Parks Associates forecasts over two billion people worldwide will own at least one smart phone in 2015, with unit sales growing over 175 percent from 2010. Smart phone shipments grew 70 percent in 2010, with approximately 500 million users.

Paradoxical Web Econonics

The social web’s economics are paradoxical: The more it blossoms, the more it destroys value. Those of you in the telecom or Internet Service Provider industry might well agree. So might many in the bookstore, music or video industries, not to mention other retail businesses.

One might argue that IP telephony adds lots of value, and creates new higher-value businesses based on new unified communications features. One might also observe that IP telephony and VoIP cannibalize the service provider's basic voice business. That's the paradox: the web, the Internet and IP-based services both create new revenue potential and destroy existing value.

Read, Share and Destroy | Monday Note

18% in U.S. Access Location-Based Smartphone Services | ClickZ

Some 17.6 percent of U.S. smart phone users accessed at least one "check-in"-oriented mobile platform during the month of March, 2011 representing 7.1 percent of the nation's entire mobile population, according to comScore.

Location-based service users are more likely to interact with other forms of mobile media and content than non LBS-using smart phone owners. They demonstrated a higher propensity for consuming news content through their handsets, as well as accessing restaurant information and online retail sites, based on data collected in the three-month period ending March 31, 2011

LBS users were also more likely to own a tablet, and a higher percentage recalled seeing ads on their mobile devices. In terms of demographics, 13 to 34 year olds accounted for the majority of users for location services, representing 66.8 percent of users.

18% in U.S. Access Location-Based Smartphone Services | ClickZ

App Providers Control Too Much Personal Information, U.S. Adults Say

When American adults were asked if they agree or disagree that some online companies, such as Google or Facebook, control too much of our personal information and know too much about our browsing habits, 76 percent agree. Only 16 percent disagree, according to a new survey by Adweek and the Harris Poll.

While majorities of both men and women agree that these companies control too much and have too much information about us, women are somewhat more likely to say this than men are (79 percent of women,  74 percent of men).

Yet, despite a large majority of Americans agreeing that these companies know and control too much, Americans are more likely to say they oppose government intervention to regulate large online companies like Google or Facebook (46 percent) rather than support it (36 percent) .

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom.aspx

33x Mobile Traffic Growth Next 10 Years

Mobile traffic will grow 33 times over 2010 levels in the next decade, the UMTS Forum predicts.

The report also predicts that growth will be stronger still in Europe. During the same period, the UMTS Forum estimates that mobile traffic in a typical Western European country will grow by 67 times from 2010 levels.

33x growth in mobile traffic over next decade, predicts UMTS Forum

Will Apple be King of Payments?

"Apple has revolutionized how we consume music, mobile applications, and media, in general. I fully expect them to revolutionize the retail experience, too," says Michael Koploy, Software Advice ERP market analyst.

"If Apple can revolutionize the point of sale, consumers will use their iPhone for retail checkout." That is the trick, isn't it?

"In the process, I think they will come to own a huge chunk of the payments industry," says Koploy. "We think Apple has a chance to own the later opportunity by acting as a merchant services provider."

"Consumers won’t care who’s processing the transaction or earning fees," he argues. It's true that consumers won't care. But retailers will care, as well the existing issuers of credit cards and debit cards, as well as the card associations, especially Visa and MasterCard.

From the outside, it always seems to be logical that a new provider, offering a new experience, ought to be able to change the payments experience. Starbucks perhaps is the best current example of that, in a retail setting.

But consumer desire, though necessary, is not sufficient to drive a change, as it is the retailers who also have to decide such a change in technology and experience benefits them as well. In the past, modifications of the point of service terminals have run as much as $200 per terminal, a capital investment retailers would rather not make.

The other issue is whether any new payment scheme can offer lower transaction costs for retailers. Apple might hope to do so, but has to be aware that the issuing banks and payment networks are not going to stand idly by and allow Apple to erode current industry revenues.

Apple has to be considered one of the more fearsome potential disruptors. But disruption in the payments industry is far harder than it typically appears.

Some of us might guess that Apple could play a bigger role not in the actual payments revenue stream, but as a provider of new value to ecosystem participants. In other words, Apple's biggest success could come not as a replacement for current methods, but as a partner to most of the ecosystem, including end users, retailers, banks and settlement networks.

Why Apple is Poised to Become the Future King of Payments

Chrome Now Has 160 Million Users

Google’s Chrome web browser now counts 160 million users in 41 nations, the company says. That’s more than double the 70 million users of the web browser Google reported at last year’s conference.

Chrome Now Has 160 Million Users