Mobile Commerce

Apple CEO: iPhone represents launch of personal computer

Lynnette Luna — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:53:45 -0400

When Apple puts the iPhone 3G on sale tomorrow it will simultaneously open its online App Store, which is akin to Apples iTunes Store for music. The App Store will sell mobile applications such as games, reference guides and other software. For Apple, the move represents an ambitious effort to turn the iPhone into more of a personal computer.

"There's been nothing on a mobile phone a fraction as good as what's on PCs," Apple CEO Steve Jobs told The Wall Street Journal. He also said that the iPhone represents a rare launch of a new computing platform.

Of course, rivals such as Microsoft take umbrage to a remark like that. Microsoft says it has developers who have created more than 18,000 applications for handsets using Windows Mobile operating systems. Still, the level of interest in making software for the iPhone is what Gartner Group's Ken Dulaney characterizes as "white hot." A handful of startups have entered the mobile market with the purpose of making applications for the iPhone, and we could see more.

In an interview with The New York Times, Jobs said the App Store will initially feature more than 500 applications including educational programs, mobile commerce and business productivity tools, with games representing about a third of the first-wave apps. According to Jobs, 25 percent of the first 500 applications at the store will be free, with roughly 90 percent of the premium applications priced at $9.99 or less. Jobs insists Apple will not rely on the App Store as a source of significant revenue, in much the same way iTunes music sales have contributed little to the firm's bottom line: "We are not trying to be business partners," he said. The goal is to "sell more iPhones."

For more:
- check out The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)
- read the New York Times

Related stories:
Jobs: App Store launch features 500 iPhone applications
Apple releases iPhone SDK, adds features
Apple counts down most popular iPhone apps

Motorola invests in m-payments, VivOTech

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 06:59:54 -0500

Mobile commerce company VivOTech has announced that Motorola invested an undisclosed amount in the company. Industry blog Alarm:Clock claims that the news may be delayed, since VivOTech has been saying for sometime that an un-named Fortune 500 company was part of its investment group. First Data Corporation, NCR, Nokia, Alloy Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DFJ Gotham Ventures, and Miven Venture Partners have all invested in the company, too. In August 2006 the company raised $22.5 million in third round funding.

For more on Moto's investment:
- check out this article from Alarm:Clock

FEATURE: Mobile financial services: Can't we all just make a deal?

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 06:59:53 -0400

Mobile financial services: Can't we all just make a deal?

By Brian Dolan

Would you hand a waiter your mobile phone to pay for your meal tab? Although a waiter could do more damage to your financial situation with a credit card than a mobile phone, most people would have difficulty handing off their trusted device.

Nevertheless, wireless carriers, banks and credit card companies say this scenario may be inevitable in the future.

This was just one of the many topics discussed during the M-Commerce panel at the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment conference in San Francisco earlier this week.

According to NXP Semiconductors business development manager for near field communications Dave Holmes, NFC payments services via mobile phones are already popular in Japan. "Japan is well ahead of us in many areas of mobile commerce particularly in contactless mobile transactions space... but the business networks, business style, and business ecosystem is fundamentally different over there than it is here in the U.S.," Holmes said, adding that he thinks it is possible that a carrier, such as NTT DoCoMo could invest in a bank and a retailer to drive the mobile commerce ecosystem. However, in the U.S., the market is much too complicated for that type of scenario to happen easily.

Damien Balsan, a director of business development at Nokia, said that the chief barrier to mobile financial services in the U.S. is the business strategy. "It's so hard when you have banks making money on transaction fees and working so hard on the risk management and on the other hand you have the operators setting up their networks... It's so hard to get them to do some revenue sharing."

AT&T's director of mobile financial services Spencer White told Prag Shah, CEO of Mobilians, that he needs to be patient and take a lot of time to explain to carriers the value proposition of mobile financial services. However, Shah did not agree that the technology cycles business model development should take quite so long. " "The cycle time for both the chipsets and the handsets needs to come down since 18 to 24 month cycles are not uncommon," Shah said. "Even though the space is heating up very quickly the technology cycles are long and figuring out the business cycles are long, too."

Shah later asserted that the barrier to market for mobile financial services "is not the technology--it is all about the business model."

James Anderson, MasterCard International's vice president of product management, agreed: "If I were king for a day, one thing I would do is lock my best issuing [financial services] customer and my best carrier customer in a dungeon and put them in chains and not let them out until they came to a deal," he said. "It might take three months."

Mobile financial services: Can't we all just make a deal?

Mike Dolan — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:58:27 -0400

Can you imagine handing a waiter your mobile phone at the end of a meal? Venyon US CEO Tom Zalewski pointed out that the waiter could do more damage to your financial situation with a credit card, but there's something about the mobile phone that makes it seem like even more of a trusted device.

Chances are that most restaurants will not be handing out bills with leather pouches for NFC-enabled handsets anytime soon, but wireless carriers, banks and credit card companies say the transition may be inevitable.
NXP Semiconductors business developer manager for near field communications Dave Holmes pointed out that NFC payments services via mobile phones are already popular in Japan.
Japan is well ahead of us in many areas of mobile commerce particularly in contactless mobile transactions space... but the business networks, business style, and business ecosystem is fundamentally different over there than it is here in the U.S.," Holmes said. "One difference in particular is that one carrier, [NTT] DoCoMo could invest in a bank, invest in a retailer and make that [mobile commerce] system work" all on its own, he said. "The U.S. market is far more complicated than that to make it work so easily."
Damien Balsan, a director of business development at Nokia explained the chief barrier to mobile financial services in the U.S.: "There's always this, I don't want to say 'fight,' but there's always thisÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ tension. It's so hard when you have banks making money on transaction fees and working so hard on the risk management and on the other hand you have the operators setting up their networks. It's so hard to get them to do some revenue sharing."
AT&T's director of mobile financial services Spencer White told former Sprint Nextel executive and now CEO of Mobilians, Prag Shah that he needs to be patient and take a lot of time to explain to carriers the value proposition of mobile financial services. Shah, however, does not think the technology cycles or the time it has taken to develop business models should take quite so long.

"I think one of the largest challenges is trying to bring down the cycle times," Shah explained. "The cycle time for both the chipsets and the handsets needs to come down since 18 to 24 month cycles are not uncommon. "Even though the space is heating up very quickly the technology cycles are long and figuring out the business cycles are long, too."
Shah later asserted that the barrier to market for mobile financial services "is not the technologyÃ¢â‚¬â€it is all about the business model."
James Anderson, MasterCard International's VP of product management, seemed to agree: "If I were king for a day, one thing I would do is lock my best issuing [financial services] customer and my best carrier customer in a dungeon and put them in chains and not let them out until they came to a deal," he said. "It might take three months." Ã¢â‚¬â€œBrian