Digital Lifescapes

The traditional point-of-sale (POS) terminal has traveled a remarkable journey since IBM's first mainframe-connected models emerged in the 1970s. What began as clunky screen interfaces tethered to distant computers has evolved into a diverse ecosystem of payment solutions. Today, we stand at the precipice of the most significant transformation yet: the rise of soft POS technology that promises to democratize digital payments for businesses of all sizes. At its core, this evolution reflects a broader shift from hardware dependency to software flexibility. Global POS Market Development With their dedicated terminals, fixed installations, and substantial upfront costs, traditional POS systems have long served as gatekeepers to in-store or mobile payment acceptance. Small businesses, micro-enterprises, and mobile retailers often found themselves locked out of the digital economy, forced to rely on cash transactions or make significant capital investments in POS hardware. Soft POS techn...

Today, securing all devices with mobile internet access has become an ever increasing concern. People want to be protected during their daily activities involving email access, online banking or simply browsing content. Meanwhile, corporate stakeholders are much more concerned about their organisational network integrity and business data protection. The number of employee owned smartphones and tablets used in the enterprise will exceed 1 billion by 2018, as the growing trend of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) redefines business connectivity, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research . This represents almost 35 percent of the total installed base of consumer owned tablets and smartphones. However, the Juniper study uncovered that there are a number of issues and implications that need to be addressed and a single policy or measure may not be sufficient while devising future BYOD strategies. Assessing the BYOD Pros and Cons The study found that while BYOD has th...

Mobile money services for the unbanked, popular in emerging markets, are showing both much faster adoption than m-wallets and related services addressing those with a bank account and a steeper revenue curve. According to the latest market study by Pyramid Research, mobile payments are becoming increasingly integrated into a broader range of mobile services. Furthermore, services such as marketing, advertising, loyalty cards, coupons and discounts are also becoming part of the broader mobile wallet. Mobile network operators in developed markets need to make a long-term commitment to the mobile payment opportunity and have access to large financial reserves to be able to reap long-term benefits. While adoption of NFC-capable mobile devices and readers is finally showing real growth, Pyramid believes that mobile network service providers still face major challenges in mobile contactless payments. The mobile commerce opportunity is becoming an increasingly attractive one, and oper...

Despite the surge in adoption of smartphones and media tablets over the past five years, until recently the projections of mobile commerce (m-commerce) growth had been overstated. But this past year appears to be an inflection point, with many people using their mobile devices for more advanced functions -- including digital commerce transactions. According to the latest market study by comScore, with m-commerce now accounting for about one out of every ten e-commerce dollars, it's time for retailers and marketers to start paying close attention to this platform shift -- so they can develop strategies to meet the evolving needs of their customers. comScore announced the availability of m-commerce sales estimates by product category occurring on both smartphones and tablets. This new capability aligns with comScore’s existing e-commerce sales estimates, enabling retailers, marketers, publishers and financial services companies to gain insight into the trends and market dynamic...

Machine to machine (M2M) applications growth continues on an upward trajectory. Cellular M2M connections are set to reach over 450 million by 2018, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Europe dragged down worldwide connection growth in 2011 and 2012 to the high teens, but with improving world economics connection growth will accelerate to a CAGR of 26 percent through 2018. However, recent connection growth has come in the face of declining connection ARPUs. "The market for M2M connections can be classified as very competitive to hyper-competitive depending on the country," said Dan Shey, practice director at ABI Research . As a result, connection ARPUs have declined dramatically over the last two years as operators fight for M2M business. Contributing to the pain of declining ARPUs has been slower than expected migration to 3G and 4G technologies which offer better margins per megabit of traffic. Over 70 percent of cellular M2M connections were on...

The value of mobile commerce transactions conducted via mobile handsets and tablets will exceed $3.2 trillion by 2017, that's up from $1.5 trillion this year -- according to the latest market study by Juniper Research. The increasing popularity of mobile devices for bill payment is reflected in the fact that the mobile banking sector accounts for the lion’s share of transaction values over the next five years. However, to put global mCommerce into context, total financial transactions in the U.S. market alone exceeded $4,400 trillion in 2012. Key Industry Sectors Embrace Mobile The study findings observed that a number of key industries -- retail, airline, financial institutions -- were emphasizing the importance of the mobile channel as an engagement, delivery and payment mechanism. Juniper cited the activities of Visa and MasterCard with regards to NFC certification and the airline industry’s wider eTicketing initiative as key developments in this regard. Furthermo...

The smartphone in your pocket is capable of many things -- including making payments to purchase tickets for use on public transportation, and a host of other useful applications for this emerging m-commerce technology. As consumer adoption of smartphones increases, usage of mobile devices to purchase goods and services has soared. The mobile phone user base, once cautious of using the technology, increasingly expects to be able to easily complete these transactions. Just over 950 million mobile phone users worldwide are expected to use their handsets for mobile ticketing by 2018 -- that's up from 458 million this year, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research. Growth is expected to be driven primarily within key transport verticals, although significant uptake is anticipated across other key sectors -- such as live entertainment events and cinema ticketing. Air, Metro Ticketing will Fuel New Growth Juniper analysts noted that the airline industry was a...

Mobile payments, performed via a device such as a smartphone, is clearly a fast growing sector of the global communications and retail-related marketplace. In the next two years many more consumers worldwide will be engaging in making mobile payments, according to the latest comprehensive market study by Portio Research . At the end of 2012, there were 480 million mobile payment users worldwide -- this number is expected to cross the 1 billion users mark by the end of 2015. Moreover, the figure is expected to continue increasing -- eventually reaching nearly 1.5 billion users by the end of 2017. Mobile payment volumes -- that's the total value of goods and services and utility bill payments made through mobile devices annually -- reached $81.3 billion worldwide in 2011. The growth rate enjoyed an increase of 148 percent over the course of 2012 -- to reach an estimated $202 billion. Worldwide, the market is set to grow to reach $410 billion this year, in 2013, and then v...

The essential components of the mobile Internet -- network, device and application -- are all undergoing changes, along with the ongoing evolution of mobile communication industry. Today, mobile devices increasingly meet various demands for communication, entertainment, learning, living, working, and access to innovative m-commerce applications. They also enhance people’s sense of hearing, sight and touch; expand the breadth and depth of communication; and speed up the transformation of people’s way of thinking, lifestyle and working style. These changes have directly contributed to the transformation of the mobile industry environment and ecosystem within China. Device manufacturers are gradually penetrating into the traditional business areas of content providers, virtual operators and integrated managed service providers. Internet companies are expanding their territory into operation and device manufacturing. Software enterprises are extending from traditional enterprise ap...

It's now forecast that a total of 1.95 billion near field communication (NFC) enabled devices will ship in 2017 -- a combination of both mobile handsets and consumer electronics (CE) Devices -- according to the latest market study by ABI Research. The majority of NFC enablement will continue to be focused in the mobile handset market, although ABI says that they are expecting a surge of NFC functionality included within CE products -- for simple pairing of devices, exchange of data, and online authentication functionality. In total, 395 million CE devices will ship in 2017, predominantly into media tablets, PC accessories, and gaming consoles. NFC inclusion into devices other than handsets shows market development and an understanding that NFC will be more than payments. Added value will be provided through the enablement of convenient online/offline authentication, retail and loyalty applications, reader functionality, AFC, and advertising as a host of value added opportun...

Although mobile network operators have relied mostly on connection fees to generate machine to machine (M2M) revenues; network connectivity and connection management revenues represent only 10 to 30 percent of the M2M value chain that's dependent upon communications carrier and geographic location. Value-Added Services (VAS) for application development, enablement, provisioning, management, and system integration are the bulk of the M2M services opportunity in this growing market that's set to reach $31 billion by 2016, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. "No one size fits all. Operator choices to capture the burgeoning M2M services market will be dependent not only on the value of their assets and VAS platforms, but also their partnerships and target market verticals," said Dan Shey, M2M practice director at ABI Research . For instance, connecting coffee vending machines to the internet may be a near term opportunity, but can it grow to a glob...

More and more people are willing to buy products and services online. According to the latest market study by eMarketer , U.S. mobile commerce sales -- including travel related services -- surged 91.4 percent to reach $6.7 billion in 2011. Ongoing growth is forecast to boost sales to $31 billion in 2015. The key market development trends are already in motion. Familiarity with using mobile shopping services via a smartphone -- plus an increasing number of retailers launching mobile optimized websites and apps -- will play an important role in driving additional m-commerce sales. "To keep up with consumer expectations, retailers are bolstering their mobile offerings," said Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer principal analyst. “Retailers were slow to react to consumer interest in mobile shopping. But now they are making great strides in launching mobile websites and apps." This accelerated momentum will help U.S. m-commerce related revenue grow at a compound annual rate of 5...

As the year comes to a close, most industry analysts are upbeat about the prospects for continued adoption of new mobile devices. However, some are more cautionary in their guidance. Juniper Research has compiled a list of their predictions for the top trends in the mobile and wireless communications industry during 2012. A free report detailing their market research study findings is available on their website. According to the latest Juniper assessment, there is a strong possibility that recessionary conditions will have an adverse impact on smartphone and media tablet sales -- particularly in the case of unsubsidized devices. Juniper's view is that, given the extent to which smartphones have already become a near must-have device, the impact here will be less significant than for tablets, where it may well reduce the extent to which these devices penetrate the wider market, notably across Western Europe. The effect will be most acutely felt in the premium media tablet s...

Americans are expected to hold back on their winter holiday shopping spend this year, because of rising prices for basic commodities such as food and utility services -- as well as their concerns about the overall economy. In fact, several pre-holiday surveys have already confirmed that shoppers intend to spend either the same or less on purchases during the 2011 holiday season, when compared to last year. That being said, the convenience and anticipated cost-savings from online shopping will likely bring more people on the web for the holidays -- spending a greater share of their gift budget with a variety of online retailers. eMarketer estimates that U.S. retail ecommerce holiday-season sales, which include all retail ecommerce sales during November and December, will rise by 16.8 percent this year to $46.7 billion. "This marks three years of strong online holiday sales and demonstrates the web’s ability to help consumers achieve their holiday gift buying goals i...

Recent findings from a survey of U.S. smartphone and tablet owners indicate that tablet ownership increases the frequency of mobile shopping, improves the purchase experience -- and makes people who own both devices use their smartphone more often. The study revealed that tablet ownership increases mobile purchase frequency, with owners of tablets (as well as smartphones) buying nearly twice as often as those who only have smartphones. Further, more than 40 percent of these “dual owners” made more than 20 mobile purchases over the past year. Nearly two-thirds of dual owners indicated higher overall spending due to their mobile purchasing activity. “Dual owners have the classic markings of early tech adopters, including skewing high-income and male,” says Todd Board, SVP of Ipsos OTX MediaCT . “That said, our study clearly suggests that owning both a smartphone and tablet can positively reinforce mobile shopping and spending habits.” “We are starting to see more retailers t...