Mobile Phones Key to Reaching U.S. "Underbanked" Consumers

There is good reason to believe that mobile devices could become a key means for "unbanked" consumers in U.S. markets to avail themselves of banking functions. The reason is the substantial use of mobile devices by "underbanked" consumers, according to Javelin Strategy and Research. 


Though mobile payments and mobile wallet efforts are seen as the bigger part of mobile financial services opportunities, there is a substantial opportunity to reach people who do not have checking or bank accounts.


Javelin defines the "underbanked" as U.S. adults without a checking account, while unbanked consumers do not have a banking account. 


There are an estimated 35 million U.S. adults (15 percent of the U.S. population) in those categories.

Is YouTube the Future of Smaller "Cable Channels?"

As cable operators and other video distributors grapple with ways to limit the cost of some packages, in response to growing consumer unhappiness with the cost of subscription video, will YouTube emerge as a primary distribution partner for smaller networks that might find themselves unable to gain or keep carriage on cable, telco or satellite video services?


Some, including YouTube, think so. YouTube is exploring selling subscriptions to access to some of its video offerings, potentially providing a way for certain cable channels to be available outside the traditional "bundles" offered by cable network providers, said YouTube CEO Salar Kumangar. 


Cable channels with smaller audiences will have a tougher time gaining carriage as video distributors create lower-cost tiers of service offering fewer channels, one might argue. If so, those network might be forced to seek carriage on platforms such as YouTube. 

Tablets Reach Critical Mass in U.S. Market

Tablets have quickly reached a critical mass in the U.S. with almost 20 percent of all  smart phone owners using tablets during the three-month average period ending April 2012. 


A study also found that tablet users were nearly three times more likely to watch video on their device compared to smart phone users, with one in every 10 tablet users viewing video content almost daily on their device, according to comScore. 


“Tablets are one of the most rapidly adopted consumer technologies in history and are poised to fundamentally disrupt the way people engage with the digital world both on-the-go and perhaps most notably, in the home,” said Mark Donovan, comScore SVP of Mobile.


For many app and content providers, the key development is creation of an additional "screen" for content consumption, joining TVs, PCs and smart phones. 

Tablet Users Among Mobile Audiences 3 month avg. ending Apr. 2012 vs. Apr. 2011  Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers (Smartphone & Non-Smartphone), Ages 13+  Source: comScore MobiLens
	% of Audience that Uses Tablet
	Apr-11	Apr-12	Point Change
Total Mobile (Feature Phone & Smartphone)	4.7%	16.5%	11.8
Smartphone Only	9.7%	23.6%	13.9
Feature Phone Only	2.3%	10.4%	8.1

Tablets are Shopping Platforms

More than half of tablet owners surveyed by Zmags in January 2012 reported shopping on their tablets at least once per week and 12 percent shopped daily. Already, nearly 30 percent of Internet users owns a tablet, and that should grow to more than 50 percent sometime in 2014 or 2015. 

Offers are Where Mobile Wallet Value Lies, Says Isis

The value of a mobile wallet is in the data-driven offer and coupon systems that allow consumers to save money, and "Isis does not directly deliver any of that value," says Jim Stapleton, Isis chief sales officer. That isn't to say Isis believes it does not add value, simply that the value comes as Isis is an enabler for its partners. 


Isis also emphasizes that it is a partner for banks, not a competitor. "At Isis, we're very much a platform provider for the banks," said Stapleton. 


Of course, not every contestant hopes to build a new business on offers, advertising, analytics or loyalty mechanisms. PayPal has been in the payments business, and wants to extend from online to offline. Square, Intuit and Sage also believe the revenue model is in handling payment transactions. 

Worldwide mobile payment transaction values will surpass $171.5 billion in 2012, a 61.9 percent increase from 2011 values of $105.9 billion, according to Gartner. 

The number of mobile payment users will reach 212.2 million in 2012, up from 160.5 million in 2011.

"We expect global mobile transaction volume and value to average 42 percent annual growth between 2011 and 2016, and we are forecasting a market worth $617 billion with 448 million users by 2016," says Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. 

Mobile Devices will Pass PCs by about 2013

According to comScore, the number of mobile "computers" will pass desktop PCs sometime in 2013. 


Other forecasts suggest roughly the same thing, given sales trends. 

Cord Cutting Might Only Save a User About $10 a Month?

The point of video cord cutting typically is to "save money." So what potential savings might exist if a user with cable TV service quite that subscription, then signed up for a service such as Aereo, providing off-air signals, plus some content from Netflix or iTunes?


About $10 a month, says Barclays media analyst Anthony DiClemente. According to the Barclays analyst, users also have to factor in the higher costs of an unbundled broadband connection as well. 


Some might disagree. DiClemente uses a a cable TV charge of  $60 a month, which many users will find too low, substituting an $80 to $100 a month figure, instead. . In that case, a user might well save $30 a month to $50 a month for an alternative over the top approach. 

The Long Tail of Mobile App Purchases

It looks as though there is a "long tail" or Pareto distribution to mobile app purchases. According to a U.S. consumer survey conducted by ABI Research​, about two thirds of app users have spent money on an application on at least one occasion. Among these paying users, the mean spend was $14 per month. 


“The median amount among the consumers who spend money on apps is much lower than the average, just $7.50 per month," says Aapo Markkanen, ABI Research senior analyst . 


"The highest-spending three percent of all app users account for nearly 20 percent of the total spend, while over 70 percent spends either nothing or very little,” he says. 

PwC Data Shows Why Verizon Wireless Pricing Moves Make Sense

The new Verizon Wireless pricing plans, which make U.S. domestic voice and text messaging unlimited and a part of the basic subscription, while shifting the variable cost of service entirely to the mobile data plan, make sense. 


Consumer spending on broadband access is climbing at a robust 15-percent annual rate. With a continuing shift to consumption of video, the rate of consumption could increase even faster. So it makes sense that Verizon Wireless would want to shift pricing to a mode where data usage is variable, as that is where the additional costs of providing service will grow.

How Significant is Retina Display?

It is easy to be seduced by Apple. Its Retina display does offer higher resolution than older displays. But how much difference will it really make? For most people, who won't be buying a Retina-equipped MacBook Pro, there will be no difference.


But even some users who do buy a MacBook Pro might be hard pressed to tell the difference. 


As one review says, "you can, however, only really tell the difference when you put the Retina MacBook Pro next to an identically sized MacBook Pro from the previous generation." If that is the case, its hard to see the value. 


"It’s hard to convey the difference between the two displays via normal photos, so we went for the extreme close-up by taking pictures of key icons and details with a magnifying glass."


If you need a magnifying glass, I'm not sure the value is obvious enough. 

In Europe, Fixed Network Voice-over-Broadband Grows 400%

In the fourth quarter of 2011, voice over broadband apps accounted for 52 percent of all fixed access traffic, compared to 47 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, Analysys Mason says.


The growth has been triggered, in large part, by tariff reductions for mobile calls, according to  Analysys Mason. The consequence is that the volume of fixed network calls made to mobile devices has skyrocketed. 

So at least in Europe, voice usage on the fixed networks are, in many cases, lead by broadband voice, not use of the public switched telephone network. That appears not to be the case in other regions, though. 

U.S. Launches Antitrust Probe of Cable and Online Video Practices

It is perhaps not a surprise that the Department of Justice is "investigating" whether there are antitrust implications to cable TV operator retail packaging policies, as they might pertain to restraint of trade. Those questions are bound to emerge.

Lots of people might ask whether a cable operator can create an extension of a video subscription service that includes some of the content a customer already has paid for, and make it available on other screens, then exempt the Internet usage from the consumer's bandwidth cap. Some might say it is obvious a retailer can do so. Others would say it stifles rival streaming services.

Some might ask whether it should be lawful for a service provider to require a "sell through" purchase at all, where cable TV service has to be purchased before some or all of that content can be purchased for Internet delivery. Again, some would say this is done for all manner of products, all the time, and that it is not, in and of itself, restraint of trade.

But I find this one passage, in a Wall Street Journal story about the antitrust probe, one of the most-ironic passages I've ever read in the Wall Street Journal: "Having invested billions of dollars building their networks, some pay-TV companies have shown little inclination to get out of the business of packaging television channels and become mere conduits for other companies' data. Some major entertainment companies also have an interest in preserving the current model of television viewing because they want cable companies to take bundles of their channels, rather than just cherry-picking the most popular ones."

What I find so ironic about the story is the blinding "duh" element. Of course cable operators, having invested billions and decades building their businesses, do not want to voluntarily relinquish that business to become low-value "dumb pipes."

Of course content owners do not want to change a lucrative distribution model that creates advertising value and helps them launch new channels.

Let me be clear: as a consumer I would prefer to have a choice, either to keep buying video subscription services they way they are, or to buy only some channels, or to buy only some programs and have them delivered over the Internet.

But that doesn't mean I expect those entities to voluntarily, and without compensation, agree to have those businesses destroyed. The Wall Street Journal passage reads like something written by people who have no idea about how business operates, or worse, written by people who actually think it is unusual for a business or industry to want to hang onto a successful revenue model.

Market Capitalization Isn't Everything, But Neither is it Meaningless

Market capitalization of a public company is not the only way to measure influence in a market, or even current revenue (Instagram comes to mind). But such comparisons sometimes are instructive when trying to understand where a market could be headed.

As a means to illustrate what Amazon has done to the retail market, consider that Amazon, generally considered the world’s largest e-commerce company, has a market cap of $100 billion.

That is more than the market cap of Macy’s, J. C. Penny, Nordstrom, Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, Costco, Dillard’s, Barnes & Noble and Sears, altogether.

Amazon's market capitalization does tell you how dominant it is in the online e-commerce business, though.

Sprint "Touch" Might Feature McDonald's, Barnes and Noble, Macy's, Target, Best Buy

McDonald's, Barnes and Noble, Macy's, Target and Best Buy are said to be among retailers who will work with Sprint's rumored new mobile wallet, "Touch."

Things Change Fast in the Mobile Payments Space

This graphic shows Sprint as a partner with Google Wallet, and there are growing rumors that Sprint is launching its own "Touch Wallet." Best Buy, Macy's, Target and Barnes and Noble are rumored to be retailers who will support the Touch Wallet. Mobile payments remains a complicated ecosystem, indeed.