Square Moves into Wallet Functions

Some of us would argue that there is an intimate connection between mobile payments and mobile wallet functions and business opportunities. Now Square, the mobile credit card acceptance system for iPhones and iPads, has moved into the credentials or wallet function as well.



https://squareup.com/cardcase

How Telcos Can Play in Apps

Neustar’s “Intelligent Cloud” is one answer to questions many will have about how applications can take advantage of mobile network features such as location, messaging and other features, without lots of grief. Instead of negotiating separate business deals with AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile USA, a developer can simply work with Neustar’s Intelligent Cloud, which itself handles all the details, and presents the developer with a simple API.

Another example is “BlueVia,” a developer platform offered by Telefonica. The whole idea is to offer an application programming interface (API) that essentially makes it easy for an application developer to incorporate mobile network features into a third party application.

How Telcos Can Play in Apps | Mobile Marketing and Technology

Google NFC Partner ViVOtech Raises $24 million

ViVOtech, the near field communication software and systems company, has raised $24 million in Series C funding from Singapore’s EDBI, SingTel Innov8, Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, Alloy Ventures, Citi Ventures (the venture arm of Citigroup), Draper Fisher Jurveston, DFJ Gotham, First Data Corporation, Miven Ventures, Motorola Mobility, Nokia Growth Partners and NCR. This brings ViVOtech’s total funding to $80 million.

ViVOtech has installed more than 800,000 NFC systems in 35 countries. The company’s readers are found in big-name retailers and stores such as McDonalds, Home Depot and Whole Foods as well is in taxi cabs.

Google NFC Partner ViVOtech Raises $24M

Access is the Biggest Digital Product

Of the $2 trillion consumers spent globally in 2010 on digital information and entertainment products and services, the largest spending segment (62 percent) was for communications subscription-based access and usage services, say analysts at Gartner.

The $1.2 trillion included mobile and wired voice services; mobile data services, such as testing and broadband; fixed broadband services; video services, such as subscriptions to pay TV; and online gaming.

The second-largest spending segment (28 percent) was for devices. The $600 billion is made up of consumer electronic devices, such as mobile/handheld devices, PCs and related devices, and stationary entertainment equipment, such as television sets and game consoles.

The smallest spending segment (10 percent) was for content and software for a total of $200 billion.

That is one perspective on digital goods. As significant as content and software sales might be, 90 percent of the money spent by consumers each year is on the appliances to get and use the content, and access to network services to deliver content.

Some people worry about (low margin) "dumb pipe" business models. The worry is genuine, but collectively, access services and device sales represent most of the economic activity.

Gartner Says Consumers On Track to Spend $2.1 Trillion Globally on Digital Information and Entertainment Products and Services in 2011

Hulu Has to Decide Whether to Sell

Hulu's owners are scrambling to figure out how to make money from a new generation of TV viewers who want to do some of their viewing online or on mobile devices, and also must now decide whether to sell the company, as Yahoo apparently has submitted a bid to buy Hulu. The decision will carry important strategic implications.

Right now, Hulu is a supplemental, "catch up" service that allows users to view recent TV episodes. But Hulu could also be the foundation for building a rival distribution platform that competes more directly with existing multi-channel video subscription services.

Sooner or later, that is likely to happen in any case, the fundamental issue being one of timing. But timing is everything when an industry faces changing end user demand in ways that will cannibalize the sizable existing business.

Hulu's Owners Weigh Cons of Possible Sale of the Site - WSJ.com (subscription required)

DoCoMo Begins Phone to Phone Payments Internationally

NTT DoCoMo announced the ability to make direct payments from a DoCoMo mobile phone to the numbers of foreign operators. The service will be available on i-mode compliant phones through the service "SMART Money," and the first foreign operator to act as a partner, will be the Philippine mobile operator PLDT (Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company).

MasterCard also is working with Smart Communications, the wireless arm of PLDT, to support mobile payments and transfers.

Just Another Mobile Phone Blog: DOCOMO began international mobile payments from phone to phone

Government, Individual Debt is a Worse Problem Than We Might Have Thought

Sometimes you have to admit you were wrong. I originally thought the past recession would unwind, leading to a new round of growth, on the pattern we almost always have seen in past recessions, whic is to say that, by now, we should be seeing much more robust job and gross domestic product growth.

I was wrong. This one is different. See this  or this. 

Of course, some will point to the 1970s "stagflation" as the model, where we have both higher inflation and stagnant economic growth. What might be different this time is the stunning role debt seems to be playing.

"Today, U.S. consumers have more mortgage and credit-card debt than they did five years ago, and the U.S. budget deficit is worsening," says the Wall Street Journal. "At the same time, European governments are having to throw billions more euros at Greece to keep it afloat."

One of the changes I notice is that I am, possibly for the first time, seeing acknowledgement across the political spectrum that the debt and deficits do really matter. True, there is some skepticism about public willingness to make the needed sacrifices. But possibly for the first time there is a common recognition that Greek style unrest could happen in the United States, and probably will, if one assumes that "spending less, much less" is a key part of what is required to remove the debt problem.

"The fundamental problem is that reversing the trend of piling on the debt requires some combination of cutting spending, growing income or the economy, and inflation," the Journal notes. On the job creation front, businesses aren't hiring or investing because they know consumers are unable to respond to the supply.

Some economists would argue that recovery from a specifically financial crisis takes about seven years, on average. Roughly half of the time, a financial crisis leads to a "double dip recession." Economist Gary Shilling says the next recession won't be a double dip; it will be a new recession. That comes in 2012. See this.

Government, Individual Debt Hamstrings Recovery - WSJ.com: (subscription required)