Apple CEO Steve Jobs Goes on Medical Leave

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO is taking medical leave at Apple. Jobs says he will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company, as apparently he has in the passt.

Tim Cook will be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations during the absence, as happened also when Jobs took his last leave.

At few companies is the potential departure of a CEO as crucial as at Apple, but it probably is worth noting that Apple has, in the past, continued to introduce major products of high market impact even when Jobs was not physically as present.

The iPad, another apparent breakthrough product, was launched after Jobs had a liver transplant.

Apple Media Advisory | Business Wire

Mobile Works Better than Online Advertising, Study Finds

InsightExpress, a digital marketing research firm, found mobile campaign norms were 4.5 to 5 times higher than online norms against measures of unaided awareness, aided awareness, ad awareness, message association, brand favorability and purchase intent.

A comparison of three different mobile media types (Mobile Internet, SMS and Mobile video) revealed that mobile Internet is the current powerhouse. Mobile Internet campaigns resulted in increases of nine percentage points for unaided awareness, nine percentage points for aided awareness and 24 percentage points for ad awareness. SMS is also effective at increasing upper level purchase funnel metrics such as awareness measures. SMS campaigns generated increases of 5 percentage points for unaided awareness, 10 percentage points for aided awareness and 18 percentage points for ad awareness.

Mobile video is still emerging, but shows campaign impact on par with SMS across most key brand metrics. This channel drove especially strong results against brand favorability. With an increase of 13 percentage points, compared to 12 percentage points for Mobile Internet and 7 percentage points for SMS, mobile video is demonstrating promise as a way to move the important brand favorability measure.

Comparing mobile norms to online norms, mobile consumer packaged goods purchase intent effect is three times higher than online CPG purchase intent. Mobile entertainment purchase intent effect is four times higher than online entertainment intent.

Mobile travel purchase Intent effect is five times higher than online travel purchase intent, while mobile technology purchase intent effect is seven times higher than online technology purchase intent.

Mobile automotive purchase intent effect is four times higher than online.

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Small Business Marketing Looks to Rise in 2011

Small business owners plan to spend on marketing their business in 2011, according to a new survey by Manta, the world's largest online community for promoting and connecting small business.

Some 77 percent of small business owners surveyed by Manta plan to spend in 2011 even though 85 percent reported across-the-board cuts in 2010. Some 47 percent have prioritized marketing and sales as their top spend, with 24 percent noting business development as top priority and 23 percent opting for marketing and advertising.

Another 23 percent of the respondents said they couldn't prioritize expenditures for 2011, given the current state of their business.

Manta Small Business Survey: Marketing a Priority in 2011

U.S. Hispanics are Avid Mobile Users

U.S. Hispanics are avid mobile phone users, according to Scarborough Research, which finds that the percentage of Hispanic adults who use a cellular phone grew 26 percent since 2005, versus 18 percent for all adults. Currently, mobile usage among Hispanics is on par with that of the general population as 82 percent of Hispanic adults use a cellular phone, compared to 84 percent of total adults.

But Hispanics are heavier users. Hispanics are more likely than other cellular users to text message. Sixty‐four percent of Hispanics who use a wireless phone text message, versus 56 percent of all cellular users.

Also, 22 percent of Hispanic cellular users download or listen to music using their wireless device, compared to 15 percent of all wireless users. Likewise, 19 percent of Hispanic cellular users play games on their wireless device, compared to 15 percent of all wireless users.

Some 12 percent of Hispanic cellular users access social networks from their wireless device, compared to 10 percent of all wireless users.

Additionally, the Hispanic smartphone growth rate is outpacing that of the total population. Nineteen percent of Hispanic adults currently live in a household that owns one or more smartphones, up from five percent in 2005. Twenty‐three percent of the general population currently owns these devices in their household, growing from nine percent in 2005.

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Over half of businesses see benefits of mobile apps, 42% don't

Over half of business technology professionals say their companies currently deploy, or plan to deploy, mobile apps on smartphones, according to a new survey from InformationWeek Analytics. But some businesses are yet to be convinced.

Fifty-two percent of the 700 or so technology professionals surveyed for the report grasped the potential of mobile apps, and already use or plan to use them, up from 42 percent from 2009.

Over half of businesses see benefits of mobile apps, 42% don't - Mobile Marketing - BizReport

Intuit Makes Big Mobile Payments Play

HTC EVO 4G Credit Card Processing > PaymentMax For Credit Card Processing and Merchant Accounts

HTC EVO 4G owners can create merchant accounts with PaymentMax, allowing their EVO devices to act as credit card readers.

PaymentMax does not charge any set-up fees for MasterCard, Visa, Discover, or American Express. You need a "credit card swiper."

All our merchant accounts use PCI certified software that encrypts data before it is transmitted on your HTC EVO 4G.

The ROAMpay application expands the capabilities of a cell phone, enabling it to process credit and debit cards. The ROAMpay Swiper is optional accessory hardware that works with the app to provide extra speed, security, and savings when processing card information.

The ROAMpay Swiper is currently available for dozens of phones including 3G iPhone, 3GS iPhone, iPhone 4, Nexus One, and the HTC Hero. The ROAMpay app is compatible with hundreds of phones like iPhones, Blackberrys, and Androids. Many, like the Droid Incredible and the Droid X, can currently process cards with the app while the Swiper card reader is in "coming soon" status for these droid phones.

HTC EVO 4G Credit Card Processing > PaymentMax For Credit Card Processing and Merchant Accounts

iPads for Credit Card Processing

Green Cab of Madison, Wisconsin uses Apple iPads for their dispatch system and to take credit card payments.

Mobile Credit Card Processing,Merchant Services for your business,: Green Cab Offering In-Cab Payment Option

Smartphone as Credit Card Terminal

This is an example of how a smartphone can be used as a credit card terminal. If you think about event sites and even lots of farmers market or other small retail types of venues, this could be useful.

Mobile Websites or Mobile Apps?

As we continue to debate whether mobile apps or mobile web is a better approach to the mobile experience, there is evidence for both points of view.

Mobile websites arguably are better for getting "information on the go." There are no serious platform issues and no need for downloading apps.

Mobile apps, on the other hand, are about experience enhancement, not information. Perhaps the best mobile apps allow users to enhance the value of an experience, typically when interaction is required, and are not best suited for gathering in-depth information, some would argue.

Apps, of course, have to be downloaded and installed, which means there are authoring costs and issues.

Mobile Websites or Mobile Apps

Why 4G Standards Really Don't Matter

There was a time, several years ago, when one might have gotten a reasonable argument about which flavor of fourth-generation wireless air interface (WiMAX or Long Term Evolution) was "better." One rarely hears such arguments anymore, for several reasons.

When the world's dominant GSM carriers all decided to embrace LTE, the "standards war" was effectively over. Much in the same way that Hollywood initially squabbled over HD-DVD and Blu-ray as the superior format to bring HD to the masses, the mobile industry at one point argued about the merits of WiMAX and LTE.

The decisions are of course very important to suppliers who had hoped to create a huge new business based on either of the standards. Intel, for example, had hoped to create huge new demand for WiMAX chipsets.

Beyond the technology differences, though, the key questions now are not over format, but business model. It is typical for supporters of next-generation wireless networks to tout new applications enabled by the new networks. Text messaging is a good example of a feature available on a 2G network that could not be provided on a first generation network. Email was a feature available on 2.5 networks.

Proponents of 3G networks always talked about the new applications that 3G would enable. But it took quite some time before specific 3G applications actually developed. As it turns out, PC dongle access and mobile Internet access turned out to be the new apps 3G enabled on a fairly wide basis. But lots of the other potential applications failed to develop.

The issue for 4G networks is whether new apps actually can be created, and how long it will take before that happens. In the meantime, "4G" mostly means "faster broadband" for most end users. The other important angle is that a new network always brings with it the chance to reset consumer expectations about "typical" features and pricing mechanisms.

For the moment, that is the key issue for 4G network operators. In the near term, 4G is unlikely to mean much other than "faster than 3G" as a core value proposition. But 4G pricing and packaging can be different than typically is the case for 3G, and that will be the near term revenue issue of greatest importance.

Over time, it is likely that other "killer apps" will develop. But that will take some time, in all likelihood.

Ironically, neither of these wireless technologies actually qualify as “4G” in the eyes of the International Telecommunication Union, but that hasn’t stopped the carriers’ marketing departments from capitalizing on the term anyway.

The Difference Between 4G and LTE

Is AT&T Hoarding Spectrum?

Some question whether AT&T is simply hoarding spectrum it has purchased, the implication being that the company simply is squatting on spectrum to deny its use to competitors. So is that the case?

The simple answer is "no." AT&T will deploy its new LTE network in 2011, on 700 MHz and Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum. Hoarding? Hardly. But the question has a lot of other nuances, and explain why spectrum costing billions does not always get put into service immediately. AT&T has perhaps more reasons than most.

Wireless Headsets - Is AT&T Hoarding Spectrum?

The Verizon iPhone Is Too Late?

Questions sometimes are more important than answers. One question might be whether the Apple iPhone can dominate the mobile handset market the way it dominates MP3 players. Another question might be whether Apple can dominate smartphones.

But one might wonder if a better question is what markets and segments does Apple wish to dominate. apple never has shown any desire to dominate the enterprise market. It never has wanted to have market share and volume at the expense of "premium" positioning in the market, or margins.

There will be huge demand for the Verizon iPhone, most observers seem to agree.

But Android has made big leaps forward in terms of quality and quantity: it recently began outselling the iPhone in the United States, for example.

Android phones are sold by dozens of hardware makers, the biggest being Samsung, Motorola, and HTC. There are lots of different form factors. Slider phones. Phones with keyboards. Big screens, small screens, midsize screens.

The iPhone, in contrast, is a bit like the situation people once had with Henry Ford’s Model T, where you could have any color you wanted, as long as it was black. With the iPhone you can have whatever Steve Jobs says you can have, some argue.

Apple likely only wants to be a highly-profitable supplier of high-end devices with premium positioning. It likely will succeed at that. Apple wanted to change the mobile handset business. It has done that.

Android, on the other hand, likely always aimed to be a mass-deployed operating system, and likely will succeed. The big question might be whether Symbian suffers more than others in that regard. Android can be used on lower-end devices as well as high-end devices, and will.

If one assumes that smartphones will, over time, become the "phone," then Apple never would have wanted to have the largest market share.

The Verizon iPhone Is Too Late - Newsweek

Android Users; Giving to Charity Now Easier with PayPal Mobile

PayPal has added a donations feature to the PayPal Mobile for Android app. Now Android users have a fast and convenient way to make charitable contributions to more than 23,000 charities in the U.S, U.K and Canada, including World Food Program USA, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Children’s Miracle Network and Habitat for Humanity International.

Android Users; Giving to Charity Now Easier with PayPal Mobile