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This is when you know your are successful :) First Trojan for Android Phones Goes Wild...

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:09:09 -0400

This is when you know your are successful :) First Trojan for Android Phones Goes Wild http://bit.ly/bNOcrk

Google & Verizon Propose Enforceable Net Neutrality http://bit.ly/c1nbCm

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:03:00 -0400

Google & Verizon Propose Enforceable Net Neutrality http://bit.ly/c1nbCm

wow. what a day. just now sat down at my desk :)

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:04:19 -0400

wow. what a day. just now sat down at my desk :)

Did Shopkick Just Change The Check-In Game? You Be The Judge [Video] http://tcrn.ch/9d6vdZ

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 23:36:59 -0400

Did Shopkick Just Change The Check-In Game? You Be The Judge [Video] http://tcrn.ch/9d6vdZ

More on the carrier payments consortium story from yesterday #yam http://post.ly/q5UX

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:55:03 -0400

More on the carrier payments consortium story from yesterday #yam http://post.ly/q5UX

More on the carrier payments consortium story from yesterday #yam

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:43:53 -0400

American Banker | Tuesday, August 3, 2010
A mobile payments effort seemingly designed to exclude banks may accomplish the exact opposite.
Financial companies have for years been pushing the idea that mobile phones could be used to initiate transactions, and though test after test has validated the technology, the banks have always come up against the same barrier: wireless carriers’ apparent lack of interest in including the necessary hardware in their phones.
Until now.
According to reports that emerged Monday, several major wireless carriers are collaborating to create a new system that would let consumers make purchases with their phones.
While analysts agreed that a payments network driven by phone companies would pose a significant threat to banks and card companies, they also said that such a system would increase consumer interest in the technology, and that once the hardware is widely available, financial companies also could find ways to take advantage of it.
“Once you build the rails for a payments system, excluding someone else is difficult,” said James Van Dyke, the president and founder of Javelin Strategy and Research in Pleasanton, Calif.
If the wireless carriers are able to create a functioning financial network, “it’s a way to get more mobile payments out in the world,” Van Dyke said. “Visa and MasterCard and the banks aren’t going to get frozen out.”
Bloomberg News was the first to report that AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA were working together on a payments system, along with Discover Financial Services and Barclays PLC. The consortium plans to test the system in Atlanta and three other U.S. cities.
Banks and carriers have collaborated in the past on mobile payments trials, but analysts said this effort appears to go further. In the model that has been most commonly used, an issuer and a carrier would team up to offer consumers phones featuring near-field communication chips — the same chips used in contactless payment cards. These phones were used to make purchases charged to users’ existing card accounts.
The new approach also is most likely based on NFC, but it could involve different payments accounts. Philip Philliou, a payments industry consultant and managing director with Philliou Selwanes Partners LLC, speculated that carriers, not banks, would administer the accounts. The funds could be stored at Barclays — because the phone companies have no interest in becoming depository institutions, he said — and the transactions could move across the Discover network.
“This could very well be the creation of a new payments system that resides on the mobile device,” Philliou said. “I read this as the telcos forming a consortium focused on payments. ‘Game on! We’re the new kid on the block in the payments world.’ “
Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile (a Deutsche Telekom AG unit), Barclays and Discover all declined to comment.
Todd Ablowitz, the founder and president of Double Diamond Group LLC, a Denver payments consulting company, said that the carriers’ project would likely generate more consumer interest in using phones to make payments, and whether it involves an upstart system or traditional card networks, “this will drive more interest in what banks can do.”
The lack of NFC chips in phones has been one of the major barriers for banks wanting to offer mobile payments services. Ablowitz said that by installing the components to develop their own network, the carriers could also open the door to other companies that would like to use the same capabilities.
However, he also said there are ways that carriers could make it very difficult for banks to capitalize on the NFC features. AT&T, for example, uses a format called the single wire protocol that enables it to sequester a user’s financial data within a phone’s SIM card.
While third-party designers might be able to write apps that could access a smartphone’s NFC chip, only the carriers can access SIM cards, which control access between the handset and wireless network. “That makes it impossible for banks to tap” financial data stored on a phone, Ablowitz said. “This freezes out banks, to a point. Not entirely.”
He said banks could find other ways to use NFC chips, though they might not be as efficient as systems that are built into phones.
A MasterCard Inc. spokeswoman said by e-mail Monday that the company is “confident that we will be at the center of delivering the next generation of mobile payments.” A Visa Inc. spokeswoman did not return calls.
Not everyone sees the value of the carriers’ efforts. Jason Kupferberg, an analyst with UBS Securities LLC, questioned whether consumers have an interest in making purchases with their phones.
Mobile payments are “solving a problem that doesn’t exist,” he said.

via americanbanker.com

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60-Year-Old Glass Technology Finds Its Market http://bit.ly/9MhQTQ

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:11:05 -0400

60-Year-Old Glass Technology Finds Its Market http://bit.ly/9MhQTQ

AT&T Jumps into the Barcode Game with New Mobile App - http://bit.ly/d92KlV #yam

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:11:05 -0400

AT&T Jumps into the Barcode Game with New Mobile App - http://bit.ly/d92KlV #yam

RT @mobios: AT&T/Verizon partner to launch mobile payment pilot. http://bit.ly/cm2XAR Still...

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:55:08 -0400

RT @mobios: AT&T/Verizon partner to launch mobile payment pilot. http://bit.ly/cm2XAR Still doesn’t solve $10B retail integration cost.

This story is from last Wed but worth noting - Starbucks Plans To Expand Mobile-Payments System -...

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:30:39 -0400

This story is from last Wed but worth noting - Starbucks Plans To Expand Mobile-Payments System - http://bit.ly/9QC0qz

RT @chefdutech: CHARTS OF THE WEEK: How Apple Beat Motorola In The Phone Business (MOT, AAPL)...

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:30:39 -0400

RT @chefdutech: CHARTS OF THE WEEK: How Apple Beat Motorola In The Phone Business (MOT, AAPL) http://bit.ly/cwm9mt

Was just thinking the same thing. RT @xenijardin: Sound of night cicadas.

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:30:39 -0400

Was just thinking the same thing. RT @xenijardin: Sound of night cicadas.

Another Awesome Infographic: Mobile Advertising & The Rise Of Mobile Coupons #yam

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:40:10 -0400

via mobilemarketingwatch.com

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Infographic: Banking by Phone #yam

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:44:21 -0400

via americanbanker.com

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A mobile payments breakout is still a few years away for the U.S. #yam

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:26:12 -0400

A breakout hit for real-world mobile payments in the U.S. is still a year or two off, despite the emergence of superphones and rich ecosystems with hundreds of thousands of apps, said panelists at VentureBeat’s MobileBeat2010 conference today.
While there are notable mobile payments startups cornering the virtual goods market, like Zong, a viable phone-based rival to the credit card has yet to emerge. The primary barrier isn’t the technology itself, but rather the level of credit penetration in developed markets. In contrast to the U.S., in Asia and Africa, where the majority of phone owners have virtually no access to credit, sophisticated SMS-based mobile payments systems like Safaricom’s M-Pesa have emerged.
“The value-add has to be clear,” said Tarang Shah, the senior vice president of innovation at Bank of America. “In developing countries, the pain of moving cash is high. That’s not the case in developed countries.”
He added, “We’re still a few years away from real products.”
Still, he did say that finance institutions like his employer recognize that consumers are starting to demand banking solutions on their phones. Competitor JPMorgan Chase & Co. began letting customers deposit their checks via iPhone earlier this month, for example.
Panelists agreed that big brands and small businesses alike stand to benefit from mobile payments. Small businesses could use phones to track loyalty and offer rewards, while big brands could use payments apps as another avenue to market to consumers. Operators might be able to step in but only if they add “real value,” said Mohammad Khan, the founder of Vivotech, a provider of near-field or contact-free payments software.
Mobile payments applications may also raise privacy concerns as banks and credit cards companies like Visa collect even more granular data about consumer habits.
“We have data points about consumer behavior that are unbelievable, but we don’t use it unless we get consent,” Shah said. Indeed, other consumer-based location-apps like Loopt have been approached for aggregate check-in data by hedge funds that want to predict the performance of retail stocks. (If a store receives more check-ins, that could serve as evidence that its earnings might fare well during a financial quarter.)
Next Story: MobileBeat panel: Most profitable markets for location services still unclear
Previous Story: Twitter’s director of mobile: AT&T has guts
Tags: mb2010, mobile payments, MobileBeat
Companies: Bank of America, Vivotech

—>

via mobile.venturebeat.com

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MasterCard extends mobile platform to revolutionize mcommerce #yam

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:33:25 -0400

Read the rest of this entry »’); ?—>
MasterCard has introduced an iPhone application in an effort to revolutionize the mobile commerce experience for cardholders.
The MarketPlace application gives MasterCard users mobile access to weekday deals. The company partnered with Next Jump, an ecommerce company.
“We want to be where consumers are, in a format that they love,” said Melody Miller, group head of commerce solutions at MasterCard World, Purchase, NY. “We see this as a strategic way to extend our platform.
“We’re looking at several areas,” she said. “We’re seeing mobile as a channel to deliver value-end services.
“We have several other iPhone apps, making life easy for the consumer, as well as offers to the consumer.
MasterCard develops and markets payment services and provides analysis and consulting services to financial-institution customers and merchants.
Personalized shopping
The application is a personalized shopping platform with customized deals and offers from select merchants.
Cardholders can access the application and can get discounts of 50 percent off or more on products and services.
The offers are available in limited quantity and reservations are required – first-come, first-serve basis.
“We’re getting the word out about this by looking at the demographic of the users and leveraging the mass trends of social media,” Ms. Miller said. “We’re using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Here is a screen grab of the application:
Mobile deals
Past deals include discounts for Apple iPods, Nintendo Wiis, Sephora products, Barnes & Noble’s nook eBook Reader and Macy’s and Converse products.
Consumers can save anywhere from $25-$100.
To reserve their spot for the daily deals, MasterCard cardholders must sign in. Those that do not have an account can sign up for free.
Users can also read full offer details of the deals.
Here is another screen grab of the application:
In addition, MasterCard has an ATM Hunter application for BlackBerry, giving users the ability to find the nearest ATM anywhere in the world.
The application is also available for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch (see story).
“We’re looking to be where consumers are heading,” Ms. Miller said. “One of the key ways of the growing trend to ecommerce shopping is to extend into the mobile space.”
Final take
Rimma Kats, editorial assistant at Mobile Commerce Daily, New York.
Rimma Kats is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily and Mobile Marketer. Reach her at rimma@mobilemarketer.com.

Like this article? Sign up for a free subscription to Mobile Commerce Daily’s must-read newsletters on mobile commerce. Click here!
Related content: None Found
Tags: iPhone application, MasterCard, Melody Miller, mobile, mobile commerce, mobile marketing
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

via mobilecommercedaily.com

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Not sure his fee info is correct, but right about these evolutionary times in credit. - Credit Card = Audio CD

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:41:42 -0400

Posted by Oren Frank on 06.30.10 @ 11:32 AM
Remember the old audio CD? That round piece of plastic holding 15 songs — two of which you actually wanted to hear? While many of us still use and occasionally buy CDs, I suspect we can agree that with iTunes as the world’s-biggest music marketer, the CD’s glory days are over. The audio CD represented an unconnected world, in which physical manifestation and distribution were needed to get the music bits and bytes to consumers. As we now know, digital networks disrupt business models by turning atoms into bits, and we also learned that the marginal cost of digital distribution is zero. All this led to massive disintermediation that made the physical CD product — and the entire distribution system built around it — completely obsolete.
Now let’s think for a moment about the credit card. It’s a plastic product (rectangular this time), physically representing data that could not be connected online at the time it was invented, and it’s a pretty expensive business to run. Beginning to sound familiar? You bet. And to make matters worse, the credit card, like all kinds of fiat money (without intrinsic value matching its declared value), is already an abstraction, or “virtual,” and therefore even more susceptible to disruption.
It is therefore no big surprise that credit card disintermediation is happening all around us; check out Google checkout, Paypal, Obopay, Facebook credits, the dozens of patents Amazon registered in this category, Square, Zong, Boku/Paymo (their tagline is “no plastic required”), Venom, Mopay, and countless other mobile-based transaction solutions. Financial services are shifting to social and giving rise to peer-to-peer lending, buying groups, and virtual currencies such as Blippy, Twitpay, Trialpay, Plastic Jungle and, of course, Farm Cash. To further complicate things, all banks today offer direct digital access to your accounts. Currently, a credit card deal costs a merchant more than five times more than a cash one. No wonder then that when you shop with retailers such as freshdirect.com, the first message you’ll get is a handsome incentive should you opt to use direct debit from your bank account and save FreshDirect nicely.
All this is happening because one of the only things the internet did not change is the fact that we all prefer to pay less rather than more — and that’s the factor that will further push the credit card disintermediation. The average cost of a credit card transaction is around 1-3%, representing the fee and cost structure associated with this plastic-generation technology, while the overhead of pure digital direct transaction platforms on the internet is significantly lower. Unlike the late B2C music industry, credit cards are mostly a B2B model, which is the reason it is not yet as disrupted as the music industry is. This will change as more merchants and businesses find cheaper ways to enable transactions with their customers, and as more consumers will understand that a part of the cost comes out of their pocket. The consumers will also discover that using pure digital payment systems is indeed cheaper, and also faster and easier.
In a world where the internet democratizes financial services and shifts the control to consumers, and where mobile/contextual payments are expected to reach more than $600 billion in 2014, it’s surprising to see that Visa, MasterCard or Amex did not rush to buy or develop their own technologies. Well, perhaps they didn’t buy mint.com after Aaron Patzer called the credit card model “a tax on the economy” (it was bought by Intuit). But there are plenty other opportunities to buy or develop smart and friendly solutions, or even license existing solutions such as Amazon’s “pay phrase” or paying with your phone # + a 4-digit code.
I believe that the future of the credit card companies lies with brave new interpretations of the words making their category name: “credit” and “card.” “Credit”? Yes, but personalized and transaction-based, and with far greater transparency. Let’s begin by renaming the credit card act “the fair transaction act.” “Card”? Not for long — the plastic must be augmented and eventually replaced by modern, consumer-centric experiences. Visa, MasterCard and Amex must realize that they’re in the smooth, personalized transactions service business. If and when they implement this into their culture, they will be able to develop the services and products that will leverage their brands and footprint to effectively compete in this new reality.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Oren Frank is global chief creative officer at MRM Worldwide. During his career, Frank has worked with such brands as Honda, Volvo, Microsoft, Yoplait, Heineken, Axe and McDonald’s.

via adage.com

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Good buzz out of something bad - English Blooper Fires Up U.S. World Cup Interest

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:45:29 -0400

June 16, 2010
Thanks to a goalkeeping blunder in the 40th minute, the United States escaped with a 1-1 draw versus England on Saturday. The player responsible for the mistake, England’s Robert Green, was not only pulled from relative obscurity into the social media spotlight, but his error has helped to fan the flames of World Cup fever in the US.

According to a Nielsen analysis of online messages surrounding all U.S. and English national team players in the week ending Monday, June 14, Green garnered 11.4% of the total buzz, the most of any man from either squad. Nielsen’s study also found that his name was seven times more likely to appear in a World Cup message in the last week than in the prior seven-day period. It was the second most dramatic week-over-week change behind U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard, whose gutsy performance earned him “Man of the Match” status. His buzz levels soared more than 750% week-over-week.

“Nielsen’s analysis illustrates just how much the online community discusses these games,” said Pete Blackshaw, VP of digital insights at Nielsen. “Moments of greatness – or even the briefest of errors – can thrust any of these players’ names under the social media microscope for hours and days at a time and can have an effect that spreads far beyond the 90 minutes of game time.”

The contrasting week-over-week change in overall buzz levels for each of the two squads highlights the effect the game’s result had in each country. Social media discussions around the England squad dropped by 21%, reflecting the disappointment and subdued reaction to the game in England. In stark contrast, buzz levels around the US squad increased by over 250%, highlighting the delight with the result in the USA.

Blackshaw observes, “What’s happening in social media indicates that the error could help fan the flames of World Cup fever in the US and help the sport gain a mass share of mind it’s not previously enjoyed for a tournament held outside its own shores. If Green hadn’t made the blunder, the US would have lost their most anticipated match (it was the most watched first round game ever in the U.S.) and interest could have dwindled before it had a chance to really start going.”

USA and England Soccer Player Buzz Rankings
(Week ending Monday, June 14)

Rank Player Buzz Share*
(week ending 6/14/10) % Change in Overall Buzz Levels
(week-over-week)
1 Robert Green (England) 11.4% 608%
2 Wayne Rooney (England) 9.1% 76%
3 Tim Howard (USA) 6.7% 765%
4 Clint Dempsey (USA) 5.0% 528%
5 Steven Gerrard (England) 5.0% 32%
6 Landon Donovan (USA) 4.8% 224%
7 David Beckham (England) 4.2% 28%
8 Joe Cole (England) 3.1% -29%
9 Jozy Altidore (USA) 3.0% 127%
10 Rio Ferdinand (England) 2.9% -73%
Source: The Nielsen Company
*Share of online buzz, in English-language social media messages, among all USA and England players related to the 2010 World Cup squads
Despite a somewhat muted performance, English star Wayne Rooney still managed to receive the second highest levels of buzz last week among the teams’ players with a 9.1% share. Howard finished third overall with a 6.7% share, while the game’s goal scorers Clint Dempsey and Steven Gerrard rounded out the top five with 5% each.

It was also notable that David Beckham, who isn’t playing in the tournament, still managed to feature amongst the most buzzed players. It seems the obsession with the star plays out in social media just as it did with the TV cameras, which frequently cut to slow-motion clips of Beckham’s reaction to events during the course of the game.

There was one positive for England’s Green: the buzz levels for England’s backup goalkeepers, David James and Joe Hart, actually decreased in the last week – suggesting that even if fans are unsatisfied with Green, they weren’t eager to discuss the need for a replacement.

Nielsen’s latest study, conducted the week ending Monday, June 14, 2010, looked at English language World Cup-related messages on blogs, message boards, groups, video and image sites – including Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter – that mentioned at least one of the players related to the 2010 US and England Team Squads.

For more: Contact The Nielsen Company or read about our global consumer & media expertise.

Tags: Clint Dempsey, David James, England, Joe Hart, online buzz, Pete Blackshaw, soccer, Steven Gerrard, Tim Howard, USA, Wayne Rooney, World Cup

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Rank	Player	Buzz Share* (week ending 6/14/10)	% Change in Overall Buzz Levels (week-over-week)
1	Robert Green (England)	11.4%	608%
2	Wayne Rooney (England)	9.1%	76%
3	Tim Howard (USA)	6.7%	765%
4	Clint Dempsey (USA)	5.0%	528%
5	Steven Gerrard (England)	5.0%	32%
6	Landon Donovan (USA)	4.8%	224%
7	David Beckham (England)	4.2%	28%
8	Joe Cole (England)	3.1%	-29%
9	Jozy Altidore (USA)	3.0%	127%
10	Rio Ferdinand (England)	2.9%	-73%
Source: The Nielsen Company *Share of online buzz, in English-language social media messages, among all USA and England players related to the 2010 World Cup squads

via blog.nielsen.com

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Trying this again. One of my fav local lunch spots (Asian Kitchen) is listed on Google’s...

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:56:59 -0400

Trying this again. One of my fav local lunch spots (Asian Kitchen) is listed on Google’s Favorite places. - http://yfrog.com/5nup4sj

Feature packed! - Sprint announces their QWERTY-ified version of the Galaxy S, the Samsung Epic 4G -...

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:38:52 -0400

Feature packed! - Sprint announces their QWERTY-ified version of the Galaxy S, the Samsung Epic 4G - http://smub.it/gg43

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Oren Frank is global chief creative officer at MRM Worldwide. During his career, Frank has worked with such brands as Honda, Volvo, Microsoft, Yoplait, Heineken, Axe and McDonald’s.