Fifty-two percent of the 700 or so technology professionals surveyed for the report grasped the potential of mobile apps, and already use or plan to use them, up from 42 percent from 2009.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Over half of businesses see benefits of mobile apps, 42% don't
Over half of business technology professionals say their companies currently deploy, or plan to deploy, mobile apps on smartphones, according to a new survey from InformationWeek Analytics. But some businesses are yet to be convinced.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Intuit Makes Big Mobile Payments Play
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
HTC EVO 4G Credit Card Processing > PaymentMax For Credit Card Processing and Merchant Accounts
HTC EVO 4G owners can create merchant accounts with PaymentMax, allowing their EVO devices to act as credit card readers.
PaymentMax does not charge any set-up fees for MasterCard, Visa, Discover, or American Express. You need a "credit card swiper."
The ROAMpay application expands the capabilities of a cell phone, enabling it to process credit and debit cards. The ROAMpay Swiper is optional accessory hardware that works with the app to provide extra speed, security, and savings when processing card information.
PaymentMax does not charge any set-up fees for MasterCard, Visa, Discover, or American Express. You need a "credit card swiper."
All our merchant accounts use PCI certified software that encrypts data before it is transmitted on your HTC EVO 4G.
The ROAMpay application expands the capabilities of a cell phone, enabling it to process credit and debit cards. The ROAMpay Swiper is optional accessory hardware that works with the app to provide extra speed, security, and savings when processing card information.
The ROAMpay Swiper is currently available for dozens of phones including 3G iPhone, 3GS iPhone, iPhone 4, Nexus One, and the HTC Hero. The ROAMpay app is compatible with hundreds of phones like iPhones, Blackberrys, and Androids. Many, like the Droid Incredible and the Droid X, can currently process cards with the app while the Swiper card reader is in "coming soon" status for these droid phones.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
iPads for Credit Card Processing
Green Cab of Madison, Wisconsin uses Apple iPads for their dispatch system and to take credit card payments.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Smartphone as Credit Card Terminal
This is an example of how a smartphone can be used as a credit card terminal. If you think about event sites and even lots of farmers market or other small retail types of venues, this could be useful.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Mobile Websites or Mobile Apps?
As we continue to debate whether mobile apps or mobile web is a better approach to the mobile experience, there is evidence for both points of view.
Mobile websites arguably are better for getting "information on the go." There are no serious platform issues and no need for downloading apps.
Mobile apps, on the other hand, are about experience enhancement, not information. Perhaps the best mobile apps allow users to enhance the value of an experience, typically when interaction is required, and are not best suited for gathering in-depth information, some would argue.
Apps, of course, have to be downloaded and installed, which means there are authoring costs and issues.
Mobile websites arguably are better for getting "information on the go." There are no serious platform issues and no need for downloading apps.
Mobile apps, on the other hand, are about experience enhancement, not information. Perhaps the best mobile apps allow users to enhance the value of an experience, typically when interaction is required, and are not best suited for gathering in-depth information, some would argue.
Apps, of course, have to be downloaded and installed, which means there are authoring costs and issues.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Why 4G Standards Really Don't Matter
There was a time, several years ago, when one might have gotten a reasonable argument about which flavor of fourth-generation wireless air interface (WiMAX or Long Term Evolution) was "better." One rarely hears such arguments anymore, for several reasons.
When the world's dominant GSM carriers all decided to embrace LTE, the "standards war" was effectively over. Much in the same way that Hollywood initially squabbled over HD-DVD and Blu-ray as the superior format to bring HD to the masses, the mobile industry at one point argued about the merits of WiMAX and LTE.
The decisions are of course very important to suppliers who had hoped to create a huge new business based on either of the standards. Intel, for example, had hoped to create huge new demand for WiMAX chipsets.
Beyond the technology differences, though, the key questions now are not over format, but business model. It is typical for supporters of next-generation wireless networks to tout new applications enabled by the new networks. Text messaging is a good example of a feature available on a 2G network that could not be provided on a first generation network. Email was a feature available on 2.5 networks.
Proponents of 3G networks always talked about the new applications that 3G would enable. But it took quite some time before specific 3G applications actually developed. As it turns out, PC dongle access and mobile Internet access turned out to be the new apps 3G enabled on a fairly wide basis. But lots of the other potential applications failed to develop.
The issue for 4G networks is whether new apps actually can be created, and how long it will take before that happens. In the meantime, "4G" mostly means "faster broadband" for most end users. The other important angle is that a new network always brings with it the chance to reset consumer expectations about "typical" features and pricing mechanisms.
For the moment, that is the key issue for 4G network operators. In the near term, 4G is unlikely to mean much other than "faster than 3G" as a core value proposition. But 4G pricing and packaging can be different than typically is the case for 3G, and that will be the near term revenue issue of greatest importance.
Over time, it is likely that other "killer apps" will develop. But that will take some time, in all likelihood.
Ironically, neither of these wireless technologies actually qualify as “4G” in the eyes of the International Telecommunication Union, but that hasn’t stopped the carriers’ marketing departments from capitalizing on the term anyway.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
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