Mobile Commerce News Weekly - Week of January 30, 2012

The Mobile Commerce News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking and mobile security that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

MasterCard is running an NFC pilot program at movie theaters in Australia that lets consumers pay for food and drink items via their mobile devices. Read Original Content

According to Gordon Borrel, advertising budgets earmarked for the desktop Web will shift to mobile in the next five years, propelling U.S. local mobile ad revenue to shoot up from about $2 billion this year to about $24 billion by 2016. Read Original Content

In December, sales stemming from smartphones and tablets accounted for 11 percent of total online sales, up from 5.5 percent in December 2010, according to IBM. Read Original Content

Tech Endeavour structures a mobile application as a multi-layered application consisting of user experience, business, and data layers. The mobile application development process starts with definition of the mobile application, understanding key components, learning scenarios where it will be used, learning key patterns and technology considerations as well as identifying specific scenarios such as deployment, power usage and synchronization.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Tech Endeavour, http://www.techendeavour.com/.

During 2012, eBay predicts it will make $8 billion globally in mobile gross merchandise volume, up 60 percent from $5 billion in 2011. Read Original Content

Mobile Strategies and Situational Awareness

Robert L. Bateman, author of the book, Digital War, A View from the Front Lines writes, "Situational awareness allows us to replace the wastefulness of mass operations with the extreme economy of precision operations."  If you know where all of your resources are located and their availability to be used, it becomes much simpler to manage an efficient precision operation.

Throughout military history some of the biggest challenges for commanders was finding both the location of their enemy, and the locations of their own armies (not to mention supplies).  This resulted in huge inefficiencies due to the need to spread armies over large areas as a defense against the unknown location of an opponent.  In addition, once a battle began, it was nearly impossible to accurately see and track events in real-time due to the "fog-of-war."

In many ways, a similar challenge exists today inside many enterprises.  It is often the case that companies will purchase equipment, parts, supplies and materials and warehouse them in many different locations simply because they cannot effectively monitor, track or deliver them in real-time at the point-of-need.  As a result of this challenge, there are over-inflated and inefficient levels of inventories and assets (and often workforces) that result in poor cash management.

The same challenge can also arise when an ERP does not effectively track the use of workforces and skills.  I read a case study involving PG&E where they were inefficiently managing their assets and workforce across many different regional offices.  They solved this problem, in part, by consolidating dispatch offices and deploying a real-time and dynamic scheduling system.  This provided them with far greater visibility into the current work performed by each crew alongside a clear view of the future work on the schedule.  Here is how they described their improvements:
  • Management centralized control over the scheduling of field crews to help ensure usage goals were met.
  • Accurate measurement of current-week crew utilization rates, as well as projected utilization rates for future weeks.
  • Flexibility for management to move crews among service regions to ensure customers receive gas and electric services efficiently and effectively.
  • Consolidation of scheduling staff from having dispatchers at sixty-seven offices down to having dispatchers at just two offices.
In my Enterprise Mobility Survey 2011 Report (available free hereI found that 42.6% of survey respondents identified "improved visibility and accountability" as motivations for deploying mobile applications to their mobile workforce.  In addition, 34.7% identified "improved employee interactions and collaboration," as motivations.

All of these steps and solutions are dependent on mobile strategies and enterprise mobile technologies to provide managers with situational awareness.   Here is more from author Robert L. Bateman, "Situational awareness is the most revolutionary technology in the history of warfare.  Situational awareness can lead to a tenfold increase in velocity.  Situation awareness involves being aware of what is happening in the vicinity to understand how information, events, and one's own actions will impact goals and objectives, both immediately and in the near future."  Bateman even converted this concept into a physics formula, "operational and tactical speed contribute to a force being out of proportion to the mass at any given location."

Situational awareness can even impact the way we manage people.  Here is a excerpt from the U.S. Army publication, Battle Command, “Technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we command in battle by becoming the tool that will allow the commander to move freely about the battlefield to where he can best influence the action without separating himself from his staff and other sources of information, communications and control.”  It is also true within the enterprise.  If you can manage your company, resources, workforce, projects and business from an iPad, then you are no longer restricted to the cubicle or corner office.

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobility Charts Weekly - Week of January 30, 2012


The Mobility Charts Weekly is a weekly publication of charts depicting the current and future status of the enterprise mobility market.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.



Thanks to the rapid growth in active smart mobile devices worldwide from an estimated 509 million last year to an estimated 914 million in 2012, Google’s mobile ad revenues are expected to more than double from an estimated $2.5 billion last year to $5.8 billion in 2012. Read Original Content



Good Technology published a study on the mobile device market comparing iOS devices to Android Devices. The study found that iOS products continue to dominate the market, representing the most popular device being used. Read Original Content



Driven by strong demand for mobile electronic payment and other compelling applications, shipments of cell phones equipped with near field communication technology are set to rise to 544.7 million units in 2015, up nearly tenfold from 56.2 million in 2010, according to IHS. Read Original Content


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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Field Mobility News Weekly - Week of January 30, 2012


The Field Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to field mobility that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

Group Mobile has declared Panasonic’s Toughbook 31 to be the “best rugged computer” of 2011. In making this selection, Group Mobile's experts took price, processor, battery life, wireless options, media bay options, display brightness, and the ability to withstand harsh environments into consideration. Read Original Content

Motion has developed a tablet device that helps smart grid companies improves efficiency by 75 percent. Read Original Content

Swiss waste management and material transportation company Challande et Fils is tracking the locations of its containers and waste bins as they are deposited at construction sites and other locations, using RFID tags on the bins, as well as readers on trucks to transmit GPS location data, along with each tag's unique ID number. Read Original Content

Since 1995, Syclo has enabled hundreds of companies in 37 countries and industries supercharge their businesses with mobility.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Syclo. http://www.syclo.com/.

Oracle has introduced new Utilities Mobile Workforce Management 2.1 and Utilities Mobile Workforce Analytics, which help utility companies improve field service efficiency, customer service and system reliability. Read Original Content

Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly – Week of January 23, 2011

Welcome to Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly, an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility in Asia.  Asia is predicted to be the fastest area of growth for enterprise mobility between now and 2016.

Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

India tops the charts for mobile advertising, according to Buzz City’s latest quarterly report, serving over 32 billion ads in 2011.  Mobile ads have grown 139 percent, with more than 126 billion ads served in 2011, compared with 52 billion in 2010. Read Original Content

Juniper Research predicts that the number of mobile banking users will reach 530 million by 2013, with the developed markets of North America, Western Europe and the Far East & China having the highest penetration of users in 2016. Read Original Content

Mobile connections in China are approaching 1 billion, with 973.7 million connections at the end of 2011, with 3G accounting for 80 percent of the new connections.  “Last year Apple said that China was its second most important market after the US, accounting for 16 percent of its total revenue in fourth quarter 2011.” Read Original Content

The enterprise mobility landscape is growing in India, states Sunil Gupta of Symphony Services in an interview with CIOL.  “We are expecting that in 2012-13, 15-20 percent of our revenues will be coming from enterprise mobility alone.” Read Original Content


India is the second largest and one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world.  “It is time for SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises) in India, to consider M-commerce options.  M-commerce in India is in its initial stage, but it is showing signs of a healthy rate of growth.”  Worldwide, of the 4 billion cell phones, 1.08 billion are smart phones and over 50 percent of local searches are now done on mobile devices. Read Original Content

What's New in HTML5, Week of January 30, 2012


Each week I conduct market research on HTML5 that includes news, quotes, market growth and developments around HTML5 and share the more interesting ones here with you.  I hope you find it useful. 

Authoring and publishing tool company Doc-To-Help is now using HTML5 to turn any content into a self-contained website designed for mobile devices.  The mobile HTML5-based output offers complete navigation, table of contents, index, and multi-touch (i.e. swipe and pinch) support.

Digital Wallet provider, Skrill, launched a Quick Checkout Enterprise payment suite extension which allows credit cards to be processed more directly by using a new payment gateway with HTML5, which is designed to support smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.

Mapquest has launched a new HTML5-based mobile browser solution targeted at users of Android and iPhones.

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Webinar of Note:  HTML 5 vs Native Mobile App Development: Practical Insights, The VDC Research Report on Mobile Development Strategy.  February 2, 1 PM EST  Register Here!
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FeedHenry, the developer of cloud-based mobile application solutions, launched an enterprise mobility solution that allows developers to build HTML5, JavaScript and hybrid apps with a fully integrated Node.js backend-as-a-service.  In the FeedHenry studio, developers can now build highly complex and visually stunning mobile apps using HTML5 and JavaScript that will run as native apps on all major smartphones and tablet devices.”

Digital media platform provider Polar Mobile is planning a new product line, MediaEverywhere, which will be an HTML5-based content distribution solution for smartphones, tablets and desktops.

Social audio publishing platform SoundCloud has joined the movement to dump Flash in favor of HTML5, claiming the conversion to an HTML5 embeddable player is “a necessary move, assuming it wants to have a future on the web”.



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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Enterprise Mobility - A Business or IT Strategy?

In my Enterprise Mobility Survey 2011 (September 2011) I asked survey respondents the following question, "How important do you view enterprise mobility to your company's future success?"  80% said enterprise mobility was "very important" (36%) to "critical"(44%) to their company's future success.  With these numbers it seems mobility is an area worthy of significant brain energy.

Another survey question on the same survey asked, "What are your company's motivations for wanting to deploy mobile apps?"  Here are some of the answers:

  • 79.1% said increase productivity
  • 48.6% said improve customer interaction and service
  • 43.4% said reduce costs
  • 41.7% said achieve competitive advantages

The results of this survey clearly highlight how important enterprise mobility solutions are to a company's business.  However, some companies are still treating enterprise mobility as if it were an IT issue.  That is simply wrong thinking.  Who makes competitive advantages, customer service, productivity and cost reductions the responsibility of the IT department?

I meet with large enterprises either via phone or in person weekly.  Finding good mobile technologies are no longer the main challenge.  The biggest challenge in enterprise mobility today is getting the business to understand what is possible with mobile technologies and designing a business plan to take advantage of it.

First, the business must understand mobility so they can identify how their business models, strategies and processes can be improved by using mobile technologies.  Once the business has identified what they want to accomplish using mobile technologies, then it is time for the IT department or third-party experts to identify the mobile technologies, frameworks and infrastructures necessary to achieve the business' goals.


***Upcoming Webinar of Note:  HTML 5 vs Native Mobile App Development: Practical Insights, The VDC Research Report on Mobile Development Strategy.  February 2, 1 PM EST  Register Here!


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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Video Series: Zenware's Jody Sedrick

I had the honor of being invited to be the keynote speaker at the annual conference of the Idaho Business League yesterday.  It is a rare time that I get to attend an event close to home.  The conference was packed, and we had a great time together discussing enterprise mobility and what it means to the businesses of Idaho.

While attending the conference, I met up with Jody Sedrick, one of the founders of Zenware.  Zenware develops cloud based mobile applications that are integrated with Quickbooks, a huge market!  This video is an interview that I did with Mr. Sedrick.




Upcoming Webinar of Note:  HTML 5 vs Native Mobile App Development: Practical Insights, The VDC Research Report on Mobile Development Strategy. February 2, 1 PM EST  Register Here!

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

M2M News Weekly - Week of January 23, 2012

Welcome to M2M News Weekly, an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to M2M (machine to machine) and embedded mobile devices.  I aggregate the information, include the original links and add a synopsis of each article.  I also search for the latest market numbers such as market size, growth and trends in and around the M2M market.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

The cellular M2M connectivity service market grew 26.2 percent in 2011, rising from 87.7 million cumulative connections in 2010 to 110.6 million cumulative connections globally in 2011. Read Original Content

Japan's Tokyo Electric Power plans to install 17 million smart meters in customer households by March 2019 in a bid to increase efficiency. The total investment is expected to be $2.6 billion. Read Original Content

Service enablement services are set to become a driver in the M2M market and achieve a total market value of $2.2 billion worldwide by 2014, up from $350 million in 2011 according to the latest study by Beecham Research. Read Original Content

ClickSoftware is an SAP mobility partner and the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by ClickSoftware - http://www.clicksoftware.com/.

Mobile Health News Weekly - Week of January 23, 2012


The Mobile Health News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to medical mobility that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

The mHealth market earned revenues of $230 million in 2010 and is estimated to reach $392 million in 2015, according to a new report from research firm Frost & Sullivan. Read Original Content

Market research company Juniper Research estimates that 142 million m-health apps will be downloaded globally by 2016. Read Original Content

Research firm NPD Group reports that tablets will be a fixture in many doctors' offices in 2012. Nearly 75 percent of small and midsize medical practices plan to buy tablets over the next year, according to a recent survey by the company. Read Original Content

Webalo technology eliminates the need for traditional mobile application development tools and custom programming to provide in hours, instead of weeks or months, mobile access to the specific enterprise data and functions that smartphone and tablet users rely on to do their jobs.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Webalo, www.webalo.com.

The study, Global Telemedicine Market Analysis, anticipates that the global telemedicine market is forecast to grow at a compound rate of around 19 percent per year during 2010 to 2015. The telemedicine market was worth $9.8 billion in 2010. Read Original Content

Mobility News Weekly - Week of January 23, 2012


The Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

Nielsen says that 44.5 percent of consumers who purchased a smartphone in the last three months bought an iPhone. That number stood at 25.1 percent in the three months prior to the October launch of the iPhone 4S. Read Original Content

iTunes U provides access to lectures, course material, presentations and more from top universities. Today, iTunes U is offering over 500,000 free lectures, videos, and books from institutions across 26 countries and has reached over 700 million downloads.  Read Original Content

Apple introduced iBooks 2, a textbook platform that effectively transforms $200 textbooks into iPad apps at a much more reasonable price. Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are responsible for 90 percent of the textbooks sold.  Read Original Content

ClickSoftware is an SAP mobility partner and the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by ClickSoftware - http://www.clicksoftware.com/.

Apple reported record-breaking net profits for the months of October, November, and December of $13.06 billion (£8.36 billion), up 118 percebt from the same period in 2010.  Read Original Content

U.S. Post Office and Mobile Applications

I received a very interesting note in my post office box yesterday.  Seems the USPS (United States Postal Service) has a new service called "Real Mail Notification."  This service will send you a text message if you receive mail in your post office box.  According to the USPS, "Your time is valuable, and now you'll know when mail has arrived."

This is a great example of how mobile solutions can save time and money and increase productivity.  I only get mail a couple of times a week in my PO box, but I drive in nearly every day to check it.  This costs me time, money, fuel, increased vehicle maintenance and lost opportunity costs.  A simple thing like a text message notification can make a difference, especially if a company has 50,000 employees and fleets of vehicles.

When companies are pondering mobile strategies, it does not need to be an all or nothing effort.  There are dozens of very simple and relatively inexpensive ways mobile solutions can start making a big difference.

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Marketing News Weekly - Week of January 23, 2012


The Mobile Marketing News Weekly is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile marketing that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

According to a report from Gartner, the worldwide market for mobile advertising is expected to grow from $1.8 billion in 2011 to $13.5 billion in 2015, roughly a 65% growth rate. Read Original Content

Thanks to the rapid growth in worldwide smartphones from an estimated 509 million last year to an estimated 914 million in 2012, Google’s mobile ad revenues are expected to more than double from an estimated $2.5 billion last year to $5.8 billion in 2012. Read Original Content

The total value of the global mobile marketing and advertising market is expected to grow from €2.6 billion in 2010 at a compound annual growth rate of 37% to €17.2 billion in 2016. Read Original Content

Verivo Mobile provides an agile, powerful, and secure mobile enterprise application platform.  It enables rapid cross-platform application development, unlimited data integration, enterprise-grade security, and the unique ability to change and update applications in real time.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo Mobile, http://verivo.com/

Groupon and Deutsche Telekom have announced that they have formed a partnership in Europe. The Financial Times Deutschland reported that Groupon is looking to make an extra €2 to €3 billion in revenue from this agreement by 2015. Read Original Content

Mobility Charts Weekly - Week of January 23, 2012


The Mobility Charts Weekly is a weekly publication of charts depicting the current and future status of the enterprise mobility market.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.



According to Research2guidance, the global revenues of m-health mobile applications rose from $100 million to $700 million between 2010 and 2011. This reflects the increasing need for consumers to use mobile devices to help manage their daily health.  Read Original Content



From the beginning of the iPhone development, iPhone and BlackBerry devices have remained relatively close in units sold during the first few years. In September 2010, however, Apple began to quickly surpass RIM in units sold. As of September 2011 Apple was selling 10 million more units per quarter than RIM. Read Original Content



According to the Pew Research Center, 10% of Americans owned a tablet device before Christmas of 2011 and 19% owned a tablet device after the holiday. Techfever suspects that much of that 9% increase is related to the large number of Kindle devices sold during the holidays. Read Original Content


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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Read The M2M News Monthly

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Strategies, PIOs, Optimized Intersections and Patterns of Life, Part 2

In Part 1 of this article, we discussed PIOs (performance impact objects) and "optimized intersections" as they relate to mobile technologies and the mobile workforces  Here in Part 2 we are going to discuss "patterns of life" capabilities and how they relate to business analytics and decision making.

In the intelligence community, patterns of life refers to the study or analysis of the patterns observed in a person's or object's life. For example, a building may be observed over time through the camera of a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) and people can be seen entering and leaving the building at particular times.  The people leaving the building drive specific vehicles and come and go from specific locations.  Over the course of a month or longer, patterns and participants can become clear and this offers valuable information to the analyst.


A company does not require a UAV to be able to observe "patterns of life."  GPS and workforce tracking solutions, customer behaviors, data capture technologies and smartphones enable you, over a period of time to observe the patterns of life of your workforce, vehicles, equipment and customers.  Here is a list of pattern of life examples:

  • Hours equipment is in operation, moving and sitting idle.
  • Workforce driving habits.
  • Time of day that customers want deliveries.
  • Route speeds between delivery points at different times of the day
  • Locations where company vehicles refuel.
  • Places where service technicians purchase parts, materials and supplies.
  • Driving time vs. billable work time.
  • Ideal locations for company warehouses, suppliers and sales offices based upon proximity to work and customers. 

Once this data is collected and analyzed, patters of life can emerge that were never before recognized.  The next step is to represent these patterns on a map.  Barry Barlow, a Director at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) says, "If you go into any operations center today you will see people using a Google Earth representation of what’s going on in the world."  Just seeing the patterns and activities visually represented is powerful.

Patterns of Life only emerge if you have visibility into operations in the field.  This data is most often collected through GPS vehicle and equipment tracking, and mobile device data collection.



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KevinThis ThisThiddddd Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Commerce News Weekly - Week of January 23, 2012

The Mobile Commerce News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking and mobile security that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

Nearly $55 billion in international remittances will be enabled via mobile devices by 2016, according to Juniper Research. In 2011 that number is estimated to be under $12 billion. Read Original Content

Juniper Research is forecasting that global mobile payments will generate transactions worth over $600 billion by 2013. Read Original Content

Visa Europe is anticipating a big year for contactless and NFC payments, with issuance projected to leap from 30 million in 2011 to 50 million in 2012. Read Original Content

Tech Endeavour structures a mobile application as a multi-layered application consisting of user experience, business, and data layers. The mobile application development process starts with definition of the mobile application, understanding key components, learning scenarios where it will be used, learning key patterns and technology considerations as well as identifying specific scenarios such as deployment, power usage and synchronization.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Tech Endeavour, http://www.techendeavour.com/.

Click Here!
Juniper Research reports that 230 million people will embrace mobile banking within a two-year period. Read Original Content

Syclo and IBM's Maximo for Enterprise Asset Management

Many people know Syclo as a mobility partner of SAP, particularly in the EAM (enterprise asset management) space, but did you know they also work with IBM's Maximo in the EAM space?  I was reading today about Syclo's Smart Work Manager version 7.5 for Maximo.  Here is a list of some of the supported features and capabilities:


PSION's Durable Enterprise PDA
EP10
Work Orders
Location
Short/long description
Priority and status
Field generated work requests
Data Capture
Time/attendance
Parts and material used
Failure codes
Plans and Histories
Job plans
Safety plans
Equipment work order history
Advanced Functions
E-validation and E-signature
GPS, GIS enabled
Assignment Manager

An area of particular interest to me was the workflow description in Syclo's press release, "...your technicians are guided through intuitive, action-driven workflow to ensure they capture all relevant information - including work performed, failure codes, parts used, and more."  The ability to guide your workforce through specific tasks, in remote locations, using mobile apps is becoming increasingly important, especially in utilities where they are losing many of their most experienced workers due to retirement.

Enterprise asset management is one of those areas that many solutions come together.  A mobile EAM system can include:

  • Work orders (field service management)
  • Time and attendance (HR and payroll)
  • Parts and material used (inventory levels, suppliers, re-order, etc.)
  • Safety plans (worker safety and compliance) 
  • GIS/GPS tracking
  • etc.
Most mission critical mobility solutions, that offer competitive advantages, are not just one mobile app connected to one backend system.  It is a mobile app connected to many backend systems in unique combinations.


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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Field Services News Weekly - Week of January 23, 2012


The Field Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to field mobility that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

The Danish Agriculture & Food Council's Pig Research Center is reviewing the results of a three-year pilot that tested ultrahigh-frequency RFID technology to track pigs from a few weeks after they are born until they are sold or received at a slaughterhouse. Read Original Content

At the Consumer Electronics Show Panasonic unveiled two new Toughpad rugged tablets that are designed to fit the needs of workers it extreme environments. Read Original Content

eProvenance, a Near Field Communication system for monitoring the temperature of cases of wine, is now in use by major producers to ensure the quality of their wine during shipment and storage. Read Original Content

Since 1995, Syclo has enabled hundreds of companies in 37 countries and industries supercharge their businesses with mobility.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Syclo. http://www.syclo.com/.

Wireless systems provider In Motion Technology is partnering with Clevest Solutions to offer what they call the "most integrated mobile workforce management and smart grid deployment system in the utility industry." Read Original Content

What's New in HTML5 Week of January 23rd

Each week I conduct market research on HTML5 that includes news, quotes, market growth and developments around HTML5 and share the more interesting ones here with you.  I hope you find it useful.

A new survey from Evans Data shows that 43 percent of developers in North America and 58% in the Asia Pacific region are using HTML5.  The trend is expected to grow even further in 2012. Read Original Content

CEO of web framework and tool provider Sencha, Michael Mullany, states “Looking at the phenomenal rise of HTML5 as the next industry standard for Web development, it's clear that 2011 has been a transformational year for this powerful set of Web technologies.” Read Original Content



Cross-platform app framework service Trigger (https://trigger.io/) announced a new mobile development framework designed for web developers who wish to develop native mobile apps.  Co-founder and CEO Amir Nathoo states “Demand for mobile apps, both native and mobile web, is exploding and web developers are looking for ways to benefit from this shift.” Read Original Content

Web-based streaming music service Grooveshark is now available as an HTML5 app which runs in a web browser and is optimized for mobile devices.  Read Original Content

According to a January 16, 2012 article by Chris Wright, Silverlight’s future with SharePoint seems grim, with HTML5 stepping in as a replacement.  “Microsoft seems to be making a strategic decision to back HTML5 for web and app-style development. Windows 8 is using HTML5 as its application platform, so it seems likely that the next version of SharePoint will fall in line with this vision.” Read, “Do SharePoint and Silverlight Have a Future Together.”

"HTML5 is well on its way to fame and fortune, but it’s too early to declare a complete HTML5 victory over Flash video, as Flash still dominates on streaming web services."  This comprehensive article lists the benefits and limitations of HTML5 for use with video. Read Original Content

Kindle Publisher Tools with Kindle Format 8 (KF8) offers new features, including HTML5 support for publishers.  Details are on Amazon's website.  Read Original Content  

HTML5 Forms – Two articles of note:
  1. What's New in HTML5 Forms: The Datalist Control”  
  2. HTML5 Forms: How To Use The New Email, URL, and Telephone Input Types” 


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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Strategies, PIOs, Optimized Intersections and Patterns of Life, Part 1

Several weeks ago I introduced, in an article on this site, the concepts of PIOs (performance impact objects) and PIVs (performance impact variables) and their role in managing a mobile workforce.  Today, I want to expand upon the concept of PIOs and introduce two additional concepts, 1) optimized intersections, and 2) an emerging concept from the intelligence community called "patterns of life." We will then explore how these can be useful to an enterprise seeking to maximize efficiencies and the value of their enterprise mobility solutions.
Click to enlarge

Let's first review some examples of PIOs.

People
Parts/Supplies/Materials
Tools
Job/work locations
Equipment
Transportation
Vendors
Subcontractors
Jobsite access
Permits/Approvals

For any particular job, the required PIOs must all come together at the right time and place (read 4D Field Services) in order to optimize your productivity and efficiencies (see image).  The optimized intersection is where all of these items come together in the most optimal manner.

To optimize your productivity, you can employ enterprise mobility solutions, GPS tracking devices, M2M solutions, real-time business intelligence and shared dynamic schedules that will continually estimate the "optimized intersection" for each job.


One of the challenges with implementing these kinds of "real-time" capabilities is that they often involve third parties.  Most often you do not have full control of the technology solutions that your vendors, suppliers and subcontractors use.  So how does an enterprise actually implement this strategy?

Utilizing HTML5 mobile applications on smartphones with GPS tracking and date and time capturing capabilities are a big step in the right direction.  Integrate these HTML5 apps with your "optimized intersection" and dynamic scheduling capabilities and you are making big progress.

Why HTML5?  Pure HTML5 mobile apps will allow you to support the widest number of mobile devices in the most efficient manner possible.  Especially if you want your third party subcontractors and vendors to use your mobile apps on their smartphones so they can participate in your "optimized intersection" solution.

In Part 2 of this article we introduce the concept of "patterns of life" and how it relates to enterprise mobility.

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

M2M News Weekly - Week of January 16th

Welcome to M2M News Weekly, an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to M2M (machine to machine) and embedded mobile devices.  I aggregate the information, include the original links and add a synopsis of each article.  I also search for the latest market numbers such as market size, growth and trends in and around the M2M market.


Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly


According to ABI Research, smart energy is one of the top two market segments for cellular M2M, the other being automotive telematics. The market for smart energy will represent more than $7.5 billion in 2016 according to ABI. Read Original Content

The market for cumulative cellular M2M connections will rise from about 110 million connections in 2011 to approximately 365 million connections by 2016. This represents a compounded annual growth rate of roughly 27% through 2016 and about $35 billion in connectivity services revenue. Read Original Content

According to Zpryme’s, the total Smart Grid Communications market is slated to experience strong market growth through 2015, projected to reach nearly $1.6 Billion. Read Original Content

ClickSoftware is an SAP mobility partner and the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by ClickSoftware - http://www.clicksoftware.com/.

The smart grid is on pace to hit a $2 trillion cumulative investment between 2010 and 2030, according to a new study from UK research firm Memoori. The firm estimates the sector will need to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 23% to hit that mark, peaking at $155 billion in 2022. Read Original Content

Mobile Health News Weekly - Week of January 16, 2012

The Mobile Health News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to medical mobility that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

The mHealth market earned revenues of $230 million in 2010 and is estimated to reach $392 million in 2015, according to a new report from research firm Frost & Sullivan. Read Original Content

According to recent predictions from Global Information Inc., the mobile health applications market is presently worth $718 million. Read Original Content

New research from Frost & Sullivan predicts that remote patient monitoring will continue to play a significant role in transforming healthcare. The research shows the remote patient monitoring market rising to $294.9 million by 2015. Read Original Content

Webalo technology eliminates the need for traditional mobile application development tools and custom programming to provide in hours, instead of weeks or months, mobile access to the specific enterprise data and functions that smartphone and tablet users rely on to do their jobs.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Webalo, www.webalo.com.

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At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Sprint and remote-monitoring device manufacturer Ideal Life are exhibiting a cellular device called the Pod to help consumers manage chronic conditions such as diabetes or hypertension remotely at home. Read Original Content

Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly – Week of January 16, 2011

Asia is predicted to be the fastest area of growth for enterprise mobility between now and 2016, so I am now tracking developments in this market on a weekly basis and publishing my research here.

Standard Chartered Bank - India has provided 12,000 iPhones to employees across 70 countries, replacing some 8,000 BlackBerry devices, and has developed a range of custom-built apps to streamline internal processes. “Our increasing usage of, and dependence on smartphones allows our employees to utilize a wide array of applications anywhere and at anytime,” reports Matthew Norris, CIO, Standard Chartered Bank - India. 


“The world is becoming more social. Just as e-business changed business forever, now, 10 years later we find ourselves at another junction: the coming of age for Social Business—as social computing, policies, governance and cultures are integrated into enterprise design. The explosion of mobile devices and new Cloud delivery models has paved a unique way for industries to take step further in transforming the era of Social Business,” predicts James Velasquez, Country Manager, IBM Philippines.


“At present about 7-8 percent of any corporate workforce is given phones by the employers. We see this increasing as more and more corporates replace laptops with smartphones,” says Suresh Vedula, Director, Enterprise Mobility, Nokia India.


According to a study by International Data Corporation (IDC), mobile workers will be over 37% of the total workforce by 2015.  The largest growth is forecast for Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), from 601.7 million in 2010 to 838.7 million mobile workers in 2015.







Mobile payment solutions provider Trunkbow International Holdings Limited announced on January 10, 2012 a partnership has been formed with China’s bankcard association China UnionPay to develop a new mobile payment applet.


All Deals Asia launched an iPhone app in early January, 2012, and is working with e-commerce and discount sites to become an aggregate deal site in the Asia Pacific Region.


Online shopping in India is growing, with one report showing an 18 percent increase in the past year, and the growth is expected to continue.


According to a report by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), one-third of the mobile users in India use data and internet services via their mobile devices.





*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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