Mobile Broadband Will be a Majority of "Broadband" Use by 2015

By 2015, more U.S. Internet users will access the Internet through mobile devices than through PCs or other wireline devices, IDC now predicts. That's the broadband parallel to what has happened with voice services, where mobile voice for many users is the predominant and preferred way to use voice, while for many others represents the only way to use voice.

The number of mobile Internet users will grow by a compound annual growth rate of 16.6 percent between 2010 and 2015.

Worldwide, the total number of Internet user will grow from 2 billion in 2010 to 2.7 billion in 2015, when 40 percent of the world's population will have access to its vast resources.

Global business-to-consumer e-commerce spending will grow from $708 billion in 2010 to $1,285 billion in 2015 at a CAGR of 12.7 percent.

Worldwide online advertising will increase from $70 billion in 2010 to $138 billion in 2015, with its share of total advertising across all media growing from 12 percent to 18 percent.

Mobile broadband to dominate usage

In-App Purchases of $20 or More Account for 51% of Revenues

According to Flurry just 0.5 percent to six percent of mobile game app players spend money in free games. Spending on virtual currency

Just one percent of people who play Zynga's games are thought to account for between 25 percent and 50 percent of the company's revenues.

Now data published by mobile analytics company Flurry indicates that "whales" (big spenders)  are also a key source of income for freemium games on iOS and Android. The company analysed in-app purchases by 3.5 million mobile gamers, and found that the average transaction value was $14.

About 71 percent of all transactions are for amounts under $10, Some 16 percent of transactions are for $10 to $20 and 13 percent of sales are for amounts greater than $20.

In-app purchases for less than $10 account for 31 percent of the revenues. In-app purchases between $10 and $20 account for 16 percent of transactions and 18 percent of revenues.

In-app purchases of more than $20 account for a mere 13 percent of transactions, but 51 percent of revenues. In fact, five percent of all in-app purchases were for more than $50.

What is Money?

What is money, or currency? According to Bitcoin, money is any object, or any sort of record, accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. In Bitcoin's case, "money" is a peer-to-peer exchange of value using a "Bitcoin," with no use of any central banking institution. http://bitcoin.org/

When the virtual currency bitcoin was released, in January 2009, it appeared to be an interesting way for people to trade among themselves in a secure, low-cost, and private fashion. Cryptocurrency

The Bitcoin network, designed by an unknown programmer with the handle "Satoshi ­Nakamoto," used a decentralized peer-to-peer system to verify transactions, which meant that people could exchange goods and services electronically, and anonymously, without having to rely on third parties like banks.

Its medium of exchange, the Bitcoin, was an invented currency that people could earn—or, in Bitcoin's jargon, "mine"—by lending their computers' resources to service the needs of the Bitcoin network. Once in existence, bitcoins could also be bought and sold for dollars or other currencies on online exchanges.

For small person to person transactions, there typically are no fees, thought complicated transactions might require some amount. Transaction_fees. But there is a problem. There are not many things a user actually can buy with a Bitcoin, transaction volume seems to be dropping, providing little incentive for real-world or digital goods merchants to accept them for payment. One take on Bitcoin

People have come to see it primarily as a way to make money. In other words, instead of being used as a currency, bitcoins are today mostly seen as (and traded as) an investment.

So just now the bitcoin boom of the past year looks not so much like the birth of a new currency as like a classic bubble. And this has created a real paradox for Bitcoin enthusiasts. The best thing for Bitcoins would be for people to stop thinking of them as an investment and start thinking of them as a currency. That probably requires the Bitcoin investing bubble to burst.

One of the reasons people seem to be hoarding Bitcoins is that there is a firm limit of 21 million Bitcoins in total, and the number of coins cannot be increased. That means Bitcoin value can fluctuate based on market demand, but cannot be bebased by "printing more Bitcoins." Controlled Supply

Bitcoin might wind up being an interesting experiment. Other similar systems might emerge. It appears almost certain that regulatory opposition from national governments will be an issue if any of the systems start to get serious traction. There are legitimate concerns about money laundering, criminal activity and tax evasion, for example.

So it is not likely "virtual currency" in the sense of a medium of exchange that supplements or competes with other existing currencies, is going to escape scrutiny by regulatory and governmental agencies. But it is interesting.

Right now, there is more interest in "captive" forms of value in the form of points, tokens or other "virtual" stores of value used within closed communities, and often for use within games such as Farmville. But as those activities grow, there is bound to be growing interest in virtual currencies that actually can be exchanged for "real world" currencies.

Square Has 750,000 Active Users

There are currently 750,000 fully activated Square Card readers. Half of the device users are individuals, Square says.

Businesses that use the card reader range from farmers’ markets and taxi companies to personal trainers, contractors and plumbers.

Earlier this month Square announced that its readers were processing $4 million a day. Square is doubling the volume of payment performed over its readers every quarter.

Square has 750,000 active accounts  (Wall Street Journal subscription required)

You Can Use SMS, MMS Channel to Surf Web, But Do You Want To?

I'm not sure you'd actually want to do this (would you want to connect to the Internet using 12 kbps dial-up?), but if you have an Android smartphone and a T-Mobile USA unlimited messaging plan, you can now use an app called Smozzy to surf the web at no additional cost. It's going to be painfully slow, but it is without additional cost, so some people might have reasons to try it, now and then.

Smozzy is a software wrapper around the standard Android browser, but uses only text messaging and multimedia messaging for communications.

How to surf T-Mobile without a data plan

Social Commerce Now in "Hype" Phase

New things take a while to be understood and described. Consider "social commerce," which might be a way of describing a range of "shopping" or "purchasing" activities occurring on Facebook.

"Real" goods purchased from inside Facebook might be considered "online" shopping or "online commerce."

"Virtual goods" bought for a Facebook hosted game might be considered as a separate category.

More recently, Facebook has been used as a way of signaling customers to go buy something in a physical store. So the issue is how to describe the full range of commerce activities that Facebook and other sites are starting to support. "Social commerce" is a term some now use, since the activity can span online and physical locations, include digital as well as physical goods, be delivered either to the device, a physical location.
We’ve now progressed from using social media as a place to converse and share content, and as we build up trustworthiness in social channels we are becoming more comfortable with the idea of transferring money and allowing social technologies to transform the shopping experience.
So it might come as no surprise that "social commerce" is in a hype phase at the moment, as people look at ways to take social networks and shift them from conversations to shopping and banking. How money is changing social media

Mike Fauscette, IDC analyst, for example, predicts that in three to five years, 10 percent to 15 percent of total consumer spending in developed countries will occur through Facebook.

Social commerce projections

Device Usage Has Shifted from "Work" to "Play"

When digital devices first appeared, in the form of the personal computer, the initial applications were heavily work related.

Over the last few decades, as new digital appliances have emerged, most of them have been mostly for "play" or "personal" use.

Though notebooks, tablets and mobile phones can be used either for work or personal pursuits, the trend is towards use of devices for entertainment, personal communication, learning and expression, and less and less for "work."

A recent survey of European users by Forrester Research illustrates the trend. Asked what sorts of applications and activities they used their various devices for, it is pretty clear that the multi-purpose devices get used more often for play, personal reasons and entertainment, rather than "work."

The corollary probably is that application development has shifted overwhelmingly to personal, entertainment  and leisure time activities as well.

10% of U.S. Mobile Users Redeem Coupons, 20% of Smart Phone Users

Research firm eMarketer now estimates 19.8 million adults, or 9.5 percent of U.S. mobile phone users over 18, will redeem a mobile coupon in 2011, including coupons or codes received using text messaging (SMS), applications and mobile web browsers; quick response codes for redemption online or offline; and group buying coupons purchased via mobile.

In 2012,  the number of U.S. consumers who redeem mobile coupons will rise to 28.7 million, or 13.5 percent of adult mobile phone users, eMarketer estimates.

By 2013, the number using such coupons will nearly double, and 16.5 percent of all U.S. adult mobile phone users will redeem a coupon.

Led by smart phone owners, the number of U.S. mobile coupon users will increase by 80 percent  between 2011 and 2013, eMarketer predicts, climbing from 19.8 million to 35.6 million.

Outside of the US, mobile coupons have likewise proven popular among consumers, although adoption is far from uniform. Mobile users in Asia-Pacific, particularly those in Japan and South Korea, constitute something of a vanguard, while in Western Europe usage is most extensive in the United Kingdom.

Among smart phone users, penetration is significantly higher. In 2011, nearly one in five smartphone owners ages 18 and older will redeem a mobile coupon, representing annual growth of 117.6 percent.

Triple-digit uptake rates will be short-lived, but by 2013 almost one-third of smart phone users will be redeeming discounts on the go.

Mobile coupon demand

Report: Facebook Doubles Revenue

Facebook has doubled its revenue in the first half of 2011, Reuters reports. Facebook made $1.6 billion in the first six months of this year, nearly double what it made in the same time in 2010. Facebook doubles ad revenue

The largest portion of Facebook's revenue is believed to come from advertising, showing that the company has created a viable ad business. Facebook Doubles Revenue

It isn't yet clear what the composition of the advertising was, but display advertising is where Facebook has been growing rapidly, outpacing Yahoo, which had a big head start, and Google, which is growing its display revenue fast, a business it has not been part of, in the past.

Nor is it clear whether local ads have started to have impact. Many of us probably suspect Facebook has done best in national advertising.

HTC Sues Apple Using Mobile Patents Obtained From Google

Google has granted HTC the rights to nine mobile patents. HTC now has sued Apple for infringing those HTC patents. HTC Sues Apple Using Mobile Patents Obtained From Google

The nine patents originated with Palm Inc., Motorola Inc. and Openwave Systems Inc., with Google taking ownership within the past year, according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records.

Google recorded transfer of the patents to HTC on Sept. 1, according to the agency’s website.

It isn't clear whether any of the Motorola patents were obtained as part of the recent Google purchase of Motorola Mobility.

HTC sued Apple today in federal court in Delaware, claiming infringement of four of those patents that originally were issued to Motorola. Taoyuan, Taiwan-based HTC also amended a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, alleging infringement of three patents first issued to Openwave and two others originally owned by Palm. Google transfers patents

HTC earlier had filed suit against Apple using an earlier collection of patents. HTC sues Apple

Mobile NFC: Japan and Korea Represent 95% of Users

The total number of smart phones shipped with near field communications should grow from 44 million in 2011 to more than 630 million in 2015, say researchers at Informa Telecoms and Media.

The number of active NFC or contactless-mobile users is expected to grow from 16.7 million in 2011 to 250 million in 2015. While 95 percent of the active users are currently in Japan and South Korea, that ratio should fall to 70 percent in 2015, thanks to growth in other regions, they said.

The analysts also predicted that the transaction value of mobile-NFC payments would rise from $2.4 billion this year to more than $71 billion in 2015. While more than 80 percent of the transaction activity was in Japan and South Korea in 2011, the ratio should fall below 40 percent in 2015, they said.

NFC mostly a Japan, Korea opportunity at moment

Taxonomy of Mobile Payments

Perhaps the nicest part of this infographic is its taxonomy of mobile payments. There are other ways to categorize the different types of mobile payments market segments.

Some of us might say the taxonomy doesn't address mobile wallet, mobile shopping, mobile promotion or peer-to-peer payments as key market segments, for example. But it's useful.

mobile payments segments

How Much Social Content Gets Created Every 60 Seconds?

What happens on the internet in 60 seconds? 1,500 new blog posts, 60 new blogs are created, 98,000 tweets happen, 20,000 posts are made on Tumblr, 600 new videos are uploaded to YouTube, 6,600 images are uploaded to Flickr, 79,000 Facebook wall posts are made nd over 695,000 Facebook status updates are made.

Content Created Every Minute

Cloud email, video impact

A recent report by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Verdantix estimates that cloud computing has the potential to reduce global carbon emissions by millions of metric tons.

Comparing Gmail to the traditional enterprise email solutions, switching to Gmail can be almost 80 times more energy efficient than running in-house email. This is because cloud-based services are typically housed in highly efficient data centers that operate at higher server utilization rates and use hardware and software that’s built specifically for the services they provide, conditions that small businesses are rarely able to create on their own.

A similar calculation for YouTube shows the servers needed to play one minute of YouTube consume about 0.0002 kWh of energy. To put that in perspective, it takes about eight seconds for the human body to burn off that same amount. You’d have to watch YouTube for three straight days for our servers to consume the amount of energy required to manufacture, package and ship a single DVD.

Cloud email energy impact

France Telecom Readies for Price War

France Telecom has launched a new low-cost mobile brand, the latest sign that Europe's second largest mobile market is bracing itself for a price war.

France Telecom said the new brand, called "Sosh"—short for social—was aimed at young adults and would be exclusively sold over the Internet. France Telecom, which has 27 million mobile subscribers here, predicted that the set of lower-cost offers will attract half-a-million clients over the next year.

The contract, which starts at €19.90 ($28) for two hours of calls a month, is roughly €5 cheaper than France Telecom's existing similar mobile offer, a spokesman for the group said. France Telecom's Sosh offer allows subscribers to pay on a-month-by- month basis, without any long-term commitment.

France Telecom's new offer comes just months before competitor Iliad SA launches the country's fourth mobile-phone service. Iliad has pledged to drastically cut the cost of subscriptions and gain a significant share of France's €20 billion mobile-phone market.

France Telecom Readies for Price War (Wall Street Journal subscription required)