PriceCheck Shows Mobile Commerce "Steering"

Price comparison service PriceCheck offers a mobile app that allows users to scan bar codes of almost any supermarket product and see comparative prices at competing stores. 

That's one more aspect of mobile commerce, allowing consumers to comparison shop while inside retail outlets. It isn't just "showrooming," where users check out merchandise in a store and then order online. It is a form of "steering," where a potential customer is maneuvered to a course of action, in this case buying a product at another outlet. 

“Fifty percent of consumers are spending more than half of their total shopping time researching products online or using their mobile device," says Andre De Wet, PriceCheck CEO.

Verizon CFO says "Share Everything" Works Because People Know They Don't Use Much Data

Unlimited data customers are flocking to Share Everything, says Fran Shammo, Verizon CTO, because many of them realize they don't consume much data, and like the idea of sharing a single data plan across multiple devices. 

True, overall bandwidth consumption is growing briskly.

At a global level, Analysys Mason predicts that mobile data will grow at a 41 percent compound annual growth rate. That would be quite a slower rate than had been the case in 2011, for example, when growth was about 90 percent, on average, in the U.S. market. 

But most users don't actually consume that much data.

According to a 2011 Nielsen monthly analysis of cellphone bills for 65,000 lines, smart phone owners, especially those with iPhones and Android devices, were consuming about 435 megabytes in the first quarter of 2011, up from about 230 Mbytes in the first quarter of 2010. 

Data usage for the top 10 percent of smartphone users was up 109 percent, as you would expect. The top one percent of users increased their usage by 155 percent from 1.8 GBytes in the first quarter of 2010 to over 4.6 GBytes in the first quarter of 2011, Nielsen said. 

Still, though growth is occurring across the board, at the 80th percentile and below, users consumed 500 Mbytes or less each month. In the 60th percentile, users consumed 250 Mbytes or less each month.

IDC Raises Its Worldwide Tablet Forecast

International Data Corporation has increased its forecast for the worldwide tablet market to 117.1 million units, up from its previous forecast of 107.4 million units for the year.

IDC also revised upward its 2013 forecast number from 142.8 million units to 165.9 million units. And by 2016 worldwide shipments should reach 261.4 million units.

"Despite ongoing economic concerns in most regions of the world, consumers continue to buy tablets in record numbers and we expect particularly strong demand in the fourth quarter," says Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices at IDC. 

$35 Tablet for India

The Aakash UbiSlate 7Ci is a super-cheap tablet that will attempt to connect every student in India to the Internet. 

The latest version of India’s $35 tablet comes equipped with WiFi and has an optional upgrade ($64) of a cellular Internet package of $2/month for 2 GB of data (roughly 25 emails, 25 websites, 2 minutes of streaming video, and 15 minutes of voice chat a day). More importantly, it is expected to launch  in India in September 2012. 

 

Older Customers Like Voice "That Just Works," Millennials Prefer Bundles

Both Generation Y and Pre-Boomer (Millennial) customers are significantly more satisfied with their home telephone service than customers in other generational groups, according to J.D. Power and Associates.

J.D. Power and Associates defines “Pre-Boomers” as people born before 1946; Baby Boomers as born 1946-1964; Generation X as born 1965-1976; and Generation Y as born 1977-1994)

The study measures customer satisfaction based on performance and reliability; cost of service; billing; offerings and promotions; and customer service.

Overall satisfaction among Pre-Boomers with their residential telephone service is 709 on a 1,000-point scale, compared with 690 among Gen Y (Millennial) customers.

The average overall customer satisfaction is 682.  In addition, Pre-Boomers and Millennial customers are significantly more satisfied with their phone service than are customers in the Gen X (667) and Baby Boomer (678) generational groups. according to J.D. Power and Associates.

Pre-Boomers are satisfied with their phone service because it is reliable, while Gen Y customers are satisfied because of their ability to bundle other services such as cellular phone service and high-speed Internet.  

While the majority of Pre-Boomers are unlikely to switch providers, nearly one-fourth of Millennials are likely shop around for a different provider.

"Pre-Boomers tend to take an 'if it's working, why switch' approach to their telephone service, while Gen Y customers are not afraid to switch and will consider a provider offering a less expensive alternative," says Frank Perazzini, J.D. Power and Associates director of telecommunications.

Some 22 percent of Millennial customers indicate they "definitely will" or "probably will" switch phone service providers, compared with just 11 percent of Pre-Boomers.

Among Millennial customers who are willing to switch, 72 percent say they are willing to switch for a better price, compared with 60 percent of Pre-Boomers who say the same.

In addition, the study finds that 57 percent of Millennial customers say it would be "extremely easy" or "somewhat easy" to switch their phone service, compared with 51 percent of Pre-Boomers who say the same.

While Millennial customers have a high propensity to switch providers, they also present the greatest opportunity for growth.  Among Millennial customers, 41 percent indicate they will buy additional products from their provider, compared with 31 percent of Gen X customers, 25 percent of Baby Boomers and 21 percent of Pre-Boomers.

About 12 percent of Millennials are interested in bundling home security services with their telephone service. Some 11 percent of Gen X customers, nine percent of, Baby Boomers and seven percent of Pre-Boomers have such interest.

Some 21 percent of Millennial customers use online video chat, compared with 13 percent of Gen X consumers, nine percent of  Baby Boomers and seven percent of  Pre-Boomers.

Verizon Wireless has Enough Spectrum for 4 to 5 Years

Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo says that Verizon Wireless now has enough spectrum to handle its capacity needs for the next four to five years. Granted, Verizon and other carriers have a vested interest in convincing regulators that they will need more spectrum to handle increasing demand, but there also is a reason most people assume the general claim is correct.

If one assumes demand is growing perhaps 40 percent a year, and even assuming more intense coding, cell division, more efficient signaling and Wi-Fi offload are among the other tools service provider have, more bandwidth will be needed.

The issue, one might argue, is that some of those techniques could be much more expensive than simply deploying more spectrum. And those additional costs will be passed along to consumers.

At a global level, Analysys Mason predicts that mobile data will grow at a 41 percent compound annual growth rate. That would be quite a slower rate than had been the case in 2011, for example, when growth was about 90 percent, on average, in the U.S. market.

According to a 2011 Nielsen monthly analysis of mobile phone bills for 65,000 lines, smart phone owners, especially those with iPhones and Android devices, were consuming about 435 megabytes in the first quarter of 2011, up from about 230 Mbytes in the first quarter of 2010.

Data usage for the top 10 percent of smartphone users was up 109 percent, as you would expect. The top one percent of users increased their usage by 155 percent from 1.8 GBytes in the first quarter of 2010 to over 4.6 GBytes in the first quarter of 2011, Nielsen said.

EU Wants Business, Government Users to Buy €45 billion Worth of Cloud Computing by 2020

Governments and industry should buy €45 billion worth of cloud computing services by 2020 as part of an EU strategy to generate an estimated €900 billion in gross domestic product and an additional 3.8 million jobs by the end of the decade, a new report European Commission report will advocate.

The European Commission's cloud computing strategy document is set to be released in late September by Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes,