Mobility News Weekly – Week of May 13, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What's New in HTML5 - Week of May 14, 2012

This week I have been teaching sessions on mobile strategies in Barcelona at the ClickConnect 2012 conference.  I have been hearing a lot about HTML5, which is what the ClickMobile Professional solution supports, but I have also been talking with a lot of large services companies that have stressed how they also want to embrace HTML5 in their companies.  Primarily for the cross-platform support and lower TCO (total cost of ownership).

Now for the news...

LinkedIn has launched their iPad app, a hybrid app of which 95 percent is HTML5-based mobile web technology.  Read original content

To avoid the security threats faced with Flash (Flash Player-related vulnerabilities accounted for 14% of all the Web app vulnerabilities discovered by WhiteHat Security), HTML5 developers need to take the time to learn how to use its HTML5's many features securely.  Read original content

One of the great advancements with HTML5 is that it allows websites to function like mobile apps by offering design capability that is mobile friendly.  This article provides five reasons why HTML5 rocks for mobile.  Read original content

Appcelerator’s Titanium Integrated Mobile Platform provides the ability for developers to create cross-platform native mobile, hybrid and HTML5 web apps, and has been awarded the Edison Award for Innovation.  Read original content

Microsoft has made the Metro style theme available for jQuery Mobile, allowing HTML5-based mobile applications running on the Windows Phone 7.5 OS to use the Metro style.  Read original content

Online travel and expense management company Certify has launched a new HTML5 mobile application for iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7 devices.  Read original content

Synacor has announced the acquisition of HTML5 platform Carbyn to offer customers a platform where subscribers can enjoy a variety of content and HTML5 applications seamlessly by signing into their account on any device regardless of operating system or browser.  Read original content

Satirical iPad magazine Blackline showcases HTML5 in clever and humorous ways, demonstrating how “HTML5 is a wonderful creative outlet”.  Read original content

With 12 percent of its new subscriptions on mobile devices, The Financial Times is dumping native mobile OS support and completing its move to HTML5.  Read original content

iSpring Solutions has released new PowerPoint to HTML5 technology which converts PowerPoint to HTML5 and will allow viewing presentations on iPad devices.  The technology will be released in beta during May, 2012 and iSpring is inviting everyone to participate in the beta testing process.  Read original content

The 2nd annual HTML5 Developer Conference will be held May 21, 2012 in San Francisco, CA.

Read original content

Muro, deviantART’s HTML5 drawing app, has undergone a major update.  Now called Muro Redraw, the app now allows users to draw, record and watch art as it is created.  Read original content

Verious has added a new HTML5 mobile app components category to their online marketplace for mobile app development.  Read original content

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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 Marketing News Weekly – Week of May 13, 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

Global mobile location-based advertising and marketing revenues will soar to almost €5 billion ($6.47 billion) by 2016 and account for close to 30 percent of all mobile advertising and marketing income, Berg Insight predicts. Read Original Content

Travel guide publisher Fodor’s Travel has enhanced its mobile applications with several integrations designed to make it easy for users to go from researching to booking reservations or purchasing tickets without having to leave the app. Read Original Content

Beverage giant Coca-Cola has launched a new iAd campaign that gives users the chance to vie for prizes by playing a mobile game. The ads are running on iAd’s network inside iPhone applications including TV Guide and CBS News. 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

Flurry has released the results of its mobile marketing study, which has shown that Android is suffering from a serious monetization issue, as its developers are being paid only 24 cents for every dollar made by those for iOS. Read Original Content

A new report from mobile marketing and advertising firm Velti, which is based on mobile device ad impressions, shows the new iPad’s growth into the mobile market slowed after an initial surge. Currently, the new iPad represents 8 percent of mobile ad impressions. Last year, at the same point in its release cycle, the iPad 2 had already captured 13 percent of the market. Read Original Content

Social media advertising revenues will grow from $3.8 billion in 2011 to $9.8 billion in 2016, representing a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent, according to BIA/Kelsey's U.S. Local Media Forecast. Read Original Content

SAP Announces New M2M Initiative

For the past two years I have been predicting that M2M (machine to machine) communications will eventually become important and ultimately merge with enterprise mobility.  Why?  Both involve remote and often mobile sources of data coming into the enterprise.

A few weeks ago, SAP made an announcement about M2M that I think is very interesting.  Here is an excerpt, "SAP today launched a new machine-to-machine (M2M) resource center with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The site features research and opinion from SAP, the EIU and other partners exploring successful M2M business models and scenarios."  I have also seen press about SAP's Mike Wendell, VP Industry Solutions, speaking at various conferences on the topic of M2M recently.

In addition to reports, SAP has begun to partner with M2M solution providers like, ILS Technology. In fact, ILS Technology is at SAP's SAPPHIRENOW 2012 this week showing their M2M solutions.  Here is how ILS Technology describes what they do, "Our M2M Application Platform interfaces directly with SAP and other backend systems. That way, SAP users can leverage the information from their M2M connected devices for better business intelligence."

The next question, however, is why would an SAP user want an M2M solution?  Here is how the introduction to the SAP/EUI report describes it, "The promise of a world of connected devices, in which machines of all types and sizes can autonomously communicate with each other, has long been imagined. GM’s OnStar business, which provides a growing range of in-vehicle services, has been around for some 17 years. But the past year has seen a surge of interest around the core enabling technology of the connected world: machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. Much of this interest stems from mobile operators, who are eagerly awaiting the possibility of connecting cars, homes, equipment, heart sensors and all manner of other devices to their networks to find new revenue sources."

“M2M is beginning to fulfill its promise...” said Jason Sumner, senior editor, EIU. “The next step is to create a platform for innovation by standardizing technologies, forming partnerships within the industry and demonstrating the benefits to consumers.”

Here are some additional thoughts on how M2M solutions may be relevant to SAP and other ERP users.  Information on assets, vehicles, equipment, location, product configuration, health status, usage, inventory levels, security systems, and alerts can wirelessly update ERP systems. This M2M data can trigger business process workflows such as automated service ticket/case creation, pay-per-use billing, warranty management, replenishment of consumables, compliance management, product recalls, planned maintenance and more.

The M2M report, commission by SAP, can be found 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.

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

The Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to field mobility that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of May 13, 2012

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

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

MasterCard, the No. 2 payments processor, has unveiled PayPass Wallet Services, its own take on the digital wallet. The wallet will allow users to store all of their cards, and MasterCard plans to distribute developer tools to allow other wallets to work with its network. Read Original Content

BlackBerry is hoping to steal a march on Samsung by heavily pushing its NFC enabled devices ahead of the Olympics. The launch of the campaign comes shortly after BlackBerry devices were certified with MasterCard PayPass technology, which will debut in the UK in the third quarter. Read Original Content

Canada’s six-largest lenders including Royal Bank of Canada, Credit Union Central of Canada and Desjardins Financial Group agreed to voluntary guidelines to develop mobile payments at retail outlets across the country, the Canadian Bankers Association said announced in a statement. Read Original Content

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

Last week Virgin Mobile put up a pre-order for its first phone with NFC support, a device called the LG Optimus Elite. Well, it appears that Virgin might have a hit on its hands as pre-orders for the Optimus Elite has sold out ahead of its launch. Read Original Content

A study released by payment technology provider ACI Worldwide and research firm Aite Group has defined a new species known as a “Smartphonatic” by looking at the mobile banking and payment adoption rates in 14 countries and has found the creature is driving the demand for mobile payments and banking. Read Original Content

SAP's Mobility Vision - Any Way You Want It

When you first look at the list of mobility vendors that are attending SAPPHIRENOW 2012, it may seem like most of them compete with SAP mobility, but that would be to forget that SAP sells ERP software.  Look at where SAP makes their money.  They make their money selling and maintaining large enterprise software implementations that run companies.  Mobility is an enabler.  Mobility extends and adds value to these large SAP users.  Those are important points to understand.

In a way, I think SAP's mobile strategy can be defined as, "I don't care."  I don't care what mobile software you use as long as it adds users and value.  If more users can access SAP through a third-party mobile solution, and SAP receives more user fees, then all is well.  Yes, they have spent billions of dollars on mobile middleware, tools, infrastructure and mobile applications (e.g. Sybase and Syclo), but that was, I believe, to ignite a now explosive enterprise mobility marketplace.  They needed to kick-start the market and they have succeeded.  There are now many mobility vendors supporting SAP users.

This week I read a story, written I believe, by Eric Lai about how fast SAP's internal developers could develop mobile applications using Adobe's PhoneGap mobile development environment.  Why might you ask would SAP be promoting the virtues of developing in another vendors solution?  Again, I think the answer is, "They don't care!"  SAP will provide everything needed to mobilize SAP environments, but if you want to use another vendor's solution - go for it!!!  SAP will get their user licenses, more value will be added to the SAP environment and everyone is happy.

I think the most important thing SAP has done for mobility in the past three years is to be aggressive and to promote that mobility is essential for large enterprises.  The folks at SAP invited me in late 2009 to join their SAP Mentor program.  This is a voluntary position, and I taught dozens of sessions over the past three years on mobile strategy at their events.  Today, everyone seems to believe in the value of enterprise mobility.  I read this morning that there are now eighty-one mobile applications on the SAP app store.  Very nice!

I think SAP's new partnerships with Adobe PhoneGap, Appcelerator and Sencha, plus the continued partnerships with appsFreedom, ClickSoftware and Sky Technologies prove my point.  There is room for many mobility vendors as long as they support SAP's middleware strategy and add value to the SAP user community. 

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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 Retail Apps Equal Sales

If companies have hesitated to develop a mobile strategy or mobile retail apps over concerns as to their value, this article on a report from ABI Research should send them straight to the phone calling the next available mobile developer.  Here is an excerpt from the article, "The results are promising for retailers, with 45.8% of respondents saying the app caused them to visit the store more, buy more of the store/brand’s products and services (40.4%), spread the word about their store shopping experience (35.8%), and even encourage friends to visit the store (30.8%)."

Once a company decides (the sooner the better) to invest in mobile retail applications it is important to recognize this is a permanent project.  Just as things change by season and holiday in retail, so to will the mobile application needs and designs.  Many companies choose to work with their ad agency or other third party developers on mobile retail and marketing apps because of the campaign nature of these applications.

IT organizations are rarely equipped to manage application projects that change as rapidly as mobile commerce and marketing applications.  Most often, the IT organization will create web services and other APIs that expose certain business processes like "order entry" and "track shipments" that are used by these mobile applications, but out-source the design, development, deployment and support of them.

SAP already seems to recognize the value in mobile commerce, for their customers and for themselves.  Here is an excerpt from an article I read last week, "Luis Cesar Verdi, President of SAP Brazil, told Computerworld UK, “Our strategy is to first help our clients understand how to use our mobile technology internally within their organisations,” he explained.  “However, we intend to extend this and get them to offer our mobile applications and infrastructure to their customers,” he added.  Verdi said that this is likely to be specifically within the services sector, for example, in retail, financial services and utilities.

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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.

Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly – Week of May 13, 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

Citing a commitment to the Asia Pacific region as an important market for cellular communications, Celcite Management Solutions has opened a new office in Singapore. Read Original Content

The results of a survey by Frost & Sullivan reveal that 25 percent of Australian businesses rate mobility to be either their top priority or a very important priority in 2012. Read Original Content

Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase Inc. has been working with The Philippines’ Globe Telecom to run live commercial voice traffic across multiple Asian operators, allowing Globe Telecom to exchange international calls directly with other mobile operators rather than routing calls through traditional wholesale voice carriers. Read Original Content

Indian e-commerce firm Snapdeal has launched a mobile app for Android devices, reaching out to the millions of Android users in India. Read Original Content

To increase the options for mobile banking in India, banks have begun offering mobile services through a new method, USSD, which works on a menu-based banking model on mobile devices allowing users to perform services by recalling the menu and simply dialing a number. Read Original Content

The number of citizens in Taiwan accessing the Internet via mobile devices is currently more than 4.9 million, according to the Institute for Information Industry in Taipei. Read Original Content

Subscriptions for 3G last year grew 172 percent in China and a staggering 1,050 percent in India.  It is predicted that China will have 230-250 million 3G subscribers by the end of 2012. Read Original Content

SAP Enterprise Mobility and Multilevel Marketing

In an article I read this morning, "Luis Cesar Verdi, President of SAP Brazil, told Computerworld UK that Brazil currently has 1.5 million end users for its mobile applications, but plans to increase this rapidly to 20 million by 2015.  To achieve this, Verdi plans to target the general public by going through enterprise customers that currently use its ERP systems and mobile applications."

I wrote about this multilevel enterprise mobility strategy last year and believe it will be effective.  B2C mobility is and will continue to be a fast growing market for mobility vendors, and SAP has the opportunity to touch billions of mobile users through B2C mobility.  Let's think about it.  SAP is big in utilities, consumer packaged goods and other industries with large customer bases.  Providing mobile IDEs (integrated development environments) through SDKs through partnerships and acquisitions will make it easier for mobile vendors to extend SAP out to these users.

Mobility is going to touch every industry, supplier ecosystem and customer base.  Companies need to start developing their strategy for supporting these groups sooner rather than later.

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

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.