Search Goes "Mobile First"

Mobile local search volume will surpass desktop local search for the first time in 2015, according to BIA/Kelsey.

By 2016, the firm expects mobile local search to exceed desktop local search by more than 27 billion annual queries.

That matters for companies including Google whose business models rely on search advertising revenue.

Canadian Mobile Ops Plan Summer 2012 Mobile Payments Launch

Rogers, Bell Canada and Telus Corp. are reported to be in final talks to adopt a mobile payment platform, using the moniker EnStream, working with banks, by about mid-2012. The payment platform will ensure that retailers and banks have one unified system to work with, not three separate mobile systems.  

Canada’s banking industry seems poised to adopt new voluntary guidelines agreed upon by the banking industry, to work with Enstream. Those standards were agreed upon by the country’s largest banks at a meeting of the Canadian Bankers Association, and will set out rules for “how banks will operate in this new world,” The Globe and Mail reports. 


The voluntary guidelines, technically known as the "Mobile Reference Model," will serve as a blueprint for how mobile payment capabilities can be offered in the Canadian market, including guidelines around how information is exchanged among various parties to a transaction including financial institutions, payment card companies, telecommunications companies and merchants. 


While voluntary, the financial institutions that developed the guidelines are committed to these principles in the mobile market, and these guidelines are intended to create a path to help all market participants move forward in developing mobile payment solutions. 



Canada already has more mobile-ready contactless readers per capita than anywhere else in the world, with this type of reader installed in between 12 and 15 percent of all retail outlets, according to Almis Ledas, chief operating officer of EnStream.



The proposed business model will entail payment of flat annual fees to banks, allowing them to load a consumer's financial credentials on the subscriber information module inside a device enabled with near field communications.



That would allow the phone to replace a debit or credit card, but would not offer the phone company a cut of any transaction made using smart phones.

Is Apple TV Yet Ready to Revolutionize the Category?

Some doubt Apple is yet ready to create a revolutionary TV experience, as most observers think significant amounts of high-value bundled content would be necessary to recast and reshape the consumer television experience as much as Apple tends to prefer, whenever it enters a market.

One can tinker with the user interface, add cameras, make streaming content easier to integrate with other content sources (over the air, cable, satellite or telco TV). Perhaps Apple also can change the visual appeal of the device itself, as by turning the display into something that looks quite different.

A transparent screen would look very different. Still, many believe a truly-big change would have to involve content, the way iTunes drove the appeal of the iPod, or the App Store helps drive the appeal of the iPhone and iPad.

In the case of the iPad, one might argue Apple was able to see the changed nature of an untethered  computing device, optimized for content consumption and building on the touch interface. Earlier thinking about tablets had focused on "work" applications.

"Gesture" operations analogous to that used for video games also would be helpful. But all that taken together might not constitute the sort of breakthrough Apple typically seeks. That would require a new way to purchase content, not simply a new way to navigate or integrate sources.

LTE User Experience Depends on How Often You Default to 3G, if Only Episodically

Tests by Root Metrics illustrate potential end user experience of their Long Term Evolution device and network, and the real-world experience when accounting for the times the 4G network will default back to the 3G network. In a pure LTE comparison between AT&T and Verizon Wireless, AT&T had a slight edge in LTE throughput.

After including defaults back to 3G, Verizon Wireless had the better average performance.



Measured performance, when both LTE and default back to 3G was measured, gave an edge to Verizon Wireless in the 15 cities studied, Root Metrics Root Metrics reports.

3% of App Buyers Represent 20% of Spending

About 66 percent of app users have spent money on an application, but just three percent of buyers represent 20 percent of total spending, according to a U.S. consumer survey conducted by ABI Research. About 70 percent spend nothing or very little, the study suggests.

Among these paying users, the mean spend was $14 per month. But "averages" don't always represent the best and most accurate way to represent the data.

“The median amount among the consumers who spend money on apps is much lower than the average, just $7.50 per month," says ABI Research Senior Analyst Aapo Markkanen.

The obvious implication might be that most apps will not make money.

Showrooming a Bigger Problem for Best Buy than Target, Grocery and Department Stores

Consumers use their smart phones for shopping in different ways, depending on the type of store they are in, a Nielsen survey suggests. 

Mobile couponing (either using or requesting a coupon) is most popular at grocery stores (41 percent of mobile shoppers reported using coupons there), department stores (41 percent), and clothing stores (39 percent). 

Larger purchases, or more complex products additionally tend to drive research and comparison pricing behavior. 

At electronics stores, the vast majority of smartphone shoppers read reviews (73 percent), compare prices with other retail outlets (71 percent) and scan QR codes to get more product details (57 percent).

That might suggest that Target's concern about "showrooming," where consumers investigate products inside a retail store, but then compare prices and buy online, is less a concern for Target than for Best Buy, for example. 

The survey suggests that consumers will do a bit of work to get a coupon for an item that is easy to understand, probably has a lower retail price and might be a repeat or frequent purchase. Consumers are likely to do much more research, and compare prices, for more-expensive, more-complex and higher-priced items. 

Samsung Galaxy S III Battery Life Could be a Major Attraction

Battery life might be a major attraction for the new Samsungt Galaxy S III. In at least one recent battery test, the Samsung Galaxy S III worked for just over 10 hours for video and voice, rivaling some tablets.

Web browsing provided battery life a bit over five hours. Many claim an iPhone 4S can work for seven hours in a Web surfing mode.