Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of April 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

About 30 percent of mobile phone users spend an average of 27 minutes each day text messaging, using the telephone and video chatting, according to retailer CultureLabel.com. The company put together an infographic that highlights why the outlook for the mobile commerce industry is so bright. Read Original Content

New market research from Smiths Point Analytics projects that the global market for action oriented proximity based marketing services (NFC/QR enabled ads) is expected to reach $2.3 billion by 2016. Read Original Content

By 2020 mobile payments will have gained mainstream acceptance and could largely replace cash and credit for most online and in-store purchases, according to a new survey of technology experts and stakeholders by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. 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 media content is going center-stage, so much so that in 2012 global revenue from mobile advertising and content will hit $67 billion, according to a new Strategy Analytics forecast. Read Original Content

Nokia is launching a commercial trial of its PagSeguro NFC payments app in Brazil. Starting in May, owners of Nokia C7, N9 and 701 handsets will be able to use PagSeguro to pay for items at NFC-enabled points of sale, as well as transfer funds between users. Read Original Content

Registration is open for the Mcommerce Summit: State of Mobile Commerce 2012 conference Thursday, May 3 with speakers from Citi, Zappos, Travelocity, 7-Eleven licensee Alon Brands and mall giant General Growth Properties. Read Original Content

Enterprise Mobility, Mobile Sensors and Data Collection

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

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

A Whitepaper by Kevin Benedict

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

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

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

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

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

Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly – Week of April 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

According to Analysis Mason, three trends for small and medium enterprises over the coming year are:  More mobile cloud applications, including mobile device management; M2M fleet management solutions; and increased reliance on indirect sales channels. Read Original Content

ABI Research predicts that shipments of cellular M2M modules produced in China will reach 13.6 million units by 2016, making up almost 40 percent of modules shipped in Asia. 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/.

Boeing is developing an Android-based secure and encrypted mobile phone, targeting the defense and intelligence sectors, as well as commercial markets.  The launch of the “Boeing Phone” is expected in late 2012. Read Original Content

Intel has unveiled the Studybook, a rugged tablet developed for use in schools around the world, including developing countries. Read Original Content and Read More Original Content

An upgraded smartphone app from Allrecipes.com uses barcode scanning of grocery store items to find recipes that use each item. Read Original Content

Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly – Week of April 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


Bharti Airtel has launched India’s first 4G Time Division Long Term Evolution network in Kolkata, according to the Economic Times.  Future LTE networks are planned for the Karntaka, Punjab and Maharashtra circles. Read Original Content and Read More Original Content

A new system incorporated by the Bay Hotel in Singapore will allow guests to avoid check-in lines by using a mobile phone check-in system developed by UbiQ Global Solutions. Read Original Content

Trunkbow, in cooperation with China Unicom, has deployed a new terminal-based mobile payment solutions platform in the Sichuan Province, with services expected to launch in the second or third quarter of 2012. Read Original Content

China Mobile is turning buses in Zhejiang province into mobile 4G hot spots, and is providing Internet service with a speed of 70Mbps, all free of charge. Read Original Content

CommunicAsia 2012 will be held June 19-22, 2012 in Singapore.  The summit will focus on topics such as m-Commerce, mobile value-added-services, mobile security, mobile payment and mobile health. Read Original Content and Read More Original Content

Rovio is in talks with Baidu Inc. and Sohu.com Inc. in a move to bring its mobile device game Angry Birds to the Chinese market. Read Original Content

Enterprise Mobility, Re-usable Code and Private App Stores

Gil Bouhnick

A few years back when I was the CEO of a mobile enterprise application company, I spent a lot of time asking my PSO (professional services organization) the question, "Haven't we developed that before?"  The answer was nearly always, " Yes, but it won't work on this project."  That is not the answer a CEO wants to hear.

The dream I had was to own a library of reusable code or objects that I could build once, and leverage on hundreds of future mobile projects.  This week I read an article by my friend Gil Bouhnick, about ClickSoftware's new ClickAppStore.  This is the model I had always wanted.

It is not an app store for the public, it is a private app store for your internal developers and consultants.  Here is how ClickSoftware describes it, "The ClickAppStore is designed to allow IT people, system implementers and administrators do more with their ClickMobile product by downloading and embedding business apps inside one powerful mobile foundation called ClickMobile, and run them on any popular device out there from iPhones and Android smartphones to tablets, rugged PDA’s and laptops."

This isn't going to help IT departments that don't use ClickMobile, but it offers a huge efficiency for those that do.  ClickMobile is integrated with SUP (Sybase Unwired Platform) and plays nice with SAP.  The ClickAppStore solution that Gil is writing about and promoting in his article is designed to help companies develop the majority of their mobile apps by using visual configuration tools, wizards, drag & drop style editors etc, and downloading pre-build business apps front he ClickAppStore.

I am thinking through the requirements here...  This must have taken a lot of strategy sessions before this was built.  I love the notion!

The concept of a mobile app store for use internally is another important part of a complete mobile strategy.  Again, from a former technology CEO, it will drive you crazy if you have to rebuild and re-invest in the same tools over and over again across your global company.  It makes so much more sense to use a standard IDE (integrated development environment) and MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) for your custom mobile applications, and then save the mobile business applications into a mobile app store so other internal parties can use them.

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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.

Mobility News Weekly – Week of April 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 the face of growing competition from Android tablets and the anticipated arrival of devices built on Microsoft's Windows 8, Gartner expects Apple's share of the rapidly growing market to take only a minimal hit, easing from 66.6 percent in 2011 to 61.4 percent in 2012.  Read Original Content

According to a new report from marketing agency Knotice, more than 27 percent of emails were opened on a mobile device during the second half of 2011.  Read Original Content

Shares of HTC Corp fell as much as 6 percent on Tuesday after a change in its chief financial officer and the imminent launch of a new phone by arch rival Samsung Electronics raised concerns over the Taiwanese firm's recovery.  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/.

Korean consumer electronics giant, Samsung, is eyeing to capture a 60 percent share of the smartphone market in India in 2012, as against its current share of 44.7 percent, according to Ranjit Yadav, country head (mobile and IT – India).  Read Original Content

Four major telecom operators in Europe, where Nokia’s Lumia phones have been on sale since before Christmas, told Reuters the new smartphones were not good enough to compete with Apple's iPhone or Samsung's Galaxy phones.  Read Original Content

Mobile handset semiconductors grew to more than $30 billion in 2011. The worldwide market generated more than $120 billion in revenue over the last five years and will generate more than $170 billion during the next five years.  Read Original Content

Mobile Marketing News Weekly – Week of April 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

A new report from mobile marketing company Velti says that at the end of 2011, iOS and Android both had a 50 percent market share, but iOS pulled ahead in March, with a 53 percent market share for the month. The report is based on data collected from 33,405 apps via the Mobclix Exchange, which Velti acquired in 2010. Read Original Content

A new report from Juniper Research reveals the mobile ticketing market will more than quadruple to 23 billion tickets sent by 2016. The report estimates that four billion tickets were delivered during 2011 for airline, transport and entertainment events. Read Original Content

Pinterest is taking over the mobile and online space with brands and retailers such as eBay, Amazon and Sephora adding “Pin It” buttons to their product pages, thus encouraging m-commerce and e-commerce sales. Read Original Content

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

According to a new study by eMarketer, by 2013 the majority of mobile phone subscribers will have a smartphone, making it important to consider the role mobile may play for the future of your business. To help you stay up-to-speed on the latest trends in mobile and how they affect your business, check out this roundup of stats. Read Original Content

2012 may be the year mobile marketing finally starts to pay off. The buzz phrase driving mobile ad spending is “hyperlocal mobile,” or ads targeted to individuals in specific, relatively. Read Original Content

With the current rate of growth, mobile marketing has been one of the most exciting to monitor. The data on user adoption is changing almost daily, with consumers actively changing the way they consume, share and publish. Check out the top four current trends in mobile marketing. Read Original Content

SAP's Acquisition of Sybase in 2010 Revisited - A Third Cup of Coffee

Cup #1

A third cup of Java's "bowl of soul" coffee, and now I am having flashbacks to May 2010.  I was and am a big fan of SAP's acquisition of Sybase.  I was a long time partner of Sybase and valued their mobile middleware, which I embedded in my mobile business apps for years. The cautions I shared in 2010, were that Sybase did not have a library of mobile apps or a robust SDK at that time, and businesses still needed to figure out how to get mobile apps.

[Kevin Benedict, May 12, 2010]  … none of [Sybase’s] solutions provide a company with mobile applications that solves their [business] problems.  A database is not an application.  Synchronization is not an application.  Mobile device management is not an application.  All of these solutions are just pieces that offer no value unless somebody builds something with them.

[Kevin Benedict, May 12, 2010]  Sybase is not a mobile application company.  They have great mobile middleware, mobile databases, synchronization and integration technology and mobile device management.  However, none of these products provide a company with a mobile applications that solves their problems.

Cup #2

[Kevin Benedict, May 13, 2010]  Sybase is not known for their mobile applications.  They primarily license mobile middleware and mobile databases to companies that develop mobile software applications.  SAP users need mobile applications.  Mobile applications, not mobile middleware, provide the ROIs customers seek.

[Kevin Benedict, May 12, 2010]  Sybase does not have an SDK.  How can a large enterprise with custom mobility needs build an application?  

OK, I am back to 2012!

SAP's announced intent to acquire Syclo last week will provide SAP with a proven SDK, a library of valuable mobile applications and a mobile app customer base.  These are good.  These were the missing pieces of the puzzle.  With this acquisition, however, there will be some overlap in capabilities between Sybase and Syclo as this 2010 interview with Syclo's EVP Jeff Kleban reveals (oh no!  Another 2010 flashback!!!!).

Cup #3

[Kevin] Who is Syclo's biggest competitor? [Jeff] It varies since there are so many point solutions in the market, but if a customer were looking for a MEAP, they will tend to look at Syclo and Sybase who are the leaders.   

Soon both MEAP vendors will be owned by SAP.  SAP will, I expect, continue to port the Syclo solutions onto SUP to unify the solutions.  I am scheduling a call with the SAP mobility team next week to learn more.

The new partnerships with Adobe's PhoneGap, Sencha Touch and Titanium SDK from Appcelerator will give mobile app developers even more tools and options for rapid application development.  In addition, long term SAP partners Open Text, Sky Technologies and ClickSoftware also have mobile solutions and SDKs that are tightly integrated with SAP solutions.  Again, this is good for the SAP ecosystem, although a plethora of choices does not always make for speedy decision making and lower TCOs (total cost of ownership).

It now seems the pieces to the enterprise mobility puzzle are on the table, however, the puzzle picture to be solved is unknown in many cases.  The problem for many companies, is the lack of strategy.  Now that developers have the technologies and tools - what are they to develop?  This is most often a decision that the business must make.  The business must paint the puzzle picture.  They must understand how enterprise mobility and mobile apps can and will change the competitive landscape of their industries.  The business must understand this and work with developers to take advantage of mobility.

It would be sad for the developers to have a wide selection of powerful tools to develop innovative mobile solutions, but then not be able to get the business to paint the picture or to re-engineer their processes to take advantage of them.

On a side note - Just because all of these tools are now available, it does not mean a company should develop their own mobile solutions.  Companies may be better off out-sourcing, subscribing to a cloud based solution or purchasing an off-the-shelf app.  There are a lot of different points to consider. We will discuss this in more details soon.

***Next week on April 26th I will be speaking in Atlanta at a lunch event organized by Motorola and ClickSoftware.  If you are interested in attending please register here.  I will be providing an update on my latest research into enterprise mobility, best practices and mobile strategies.

Read more on the subject of SAP's intent to acquire Syclo here:

SAP Acquires Syclo - A First Analysis Over Coffee  

SAP Acquires Syclo – A Second Cup of Coffee and 25 Comments

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

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

Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of April 15, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Developing Enterprise Mobility Apps and a Flashback to 2006

Mobility Blogging in 2006

Developing a mobile solution is still a major challenge for most companies.  In 2006, I was just starting to blog and I was the CEO of a mobile applications company (similar to Syclo) and a close partner of Sybase.  Back then I used different terms and device names, but much of the advice I wrote then is still valid.  Here is an excerpt from a blog article in 2006.

Year 2006 - If you have never created mobile applications, there is a steep learning curve.  A lot of mobile [apps and middleware] development is just plain tedious, expensive and risky.

1. Are you going to develop for just one kind of handheld computer or many? There are many different screen sizes, buttons, accessories, etc. If you want to support many different kinds of handhelds and their unique add-on components yourself - expect a couple of years of development.
2. How do you develop a solution that will work equally well on all devices such as Tablet PCs, PDAs, Smart Phones, Pocket PCs and/or laptops? What if your business user wants you to support them all with the same mobile application?
3. How do you develop and manage a synchronization server? Have you ever contemplated how difficult this might be?
4. How do you add database integration to your synchronization? How do you do this without messing up the production servers?
5. How do you add data validation to your mobile solutions?
6. How are you going to manage secure communications between your mobile application and your central database?
7. How do you build in mobile printing support?
8. How do you manage the deployment of mobile devices and track all the users and mobile applications?
9. Who is going to write all the help menus, user documentation, etc., if you develop in-house?
10. How do you add support for new hardware add-ons such as bar code scanners, RFID readers, GPS, digital cameras, printers to your application?
11. When Microsoft [or iOS, Android, Blackberry] releases the next version, are you going to re-write your application to support the new smartphones and other hardware? You will be required to since all new handheld devices are sold with the latest OS.

Six years later much has changed, there is HTML5, better mobile devices, and better mobile solutions today, but also much has stayed the same.  There is still a lot you must know about mobile app development.  If you are wanting to learn more, then you might find this upcoming webinar by Verivo of value:

Best Practices - The Mobile App Software Development Lifecycle

Developing mobile apps brings a new set of challenges and software development processes that IT teams must be prepared to address.  Whether you’re building your first app or you’re part of an organization building multiple apps with multiple technologies, attend this webinar to learn about best practices in building mobile apps across the complete software development lifecycle.  Get practical insights and answers to your questions to help deliver the right app, on time, and on budget.

This is the first in a series of webinars that will focus on best practices in the software development processes for building mobile apps.  Attend this webinar to:

• Understand the key differences between mobile development and traditional IT development across the complete software development lifecycle.
• Discover hidden risks and best practices in defining requirements, building components, setting up your infrastructure, testing, and deployment.
• Learn about two team-member roles that are critical to the success of every enterprise mobility project.

Date:  April 18

Time: 1PM EDT

REGISTER HERE!

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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.