Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Next Jump Powers Enterprise Loyalty Programs
Next Jump, still a private company, will go public soon. Perhaps the most-notable partner Next Jump has is MasterCard, which in 2010 signed a three-year partnership with Next Jump to enhance its payment services.
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.
Will Big Carriers Take Over CDN Business?
There's a general rule in the communications business that a specialist wants to find a niche that is unattractive to the tier-one telcos, but big enough to be very interesting for the specialist. Lots of services start out small, but then get big enough to draw the interest of the tier one providers, typically with unpleasant results for the niche providers.
Mobile phones, digital subscriber line (broadband access) and SIP trunking are just a couple recent examples of services the big tier one providers avoided until it was clear they were going to be significant.
One wonders whether the content delivery networks business, which has been such a niche, now is becoming big enough to matter to tier one telcos.
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.
Report Finds Windows Phone 7 Share Lagging Windows Mobile
Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 appears to be trailing the older Windows Mobile operating system in sales, according to trhe NPD Group.
For the fourth quarter of 2010, NPD Group put Windows Phone 7′s share at two percent of the market, dead even with Palm’s webOS but lagging Windows Mobile (four percent), Research In Motion’s BlackBerry franchise (19 percent), Apple’s iOS (19 percent) and current market leader Android (53 percent).
For the fourth quarter of 2010, NPD Group put Windows Phone 7′s share at two percent of the market, dead even with Palm’s webOS but lagging Windows Mobile (four percent), Research In Motion’s BlackBerry franchise (19 percent), Apple’s iOS (19 percent) and current market leader Android (53 percent).
Android enjoyed a quarter-over-quarter growth of nine percent, while iOS and RIM fell four percent and two percent, respectively. Windows Mobile dropped three percent. NPD Group’s Top 5 smartphones included the Apple iPhone 4, Motorola Droid X, HTC Evo 4G, Apple iPhone 3GS and the Motorola Droid 2.
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.
Google’s Android becomes the world’s leading smart phone
Google’s Android has become the leading global smartphone, according to Canalys. Shipments of Android-based smartphones reached 32.9 million, while devices running Nokia’s Symbian platform trailed slightly at 31.0 million worldwide. But Nokia did retain its position as the leading global smart phone vendor, with a share of 28 percent. The fourth quarter also saw the worldwide smart phone market continue to soar, with shipments of 101.2 million units representing year-on-year growth of 89 percent. The final quarter took shipments for the year to fractionally below 300 million units, with an annual growth rate of 80 percent over 2009.
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.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Mobile Banking Growth Requires More Work on Value Proposition
Lacking any clear differentiated functionality, mobile banking appeals most strongly to those consumers already inclined to use the mobile channel, Forrester Research notes. Unfortunately, this segment is dominated by those already using online banking. As a result, banks are not realizing the full benefit of switching customers to cheaper servicing channels, but instead are seeing cannibalization of one low-cost channel (online) by another (mobile), says Forrester Research analyst Emmett Higdon.
Forrester reports that mobile banking has undergone rapid adoption, more than doubling from five percent of online users in 2007 to 12 percent in the second quarter of 2010. By 2015, this number is predicted to nearly double again, with one in five U.S. adults using mobile banking.
To reach one in five U.S. adults, as Forrester predicts mobile banking will do by 2015, U.S. banks will need to enhance today's functionality significantly to create a unique value proposition that resonates with both online and offline consumers.
Steady Mobile Banking Growth To Drive Demand For Better Functionality
Forrester reports that mobile banking has undergone rapid adoption, more than doubling from five percent of online users in 2007 to 12 percent in the second quarter of 2010. By 2015, this number is predicted to nearly double again, with one in five U.S. adults using mobile banking.
To reach one in five U.S. adults, as Forrester predicts mobile banking will do by 2015, U.S. banks will need to enhance today's functionality significantly to create a unique value proposition that resonates with both online and offline consumers.
Steady Mobile Banking Growth To Drive Demand For Better Functionality
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.
Zipring Launches New VoIP Servicemo
North American consumers can now join the public beta of Zipring—a simple, inexpensive integrated Voice over IP (VoIP) phone service that works with any phone, mobile or Internet device, requires no contract and is free to try.
Unlike other Internet phone applications and devices on the market, Zipring is based on open standards so it can be used with any VoIP software or phone device. Additionally, because Zipring leverages the internet, it can turn any Internet-based device—such as an iPad, iPod Touch, laptop or desktop computer—into a phone and enable users to make and receive calls to that device using their dedicated Zipring phone number.
“Zipring works with any phone on the planet,” said Erik Lagerway, VP and GM of Commercial Communications at Ziplocal, the company behind Zipring. “While we offer a free iPhone app, the beauty of Zipring is that users are not tied to it. They can integrate Zipring directly with any VoIP app or device available to them, unlike Google Voice or Skype, and enjoy zero roaming charges and inexpensive calling without a contract.”
Among its many benefits, Zipring has zero roaming charges and does not require a contract. Zipring features include visual voicemail, call recording, voicemail to email, web-based calling and account management, and no contracts.
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.
Google, Twitter, SayNow Create App to Alllow Tweeting by Leaving a Voicemail
A small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company Google recently acquired, have created an app that allows anyone to "tweet" by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers ( 16504194196 or 390662207294 or 97316199855).
The service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet.
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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