Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Zong Integrated with Android

Mobile Payment Trial Finds More Transactions, Higher Average Purchase Value

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

Users mostly made micro-payments with their phones: 60 percent of the purchases were for amounts equal to or less than €20. Some 75 percent of transactions took place during the working week.

Consumers made the largest number of purchases at supermarkets (57 percent) and restaurants (14 percent).

The average age of customers using their mobile phone to pay for their purchases was 46. Some 90 percent of users said they would continue to use their mobile phone for payments.

Read more here.

70% of Sprint’s Devices to be Android-Based

Sprint’s Fared Adib, who replaced Kevin Packingham, Sprint VP, says that 70 percent of Sprint devices would also be running Android in 2011. That's what a company does when it cannot sell the Apple iPhone. It worked for Verizon, and AT&T, without iPhone exclusivity, plans to ramp up Android device sales as well.

Social Sign-In Works

Allowing online consumers to conduct social sign-in for an e-commerce site rather than create a new user account can produce higher levels of spending and customer satisifaction, according to a new survey from social user management platform provider Janrain and Blue Research.


Data from “Importance of Identity Solutions” indicates that during the 2010 holiday season, 21 percent of those who consider social sign-in desirable (fans) expected to spend more than in 2009, compared to 16 percent of critics.

Survey data also shows that 75 percent of consumers will avoid creating a new user account for an e-commerce site, with 54 percent leaving the site or not returning, 17 percent going to a different site if possible, and four percent leaving or avoiding the site.

Furthermore, of consumers who have created a new user account, 76 percent admit to giving incomplete or incorrect information. About 55 percent of consumers agree they are more likely to return to a site that automatically recognizes them.

Multichannel Video Cord Cutting Still Rare?

You can get a robust argument about the future of multichannel video, but less argument about the current amount of such cord cutting. Some would argue the danger still remains low. The issue, just about anybody would argue, is what lies ahead.

Power Track for Monitoring Tweet Traffic

Many brands now monitor social media streams, such as provided by Twitter, to monitor conversations about their brands. But that can be a daunting task, if conducted manually. A new commercial Twitter product called Power Track, supplied by Gnip, automates those chores.

Power Track allows keyword-based filtering of the full Twitter stream, providing 100 percent coverage over a stream.

In addition to keyword based filters, Power Track also supports boolean operators and many of the custom operators allowed on Twitter Search API. With Power Track, companies and developers can define the precise slice of the Twitter stream they need and be confident they’re getting every Tweet, without worrying about volume restrictions.

3% of SMBs Accept Mobile Payments

The SMB Group, a research firm focused on the small and medium size business market says three percent of SMBs accept mobile payments today and this number will increase to seven percent in the next 12 months, and 16 percent by the end of 2012.

The Roots of our Discontent

Political disagreements these days seem particularly intractable for all sorts of reasons, but among them are radically conflicting ideas ab...