Nokia Admits Difficulties

"The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don't have a product that is close to their experience," says Nokia CEO Stephen Elop. "Android came on the scene just over two years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable."

"There is intense heat coming from our competitors, more rapidly than we ever expected," Elop says. "Apple disrupted the market by redefining the smartphone and attracting developers to a closed, but very powerful ecosystem. They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range."

Also, "Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry's innovation to its core."

At the same time, "Symbian is proving to be an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop to meet the continuously expanding consumer requirements."

"Our competitors aren't taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem."

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop rallies troops in brutally honest 'burning platform' memo?

Visa to Buy Online Commerce Platform

Visa is buying online payments company PlaySpan Inc for $190 million, expanding Visa's its e-commerce and mobile payments capabilities.

Privately-held PlaySpan processes transactions for online games and virtual goods sold on social networking websites. It is based in Santa Clara, California, and backed by several venture funds, including Easton Capital, Menlo Ventures, TimeWarner Investments, Vodafone Ventures and GE Asset Management.

Visa to buy PlaySpan for $190 mln | Reuters

Card Issuers Face $25 Billion Hit, Implications for Mobile Payments

New credit card and debit card regulations could cost U.S. card issuers up to $25 billion a year in lost revenue, according to a study from Boston Consulting Group. That has implications for mobile payments providers who expect to build business models built on payment fees.

For starters, the business, though lucrative, will be smaller than it has been in the past. Also, to the extent that the market leaders create the price umbrella under which all other contestants must operate, lower fees mean discounts offered by would-be competitors also must be lower.

The other issue is that there has been pressure in the retail payments business for other reasons. Since 2008, payment revenues have fallen about four percent annually, despite volume growth. Revenues are expected by BCG to grow about six percent, but remain the peak 2007 level of $162 billion globally. Many will note that the "real money" in payments is in "interchange" fees, the "percentage of transaction" revenues that processors earn.

Credit card issuer revenue was down about 18 percent in 2010. And the sword of Damocles hanging over the industry is the threat of further action to reduce the key interchange revenue stream. 

The other approach is simply to price the upstart services higher than currently imposed by the major card issuers, but then the value issue immediately becomes more obvious. What incentive will a retailer have to switch if transaction costs actually are higher? There are answers, but nearly all the answers have to do with additional value beyond transaction costs.

The consulting group said various changes from the CARD Act, the Durbin amendment and Regulation E will take away 29 percent of the revenue that U.S. issuers, mostly retail banks, collect from retail card transactions. Moreover, the new rules may open the door for more regulations, including possible changes to credit cards.

The consultants said that, in response, issuers will transform the card industry, selling more products to each consumer and moving further into mobile banking. In large part, that is because the credit card portion of the business has reached an inflection point, according to BCG.

In response, banks will have to shift strategies, spending more time creating value around mobile location, customer features such as real-time alerts, location, remote deposit, product reviews, loyalty and other features possible when users can take advantage of smartphone capabilities. See http://www.bcg.com/documents/file71194.pdf

Study Says Card Issuers Face $25 Billion Hit - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Sprint Adds Kyocera Echo,with 2 Screens

Sprint Nextel Corp. unveiled a smartphone late Monday that includes a twin set of touch screens that give the device a pseudo-tablet design. That approach might appear even on some PCs, as the touch interface gains more traction.

The device, called the Echo and made by the U.S. unit of Kyocera Corp., features two 3.5-inch touch screens that can be stacked side by side. It will be available in the spring for $199.99.

Users can accomplish multiple tasks on the two screens, or drag items from one screen to the other. The phone, which runs on Google Inc.'s Android software, uses a pivot hinge that allows one screen to be tucked under the other, transforming it into a more conventional touch-screen phone.

Sprint Adds Kyocera Echo, a Two-Screen Smartphone - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Death of Apps?

Not everybody believes mobile apps are the future. "Apps are going to die away in favor of simple mobile websites," says Mark Ferdman, chief executive of Pushkart, a start-up in the mobile coupon and group buying business. "Steve Jobs has done a great job of creating a marketplace that is unnecessary."

That might be a minority view at the moment, though.

Reporter's Notebook: Entrepreneurs Debate Death of Apps - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Dodd-Frank Bill Poses Issues for Mobile and Most Other Payment Providers

The new Dodd-Frank bank regulations impose a transaction fee cap of 12 cents per transaction. If the rules stand, there are business implications for mobile payments firms that promise "lower transaction costs." The typical assumption is that a new provider can provide the retailer with a lower transaction cost, but that might not be the case.

Square, whose one-inch-square card swipe device attaches to an iPhone, iPad, or Android device, charges 2.75 percent plus 15 cents for each swiped transaction; typed-in transactions cost slightly more. A standard debit card transaction might cost less, at 1.75 percent.

Sage Mobile Payments offers a credit card reader that plugs into the audio jack of a smartphone. The company plans to charge customers a set-up fee and then a monthly fee starting at $10.95, but no transaction fees.

Intuit's GoPayment, which works with iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and BlackBerry devices and will be one of the first mobile payment apps available on Android 3.0-based tablets, provides a free card reader but charges 15 cents per transaction along with 2.7 percent per swiped transaction or 3.7 percent per keyed transaction for low volumes; businesses that process more than $1,000 a month pay $12.95 per month and 30 cents per transaction as well as 1.7 percent for swiped transactions, 2.7 percent per keyed transaction.

If new providers cannot offer lower fees, there will have to be some other value driver.

Can Square, Intuit and Other Mobile Payment Providers Compete With A 12-Cent Debit Card Transaction? - Bank Systems & Technology

Apple's New iPad in Production

The new Apple iPad is coming, and will be thinner and lighter than the first model, the Wall Street Journal reports. It will have at least one camera on the front of the device for features like video-conferencing, but the resolution of the display will be similar to the first iPad. It will also have more memory and a more powerful graphics processor.

The new iPad will be available from AT&T and Verizon Wireless, but not Sprint or T-Mobile USA.

Apple's New iPad in Production - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Google Steps Up Mobile Ad Sales Efforts

Google is ramping up its efforts in mobile advertising sales efforts. Apparently, sales forces are trying to get existing advertising clients to extend their campaigns to mobile devices.

'I don't see any reason why mobile advertising won't be relevant to every single advertiser,' said Karim Temsamani, Google's head of mobile advertising."

Google Steps Up Mobile Advertising Business - Mobiledia

Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta Adds "Do Not Track"

The latest Firefox 4 Beta includes a “Do Not Track” privacy feature to provide more control over online behavioral tracking.

Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta, now including “Do Not Track” capabilities | The Mozilla Blog

Zong Integrated with Android

Mobile Payment Trial Finds More Transactions, Higher Average Purchase Value

A mobile payments trial including more than 1,500 customers of both mobile network operator Telefónica and La Caixa bank, using Samsung S5230 NFC phones loaded with la Caixa Visa cards, with 500 participating merchants, has found that customers used the Visa cards stored on their NFC phones to carry out 30 percent more transactions, with a 23 percent increase in the average purchase value, than they had with their traditional plastic cards.

Users mostly made micro-payments with their phones: 60 percent of the purchases were for amounts equal to or less than €20. Some 75 percent of transactions took place during the working week.

Consumers made the largest number of purchases at supermarkets (57 percent) and restaurants (14 percent).

The average age of customers using their mobile phone to pay for their purchases was 46. Some 90 percent of users said they would continue to use their mobile phone for payments.

Read more here.

70% of Sprint’s Devices to be Android-Based

Sprint’s Fared Adib, who replaced Kevin Packingham, Sprint VP, says that 70 percent of Sprint devices would also be running Android in 2011. That's what a company does when it cannot sell the Apple iPhone. It worked for Verizon, and AT&T, without iPhone exclusivity, plans to ramp up Android device sales as well.

70% of Sprint’s Devices to be Android-Based, Bigger 4G Push in 2011

Social Sign-In Works

Allowing online consumers to conduct social sign-in for an e-commerce site rather than create a new user account can produce higher levels of spending and customer satisifaction, according to a new survey from social user management platform provider Janrain and Blue Research.

Data from “Importance of Identity Solutions” indicates that during the 2010 holiday season, 21 percent of those who consider social sign-in desirable (fans) expected to spend more than in 2009, compared to 16 percent of critics.

Survey data also shows that 75 percent of consumers will avoid creating a new user account for an e-commerce site, with 54 percent leaving the site or not returning, 17 percent going to a different site if possible, and four percent leaving or avoiding the site.

Furthermore, of consumers who have created a new user account, 76 percent admit to giving incomplete or incorrect information. About 55 percent of consumers agree they are more likely to return to a site that automatically recognizes them.

Social Sign-In Produces Profits

Multichannel Video Cord Cutting Still Rare?

You can get a robust argument about the future of multichannel video, but less argument about the current amount of such cord cutting. Some would argue the danger still remains low. The issue, just about anybody would argue, is what lies ahead.

The Multichannel Cord Cutting Mystery

Power Track for Monitoring Tweet Traffic

Many brands now monitor social media streams, such as provided by Twitter, to monitor conversations about their brands. But that can be a daunting task, if conducted manually. A new commercial Twitter product called Power Track, supplied by Gnip, automates those chores.

Power Track allows keyword-based filtering of the full Twitter stream, providing 100 percent coverage over a stream.

In addition to keyword based filters, Power Track also supports boolean operators and many of the custom operators allowed on Twitter Search API. With Power Track, companies and developers can define the precise slice of the Twitter stream they need and be confident they’re getting every Tweet, without worrying about volume restrictions.

Announcing Power Track – Full Firehose filtering for the Tweets you want