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Millennials Forge Generational Personality

Millennials, the American teens and twenty-somethings who are making the passage into adulthood at the start of a new millennium, have begun to forge a generational personality. They are confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and open to change.

They are more ethnically and racially diverse than older adults. They're less religious, less likely to have served in the military, and are on track to become the most educated generation in American history.

Their entry into careers and first jobs has been badly set back by the Great Recession, but they are more upbeat than their elders about their own economic futures as well as about the overall state of the nation.

The Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change. - Pew Research Center

Google, Apple, ISIS Gear Up for Payments Battle

Though the ISIS NFC payments venture formed by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon might not launch until about June 2012, it already is shaping thinking about near field communications and mobile payments.

Aside from the issue of what MasterCard, Visa, American Express and issuing banks will do, there is the question of what others such as PayPal might do.

Google, Apple, ISIS: Which Will Ignite NFC Payments - pymnts.com

The Era of 4G: Collaboration a Killer App?

Nobody can yet say for sure what the unique fourth-generation network "killer app" will be. But it is reasonable to argue that collaboration, especially using video, is among the "experiences" that 4G will enable, an that 3G could not, or could not do well.

Because 4G networks feature not only faster download speeds but also lower latency, real-time video communications are going to work better. While the 3G network is fine for making phone calls, sending e-mail and surfing the Web, wireless carrier executives tout 4G’s better performance as the underpinning for all sorts of applications that require better real-time app support.

Walt Rivenbark, vice president Mobility Applications Consulting Group at AT&T, says small business owners armed with a 4G phone will be able to do a lot more video conferencing on a smartphone, tablet or anything 4G enabled.

The Era of 4G: What it Means for Small Businesses - FoxSmallBusinessCenter.com

50% of Content Will be Accessed From Mobiles in 2012?

By 2012, analysts predict that more than 50 percent of digital content will be accessed on mobile phones instead of computers. Some predict that at least some of that content will be consumed by shoppers who are inside retail locations. Location and proximity-based marketing will benefit.

8 reasons why proximity marketing will matter for retailers in 2011 | RetailCustomerExperience.com

Chinese Youth Heaviest Mobile Web Users, U.S. Youth Heaviest Email Users

Mobile Internet access is far and away the "killer app" for smartphones, it appears.

read more here

Softbank Mobile Launches Mobile Payments Trial

Gemalto will provide Softbank Mobile with technology supporting a mobile contactless payment trial in Japan. The program is the first in Asia to enable secure mobile Near Field Communication transactions from a choice of different credit card accounts. The pilot is expected to roll out in the first quarter of 2011.

Softbank customers will be able to use their mobile phone for contactless payments in convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and theaters. The program also offers users the option to perform NFC transactions from two credit card issuers - Orient Corporation, the largest service provider of MasterCard PayPass in Japan, and Credit Saison, another Japanese leading financial institution. This is made possible by embedding multiple MasterCard PayPass applications in the secure UICC.

For this program, Gemalto will provide a turnkey NFC solution comprised of its Allynis Trusted Services Management operated services, UICC cards and N-Flex devices. Gemalto''''s trusted services allow for the secure deployment and management of contactless mobile payment. The N-Flex enables users to turn a conventional handset into an NFC-enabled mobile phone, without any change to the device.

SOFTBANK MOBILE in Japan Selects Gemalto for Mobile Contactless Payment Trial

Mobile Has Largely Erased the "Digital Divide"

The thing about "problems" is that you have to know when a problem has been largely solved, substantially solved or is so close to being solved that one has to move on to tackle the next set of problems. Internet access and broadband are, in many ways, those sorts of problems. Availability is less and less a problem. Redesigning life and business to take advantage of the changes is where the real work awaits.

5 Ways Mobile Direct Marketing Differs From Traditional Direct Marketing

Mobile direct marketing differs from traditional direct marketing in at least five ways. A mobile direct marketing campaign is 100-percent opt-in. A marketer cannot lawfully buy a list of mobile phone numbers and then start blasting text messages to those users.

While traditional marketing typically starts with a list, an text marketing campaign starts with a campaign offering something your target audience would find valuable. Also, conversion rates for a text message campaign can be much higher than for an email campaign, for example. By definition, a text message campaign builds on opt-in from consumers who presumably already have high interest in a particular product or service.

5 Ways Mobile Direct Marketing Differs From Traditional Direct Marketing

Charge Anywhere Updates Android POS System

CHARGE Anywhere has updated its mobile payment application for Android. The main new thing included in this release is support for non-credit card transactions like cash, check and ACH payments.

CHARGE Anywhere‘s mobile payment software and payment gateway solutions are supported by all major card processors in the US and Canada.

CHARGE Anywhere updates its mobile POS payment app for Android

Small Business Will Spend More on Mobile, Video Advertising in 2011

Researchers at Ad-ology say small businesses will spend more in 2011 on mobile and video advertising.

Watch the video here

Tablets will be Used for Email, Multimedia, Personal Information Management

The top three uses for future tablet owners are email, personal information management and multimedia consumption (audio, video and gaming), In-Stat predicts.

“Last year’s small crop of tablets was being touted as potential e-readers; a way to compete against the extremely popular Amazon Kindle lineup,” says Stephanie Ethier, Senior Analyst. “But this next generation of tablets is clearly being marketed as consumer multimedia consumption devices positioned to compete squarely against the Apple iPad.”

If the In-Stat predictions prove correct, the tablet will emerge as a device positioned about half way between a smartphone and a PC, as well as half way between an iPod and a PC. the notion of an iPad being an "iPod on steroids," or an "iPod with a bigger screen" will be resisted in some quarters. But the notion has resonance.

In-Stat - Press Releases

No Need to Depict iPhone, Verizon Wireless Believes

Some might wonder, in this Verizon Wireless ad for the iPhone, where the iPhone is. Of course, some might ask who in the potential audience does not know what an iPhone is, or what it looks like, or what it can do. In that case, there isn't so much value showing the device, is there?

Orange Looking at Video Sharing?

France Telecom's Orange is in talks to buy a stake of between 30 percent and 50 percent in video-sharing web site Dailymotion, Reuters reports. All you need to know is that Dailymotion often known as the "YouTube" of Europe. Whether Orange might consider an ad-supported or subscription or on-demand viewing model is not clear, but all would be feasible.

At the moment Dailymotion relies on advertising.

Orange seen eyeing stake in Dailymotion -report | Reuters

Mobile Payment Business Gets Starbucks Jumpstart

Starbucks has launched a nationwide mobile payments capability integrated with its existing Starbucks Card program. One can argue the merits of introducing a "single retailer" mobile payment capability compared to a more-universal approach, but Starbucks clearly wants to move now, and not have to wait for more-universal mechanisms to develop. Also, Starbucks has chosen a cheaper-to-deploy, less complicated approach as well.

The other angle is that Starbucks likely is less interested in mobile payments, and more interested in customer loyalty. If that is the case, then a universal mobile payments solution is not the point. Mobile payment using iPhones and BlackBerries, and soon Android devices, is more about loyalty than ease of payment.

As for why the United States lags nations such as Japan, there are lots of reasons generally offered. But it probably is noteworthy that "NTT DoCoMo owns more than 80 percent of the Japanese market, so they can dictate requirements to phone manufacturers and dictate a single standard," says Conrad Sheehan, CEO and founder of mPayy. In South Korea, which has three carriers, SK Telecom owns 50.5 percent of the market.

Further, NTT DoCoMo issues its own "DCMX" Premium and Gold cards to provide its customers credit lines, while SK Telecom has the "Moneta" service, Sheehan said. In essence, the leading South Korean and Japanese mobile operators already are in the banking business. That isn't true in the U.S. market.

But there are other reasons why mobile applications are more advanced in those countries. Landline access to the Web is much more expensive in those countries than it is in the United States. Ironically, one of the frequent complaints about U.S. fixed-line broadband is that it is "too costly." That might not be the case, but the perception exists.

Technology News: Handheld Devices: The Long Leap to Clear Mobile Payment Hurdles