Brian Stout, Alcatel-Lucent Director, Alcatel-Lucent Ventures, talks about the challenges of offering a mobile payments solution.
"It really is about consumer adoption," says Stout. "How do you replace the leather wallet?" As simple a question as that might be, the answers are complex because the existing business already is complex, and might be disrupted if a mobile can displace a credit card or debit card.
Mobile operators, merchants and banks all have customer relationships, but who owns the customer in a mobile payments context? And make no mistake: changing the status quo is really key. Mobile operators want to lower churn and get revenue from non-traditional means. Merchants want loyalty.
"Our vision is that you have to create value beyond payment," says Stout. And the whole business has to get to critical mass as well.
Beyond payment, there are other values. Can you replace library cards and other information vehicles? Mobile payment systems will have to integrate with existing back office and customer care systems; support multiple stored-value accounts; cash, loyalty points, coupons and other offers.
Digital signage apps also are part of the ecosystem, says Stout. Advertising, location services, voice and social media also will be part of the solution.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Alcatel-Lucent Ventures on Mobile Payment Challenges
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Mobile Shopping: Before, During, and After a Sale
It might be easy to miss the full extent of the growing role mobile devices are playing in the "shopping" process because so much attention is rightly focused on mobile payment or social shopping (Groupon, LivingSocial). In the former case you have the actual payment transaction, in the latter case the inducement to buy something.
The more subtle roles are played as people first become "searchers" before they become shoppers, looking for information first, before the intention to buy something has surfaced. To the extent that involves mobile search, recommendations and so forth, mobile as a venue for advertising and marketing is the issue.
Then, as searchers shift to the "shopping" mode, direction, location and mapping move to the fore. Then mobiles get used inside retail outlets for comparison information, further detail on products and possibly, exposure to any offers that might be current.
The point is that the ways people use their mobile devices before they get to a store is part of the shopping process, and creates business potential for different entities in different parts of the mobile ecosystem. Once a product is purchased there are other ways mobile can be used for supporting customer service, creating social reviews or supporting repeat behavior.
Mobile payments and social shopping are only two of the salient ways mobile is used in the shopping process, and only part of the ecosystem of activity growing up around mobiles.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Social Shopping $4 Billion in 2015
U.S. consumer spending on deal-a-day offers, social shopping, mobile coupon services such as Groupon or LivingSocial, will grow from $873 million in 2010 to $3.9 billion in 2015, representing a 35.1 percent compound annual growth rate, according to BIA/Kelsey. But it also is possible the market could grow faster, to as much as $6.1 billion by 2015 (47.4 percent CAGR), while a very conservative outlook pegs the space at $2.1 billion (19.7 percent CAGR).
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
SMB Market a New Battleground for Local, Online, Mobile Spending
A Borrell Associates survey of 2,872 small and medium size businesses found that they plan to increase their ad budgets 4.5 percent in 2011, but their online budgets 29 percent. The biggest gainers: email and social media advertising, including spending on their own websites.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Nexus S for Sprint 4G Network
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Google Voice Works With Virtually all Sprint Handsets
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
HTC "Flyer" Tablet
Tablets now are available in form factors ranging from five inches to about 10 inches. The new HTC "Flyer" is a seven-inch device. http://news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20110324/tc_digitaltrends/handsonwiththehtcflyersprintevoview4gauseful7inchtablet?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
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