Mobile Groove

Mobile has completely transformed how we shop. Or has it? While retailers struggle to win back the turf they have lost to price comparison apps and schemes that turned their shops into showrooms for rival retailers and Amazon, the 900-pound gorilla of mobile commerce, recent research shows the battle is far from lost. In fact, it’s just beginning, and retailers that arm themselves with insights into the new and complex customer segment known as the ‘mobile shopper’ can benefi…

At M-Pulse it’s a month dedicated to mobile developer issues and we talk mobile app business basics opportunities with Ray Anderson, co-founder and CEO of Bango, a U.K.-based billing and analytics company that enables mobile developers to collect money for their apps.

But it’s not just about providing a platform that makes it possible for mobile app developers to sell apps and collect payments using carrier billing. Bango has cleverly inserted itself at the center of the burgeoning App Economy, collecting data and insights (about how users pay and how they prefer to be treated when they make their next purchase). It’s a stockpile of anonymized data that allows app

Did Amazon’s Kindle Fire cost Apple some holiday iPad sales? Only Amazon knows. However, reports coming in over the last days indicate that Kindle Fire sales outpaced most analysts’ forecasts. What’s more, the new tablets device is seeing ad impressions grow at an average double-digit daily rate since its launch in the U.S. market in November, a data point that could mean the imminent release of the Kindle Fire in Europe could do more than burn up iPad sales. It may mark a seismic shift in how brands and sellers approach marketing in the mobile channel.

A raft of recent developments supports the observation that this device is indeed a game-changer, starting with buoyant sales numbers that have exceeded everyone’s expectations. Barclays analyst Anthony DiClemente (via All Things Digital) has upped his original estimate of 4.5 million units sold last quarter to 5.5 million. Piper Jaffray is convinced Amazon is on track to sell 10-12 million Kindle devices (Kindle and Kindle Fire), up from the initial estimate of 9 million units. Meanwhile, analyst Tavis McCourt at Morgan Keegan has downgraded his iPad sales forecasts for the quarter from 16 million units to 13 million. (Again, sales lost to Kindle Fire.)

In brief: Building on the tremendous positive response to a recent talk on app marketing I catch up with Mike Lurye, Director of Product Marketing at Amdocs Interactive, to connect the dots in the models that will enable a developer/retailer ecosystem, pave the way for a Long Tail of app

Mobile 2D barcode scanning is paving the way for a range of exciting and lucrative schemes hyperlinking our physical world of things (all objects including product packaging, printed media, TV, billboards, equipment – the works!) with a digital world or websites and destinations filled with information, advertising, applications downloads, coupons, processes and special offers.

The last weeks have seen a slew of announcements in this space, heralding a new phase in market development, new thinking about the business models (particularly the value to the enterprise) and new urgency in the race among companies across the emerging business ecosystem to get barcode strategies in place – fast (!).

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This week the Carnival of the Mobilists (COM) brings the best of mobile blogging to Volker Hirsch over at Volker on Mobile. Regular Mobilists – including Russell Buckley from MobHappy, Mark Jaffe from Mobile Mandala, Andy Favell from mobiThinking and WIP Jam — submitted a thought-provoking selection of posts.

How can/should brands monetize our passion? What happens when cloud computing shifts app development to the Web? Will Amazon have to offer us an in-store experience? And how do the mobile ad networks really stack up? Read on and find out!

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