Blog | News & Information on Wireless Services & Telecommunications
Posted: 03/03/11 by Mobile Future Team
A few new stats caught our eye this week:
- Smartphones outsold PC’s.
- According to IDC, in the fourth quarter of 2010 100.9 million smartphone devices were shipped compared to 92.1 million PC units.
- Mobile app revenues projected to reach $38 billion by 2015.
- Forrester Research analysts also estimate that by 2015 mobile applications, services and business management revenues will reach $54.6 billion a year.
- By 2015, e-commerce is expected to reach $278.9 billion in the United States according to Forrester.
Posted: 12/14/10 by Mobile Future Team
We’ve already discussed the role mobile commerce played in early holiday shopping. Today, eBay released groundbreaking numbers that made yesterday the biggest mobile shopping day ever. eBay’s mobile gross merchandise value, the total sales dollar value for merchandise sold through eBay, rose to $5 million in the US and $13 million globally (that’s a 127% and 165% increase respectively) according to the article.
Posted: 12/10/10 by Mobile Future Team
It’s official: The mobile revolution has grabbed another national pastime.
Beginning with Black Friday and carrying into the season of holiday shopping sprees, Americans’ rapid adoption of mobile shopping is pretty remarkable. First, look at a few numbers:
On Thanksgiving Day, shopping site Ruelala.com reported that about 19 percent of sales came from mobile users, up tenfold from a year ago.
Mobile sales from online giant eBay.com nearly doubled from 2009 levels on Black Friday. The company’s Cyber Monday statistics were equally as impressive: Mobile sales increased 146% from the previous year. (And yes, it’s a trend found across the United States.)
Finally, over at BlueNile.com, one customer used his mobile phone to make a $250,000 diamond purchase. (Impressive as it is, it’s still not the coolest item purchased with a smartphone this year.)
In short, the predictions about Americans’ rapid adoption of mobile shopping apps are coming true. On Cyber Monday, National Retail Federation estimated that more than 7 million people used a mobile device for shopping, nearly double the estimated 4 million mobile shoppers on the same day in 2009.
What’s driving this rapid evolution? First, costs are declining significantly. From late 2008 to this past fall, the average handset subsidy increased by almost 50 percent, according to a recent Goldman Sachs report. This has put smartphones within reach of tens of millions of Americans who once saw them as too expensive.
It also puts America on a trajectory where, by 2012, smartphone sales will exceed PC and notebook sales combined.
Service costs are dropping too. A General Accountability Office (GAO) report in August concluded that from 1999 to 2008, average wireless service prices had declined each year. It also reported that average prices in 2009 were half the prices in 1999.
Second, there is the obvious growth of mobile retail apps. Taking BlueNile.com as an example, Forbes reports that mobile traffic on Thanksgiving increased 1600 percent over last year. One key difference: This year, Blue Nile had a mobile app. Among major retailers, we’ve reached the point where mobile apps are only noticed by their absence. Meanwhile, many smaller retailers were quicker to market their own mobile apps and reaped the benefits, leapfrogging over larger, less nimble competitors.
Finally, there is the rapid growth of several truly remarkable mobile apps: ones that make instant product and price comparisons like PriceGrabber, ShopSavvy and eBay’s Red Laser.
Just scan a barcode when you’re at the store and the app immediately scours the web looking for comparable products and prices. It’s the perfect companion when you’re considering that impulse “all sales final” purchase and want to make sure you’re getting a good deal.
This time next year, you may be paying for your holiday gifts just by swiping your smartphone in front of a small scanner. And with industry trends continually pointing to decreased service costs and mass proliferation of mobile apps, stay tuned: The mobile revolution in retail is just beginning.
Posted: 11/16/10 by Mobile Future Team
By 2015, there will be more mobile Web users than desktop users. Moreover, according to Nielsen, the average smartphone user has downloaded 37 apps.
These two facts add up to a remarkable new business opportunity for companies that are smart enough to seize the advantage, writes Steve McKee, author of When Growth Stalls: How It Happens, Why You're Stuck, and What to Do About It. In the current Bloomberg BusinessWeek, McKee writes:
Unlike the early days of the Internet, affordability is less of an issue with mobile media. Inventiveness is what's required, but in order to be inventive you must first gain an understanding of how the technology is already impacting your industry.
He goes on to outline the economic opportunity of mobile. For example, fashion retailer Steve Madden reports that mobile traffic is now more than 10 percent of the company's total Internet traffic, a 250 percent increase from the previous six months. McKee’s comments also echo what The Wall Street Journal’s Paul Vigna and John Shipman reported recently about the torrid pace of job growth in the mobile economy, demonstrating once again that in an otherwise difficult economic climate, mobile continues to be one of the brightest lights for jobs and investment.
Posted: 08/20/10 by Mobile Future Team
The trend toward using your mobile phone in place of a credit card continues to accelerate. Next month, Bank of America, the nation’s largest consumer bank, will begin a test program that lets customers use smartphones to pay for store purchases.
The program, which will run in the New York region through December, is the latest step in giving consumers a "digital wallet" smartphone option. Here’s how it works: A small radio chip is installed in your phone and coded with your bank account and password. You then “bump” the phone with a scanner at checkout and the sale amount is transferred from your account.
BoA’s move is the latest in the race to develop smartphone payment systems. The banks are moving quickly in this area, but so are companies outside the banking industry. As Reuters notes, “Competition is increasing from outside the banking world.”
Mobile phones have already replaced the wristwatch for many college students and it seems only a matter of time – and not much at that – before it replaces the wallet too.
Posted: 07/29/10
Which of the following is true about a 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder:
(a) It’s named after a Spanish breed of fighting bull.
(b) It goes 0 to 125 mph in 14.3 seconds.
(c) An eBay user bought one this year using a mobile app.
Actually, it’s “D” – all of the above.
The mobile app point is one of the more interesting facts from a recent Business Week article on the surge in mobile commerce at eBay. Last year, the business saw about $600 million in commerce done through its mobile app. In 2010, the company projects this to more than double to $1.5 billion.
The prime mover for the company’s mobile growth is the increase in smartphones and tablets. Also, eBay’s mobile apps (the company has 14 of them) are more than just a driver of commerce. As Business Week puts it:
“The bottom line: Mobile commerce is booming and still fragmented, so eBay is rapidly introducing shopping apps to stay ahead of Amazon, its main U.S. rival.”
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.
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