the guardian (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It has been some time since I first remember trying to sign The Guardian to the YOC media network, sometime in 2009.  From memory at the time, 4th Screen were selling around 1 million page views per month.  I have posted below the latest figures from their site**, that figure now stands at 6.2 million and generates more unique browsers and monthly page views than their iOS, Android and iOS tablet apps combined.  These figures are somewhat surprising but not because their mobile internet has the biggest pull,  rather that their mobile traffic has only 6 fold in 4 or so years and all their mobile channels are not generating significant page impressions.

I have always been an advocate for mobile internet and I do get and understand that having an app strategy for print and digital publishers makes perfect sense.  After all, I have personally been involved in building so many for clients as such, why wouldn’t I think this.  My bigger question is why is their mobile internet site and apps not generating higher levels of uniques or monthly page impressions?  We know they have an award winning app and their paid for model seemed to work and made them a small profit after development costs.

But… why is their mobile internet site generating far less monthly page impressions in ratio to their applications? And… are their applications generating enough impressions in ratio to the unique users?

Mobile Internet

Generating 6.2 million page impressions from 2.5 million unique browsers can be averaged out that for every one customer visiting the site once a month is only generating 2.5 page impressions per visit.  I am guessing that their customers are visiting more than once a month which would mean they are generating even less impressions per visit (just divide the impression number by the number of visits).  As you can see from these states it becomes somewhat disappointing and raises some concern.  Maybe I am interpreting unique browsers wrongly as unique users, but it sounds like the same thing to me.

The iphone app is a little better…

Again applying the same principle generating 1 million page impressions from 34,000 uniques can be averaged out that for every 1 customer using the app once a month is generating about 30 impressions per visit.  Like their mobile internet users the reality is they are visiting more than once a month and therefore the impressions they generate per visit are even less.

Lets look at the rest, again applying the same methodology…

iPad app

45,113 monthly uniques generating 3.45 million page impressions equates to 1 customer visiting once a month generating 75 page impressions per visit.

Android app

11,000 monthly uniques are generating 1.2 million page impressions equates to 1 customer visiting once a month generating 110 page impressions per visit.

What does this all mean?

In summary, it shows that their Android app is generating a much richer experience than their other channels.  Or maybe Android users are just more engaged than iOS users.  We have to be careful here as their mobile internet site will have traffic from all devices but overall the statistics suggest that most of their mobile site users are less engaged than their app users.

In my experience, working with print and digital publishers it is typical for a user to generate up to 10 impressions per visit but at an absolute minimum of visiting the site or apps 2 to 3 times a week.  This would mean you would have to divide those impressions (generated by the users) by approximately 12.  In doing that, the numbers would suggest that only their Android app and iPad app are delivering a rich experience where the user is most engaged generating 9 to 6 impressions per visit respectively.  The others fall well short of this and their mobile internet site alarmingly so.

m.guardian**

A dedicated mobile site giving users access to guardiannews.comcontent any time and from any device. It is optimised for mobile screen sizes and connection speeds.

Traffic:

2.5 million monthly unique browsers
6.2 million monthly page views

m.guardian is showing incredible growth and almost doubled its traffic over the course of 2011 – growth that is outstripping total growth of the mobile internet market (+25% yr on yr).

Users are accessing a broad range of content through m.guardian with the top five most visited sections being world news, football, sport, technology and Comment is free. Comment is free alone delivers over 250,000 page views per month – an indication that users are valuable opinion leaders.

iPhone app

An award winning iPhone app featuring video, live blogs and more that is available free to users in the US.

Traffic:

34,000 monthly unique browsers

1 million monthly page views

With steady growth in unique browsers of almost 50% over the last four months, the iPhone app is another strong performer in GNM’s mobile portfolio. What’s more, the proportion of heavy users is high at just over 50%. That, combined with a strong frequency metric for user behaviour, indicates a very loyal and engaged audience.

In addition to the regular news content, users have a strong preference for football, sport and business content.

iPad app

We launched our critically acclaimed iPad app in October 2011 and since then it has been downloaded more than 500,000 times (globally). With a clean, modern design and easy navigation the Guardian iPad app is immensely readable.

Traffic:

45,113 monthly unique browsers

3.45 million monthly page views

Android App

Free to download and available from the Android market worldwide it contains the latest news, sport, comment, reviews, videos, podcasts and picture galleries from the Guardian website.

Traffic:

11,000 monthly unique browsers

1.2 million monthly page views

The app delivers a globally minded audience of opinion leaders and the most popular sections include football, Comment is free and world news.

Furthermore, over one in three are heavy users and this has steadily increased over the last few months – an indication that user loyalty and engagement is growing.

SOURCE**: Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/advertising/mobile?newsfeed=true)

Posted By ] Adam Satariano

Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iAd mobile-advertising business has cut rates by as much as 70 percent as some marquee clients are using rival services, two people with knowledge of the matter said, signaling the company is struggling to parlay its technology leadership into success in the ad industry.

When Apple rolled out iAd a year ago, companies such as Citigroup Inc. (C) and J.C. Penney Co. were being charged $1 million or more to run ad campaigns. Today those brands aren’t using iAd, and Apple is offering packages for as little as $300,000, said the people, who asked not to be named because the rates are private.

Even with lower prices, some advertising agencies are balking at iAd’s cost, especially because the promotions only reach Apple users. They’re turning instead to Google Inc. (GOOG)’s AdMob, Millennial Media and Greystripe, which serve a range of devices. That means Apple risks losing ground in a market that will generate $2.5 billion by 2014, according to EMarketer Inc.

“Apple’s closed ecosystem may have been interesting in the short run for advertisers, but in the long run they priced themselves out,” said Thom Kennon, senior vice president of strategy for the Young & Rubicam ad agency in New York.

Makers of applications, who benefit from iAd by selling advertising, are getting only 5 percent to 15 percent of their space filled by the Apple system, according to Mobclix Inc., an exchange for buying and selling mobile ads.

Lower Prices

Apple has cut the minimum ad purchase from $1 million to $500,000, and it’s offering agencies deals for as low as $300,000 if they bring together multiple campaigns, the two people said.

The company still has the advantage of offering the biggest selection of mobile applications. Its App Store, which provides software for its iPhone, iPad tablet and iPod Touch media player, has more than 425,000 programs. When an ad runs within an app, Apple gives the developer 60 percent of the revenue.

Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California- based Apple, said the company continues to sign some of the world’s leading brands.

“In its first year iAd has launched more than 100 campaigns in seven countries,” she said.

Apple also is taking steps to attract more advertising. In addition to offering lower prices, it hired a former ad agency executive, Carrie Frolich, who was the head of digital for WPP Plc’s MEC. And Apple added a new online design feature, called iAd Producer, to help agencies design ads more quickly.

Disney, AT&T

Twenty companies have used iAd in the past month, including Walt Disney Co. (DIS), where Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs is the biggest shareholder; AT&T Inc., a carrier of Apple’s iPhone; and insurance provider Geico Corp. About 50 campaigns will be joining the platform in the coming months, according to Apple.

The iAd system carried unrealistic expectations from developers and advertisers, said Noah Elkin, an analyst at EMarketer, a research firm in New York. Its biggest contribution is validating the nascent market of showing advertisements to people on their smartphones, he said.

“It has been successful in that it created a beacon for mobile advertising,” he said. “Advertising was always going to be a minor revenue source for them.”

Even if prices have come down, Apple legitimized the idea of spending large sums on mobile ads, said Krishna Subramanian, the co-founder of Palo Alto, California-based Mobclix.

“You can go to an automotive company and pitch a $500,000 to $1 million campaign, and it’s realistic,” he said.

Disappointing Results?

Still, iAd has frustrated some developers, which haven’t made as much money as expected, Subramanian said. They have turned to other companies to sell ad space, he said.

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. is using competing mobile-adverting networks after being part of the initial group of companies to advertise through Apple, said Ed Gold, the insurer’s advertising director.

J.C. Penney, another inaugural user of iAd, also is working with other services, said Danika Berry, a spokeswoman for the retailer. Citigroup confirmed that it’s not currently using iAd as well. The companies said they may use iAd in the future.

Rival mobile-advertising companies have been luring clients by undercutting Apple on price and promoting their ability to run across multiple devices, including handsets from Samsung Electronics Co., HTC Corp. and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. – - phones that rely on Google’s Android operating system. Millennial Media also hired one of Apple’s iAd sales managers.

Limited Audience

“You’re cutting your potential audience in half by focusing on a single platform,” said Dane Holewinski, head of marketing at Greystripe, which was acquired by ValueClick Inc. (VCLK) in April. About 80 percent of the company’s advertising campaigns work across multiple devices. “Advertisers don’t care about platform. They care about audience, performance and engagement.”

The iAd system carries a level of prestige, in part because of its sleek design, said Rob Norman, CEO of ad agency GroupM North America, whose clients using iAd include Unilever NV.

“Everyone likes the consumer experience it creates,” he said. “Everyone wants to be there because they think that, possibly since television, this is one of the most elegant customer experiences.”

Still, companies must account for the cost, Norman said.

“We’d all like to stay at the Four Seasons, but not if it costs $150,000 a night,” he said. “There’s a price equation.”

Quattro Acquisition

The iAd platform was started after Apple acquired mobile- advertising company Quattro Wireless last year. It was introduced last July at the company’s annual developers conference as a way to take more interactive features, such as videos, and embed them within applications.

Apple targets ads by using data from the millions of accounts registered with its iTunes software. The pitches are made based on demographic information, along with a user’s music, movie or App Store purchases. Advertisers can choose “buckets” of users to target, based on demographics, though they can’t pick which specific applications the ads run in.

When it was introduced, Jobs said most other mobile advertising “really sucks.”

For now, many ad agencies haven’t embraced iAd as an improvement over the old approaches, said Rachel Pasqua, vice president of mobile for ICrossing, an online marketing firm. She cites the cost, time needed to get ads approved, limited size of the audience and control Apple has kept over data.

“I haven’t encouraged any of my clients towards it,” Pasqua said. “I haven’t seen a huge value proposition.”

While Apple has stumbled in advertising, its influence over the technology industry means it’s too soon to count the company out, said EMarketer’s Elkin.

“IAd may have receded in to the background, but it’s too early to assume it’s not going to come back,” he said.

Via: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-07/apple-s-iad-mobile-ad-service-said-to-cut-prices-as-clients-turn-to-rivals.html

Nokia's Stephen Elop said talk of a Samsung bid was 'baseless'. Photograph: Markku Ulander/AFP/Getty Images

Nokia‘s chief executive Stephen Elop dismissed as “baseless” rumours that the electronics giant Samsung is bidding for the company in London on Thursday.

Speaking at the Open Mobile Summit, Elop said that “all the rumours are baseless” and reiterated Nokia’s intention to create a third smartphone ecosystem to compete with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s dominant Android mobile operating system.

He said that Nokia designers are working on designs for new phones which will use Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, which he has previously said will come out later this year using the so-called “Mango” version. That is due some time in the autumn.

Earlier this week rumours began to circulate that Samsung would bid for the Finnish mobile company, which still makes more mobile handsets than any other, but which has seen its stock pummelled after it warned at the end of May that it might make not make any profit on its mobile business this quarter.

Previous buyout rumours had suggest Microsoft would bid for Nokia, but the company previously denied those too.

Elop insisted that Nokia continues to have a huge following in many emerging markets such as Asia.

It also emerged on Thursday that Nokia’s chief technology officer, Rich Green, is taking a leave of absence from the company. Officially it is for personal reasons, though other reports brought conflicting explanations. The Wall Street Journal suggested it was for medical reasons, but the Economic Times said Green had disagreed with Elop, who took over as chief executive in September 2010, over the scrapping of the MeeGo platform.

But Richard Windsor, a marketing analyst from the brokers Nomura who saw Elop speak, told the Guardian that he thought the company faced at least four more quarters of significant problems.

“In smartphones, any company that loses market share has gone on to have significant problems,” Windsor said. He thinks that Nokia will face dwindling market share which will bring its margins and profits under enormous pressure, particularly as Chinese handset makers produce cheaper versions of Android phones selling for less than $200.

“Nokia is strongest in markets where it hasn’t yet been challenged by sub-$200 handsets,” he added. Nokia’s smartphones, of which it sold 24m in the first quarter, had an average selling price (ASP) of €147 (£130). By contrast most smartphones have an ASP of about $300, while Apple’s iPhone has an ASP of $660.

“The high end is gone for Nokia – it can’t get it back,” said Wilson. “And it won’t be able to get the price of its Windows Phone devices down low enough to make a profit. The hardware requirements of Windows Phone are quite hefty [Microsoft specifies a 1GHz processor, faster than any other platform] and so they’ll never be able to get the price low enough.”

Via: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/09/nokia-dismisses-samsung-bid-rumours

It is very interesting that Apple have not mentioned iAD at the World Developer conference day in San Francisco yesterday as highlighted by Dan Frommer of Business Insider.  Especially, as they were so keen to raise the bar in the mobile ad industry when they announced its release last year. That said the mobile ad industry is moving at such a fast rate and I no doubt Apple are fine tuning their product from the learnings they would have taken to-date.

We are seeing first hand the mobile ad-market exploding into the desk of most Marketers & Media Planners and Buyers. This is a subject that has to be on the list rather than off the list.  There are dynamic shifts across regions in the type of advertisement whether it is brands, content companies or media owners all wanting to capitalise on the opportunity.

Mobile content companies that where present in the early stages are finding it hard to convert in the matured markets such as US and Western Europe.  I believe this is due to user desirability and general maturity of the market.  The old content subscription services are not so sought in markets with strong smartphone penetration.  As the mobile web and apps that are enabled by smartphones offer content that is ‘King’.  Whereas, in emerging markets like LATAM, ASIA, Indonesia with heavy feature phone penetration content is scarce and usability limited. Hence, the desire is still high for content companies to service this void.

Western society is dominated by the big Fortune 100 advertisers whether it is premium advertising with super sexy rich media and the explosion of HTML5 or more simple direct response campaigns pushing for an acquisition/sale of some sort.

We are starting to see the big brands shift some ad-spend into the emerging markets from certain sectors such as, Travel, Finance, Technology, Health and Automotive but this is still a small portion of the total ad spend in those markets that are dominated by content companies.  The end user is still considered as someone with limited or no disposable income unlike its more matured Western Societies. This is changing thanks to technology and many other factors and presents a huge opportunity for M-Commerce as this will in many emerging markets leapfrog e-commerce.

This is when everything changes…

When we consider there are 3 billion people in the world that are not even connected to online and that these 3 billion people in the next five years will become connected via cheaper and still sophisticated smartphones it presents a world of opportunity and excitement.  This is why I work in the most exciting and fastest growing industry of all time.

Posted By ] Dan Frommer

Remember Apple’s iAd? Apple might not, either.

A year after being shown off as a “tentpole” feature of iPhone software, Apple’s mobile advertising business didn’t earn a single mention today, as execs previewed a new version of iOS at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs even took the opportunity to trash ads.

While discussing Apple’s free, new iCloud email service, he took an apparent jab at Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and the others, which stuff ads in their free email services.

“No ads,” he boasted. ”We build products that we want for ourselves, too, and we just don’t want ads.”

That’s obviously not the same thing as if Jobs were to say “we don’t like iAds” or “iAds stink.”

But it seems to underscore the awkwardness of Apple — a product-focused hardware and software company — trying to become an advertising company. (Much more about that here.)

Maybe there just weren’t any new iAd features to show off today. Apple certainly had a lot of more interesting new stuff to show off. But there wasn’t even a “hey, look how many ads we’re delivering every day” or “wow, we have all these amazing advertisers!” message. Or anything.

Via: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-snubs-the-iad-2011-6#ixzz1OZxRyZFl

Apple and Facebook don’t appear to be any closer to working together on the iPhone.

Today in San Francisco, Apple unveiled a new relationship with Twitter, where Twitter sign-in and sharing features will be built right into Apple’s iPhone and iPad operating system. (A very rare thing for Apple, which is hesitant to rely on third party services for anything.)

Sounds like the sort of feature that would be just as good — if not better — with Facebook, which has many millions more users than Twitter? Indeed. But Apple had nothing to say about Facebook today.

While Apple has been able to integrate Facebook into some minor products, such as iPhoto, for whatever reason, the companies haven’t been able to figure out a deal for major mobile integration. Last September, for example, Apple had to remove Facebook support from Ping, a social network, at the last minute.

Why? Because Facebook insisted on “onerous terms that we could not agree to,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs told All Things D’s Kara Swisher at the time.

Several weeks later, Facebook CTO Bret Taylor told reporters in New York that he was “very confident” that Facebook and Apple would figure out a way to work together on Ping.

But, publicly at least, nothing seems to have changed since then. Meanwhile, today, Apple just announced a big partnership with Twitter, one of Facebook’s biggest rivals.

This leaves the door open for Facebook and Apple to potentially work something out between now and the fall, when iOS 5 ships to consumers, so Apple can announce Twitter and Facebook integration for the final product. Facebook, after all, is built into many other phone platforms, including Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7, some Android flavors, etc.

Even if Facebook doesn’t need Apple, and Apple doesn’t need Facebook, it would be better for all of their users if they worked together, after all.

Or maybe they just aren’t going to play nicely together.

Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs obviously both know that they run two of the most important tech companies in the world. They don’t need each other if they can’t come to terms they can agree on. And maybe that’s going to keep them apart.

Either way, watching this relationship evolve is only going to get more interesting over the years.

Via: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-facebook-twitter-2011-6#ixzz1OZvlAXYl

As you probably know, the details of iOS 5 were released today at the Wordlwide Developer’s conference, and while we’re covering all of the new features that are coming, we wanted to give you a more in depth look at Mail and Safari, both of which are getting exciting new changes.

iOS 5 won’t be released until the fall, but we’ve got a lot to look forward to. Safari is already a very popular web browser, and 2/3rds of all mobile web browsing is done with Safari. It’s always lacked some necessary features, and I’m pleased to say that iOS 5 changes all of that.

Currently, we can’t open tabs, which is possibly the most frustrating thing about using Safari on a mobile device. In iOS 5, tabbed browsing is fully supported and lightning fast. When fall rolls around, you’ll be able to browse the Internet on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch in the same way you browse on a PC or Mac.

Safari Reader is another new browser function that will make reading news articles more enjoyable. It strips out all distractions and excess content, presenting only the text of a web page. It even combines multiple page stories into one flowing piece. This feature will be accessible from a new button in the address bar.

A built in Reading List will allow you to mark pages that you want to read later, much like bookmarking. Your Reading List can sync across multiple devices, so you’ll always know just what you wanted to read, regardless of which device you’re using. Full story and website content can be emailed to anyone (instead of just sending a link), and Twitter integration is included.

Mail, like Safari, is one of iOS’s most used applications. In iOS 5 Mail will be receiving some significant changes, making it more user friendly. There is a new ergonomic split keyboard option, which can be accessed by dragging the keyboard up. This keyboard is smaller, and perfect for typing with your thumbs. Bringing up your Mail inbox in portrait mode is simple – it just takes a single swipe.

There is a new system-wide dictionary that functions like the one in iBooks. In Mail, if you don’t know a word, you can tap it and get a dictionary definition. Searching has been changed and enhanced, allowing you to search through entire messages as well as subject titles. I wasn’t aware that search wasn’t already doing this, but thinking about it, I haven’t always gotten great search results, so this should beef up searching quite a bit.

Messages can be flagged and marked unread, email addresses can be dragged from one field to another (such as to, cc, bcc, etc.) controlled indentation is supported, and most importantly, rich-text formatting has been added so that you can now use functions like bold, underline, and italics to emphasize your messages. Good news for exchange customers: S/MIME has been implemented, and a lock will appear when you’re sending an encrypted message.

These updates of Mail and Safari include some must have features that I have been sorely missing on my iDevices. In fact, a lot of these are things that should have been added years ago, and I’m certainly excited to welcome iOS 5. Are you happy with the feature set being added with iOS 5? Did Apple leave out anything you were expecting?

Via: http://www.padgadget.com/2011/06/06/an-in-depth-look-at-safari-and-mail-in-ios-5/

http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/11piubpwiqubf06/event/

Posted By ] Jillian

Yeah yeah yeah, Lion looks fantastic –but what about iOS 5? Many of us were not-so-patiently waiting to hear what would become of our iOS devices, and from the moment Scott Forstall took the stage we weren’t disappointed.

The address continued with an overview of the 10 key features among a noted 200 that will be included in the upgrade:

1. Notifications
   1. Addition of a Notification Center, accessed by swiping down from the top of the screen
   2. No more annoying popups, a brief, non-persistent animation will alert you to a new notification
   3. All notifications will be itemized on the the lock screen, with a swipe bringing you to the correct app
   4. Can be cleared individually, but can easily be removed by tapping the [X] to dismiss
2. Newsstand
   1. Easy access to all of your newspaper and magazine subscriptions
   2. New issues are automatically downloaded in the background and placed into a single location integrated with the home screen
3. Twitter integration
   1. Full iOS integration with a single sign-on with interaction available for all apps, including Camera and Photos
   2. Add twitter account handles to your contacts
4. Safari
   1. Safari Reader creates an uncluttered view of website story content, a 20-page review can be turned into a single longer page with one click
   2. Easy sharing of website content and links
   3. Tabbed browsing
   4. Reading List features allows you to save content for reading later
5. Reminders
   1. Create lists with optional reminders by date and location (be reminded when you arrive or leave)
   2. Will sync across all devices including integration with Cal
6. Camera
   1. Camera button added to the lock screen
   2. Use the volume-up button to take pictures –fully tactile approach for a shutter button
   3. More advanced features including pinch-to-zoom and manual exposure settings by tapping areas of your photo
   4. Editing directly on your device including crop, rotate, reduce red-eye, and one click enhance
7. Mail
   1. Rich text formatting with indentation control
   2. Draggable addresses
   3. Search entire message content
   4. Flag as unread
   5. S/MIME support
   6. OS-wide dictionary that all apps can access with tap-to-define functionality
   7. A new keyboard can be split with your thumbs for faster on-screen typing
8. PC Free
   1. No more PC required with activation, set-up, software updates all available Over-the-Air (OTA)
   2. Only download delta updates, meaning only the information that was changed –reducing the data downloaded
   3. More configuration available on the device itself including adding and removing calendars and mailboxes
9. Game Center
   1. Purchase and download apps from within Game Center itself
   2. Increased social aspects including friend discovery, friend of friend discovery and enhanced score/achievement sharing
10. iMessage
    1. Messaging platform supported by all iOS devices including iPod Touch, iPad and iPhone
    2. Send text messages (including group messages), photos, videos and contacts
    3. Includes delivery receipts, read receipts, and typing indication

Of course, we were teased with additional things that they didn’t cover in detail, such as AirPlay mirroring of your iOS device to your television, multitasking gestures and WiFi syncing.

In keeping with the theme of the conference, Apple promised over 1500 new API’s for developers. This will translate into a lot more apps with a lot more functionality and a lot more potential! Putting power in the hands of developers means we are looking foward an even more innovative future.

While the inevitable comparisons to other devices and their features will no doubt follow, I don’t think anybody can deny that iOS 5 is a giant leap forward on an already innovative and progressive platform.

With release of iOS 5 set for the fall, only one question remains… how can we possibly wait?

Via: http://www.padgadget.com/2011/06/06/wwdc-keynote-whats-new-in-ios-5/

Image via CrunchBase

Posted By ] Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

Google is set to introduce a mobile payments platform that will turn its Android smartphones into a digital wallet.

At an event in New York on Thursday, the tech giant is expected to show off the technology called near field communication or NFC.

The technology allows devices to ‘talk’ to one another wirelessly.

Consumers wave their phones in front of a reader at a checkout to pay for a purchase or to receive special offers.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that the programme will initially be launched in New York and San Francisco before being extended more widely across the US.

Retailers who are said to be taking part include deparment store Macy’s, American Eagle Outfitters and Subway fast-food chain.

While Google has made no comment on the reports, it has sent out invites to the press asking them to attend an event at its New York offices where it will show off its “latest innovations”.

Mobile network operator Sprint is also expected to take part.

In January Google chairman Eric Schmidt wrote in a guest edition of the Harvard Business Review that mobile money is a key part of Google’s strategy for 2011.

“Phones, as we know, are used as banks in many poorer parts of the world—and modern technology means that their use as financial tools can go much further than that,” said Mr Schmidt.

Demand

Research firm Forrester has said it expects 40-50 million NFC equipped phones to be sold in 2011.

Apple is reportedly planning to include the technology in its upcoming iPhone 5 which is expected to be unveiled at its developer conference next month.

Microsoft is also said to be making plans to incorporate NFC in future Windows phones as is BlackBerry maker RIM.

Samsung and Visa have said they will facilitate mobile payments via NFC on smartphones during the summer Olympics in London next year.

“Google’s Nexus S device that it recently announced is the first Android powered device supporting NFC and we expect NFC is going to increasingly become a default feature of every smartphone that is sold over the next couple of years,” Charles Govlin, principal analysts at Forrester told BBC News.

Market researcher Gartner said with the total value of mobile transactions reaching $245 billion in 2014, demand for mobile wallet services will be huge.

But not everyone is convinced that contactless payments using a phone will replace cash.

“In my view, while I think it is clear that potentially these phone-based transactions will be widespread, it will happen slowly. One reason being that consumer behaviour changes very slowly,” said Mr Govlin.

“The big beneficiary here will be Google, a company that is all about information. The metadata involved in such transactions could allow Google to serve ads and make you a more valuable target for advertisers,” he added.

Last week the first NFC service was announced in the United Kingdom involving Orange and Barclaycard.

Mobile wallet services have been available in Japan for a number of years.

Watch: Rory Cellan-Jones demonstrates how it can work, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13540466

Via: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13540466

At press event in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, mobile commerce company Square launched two new mobile applications designed to make mobile commerce easier and more accessible than ever before.

Square Register is an iPad app–available for download today–that facilitates retail checkout, sales tracking, and customer communication. Square Register allows merchants to use an iPad instead of a cash register or credit card terminal.

“We think that this obsoletes credit terminals and cash registers,” said Square CEO Jack Dorsey at the press event. “Those are a thing of the past.”

A consumer-oriented app for both iPhone and Android users called Card Case complements the Square Register merchant app. Card Case stores virtual merchant-branded information cards thatenable and promote local commerce. Think of Card Case as a virtual wallet populated with virtual credit cards, each associated with a particular vendor.

Dorsey likens these information cards to opening a tab at bar: They provide an easy way to return to the seller and charge another item. In essence, these cards combine loyalty cards with a local commerce angle.

For merchants, Dorsey’s value proposition goes beyond reducing the friction of commerce. The Square system provides immediate access to useful business metrics.

“It gives you data,” said Dorsey. “Every single merchant that uses the Square Register has Google-style analytics for everything they do. They can easily answer the question, ‘How many cappuccinos did I sell today?’”

The cost to merchants is a 2.75% transaction fee for swiped credit cards or 3.5% + 15 for credit card numbers entered manually.

Square Register and Card Case include: access to a location-based Directory, which provides merchants with a way to publish information about their business that Card Case users can discover; a Menu feature, for publishing menus, items, and specials to customers; and Tabs, a one-click payment mechanism.

IDC analyst Aaron McPherson expressed skepticism that Square’s system will be widely adopted because it requires both the merchant and consumer to have the right software installed. “It’s a closed system where both the merchant and consumer have to get involved,” he said. “But to the extent this can work purely in software using the mobile network as a communication channel, Square has an advantage.”

McPherson said he hoped Square would work to integrate its system with a PC-based point-of-sale system. “The iPad as a tablet is very hard to secure,” he said. “People might just rip them off counters.”

Square was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey, one of three co-founders of Twitter, and Jim McKelvey. The company launched its free, portable credit card reader for the iPhone and Android phones in early 2010. To date, the company says it has delivered 500,000 of credit card readers, resulting in over a million transactions in May. Based on current usage, the company projects $1 billion in annualized gross payment volume.

Businesses that wish to participate in Card Case can apply online; there are presently 50 authorized Square merchants in Los Angeles, New York, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Washington, DC where consumers can have their Card Case accounts activated. An Android version of Card Case is expected to be available shortly.

Via: http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/business/229625404