Will Google or Facebook Buy Twitter?

Executives at both Facebook and Google, among other companies, have held low-level talks with those at Twitter Inc. in recent months to explore the prospect of an acquisition of the messaging service, according to the Wall Street Journal. The talks have so far gone nowhere, these people say.

Twitter's Suitors Talk in Billions - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Mobile Banking Can Deliver 300% Returns, Accenture Says

A study of 20 financial institutions around the world that offer mobile banking, commissioned by Accenture and conducted by TowerGroup, has found a Middle Eastern bank that is getting an eye-popping 300 percent return on investment by letting its two million mobile banking customers pay bills on their mobile devices, including topping up their pay-as-you-go mobile phones, paying utility bills, or paying a fixed monthly fee for a premium services package.

Another bank in Asia Pacific has achieved an ROI of 230 percent since launching mobile banking in 2007, according to the Accenture report.

http://nstore.accenture.com/acn_com/video/financial_services/banking/884-BankTechnology-InnovationsMisTheNewE-Generic-Mar2010.m4v

Mobile Banking Can Deliver 300% Returns, Accenture Says - Bank Systems & Technology

Mobile Apps Revenue to Triple in 2011

World-wide, revenue from mobile apps is expected to triple this year to $15.1 billion, including paid downloads and advertising revenue generated by free apps, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

Besides the potential of making money directly from such creations, more and better apps can help devices powered by Google's Android operating system continue to gain ground on Apple's iPhones and iPads. It's all about the ecosystem, says Nokia CEO Stephen Elops.

Google to Boost Staffing for Development of Mobile Apps - WSJ.com (subscription required)

U.S. Mobile Payment Will Grow Quickly, Some Think

Although mobile payments first became popular in Asia and Europe, analysts agree that the United States is going to catch up quickly. In its November 2010 report, the Aite Group forecasts that U.S. mobile bill payments will reach US$214 billion in gross dollar volume in 2015, up from US$16 billion in 2010.

Mobile Payment on the rise | MobilePaymentsToday.com

Starbucks Mobile Payment System: One Unfortunate Security Issue

The Starbucks mobile payment application has a security issue that could allow another person to "steal" the stored value on the linked Starbucks card.

Kelley Langford, vice president of sales and marketing at System Innovators, says the process takes about 90 seconds. One might argue the chances of such theft occurring are rather remote, and almost non-existent if a user keeps their iPhone in sight, in a pocket or a purse.

How to compromise the Starbucks Rewards Card app in 90 seconds

Online Video Seems to be Cannibalizing DVD, Not Growing the Market

Consumer spending on at-home movie and TV content, exclusive of multichannel TV services, seems to have peaked about 2004, according to IHS Screen Digest (figures are in billions, not millions)

DVD sales and rentals historically have driven the market, with all forms of on-demand delivery remaining a smallish part of the business.

So far, it appears that online delivery, pay per view and video on demand are just cannibalizing the DVD market.

U.S. consumers spent $385 million buying and renting movies using the Internet in 2010 --up 38% from the year before -- surpassing for the first time the amount paid for online television shows.

According to research from IHS Screen Digest, the market for Internet television episode rentals and purchases last year was $366 million. In 2009, spending on online movies and TV was $280 million and $295 million, respectively.

Total revenue from DVD, Blu-ray and digital sales and rentals of movies and television shows in the U.S. declined three percent to $18.8 billion in 2010, according to new data from industry trade organization Digital Entertainment Group.

HP to Introduce New Tablet

Nokia's Blunt Message

What Google Learned About Search in 2010

Mobile Payments Trial Shows More Transactions, Higher Purchase Value

A mobile payments trial including more than 1,500 customers of both mobile network operator Telefonica 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.

Mobile Marketing and Technology

PayPal Will Drive eBay's Business

EBay appears to believe its PayPal online-payment unit will be the firm’s biggest revenue generator in the relatively near future. For that reason, PayPal will move into the mobile payments business in a bigger way. It appears a mobile version of BillMeLater, now primarily used for online payments, will be a foundation of the effort.

Mobile Marketing and Technology

Xipwire Wants Sending Money to Be as Simple as Sending a Text Message

Xipwire believes that sending money should be as easy as sending a text message, and counts a roster of clients heavy on social causes that want to encourage people to send donations by text message. Founded in 2009, Xipwire enables businesses and organizations to offer their customers a convenient cash alternative without the need to pay high credit card fees.

Mobile Marketing and Technology

Android Market and Honeycomb

Most purchases, half of transactions to be mobile by 2015, Google says

"Two thirds of all purchases and half of transactions will occur on mobile devices by 2015," Google executives say. Consumer coupons will also transition from their current rate of 80 percent push to 80 percent opt-in four years from now, said David Shapiro, Google's director of small business marketing.

Consumers will also digest 80 percent of all visual content through digital by 2015, he added. Shapiro said 1.9 billion people globally were active on the Internet by the end of last year, while 5 billion people were mobile subscribers and more than 800 exabytes of digital information were created. Google predicted that 5 billion people will be active on the Web by 2020, while 10 billion people will be mobile subscribers, and 53 zettabytes of digital information will have been created.

“Mobile will be bigger than desktop in five years,” Shapiro added. “Mobile searches grew five times in the last two years."

Most purchases, half of transactions to be mobile by 2015: Google - Direct Marketing News

Smartphone Sales Grew 72 Percent in 2010

Worldwide mobile device sales to end users totaled 1.6 billion units in 2010, a 31.8 percent increase from 2009, according to Gartner. Smartphone sales to end users were up 72.1 percent from 2009 and accounted for 19 percent of total mobile communications device sales in 2010.

"Strong smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of 2010 pushed Apple and Research In Motion (RIM) up in our 2010 worldwide ranking of mobile device manufacturers to the No. 5 and No. 4 positions, respectively, displacing Sony Ericsson and Motorola,' said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. "Nokia and LG saw their market share erode in 2010 as they came under increasing pressure to refine their smartphone strategies."

Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users Reached 1.6 Billion Units in 2010; Smartphone Sales Grew 72 Percent in 2010

Wi-Fi Will Never Be a Replacement for Mobile Networks

One occasionally will still hear communications industry observers bemoaning or hoping for a future where Wi-Fi is both ubiquitous, affordable and interoperable, so users will not need to buy mobile services. One hears that a lot less than 10 years ago, but the sentiment still is expressed now and then.

The idea of seamless connectivity between Wi-Fi networks on the move is not even a possibility, panelists recently said at NetEvents. In large part, that is because the superficial similarities between mobile broadband networks and local Wi-Fi networks masks the fundamental difference. Mobile networks, though often used by stationary users, are intentionally designed to support session hand-off over wide areas.

Wi-Fi networks are simply wireless tails to a fixed connection. The two types of networks appear similar on the surface. They are completely different at the logical level.

Wi-Fi will never be seamless, experts claim

MasterCard Creates Payments API

The new MasterCard "Payments API," which suggests MasterCard sees creation of a developer ecosystem as crucial for its future payments efforts, will allow developers to create web and mobile applications that include the processing of credit card transactions around the world on the MasterCard network.

Developers can use the service to find their users deals and discounts. The Offers API also provides the ability to construct a more detailed search for an offer. For example, you can filter offers by category or display offers near a certain location or point on the map.

Ambitious MasterCard Includes Payments in Beta APIs

Mobile Users Increase Mobile Shopping, Mobile Payments

More mobile and Internet users are using existing online accounts to buy things, uploading credit card information to the phone to make purchases, using third-party accounts such as PayPal or Obopay to make purchases. Perhaps significantly, the percentage using their mobiles to access bank account information on the phone to make purchases from online retailers did not grow.

Yankee Group :: Research Report

Mobile Couponing Grew in 2010

Consumer use of mobile coupons has shifted radically from 2009 to 2010, say researchers at the Yankee Group. In 2009, just eight percent of respondents who expressed interest in mobile coupons using text messaging or multimedia message service had actually used a service such as Groupon.

Click on image for a larger view.

This figure more than doubled for 2010, to 19 percent of subscribers. Similarly, applications facilitating the real-time scanning of images or bar codes to receive more information or to compare prices increased in usage from five percent of consumers with an interest in mobile coupons in 2009 to 14 percent in 2010.

Yankee Group :: Research Report

Bill to Mobile Isn't That Popular with Consumers

Consumers do not seem especially anxious to make payments in a retail environment while adding those transactions to a monthly wireless bill.

This is not good news for mobile operators, which are universally struggling with how they will insert themselves into the well-established payments value chain, researchers at the Yankee Group say.

Yankee Group