My best and loving UK friend has already asked me several times if she should get an iPhone 5 (Q3 2012) or a Galaxy S3, which just rolled out this week here in Germany: Tricky! Android has countless applications but iPhone makes it easier for app-developers to concentrate on the only iOS obviously in town, which is not the case with the colorful and multifaceted Android community making it confusing for developers. Let’s bear in mind that iOS is and remains a closed community. The first iPhone ever sold in Germany was via “Deutsche Telekom”, a wannabe monopolistic non customer-oriented sort of retail-giant, who then took control of the Apple brand! Probably wiser to wait and see what the iPhone 5 is going to look like and then decide on the perfect fit for both private and professional use. Will RIM (BlackBerry) by then have woken up from its technological hibernating: Only time will tell. I covered 7 points in my last post so let’s dive right into it and explore some more trends for us to watch:
1. Mobile payment systems and loyalty programs are spreading like wild-fire!
Impossible to ignore Starbuck’s latest mobile sales-results recorded by Venture Beat: “Starbucks has reached 42 million payments processed using its mobile payment app, that impressive factoid is courtesy of Adam Brotman, Starbucks’ Chief Digital Officer. That’s up from 26 million transactions just four-month ago”. Starbucks released “mobile pay” in January 2011 only! The challenge for mobile remains in communicating coupons, offers and custom-made messages as prospects and customers enter the shopping outlet and not as they are paying and leaving it. Most likely Starbuck is secretly testing in its own lab and selected points of sales an NFC-based payment service right out of companies such as Google or Isis! Barclaycard launched m-payment stickers in the UK: it is the start of a mobile payment program called PayTag using an (Near Field Communication) NFC-enabled affixed to the back of a mobile device to make contactless payments at point of sale terminals! “It turns any mobile phone, even those without NFC capabilities, into a mobile payment device”. Gartner predicts significant mobile payment growth through 2016 from US$105.9 billion to $171.5 billion in 2012. Additionally users of mobile payments will grow from 160.5 million in 2011 to 212.2 million in 2012.
2. GPS navigation within your retail shopping area
This sounds crazy but folks it is already reality! US Grocery retail Meijer rolled out its “Find-It” app for both Android and iPhone! “Meijer find-it” app features a store map, shopping list, mPerks (Mobile Perks), coupons and sale items. Stores labeled with a Find-it icon also include product mapping and the ability to order your shopping list from the most efficient route throughout the store! It’s the fastest way to find a grocery item, the bottle return location or the ATM spot directly from your smartphone! Get more details at: mobile.meijer.com! In Grapevine, Texas Granbury Restaurant Solutions (GRS) is pleased to announce the new “Get it Quick” smartphone ordering application (iPhone & Android). Thanks to the App customers are now able to spot the closest restaurant via their smartphone integrated GPS while ordering on the go from their menu!
3. Gamification and the future of mobile commerce (mcommerce) and payments
Consumers like to be entertained and we all have to admit it is not pleasant to have to wait 15 minutes for your favorite latte at the next corner coffee shop! Rovio released its newest version of the “Angry Birds Space” game while teaming up with Wal-Mart who is offering “Angry Birds” fanatic players (application has been already downloaded more than 500 million times) the possibility to shop for game related items while uncovering clues and bonus content for the game! Rovio raised US$ 42 million in funding a few months ago! How about using Dwolla and saying goodbye to plastic cards, ATM fees, hidden charges and fine print. Dwolla empowers anyone with an internet connection to safely send money to friends or businesses!
4. Tablets (iPad) & Android phones overtaking our mobile communication world
According a recent presentation made by Mary Meeker from Kleiner Perkins Caufiled Byers (KPCB) Mary suggests that the iPad growth is 3 times the speed of iPhones to respectively reach 20 and 65 million within 8 quarters only. Android smartphones have gone even faster: 4x iPhone to reach + 250 million units compared to 50 million iPhones in 13 quarters! We now have a 953MM Smartphone subscriptions globally compared to the 6,1B Mobile Phone Subscriptions! 
Three years ago Mary Meeker suggests that around 2% of the US-population had an eReader compared to now 29% (January 2012).
5. Global Monetization and Advertising Revenue growing rapidly
According KPCB and Mary Meeker a US$ 0.7B of global mobile app and advertising revenues in 2008 compared to US$ 12B in 2011.
6. Libraries, Encyclopedia and Newspapers are becoming antiquated thanks to our Hyperlink society and digital wirearchy
10 years ago, Wikipedia was founded and has today 470MM monthly unique users! The consequence has been the closing down of Encyclopedia Britannica’s printed edition! What is going to happen to our libraries, our books? Will we have books 20 years from now? Is everything going to be digitalized and sent to the cloud: One of the biggest 21st century IT revolution ever to take place in this very day and age! According to KPCB Internet ad revenue has already overtaken newspaper add in 2010! Will we have newspaper to buy 10 years from now or will we all use a tablet (iPad) to keep up with the news coming right out of Apple and Google?
7. Technology is digital and the rest could rapidly become antiquated and absolete!
-Desktops and notebooks are being replaced by smartphones and tablets! -Telephone booths can be removed since more than 6B people have mobile devices -Traditional news are being replaced by Twitter-feeds and Facebook timelines -Traditional picture scrapbook has given place to Flickr, Instagram and Pinterest -What is going to happen to our CDs replaced by Lastfm & Spotify -Evernote has been already digitally replacing our traditional pencil and notebook -Maps and Traveling guides are already being replaced by GPS devices and digital maps -Kodak and traditional cameras have been ditched and replaced by digital cameras -Yellow-pages being replaced by Foursquare and services like Yelp
Next week, we shall look at the disruptive cloud computing trend facing our traditional and legacy centered IT operations
Bruno Gebarski
Bruno Gebarski 