Mobile as a New Medium

I don't know of an instance where a new medium was not initially seen through the lens of the old. Among the perhaps obvious examples is the tendency of early movies to be "filmed stage performances." So to the extent that the "mobile web" is a new medium, and not merely a small-screen version of a PC, one would expect that the medium still is developing, and that we do not yet realize the potential.

For that reason, some speculate that the mobile web will ultimately become a different medium from the PC web.

"Where we are headed (or should be headed), I think, in developing a mobile web that is actually distinct from the web as we have known it," says Steve Smith, Digital Media Editor at Media Industry Newsletter.

If you want to know why mobile payments, mobile banking, local mobile advertising, social shopping and location services are getting so much attention, the reason is that the particularly unique "mobile media" is seen as converging or extending digital and offline experiences, so that both parts of a new experience.

In many cases, that means melding things people do in the offline "real" world with mobile capabilities. Consider shopping, which is driving much interest in mobile advertising, social shopping and location-based and "real time" offers.

But the notion that the mobile phone can be a digital extension of product - that a phone can complement the actual utility of a physical object a marketer offers - is where we get mobile closer to its ultimate promise. But some would argue we will start to approach the medium in its unique form when we start to see mobiles as a digital activation of physical world activities.

In that view, mobile does not extend the web, or offer a mobile marketing opportunity, in a narrow sense. In other words, we will understand the specific attributes of the medium as we learn to make the mobile-provided digital experience an actual extension of physical goods, services and products. It is a digital activation of the physical world.

Think of it as an extension of the notion that much of the value of any physical product is the software associated with it. PCs are nothing but platforms for software, for example. Music is a part of the MP-3 player product, or the Apple App Store as a key part of the iPhone experience.

In other cases, Amazon's service, support and recommendations are an intrinsic part of the product, which is the shopping experience, not so much the specific items purchased by the consumer.

Mobile is Not Your Older Brother's World Wide Web

Google Voice CEO Craig Walker Launches Firespotter

When Google Voice (previously GrandCentral) co-founder and CEO Craig Walker is starting an incubator, with initial funding from Google Ventures of $3 million. GrandCentral itself was nurtured in an incubator, one might note. Most recently, Walker had been working at Google Ventures as entrepreneur in residence.

At Google Ventures, Walker has had a chance to see hundreds to thousands of startup pitches, likely of varying quality or novelty. Walker likely also has found that many of the pitches are in similar market spaces, and knows from experience that it is difficult to separate ultimate leaders from laggards, even in the same space, at inception.

An incubator provides a business model where Firespotter will be able to spread its bets, essentially, without having to make judgments upfront about which teams and ideas are most worthy.

Walker is working with former Google Voice engineers Brian Peterson, John Rector and Alex Cornell) at Firespotter Labs.

Google Voice CEO Craig Walker Launches Firespotter, A Google Ventures Funded Incubator

Verizon, HTC Mull Smart Phone Targeted at Women

Verizon and HTC have taken that into consideration and are testing a new smartphone that would target that female demographic. Right now, the code name for the phone is the Bliss and its said to hit Verizon before the end of this year.

The slate style Android device might feature a softer color hue, offer various preloaded calorie counting and shopping apps, a wireless dock, and even an LED charm notifier for easy access when the phone is in a pocket.

read more here

Facebook and Google mull Skype deals

Facebook and Google both seem to be considering a tie-up with Skype, Reuters reports. The postponement of Skype's IPO might have something to do with that activity.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg reportedly has suggested either a buyout of Skype by Facebook, or a joint venture. Google reportedly has also held early talks for a joint venture with Skype.

Facebook and Google mull Skype deals | Reuters

Isis Shifts Strategy: What Happens Next?

If there is any single issue that will drive any retailer away from a retail payments system it is higher cost per transaction. Forcing a retailer to spend $200 or so per payment terminal also is a huge barrier to adoption. Blocking a merchant’s ability to use a form of payment such as a branded credit card also is a disincentive, particularly since the merchant’s own branded vehicles potentially can provide more information about the customer, and the customer’s preferences, than any third party form of payment.

It appears Isis has stumbled with retailers because its proposed payment system provides all three barriers, says Richard Crone, Crone Consulting principal and payments consultant.

And Crone agrees that, as tough as it would have been to overcome those obstacles, any other revenue model Isis now might adopt could fight Isis facing both well-funded giants such as Google, Apple, PayPal and Amazon, or any number of startups, sufficiently well funded to pose a significant challenge to “near field communications” as the communication method for any number of payment-related systems and applications.

In fact, Crone believes a number of carrier-independent approaches from well-funded start-ups not requiring NFC “could make NFC obsolete.”

“Maybe you don’t need the NFC approach,” says Crone. “There are 16 different ways the communications function can be handled.”

Starbucks, for example, represents the “most successful new payment method, ever,” Crone says. Starbucks reached one million mobile payments  processed in 30 days. “Nobody else ever has received those kind of numbers in that short a period of time.” And all Starbucks did was build on the existing prepaid Starbucks card and 2D barcodes. Starbucks has signed up more than three million of their customers for the program, and they likely include some of the best customers Starbucks has.

Customer contact  is the real advantage, he argues. When a merchant accepts payment from a standard credit or debit card, the data the merchant can capture is slim. The Starbucks approach provides a clear contrast.

When a customer registers for the Starbucks mobile payment service, the customer states their preferences and supplies contact information. As a result, Starbucks can communicate with their customers, before and after any transaction.

Starbucks also enjoys lower transaction costs, as it is prepaid system where customers load credits into their accounts ahead of time.

It might not be incorrect, in essence, to argue that, if merchants were starting today with a payment technology system, they wouldn’t even buy point of sale terminals. They’d simply leverage the technology the customers pay for, including using the customer’s communication services, and process directly from a smart phone, Crone says.

Retailers need a payment strategy, and a a mobile strategy, that provides incentives for customers to use the forms of payment that build loyalty, make customers contactable and provide lower costs. That doesn’t mean abandoning a “portfolio” approach. After all, people still will want the freedom to pay using cash, credit card, debit card, check or gift card. But among those options, retailers benefit when they can use the payment system to build loyalty, knowledge of their customer preferences and gain the ability to add marketing services on top. When possible, transaction costs might also be lower taking that approach.

That doesn’t mean NFC won’t find applications, or that Isis cannot ensure itself some role in the mobile payments business. NFC requires a secure element that carriers want embedded in the subscriber information module. Carriers control the SIM, so they would still be gatekeepers when NFC is used.

“So even if they open up to card associations, they control the loading of credentials,” says Crone. But various players in the ecosystem will contest the location of that loadable data, arguing that it should not be in the SIM, but elsewhere in the device. Device manufacturers, for example, would prefer that approach, as it makes their devices more valuable.

With Isis apparently withdrawing from an effort to compete directly with Visa and MasterCard, it will obviously have to find some other role. But competitors who do not necessarily want to be limited by using NFC, the SIM or getting the carrier’s permission now will have new incentives to push their rival systems in the marketplace.

In a way, Isis had been casting a bit of a shadow over rival approaches. Now, it appears we are headed for a period of wider experimentation, with many participants looking at ways to create payment systems providing higher marketing value, advertising or promotion platforms or customer niches, such as mobile merchants, smaller merchants or merchants primarily seeking loyalty program advantages.

Nor is it entirely clear that the “best” strategy is the “most ubiquitous, most widely used” approach. Large retailers might well conclude that they are best served by their own branded programs, using forms of payment limited to their own establishments and venues. They still will accept all the other popular forms of payment, so they give up nothing to gain the advantages of approaches such as that taken by Starbucks, which is to create a program usable only at Starbucks.

With the shade apparently removed, lots of smaller plants will get sunlight.

Mobile Broadband Revenues will Double by 2015

Some "problems" likely are opportunities. Ovum, for example, forecasts that mobile broadband revenues will more than double from $100.5 billion in 2010 to $223 billion in 2015, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 17 per cent. So how is that a "problem"?

Mobile broadband connections will grow at a CAGR of 28 per cent, reaching three billion in 2015, up from 899 million in 2010. The "problem" is that revenue is growing more slowly than "connections."

Of those three billion connections, 82 per cent will use small-screen devices such as smartphones and feature phones, Ovum predicts.

Big-screen mobile broadband connections used to connect laptops, netbooks and tablets will grow at a CAGR of 28 per cent from 2010 to 2015, leading to 554 million connections by 2015.

In terms of revenues, small-screen devices will represent $120 billion worth of revenue in 2015.

So is the growth gap really a problem? It is debatable. One issue is simply that average revenue for a smartphone plan is less than for a large-screen device plan, generally speaking. To the extent that more of the growth is coming from small screen devices. So obviously ARPU is going to be smaller than it would be if most of the growth was driven by higher-ARPU large-screen subscriptions.

Is it a problem that connections are growing at a 28-percent clip, while revenue is growing at 17 percent? Not necessarily. Growth at 17 percent likely outstrips growth for other existing products, hands down, at least in developed markets.

And later adopters typically do not spend as much as early adopters, for any product. Early mobile broadband adoption was boosted by business users, who normally will invest more heavily in productivity tools than consumer users. As the need for mobile broadband increasingly is driven by consumers, ARPU will be lower.

Datamonitor | Media Center | Small-screen devices drive mobile broadband market to revenues of $223 billion

Use and Misuse of "Like" Functions

Marketing strategists now have the ability to increase the number of people that "Like" their companies or products. Brands can offer Facebook users some sort of value, but require that the user "Like" the brand before the offer can be consumed.

That's one way to increase a brand's "Likes," of course. That might have some value. But the trade off is whether it really does anything at all to increase engagement with a user.

Part of the purpose of such "like-gating" is to get consumers engaged and involved. If you ask them to do something for you and they agree to do it, the theory is that you’ve already taken one step in the engagement process with them.

Other companies are trying to drive up their number of Facebook fans because that bumps them up on ranking charts and search engines.

But some us might be quite skeptical that engagement can be driven this way.

Here We are Now, Entertain Us: Like-Gating on Facebook | Social Media | ideaLaunch