One Take on Social Commerce, Location, "Local"

"Social media" is a different thing from "social commerce." In fact, "social commerce" is part of a broader complex of big applications coming that will combine the capabilities of smartphones with social and other applications to enhance or supplant lots of activities that people engage in the real world, where they are.

Apple Breaks Rules in Enterprise Market

Apple has broken the rules in the mobile business, music business and might finally have made a key breakthrough in the enterprise market.

Apple never has been fond of selling to enterprises; preferring to sell to "people." These days, though enterprise workers are demanding the right to use their own smartphones, tablets and other gadgets, and it seems as though Apple finally has, despite breaking all the rules, gotten a permanent foothold in the enterprise market.

If so, Apple will have succeeded again, breaking the rules and refusing to pitch to "enterprise IT" and instead directly to users.

In A Post-PC Era, Apple Wants To Be Your IT Department - Brian Caulfield - Shiny Objects - Forbes

FaceCash verifies identity with a photo

FaceCash is a mobile payment system that verifies the identify of the user in part by using a bar code that can be displayed on a smartphone or self-printed card for making purchases at participating merchant stores. When that bar code is scanned, the merchant is presented with the consumer's picture for verification.

Assuming it's a match, the transaction proceeds and the consumer's funds are transferred instantly to the merchant; both sides get an online record of everything bought or sold.

Consumers can exchange money with each other this way as well. FaceCash is part of the ThinkLink network, and merchants need only an internet-connected computer and a barcode scanner, optionally available from Think for as little as USD 39.99; to use the service, they pay just 1.5 percent per transaction. For consumers, the free FaceCash application is available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry phones. Users of other models can access the service through a mobile web browser.

Mobile payment app verifies identity with a photo - Springwise

Clearwire CEO, Two Other Execs Suddenly Resign

Three top-level departures on a single day at a public company is typically a sign of something important, no matter what the stated reasons for the departures are. At Clearwire, Bill Morrow who has resigned as CEO and as a director of the board, citing personal reasons. The company also announced that Mike Sievert, chief commercial officer, and Kevin Hart, CIO, are both leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.

John Stanton, chairman of Clearwire’s board of directors and former CEO of Western Wireless and VoiceStream Wireless, has been named CEO of Clearwire on an interim basis, effective immediately. Stanton will continue to serve in his role as board chairman. Erik Prusch, Clearwire’s CFO, has been promoted to the newly created position of chief operating officer. Hope Cochran, Clearwire’s senior vice president and treasurer, has been promoted to the position of CFO.

Given Clearwire's recent serious commercial and strategic disagreements with Sprint, which owns about 54 percent of the company, the resignation of all three Sprint members of the board last year, Clearwire's need for a few billions in additional investment by the end of the year, and its virtual halt to new network construction this year, it might appear that the board simply has concluded it has to change management in order to change course. The resignation of founder Craig McCaw as chairman in December 2010, and Intel executive vice president Arvind Sodhani this year (Intel was an early investor in Clearwire) now perhaps take on a different cast as well.

It is just speculation, but typically, when a company is facing a major quarterly financial miss, it is the chief financial officer who resigns. When there is a botched strategy, it is the CEO who leaves. But the departure of three "C" titles on the same day also suggests that a change of strategy is coming. Sometimes that level of departures indicates that a change of control is coming soon. Such changes typically take the form of takeovers or mergers that will replace the current management team.

In this case, a change of control seems unlikely, as Sprint already owns 54 percent of the company, though Sprint does not exercise management control. Though additional details are sure to emerge, the immediate conclusion one would draw is that Clearwire is about to change strategy in some key way, and that the three departing executives opposed the changes.

All of those executive departures, taken in isolation, might be explained. Taken as a pattern they suggest something significant is about to happen at Clearwire.

Apple iPad Still Overwhelming Choice of Buyers, Survey Suggests

FCC Chair to Commerce?

The White House is considering Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski as a potential successor to Gary Locke as Secretary of Commerce, according to The Hill.

Genachowski is among a list of names the White House has floated internally, along with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and others.

Sources: Net neutrality point man in the running for job in Obama's Cabinet - The Hill's Hillicon Valley

House Subcommittee Votes to Kill Net-Neutrality Rules

A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee has voted to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules. The vote is largely symbolic, at the moment. The full Energy and Commerce Committee has not yet scheduled a full vote of the whole committee, nor has the full House voted on the measure.

Were the measure to pass the full House, President Obama would likely veto the bill in any case. Nor is it clear the U.S. communications industry, in some important measure, believes it wants to risk harsher regulation under Title II rules that the FCC has talked about.

House Republicans Win Early Battle Over Net-Neutrality Rules (subscription required)

The Internet in 2020

More Activity on Sharing of User Data with 3rd Parties

U.S. Sensators John McCain and John Kerry plan to introduce an "online privacy bill of rights" that will give consumers the right to limit how their usage and personal data can be shared with third parties.

The Kerry-McCain bill would cover data ranging from names and addresses to fingerprints and unique IDs assigned to individuals' cellphones or computers.

It would also establish a program to certify companies with high privacy standards. Those companies would be allowed to sell personal data to outsiders without seeking permission in each instance.

Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Mr. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, are backing a bill that would require companies to seek a person's permission to share data about him with outsiders. It would also give people the right to see the data collected on them. The bill is expected to be introduced ahead of a Senate Commerce Committee hearing next Wednesday on online privacy.

Proposed Privacy Bill Would Put Curbs on Data Gathering - WSJ.com (subscription required)

83% of PayPal Merchants Say Sales Have Increased

Among online merchants who are able to track the transactions, sales have increased an average of 18 percent since adding PayPal’s Express Checkout service. Eight in ten (83 percent) merchants have noticed a bump in sales, while just 17 percent say they haven’t noticed an increase.

Eight in ten (84 percent) of those who noticed an increase in sales say it happened within the first 3 months after offering PayPal. Others say it took four to six months (eight percent) or longer (eight percent) before they noticed an increase in sales.

Since offering PayPal, merchants claim that 22 percent of their total revenue comes from PayPal’s Express Checkout. In fact, 25 percent of revenue coming from new customers is channeled through PayPal’s Express Checkout, suggesting that this payment method is helping to secure new business as well as retain existing clients.

The study was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs.

Eight in Ten (83%) PayPal Merchants Say Sales Have Increased Since Offering Popular Payment Method | Ipsos

Most Smartphone Users Experience Problems, Survey Finds

 Eighty six percent of smartphone users in the United States reported experiencing problems while using multimedia applications on their mobile phone.

In the United Kingdom, 86 percent also reported experiencing issues, and in Germany, 77 percent reported experiencing issues.

More than 75 percent of U.S. smartphone users who perform Internet searches, download data, use other applications, search for or watch videos, and make updates via social networking sites reported having issues.

More than 60 percent of U.K. smartphone users overall reported having issues with Internet searches, texting and using other applications.

read more here

Verifone Says Square Isn't Secure

Sprint, Lightsquared Partners On LTE Build?

There is some possibility that Lightsquared will work with Sprint to build out the Lightsquared cell site network. Broadband Reports says the original terrestrial network plan, which has Nokia Siemens Networks handling the construction, now is replaced, and that other vendors, namely Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson AB and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will be doing the work.

That would suggest Lightsquared is working with Sprint, since those same vendors are revamping Sprint's network.

But Nokia Siemens Networks has suggested the rumor is perhaps untrue, or perhaps is premature. "We continue to work hard with LightSquared to help it ready its first markets and meet its commitments to customers and to other stakeholders," an NSN spokesman said, according to Light Reading.

That could be read several ways. It is possible NSN continues to work only because it hasn't been notified of a change, that it is continues to work until an end point it already knows about, or that the story about the switch is simply untrue. The statement does not read like a categorical denial, though, does it?

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=205448&f_src=lightreading_gnews

Source: Sprint, Lightsquared Partners On LTE Build - Lightsquared Meetings Illuminate Sprint 'Project Freedom' | DSLReports.com, ISP Information

New in Gmail Labs: Smart Labels

Google is launching a new feature in Gmail Labs called "Smart Labels," which helps users classify and organize their email. Once it is turned on from the "Labs" tab in "Settings," Smart Labels automatically categorizes incoming "Bulk," "Notification" and "Forum" messages, and labels them as such.

“Bulk” mail includes any kind of mass mailing (such as newsletters and promotional email) and gets filtered out of your inbox by default (where you can easily read it later), “Notifications” are messages sent to you directly (like account statements and receipts), and email from group mailing lists gets labeled as “Forums.”"

New in Gmail Labs: Smart Labels - Official Gmail Blog

PayPal Talks About Convergence of Social Networking, Mobility and Local Activities

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