apps for iOS and Android and the mobile components will move to HTML5, allowing updates to be released across platforms simultaneously.  Read Original Content

Asial Corp. has released a new version of Monaca, the cloud-based, cross-platform development tool with HTML5. The new release includes native component cross-platform functionality for iOS and Android.  Read Original Content

Apica and Kaazing are collaborating to bring performance monitoring to applications built with the HTML5 WebSocket standard.  Read Original Content

River Belle Online Casino developed a mobile version of the casino software that is HTML5 compliant, and its customer base has risen 20 percent.  Read Original Content

China’s Spreadtrum Communications SC8810 smartphone platform has been chosen by Mozilla to showcase its HTML5 operating system, Firefox OS, running on low-cost smartphone devices.  Read Original Content

Jeffrey Hammond of Forrester Research discusses HTML5 and enterprise mobility, stating the most-asked question he receives from clients is “How important is it for companies to embrace HTML5?”  Read Original Content

Open source mobile platform provider Modo Labs has added two new modules to its Kurogo Mobile Campus solution, available as a native app or as a as a smartphone-optimized HTML5 mobile web application.  Read Original Content

The enterprise social tech sector should adopt a hybrid HTML5/native approach when developing on mobile.  This article in TechRepublic provides three reasons why the hybrid app wins.  ReadOriginal Content

The DevCon5 hands-on conference for HTML5 and mobile app developers will be held July 23 & 24, 2012 in New York.  The two luncheon keynote sessions are “The Future of Mobile Computing” and “Designing for Mobile”.  Read Original Content

Wix has created an infographic illustrating “The History of HTML5”.  Read Original Content

Mozilla has launched Firefox 14, with more support for various HTML5 APIs that should help improve HTML5 applications like gaming.  Read Original Content

Mobile presentation company UpSync has announced the latest release of its cloud-based software, with new features to further simplify the creation of mobile presentations, content management and HTML5 app delivery to field sales, training and service organizations.  Read Original Content

Ireland’s ICAN is rolling out the country’s first custom-built HTML5 overlay mobile campaign for mobile device insurance.  With the message “protect your phone from yourself. ” The HTML5 overlay simulates the gradual cracking of a smartphone screen, in an interactive way, on the user’s own mobile phone.  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.

SAP Mobile DSD - 5 Considerations

I want to thank Anup Alex, VP Consulting with Unvired, for sharing his mobile and SAP expertise with us in this guest blog article.

Direct Store Delivery (DSD) is a method of selling or distributing products for a variety of industries like food, beverage, personal care, etc. SAP offers a module on DSD which is part of SAP's  ECC/ERP.  DSD has tight integration to SAP SD, MM, FI and Logistics which makes it one of the preferred solutions across the world.  In addition, SAP offers a Mobile DSD solution as an optional module for customers who like to avoid the manual paper based approach. There are a few considerations when implementing Mobile DSD in an enterprise that I want to share from my experience.

Is the current business process good enough to implement SAP DSD?

There are a few things you may want to consider when implementing SAP DSD. These are things like the use of Bill of Material (BOM), Empties management and Single Sales Area for each route.  Without these, you may be limited in the use of some features SAP DSD provides out-of-the-box, or you will need to custom development them.

Mobile DSD or Paper Based DSD?

Over the last 6-8 years, there has been a lot of demand for mobilizing the DSD process in enterprises. Mobilization eliminates much of the manual effort required to enter data in order/delivery, cash collection, stock, money checkout and check-in. Customers can be issued real-time legal invoices with electronic signature capture, PODs, cash receipts etc, all in real-time at the customer's site. Mobilization can also provide on-the-fly determination of promotions and seasonal discounts which are powerful features of an ERP like SAP ECC. In summary these features can provide faster sales and logistics execution, and eliminate theft.

Which scenarios are meant to be driven via Mobile DSD?

SAP DSD supports Delivery Driver, Van Sales, Pre-Sales and Mixed scenarios. In an ideal world, using a single Mobile DSD solution for all these scenarios would be best and would optimize your ROI.

Many customers also choose to add customer/product surveys, checklists and some field service related features to the solution so their mobile salesforces can collect this data onsite.

The right technology platform to mobilize DSD

While mobilization is important to optimizing the benefits of DSD, it’s very important to choose the right platform to enable it. Some key requirements are:

• scalability
• native support for multiple device types
• offline/online capability
• high volume data handling
• roles/group management
• a messaging platform for instant alerting and notifications
• geo capabilities
• central device administration and remote trouble shooting
• seamless online-offline capability of device software.

Selecting the right devices to mobilize DSD

Selecting the right mobile device is very important.  Often companies, in order to save money, simply leverage existing devices to run MDSD.  However, especially in the MDSD world where there are deliveries, a ruggedized device should be considered.   In the ruggedized handheld category that means you will most likely be choosing between a Windows Mobile device or the new ruggedized Android devices.  Even though Windows Mobile OS is outdated, it still may have an edge over Android in-terms of enterprise readiness.  It is easier to integrate with many different peripherals such as barcode scanners and printers. Android on the other hand could be giving the better results in terms of application software usability experience. I would also suggest looking at new ruggedized Android tablets.

For non-delivery driver scenarios, there is a plethora of smartphone choices including iPhones, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone and tablets.

~ Anup Alex, VP Consulting with Unvired

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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.

Mobility News Weekly – Week of July 22, 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

Good Technology has released its analysis of mobile device activations among enterprise customers over the second quarter of 2012. The data shows Android smartphone usage doubling, with Apple's iOS continuing to lead, and the iPhone 4S at the head of the pack.
Read Original Content

New research from Nielsen indicates Android products now account for more than half of the smartphones in use in the U.S. market, and that 54 percent of those who purchased smartphones in June 2012 opted for an Android device.  Read Original Content

Nokia reported a 39 percent year-on-year drop in the number of smartphones it sold in the second quarter, to 10.2 million, while its net loss more than trebled.  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.

On Friday, Microsoft revealed the minimum price for a paid Windows 8 app would be $1.49 – 50 percent more than the 99-cent entry-level pricing that most mobile users have been accustomed to. Has Microsoft priced itself out of its own app market?  Read Original Content

According to a survey by IDC and Appcelerator, 53.2 percent of developers believe Apple iOS will "win" in the enterprise market, versus 37.3 percent of developers who believe Google's Android platform will.  Read Original Content

The global volume of mobile data traffic will exceed 107 exabytes in 2017, shows a new forecast from ABI Research. This total traffic volume will be eight times more than what is expected for 2012.  Read Original Content

The world's smartphone subscribers will download about 36 billion apps in 2012, according to a new industry analyst forecast; resulting in almost 37 native apps through the year for the average smartphone subscriber.  Read Original Content

iOS Conquers the Enterprise

In a new report published by Appcelerator/IDC yesterday titled 2Q 2012 Mobile Report (download here), iOS appears to have conquered the enterprise mobility market.  Here is an excerpt from the report, "iOS has opened a dramatic 16% lead over Android in the mobile enterprise apps space.  Developers now think iOS will win over Android in the enterprise 53%-37%; in 3Q 2011 iOS and Android were tied at 44%."

It will be interesting to now watch how both iOS and Windows 8 will impact Android in the enterprise.  This report seems to suggest that Google's Android could be in for some stiff competition, "Developers are cautiously optimistic about Windows 8 tablets, and find Microsoft’s Metro UI especially compelling. Therefore a key dynamic to watch going forward will be Microsoft’s opportunity to eclipse Android as the number two operating system priority for mobile enterprise app developers, especially given Microsoft’s strengths in the enterprise market through Office and Windows."

This is an interesting development since the ruggedized handheld manufacturers are just starting to introduce their Android based rugged devices.  Read more on this...

I must share that in conversations and interviews with mobility vendors, especially those focused on the services industry that have a lot of ruggedized mobile handhelds that still run on Microsoft operating systems, there is a great anticipation and hope for Windows 8.  In recent discussions with large utility companies, they also expressed a great hope that Windows 8 would deliver for tablets and other mobile devices.

It is my impression, that many large enterprises would love to support a good Microsoft operating system for mobile devices.  They are just waiting to see one.

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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 July 22, 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 new report predicts tablets will emerge as the primary platform for mobile ad revenue in the next two years. A Yankee Group study forecasts tablets will account for 53 percent of mobile ad dollars in 2014 compared to 47 percent for mobile handsets. By 2016, tablets’ share of mobile ad sales will rise to 60 percent. Read Original Content

Target is putting mobile at the core of its back-to-school campaign and encouraging consumers to use its mobile application to find helpful resources, promotions and design inspirations. Read Original Content

The truth about smartphones is that although penetration in the UK is now above 50 percent and traffic is constantly rising, people don’t generally use their phone to buy things. 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

AdParlor, an Adknowledge company and a leading advertising platform on Facebook, has released their completed study on Facebook mobile advertising.  A few of their findings are: mobile ads yield a CVR that is 16 percent lower than non-mobile ads; and Android has a 62 percent higher CTR than the iPhone & BlackBerry. Read Original Content

Apple's iOS continued to deliver more revenue per advertising impression to content publishers than any other mobile operating system in the quarter that ended in June, according to an Opera Software report. Read Original Content

Facebook's first earnings report since going public will be crucial. After its highly anticipated IPO flopped, Wall Street is hoping the social networking giant will deliver something to be optimistic about. Read Original Content

Finally the Tide of Rugged Android Devices Begins

In my opinion, Microsoft blew it when they left the rugged mobile device manufacturers hanging for years with no meaningful upgrades or upgrade path to the Windows Mobile 6.5x operating system.  They sentenced the ruggedized device industry to compete against the iPhone, iPad and Android consumer devices.  This meant service organizations worldwide started considering the merits of switching to consumer devices, with new operating systems that had many more features rather than upgrading to new ruggedized mobile devices.

Otterbox and other rugged case manufacturers were definitely the winners of this Microsoft orchestrated industry trend.  They produced many great ruggedized cases that added device protection and gave buyers confidence that using consumer devices in rugged environments was worth the risk.

Today, however, the tide of rugged Android devices is starting to enter the market as demonstrated by this marketing piece from Honeywell that I received in the mail today announcing the new rugged Dolphin 7800 EDA running on Android.  Here is how they describe it, "Honeywell’s new Dolphin® 7800 Android™ rugged EDA pairs the intuitive Google® Android™ operating system with remote device management capabilities and invaluable security features, making the device enterprise ready."

For a time the Android operating system was difficult to secure, since every device and device manufacturer seemed to have their own version of it, but the MDM (mobile device management) or MAM (mobile application management) vendors have seemed to resolve much of that challenge now as this piece from the MDM/MAM vendor Soti suggests, "SOTI, a leader in cross-platform mobile device management, is announcing that its unique MDM solution provides advanced and consistent management for all Android devices, regardless of the device manufacturer."

I have spoken with and interviewed many rugged handheld manufacturers over the past few months and most if not all have rugged Android devices in development.  I believe that going forward service organizations will soon be able to get the latest Android operating system features in the rugged device of their choosing.

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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.

Powell's Book Store, Confessions, and Mobile Strategies

Powell's City of Books

I am grateful that Powell's City of Books is located in the same general direction as my parent's home, or I must admit that my parents would not see me or my family as often.  I also confess to having returned with 16 additional books, when half of the books I got there on my last visit remain unread and stacked next to my bed.  Here is a sampling of the new titles:

• Community Geography
• The Future of War
• Maphead
• The Principles of War for the Information Age
• The Art of Maneuver
• The Army After Next

The book titled Community Geography is full of stories about how communities use GIS (geographical information systems) to improve their communities by doing things like crime fighting, identifying pollution sources, locating noxious weeds, tracking water quality and getting kids to school.  Much of this involves geo-tagging events and objects and then presenting geo-tags on a map to help visualize the environment so better decisions can be made.  Service organizations would be will served to understand these concepts and apply them in their mobile strategies and business plans.

The military themed books, The Future of War, The Principles of War for the Information Age, The Art of Maneuver and The Army After Next all provide insights into how to manage large numbers of people (mobile workforce), resources, assets, schedules and supplies using mobile technologies, real-time analytics, dashboards, GIS solutions and secure communications systems in the fog of war.

The aggregate of these books, if they deliver on their cover's promises, will provide additional insights as to how the commercial sector can better apply mobile technologies to their business strategies.

The remaining books are mostly on how to make better videos and how to use videos in business and educational environments.  I have a lot that needs to be improved in this area, but hopefully the nuggets of wisdom can still be gathered when you watch them.  If you missed any of my video interviews or video comments, you can view the archives here.

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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 July 22, 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

Kenya has more cell-phone subscriptions than adult citizens and more than 80 percent of those with a cell phone also use “mobile money”. Read Original Content

In 2012, developers using Google Play have pulled in more revenue from in-app purchases than from the sales of the apps themselves, a validation of the "freemium" model and digital purchases. Read Original Content

Revel Systems, the company that is selling iPad checkout services to retailers around the country, is coming out with a new version of their app for food trucks. The app includes features like employee tracking and employee scheduling and also Twitter integration 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 Juniper Research says NFC payments will evolve into a massive $180 billion global market by 2017. The growth represents a seven fold increase over 2012. Read Original Content

ABI Research predicts that globally $119 billion in goods and services will be purchased via a mobile phone in 2015, representing about 8 percent of the total e-commerce market. Read Original Content

Mobile commerce through mobile phones will represent 6.8 percent of all online sales across Europe by 2017, reaching €19.25 billion, a new Forrester study affirms. Read Original Content

Sage Pay has formed a partnership with leading mobile commerce provider, The MoBank Group, which will enable Sage Pay’s 40,000+ merchants to easily integrate onto the mobile channel via MoPowered, The Mobank Group’s secure Software-as-a-Service mCommerce solution. Read Original Content

Biggest Challenges Implementing Enterprise Mobility

I closed the 2012 Mid-Year Enterprise Mobility Survey today after excellent community participation!  I want to thank everyone for their time in completing it!  I will now start writing up the formal report, but in the mean time I will leak some of the results for you here.

One of the survey sections was titled, "What are your biggest challenges to implementing enterprise mobility today?"  Here are the some of the results:

Finding a budget (for enterprise mobility)?
23% said Not Challenging
53% said Somewhat Challenging
24% said Very Challenging

Developing an enterprise-wide mobile strategy?
8% said Not Challenging
43% said Somewhat Challenging
49% said Very Challenging

Selecting the right mobile platform?
29% said Not Challenging
43% said Somewhat Challenging
28% said Very Challenging

Finding qualified mobility experts to assist with implementations?
18% said Not Challenging
45% said Somewhat Challenging
37% said Very Challenging

Selecting the right mobile security platform?
29% said Not Challenging
46% said Somewhat Challenging
25% said Very Challenging

Choosing the right mobile app development strategy and tools?
21% said Not Challenging
44% said Somewhat Challenging
35% said Very Challenging

Choosing which mobile operating systems to support?
35% said Not Challenging
47% said Somewhat Challenging
18% said Very Challenging

Determining the right ERP integration strategy?
27% said Not Challenging
42% said Somewhat Challenging
22% said Very Challenging

Determining anticipated ROIs (from enterprise mobility implementations)?
16% said Not Challenging
45% said Somewhat Challenging
39% said Very Challenging

Educating stakeholders on the potential impact of enterprise mobility on the business?
13% said Not Challenging
50% said Somewhat Challenging
38% said Very Challenging

Stay tuned for more results....

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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.

Enterprise Mobility and the Fog of War

Fog of War

The term of "Fog of War" means "The uncertainty in situation awareness experienced during operations."  It is really hard to manage operations efficiently if you don't know where your people and resources are located.  How can you implement your strategy or fulfill your mission without this knowledge?  Gaining situational awareness is the key to improving productivity in the field.

In the preliminary results of my mid-year enterprise mobility survey, the participants have identified "improved productivity" as the #1 ROI that companies are seeking from enterprise mobility.  This would suggest a need for GPS tracking of your workforce, assets and resources and improved situational awareness.

I recently read that 90% of the challenges that military commanders have are finding the enemy, and finding their own forces.  Knowing the location of your resources enables you to make all kinds of data driven decisions such as:

• Estimated arrival times
• Determining what resources are closest to a job site
• Optimizing routes
• Optimizing schedules
• Identifying the nearest location of materials, supplies and other resources
• etc.

Although it is impossible to eliminate all fog, best in class services organizations are going to invest in the elimination of as much fog as possible.  This takes not only knowing GPS coordinates of your workforce and resources, but having an enterprise mobility solution and real-time analytics and forecasting applications that understand how to use this data to optimize your productivity.

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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.

Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly – Week of July 22, 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

LightSpeed and Socket Mobile have formed a partnership to join Socket’s hand scanners with the LightSpeed for iPad app.  Read Original Content

Group Mobile has added three new rugged tablets to its product line: The Windows-based DRS ARMOR X7et, the Android DRS ARMOR X7ad, and a new DRS convertible tablet, the ARMOR™ X12kb.  Read Original Content

The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles is using barcode technology with 45 stand-alone kiosks, enabling customers to use the kiosks to receive printed vehicle registration certificates, driver’s license renewals, driver history records and more.  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.

GeoSpatial Experts has released the Android version of its GeoJot app for mobile devices.  Part of an end-to-end system for geospatial data capture, mapping and reporting, GeoJot turns Apple iOS and Google Android mobile devices with integrated cameras into field data collection tools.  Read Original Content

TDIndustries implemented a field service automation solution and received payback in half the time anticipated.  Details are provided in a new article, “The Payback of Field Service Automation” in Field Technologies magazine. Read Original Content

As wireless broadband becomes more available and affordable, people are no longer confined to the traditional office environment.  “The future of mobile computers is rugged” according to Jerker Hellstrom, CEO of Handheld Group, in this article in Mobile World.  Read Original Content

The British Insurance Brokers’ Association predicts that telematics ‘black box’ auto insurance sales will reach 500,000 policies in the next two years.  Read Original Content

Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly – Week of July 22, 2012

Welcome to 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

According to Frost & Sullivan, M2M services will see future growth in India’s enterprise mobility landscape, with a predicted compound annual growth rate of 41 percent by 2017.  Mobile e-mail currently dominates the enterprise mobility landscape, and is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 15 percent by 2017.  Read Original Content

M2M communications provider Telit Wireless Solutions has chosen Rabyte Electronics as a new distribution partner in India, focusing on development of the M2M market at the grass root level in India.  Read Original Content

India’s Profit by Outsourcing has announced the addition of mobile application development services across various platforms including Android, JAVA ME, Symbian, Windows and Apple’s iPhone.  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.

MediaCorp, a leading media company in Singapore, has formed a partnership with mobile marketing and advertising solutions provider Sofialys to provide mobile advertising solutions.  Read Original Content

Japan’s largest mobile phone company DoCoMo is considering overseas acquisitions.  DoCoMo’s CEO, Kaoru Kato, states that revenue outside Japan may grow to as much as $2.5 billion in the year ending March 2016.  Read Original Content

Telecommunications companies across the Asia Pacific region may see a drop in profit margins, in part due to rising cost pressures including handset subsidies, price undercutting, and capital expenditure from new spectrum rollouts. Read Original Content

Rakuten Global launched the Kobo Touch e-reader tablet in Japan this month. The tablet retails for $100.  Read Original Content

Mobile Health News Weekly – Week of July 15, 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

According to the latest data from Pew Internet and American Life Project, while 88 percent of Americans have a cellphone and about half of those are smartphones, only 10 percent have downloaded health-related apps on those devices, a figure that’s remained stable since 2010. Read Original Content

A new report from the World Bank indicates that in just 10 years, developing countries have gone from accounting for just 29 percent of mobile subscriptions worldwide to 77 percent of subscriptions. This infographic sums up some of the data the report cites. This could have big implications for healthcare around the world. Read Original Content

Ahead of next week’s United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil — better known as Rio+20 — Mashable columnist Zoe Fox has outlined five reasons why “mobile is the future of sustainable development.” No. 1 is disease response. 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.

A study published in March by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found more than 80 percent of Internet users go online to search for health information. Read Original Content

In 2011, 55 percent of office-based physicians said they used an electronic health record system, and of those physicians, 85 percent said they were very or somewhat satisfied with the technology, according to a report released Tuesday by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, Modern Healthcare reports. Read Original Content

Accenture conducted a Connected Health Pulse Survey of 1,110 U.S. patients and found that 90 percent of patients want to self-manage their health online but that “85 percent of respondents preferred to see doctors in person when needed rather than relying on alternatives such as telehealth consultations.” Read Original Content

Mobility News Weekly – Week of July 15, 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

In our recent CIO study of more than 3,000 CIOs, IBM discovered that 75 percent of respondents asserted that mobility is a top priority in their business strategy.  Read Original Content

According to Nielsen, Google crossed the tipping point in the second quarter with 51.8 percent of current smartphone users running some variant on the green robot's OS. The increase is coming mostly at the expenses of BlackBerry (8.1 percent) and Windows (4.3 percent).  Read Original Content

During Q2 2012 smartphone penetration grew to 54.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers. This growth is driven by increasing smartphone purchases: 2 out of 3 Americans who acquired a new mobile phone in the last three months chose a smartphone instead of a feature phone.  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.

Strategy Analytics forecasts that in 2017 Android and Apple iOS will remain the dominant smartphone platforms, but their combined share will have declined. A main beneficiary of this decline will be Microsoft.  Read Original Content

Android grew 81 percent globally in 2011 and Strategy Analytics forecasts it will slow to 22 percent in 2013. Apple is squeezing Android in many areas of the maturing postpaid market, while Android's growth across the emerging prepaid category is not fully offsetting this trend.  Read Original Content

Text-based communications are now surpassing phone calls or face to face meetings as the most frequent ways of keeping in touch for UK adults, claims a new Ofcom report.  Read Original Content

Samsung has bought the mobile-phone technology division of CSR - the British firm formerly known as Cambridge Silicon Radio. The $310 million (£198 million) deal includes patents to the firm's Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPRS location innovations.  Read Original Content

Geo-fencing, GPS Tracking and SAP Enterprise Mobility

Geo-fencing

Have you thought much about geo-fencing and its value to your business?  To me, it is a very interesting feature of most GPS tracking systems and a useful feature when you want to track locations of resources, materials, equipment and other assets.  Here is how geo-fencing works - when a location-aware device (GPS tracking enabled) enters or exits a particular geographic area that is configured (in the GPS tracking system) with a geo-fence boundary, the device sends or receives an alert/notification.  This notification can be the trigger for any number of clever business processes that you can design.

How is a geo-fence useful?  You can view, in real-time, when vehicles, equipment, materials and mobile devices enter or exit a job site, depots, routes or any other geographically defined area.  You can see when a truck is arriving at a warehouse and route it to the first available warehouse dock.  You can let the job site manager know when materials are about to arrive so they can be prepared to receive it.  For security reasons, you can set geo-fences around job sites so any vehicle, machine or equipment leaving the job site after work hours sends you a notification.  This can be an effective anti-theft feature.

You can also use geo-fencing to notify customers when you are nearing their location.  Let's say that a service technician is dispatched to a customer's location.  When the service technician is estimated to be 15 minutes from the customer's site, a text message is automatically sent to the customer notifying them of the estimated time of arrival.  This certainly is an appreciated customer service interaction.

Another scenario is the arrival on your job site of a specialized piece of equipment.  When it is 1 mile from the job site, the site manager is notified so they can meet the driver and show them where the equipment needs to be off-loaded.

Another use of geo-fences is to identify all resources and assets within a particular area.  Let's say a service technician is dispatched for an emergency repair at a remote location.  It might be prudent to look for other maintenance or repair jobs that can be done at the same location while the service technician is there.

Some companies have service contracts to maintain and repair all customer equipment for a given period of time.  In these situations, the service organization tries to optimize their services and service visits in order to maximize profits.  I worked on a mobile project with a commercial HVAC company (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) in the UK that worked on these terms.  The first thing they did when they signed on a new customer is geo-tag all equipment that they agreed to service.  This enabled them to understand the exact location of all equipment under contract.  Once this was completed, they could geo-fence areas and know exactly how they could optimize service visits in particular areas.

There are an unlimited number of uses for geo-fencing.  I know SAP has a program in place to quickly determine the location of their employees in case of emergencies.  SAP wants to be able to support their employees in times of emergencies and they can set geo-fences around particular areas to quickly see who is there.  I don't believe they are using GPS tracking in these cases - I think they just have a way to see who is in a particular area based on schedules, home and office locations.

The military uses geo-fencing to organize their missions.  Weapons have defined effective ranges.  Aircraft have limited ranges based on fuel consumption.  Soldiers have travel limitations based upon available transportation.  Are they required to walk, drive or be flown in.  All of these tasks and resources have limits.  Understanding locations, resources, schedules and limitations enable commanders to effectively identify and organize missions based upon these variables and timing.  In my mobile strategy workshops I call these "optimized intersections."

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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 July 15, 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

Marin Software, a digital advertising management company, found in its quarterly U.S. Online Advertising Quarterly Report, that 18 percent of paid search clicks come from mobile devices. Read Original Content

Kiip, a startup allowing brands to promote themselves in mobile apps through rewards and contests, has raised $11 million in Series B funding. The company sells its approach as a smarter, more engaging approach to mobile ads, where developers can give their users real-world rewards for achievements in their apps. Read Original Content

Empathica recently issued a survey among 6,500 U.S. Internet users — a little more than half (52 percent) of whom identified as smartphone owners — to take a closer look at how they’re using mobile in stores. Fifty-five percent of smartphone owners said they’ve used a mobile device to compare prices between retailers. 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

The latest quarterly report from ad agency TBG Digital indicates that cost per thousand impressions (CPMs) on ads on Facebook rose by 58 percent compared to the same period last year, with overall engagement also up by 11 percent, a reversal of the decline seen last quarter. Read Original Content

According to a survey conducted by EPiServer, 47 percent of respondents selected Amazon as the coolest mobile or social affiliate program they have seen to date followed by eBay at 20 percent, and Shopkick and Wrapp each with five percent. Read Original Content

The mobile ad market in China is so small that if the top 10 ad networks there were combined they still might not be as big as the fifth largest network in the U.S. in terms of monetization power, according to Opera evp/consumer mobile Mahi de Silva. Read Original Content