In September, Starbucks launched an iPhone app that let users pay for their lattes using an on-phone barcode — a slick mobile payment app if there ever was one. But the number of stores accepting iPhone payments was very limited. This week, Starbucks extended the payment program to 1000 Target stores that house Starbucks locations, vastly expanding the program. As mobile operators like Verizon work to increase the ability for users to bill goods to their mobile phone bills, the mobile payment battle is just starting to heat up.
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Unfiltered
Frank discussion with telecom's most experienced editors
Sarah Reedy
Senior Editor
Sarah Reedy is senior editor responsible for a variety of coverage areas including mobile applications and services and competitive offering such as over-the-top video and Web 2.0 services.
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iPhone purchasing at Starbucks keeps Apple out front in mobile payments
Verizon’s V Cast app store grand opening
Verizon Wireless’ own application store, initially introduced last summer with a launch confirmed at CTIA, is set to open its doors this week. Dubbed V Cast Apps, the store is designed to give VZW a new way to monetize mobile apps that are billed directly on consumers’ phone bills. The carrier is rolling out V Cast Apps across a limited number of its smartphones, as a complement to its Brew strategy on feature phones. The first phone to come equipped with it will be the BlackBerry Storm, with several other Research In Motion devices coming soon. Other mobile operating systems and handsets should be next. On the Storm, V Cast Apps will be preloaded in lieu of RIM’s own BlackBerry App World storefront.
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WiMax smart-grid pilot comes to the U.S. — has WiMax found a niche?
GE today announced the first pilot program in the U.S. to run the smart grid over a WiMax network. GE said that the trial, being conducted by Michigan-based utility Consumer Energy, will have a number of benefits, including increased efficiency, more bandwidth, security, lower costs and the ability to react to potential outages before they occur. In another boon to WiMax in the U.S., GridNet, a smart-metering company that relies on the 4G technology, announced that Cisco has taken an equity investment in the company. Cisco made this investment in GridNet’s WiMax-focused business even though the company has been moving away from WiMax in other areas of its business, including base stations.
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AdMob: Android creeps up on Apple for mobile Web winners
AdMob’s Mobile Metrics report for February is in, and it’s easy to see which operating system is the breakout star. It’s Google’s Android, which may still be relatively small today but is quickly becoming the force to be reckoned with in the mobile Web. Smartphones, in general, are on the rise, accounting for 48% of the traffic on the AdMob network in February, up from only 35% last year. Feature-phone traffic in AdMob’s network declined from 58% to 35% year-over-year. Among the OSs, the iPhone captured 50% of all requests, up from 33% year-on-year. Android grew an impressive 22% to 24% market share in February. Meanwhile, shares of one-time market leader Symbian continued to fall. Symbian went from 43% market share in 2009 to only 18% a year later.
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Egypt’s ban on international mobile VoIP calls raises questions
Cheap voice over IP is making a significant dent in Telecom Egypt’s voice business. The state-owned telco posted its 2009 revenues last week, which included a 13% drop from the year prior. For Telecom Egypt, VoIP was the main culprit for its voice losses, so much so that Egypt banned mobile international calls made through VoIP for all three of its carriers. Apparently, under the new law, fixed VoIP calls are still permissible, but the ban does apply to the use of Skype over the mobile Web. Skype’s crying foul. Should regulators be able to make that decision?
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Google’s AdMob delivers more mobile advertising tools
Continuing its strong mobile focus, Google today said that AdMob, the mobile advertising company it acquired last year for $750 million, is rolling out new tools to support a to make money from advertising — rather than be routed around by third-party networks like AdMob.
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The (risky) race to build killer iPad apps
As we move toward the official release of the Apple iPad on April 3, Apple and developers are apparently in a rush to deliver iPad-enhanced applications to show off the power of the platform. The alternative, letting users run iPhone applications on a bigger screen, isn’t likely enough to convince users beyond Apple’s core fanboy base to plunk down cash for yet another computing device. The New York Times details the mad rush, noting that most developers are being forced to develop on software-based simulators, rather than on the device itself, which is being closely guarded by Apple until its formal release. That opens up the risk that those apps won’t run perfectly when installed on first-generation iPad hardware.
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Sliced up, mobile operators could see slim piece of online music pie
Music remains one of the killer apps online – and increasingly in the mobile sphere as well. The challenge is making the economics work. Pandora, which runs one of the original recommendation-based streaming online “radio stations,” and whose mobile apps are some of the most popular around, shared some business details that show a significant top line – but also the challenges in making money given current royalty structures. Pandora head Tim Westergren disclosed Pandora had 2009 revenues of $50 million, representing by his contention about 44% of the “Internet radio market.”
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AT&T goes green with bills, chargers
In moves seemingly timed to catch a little “green” glow for the company, AT&T this week announced a new paperless billing initiative – targeting 1 million new customers – as well as a new more energy efficient cell phone charger
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Apps trump CDs — but do we really need 38 app stores?
The momentum behind app stores shows no signs of slowing. A study this week from app store GetJar (actually fielded by Chetan Sharma Consulting) predicts the market for mobile apps growing to an astounding $17.5 billion in the next three years, overtaking the market value of music CDs predicted to be sold then ($13.83 billion). On a pure app level, the study predicts mobile app downloads to grow from seven billion in 2009 to almost 50 billion in 2012. Another take on the study emphasized the sheer number of app stores around these days, noting there are now 38 mobile app stores operating today – with more appearing every day.
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