Blog | News & Information on Wireless Services & Telecommunications
Posted: 05/06/10 by Mobile Future Team
It's only three days until Mother's Day and mobile innovation is making it easier to show your mom just how much you care.
1800Flowers turned to the mobile space this Mother's Day to increase the brand's reach. The online flower retailer optimized it's mobile website, created applications for the iPhone, Blackberry and Android phones, and is offering special SMS alerts.
The website even offered an exclusive discount to mobile users who texted "SPOTAMOM" to "Flower" (356937) as part of a special Mother's Day SMS promotion.
1800Flowers's application provides opportunities to engage all year long - offering flowers and gifts for all sorts of occasions and situations: Administrative Professionals Week, Birthdays, Get Well, Anniversary, Congratulations and I'm Sorry.
Finally, don't forget to call your mom (on your mobile phone) this Mother's Day.
Mother's Day is Sunday, May 9.
Posted: 04/14/10 by Mobile Future Team
The San Jose Mercury News recently reported on an uptick of interest in mobile payment systems that allow consumers to use their phones instead of debit or credit cards. Although not yet widely adopted, the idea is gaining traction.
A customer walks up to a coffee house counter, orders lunch, and pays the bill by lightly tapping the back of her mobile phone against a small receiver next to the cash register. Seconds later, a display message on the box screen approves payment, and the customer receives a text message receipt.
Face it: more often than not, you are on your phone when you walk into the coffeehouse anyway. Welcome to the mobile future!
Posted: 12/18/09 by Mobile Future Team
This season, who isn't trying to cut costs? Fortunately, as Claire Cain Miller points out in The New York Times [Link 1], your PDA gives you an instant alternative to trudging through parking lots and malls:
"The mobile phone is quickly becoming Santa's biggest helper. Powerful software applications for [PDAs] are making it easy for bargain-hunting consumers to see if another retailer is offering a better deal on a big-screen HDTV or pair of shoes and to use it to haggle at the cash register.
"Online retailers are revamping the mobile versions of their sites so consumers can make purchases without tedious typing. And offline retailers, battling for every last dollar, are sending cellphone users electronic coupons to lure them away from competitors."
Incidentally, while shopping and browsing may be national pastimes this time of year, let's also remember the holiday spirit and help those in need. Yes, you guessed it - your mobile phone makes it easy to do that too. The folks at the Mobile Giving Foundation are leading the way in helping non-profit organizations leverage the mobile Internet to generate fast and easy options for mobile users to donate from their PDAs.
Posted: 12/02/09 by Jonathan Spalter
Last Friday ushered in the holiday shopping season, and while
consumers were clamoring for the best bargain, this year they had a new
tool in their artillery - their cell phone.
With an array of smartphone choices from the Palm Pre to the iPhone,
several new Blackberry models, and the Droid - never before have
Americans had so many options at their disposal. That's not to mention
the proliferation of retail m-commerce sites, and applications that can
help you navigate stores, compare prices and even send coupons straight to your mobile phone. For customers, cell phones have become the ultimate aid in savvy shopping.
The Wall Street Journal reported that on Black Friday, "mobile online payments through PayPal surged 650%" and mobile searches grew to 200,000 from around 5,000 in 2008.
This is good news for retailers, but more importantly it signals that
2009 is likely to be seen as a tipping point for the mobile web.
Today, nearly 40 percent of new phone sales are smartphones, a
figure that will surely rise with the current holiday promotions. And a
recent report projects that by 2011 a majority of phones in the U.S.
will be connected smartphones that put PC-like functionalities in the palm of your hand.
What's driving this growth is a fundamental shift in how we use our wireless devices.
According to a recent survey of nearly 1,000 phone users:
"[S]martphone users are no longer just reading e-mail or
scheduling appointments but also surfing the Web, streaming video and
music, downloading games, and snapping pictures. Smartphones are now
seen more by consumers as minicomputers than as cell phones."
This is a giant step forward for U.S. connectivity and greatly
beneficial to American consumers, but it also raises key questions for
federal policymakers.
With the surge in smartphone adoption and mobile web usage, wireless data traffic in North America is expected to double every year between 2008 and 2013.
If this forecast holds true, it means that we are facing what FCC
Chairman Julius Genachowski calls a 'looming spectrum crisis.' The FCC
needs to take action by opening up new wireless spectrum. Thankfully,
Chairman Genachowski recognizes this challenge and is taking steps to
address it.
However, as we witnessed with the last auctions, the path to
spectrum allocation can be a lengthy and bureaucratic process, and
consumers also need more immediate solutions. Wireless network
management helps ensure as seamless a consumer experience as possible,
no matter how busy the wireless networks become. As we seek solutions
to address exponentially increasing mobile usage, we should keep in
mind the constructive policies and engineering practices that made this
growth possible in the first place.
As evidenced this Black Friday, wireless innovation is working for
America. When considering policy changes, the FCC must first do no
harm. Government policies should support mobile's still-nascent
potential and growth, but consumer choices and mobile innovation should
guide wireless' bright future.
This article was originally posted on Huffington Post.
Posted: 11/04/09 by Mobile Future Team
At this week's Mobile Future forum on President Obama's Innovation Agenda, Tom Kalil of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy spoke. Watch it below:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Posted: 11/02/09 by Mobile Future Team
Mobile Future staff, as well as several attendees, are live-tweeting today's Mobile Future event at the Newseum in Washington, DC. Click here to see their tweets in real-time.
The event, "President Obama's Innovation Agenda: Spurring Investment and Innovation in the Wireless Sector," features Tom Kalil of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, Bob Hahn, Senior Fellow at the Georgetown Center and Visiting Senior Fellow at Oxford's Smith School, and Hal Singer, President and Managing Director of Empiris.
The forum will conclude with a panel discussion moderated by Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter and featuring Tom Kalil, Debbie Goldman of the Communications Workers of America, and Mike Rollins of Citi Investment Research.
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Tags: Mobile Applications, m-commerce