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Archive for the ‘Mobile Commerce’ Category

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KangoGift: Instant real gifts by mobile phone

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

I picked up a story from Iconoculture about KangoGift this afternoon. Here’s how they describe it:

* Beta site KangoGift is now providing the hookup for what might be called presentexting. The service lets gift givers send text-message (SMS) vouchers for real presents.
* KangoGift (located in Cambridge, MA) is currently only partnering with businesses in Harvard Square; though they hope to eventually roll out to other areas.

I think we’ll begin to see this kind of thing fly, very shortly. I love it. I love the immediacy of it, the convenience.

You can, for example, text someone a hot chocolate! All you need to do is visit KangoGift.com, select the product — pay for it and then tell them the recipient’s mobile phone number. They immediately get a text message (or an ‘enhanced’ message, if their handset supports it) telling them about the gift. The recipient simply needs to show the text message at check-out to redeem the voucher.

I can imagine using this kind of facility a lot, especially if they had an on-device application that made the ordering process a 15-second activity.

If you live in Cambridge, MA, I reckon you should give KangoGift a go and see how you get on. I look forward to seeing this kind of thing expanded to other areas and countries.

Posted in Mobile Commerce, Mobile Services | Comments

I just signed up for an o2 Money prepay debit card

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

I walked by the o2 shop in Chiswick last week and saw they’d changed their posters.

Both shop windows are now covered in o2 Money branding.

Fascinating stuff.

It appears to be like any other prepay debit card arrangement out there. Load money on to it and use it as much as you like. Only, it’s o2 branded. You do get updates and alerts through your mobile for every transaction though.

That said I thought I might as well put my money where my keyboard is. So I signed up last night.

I’ll let you know how I get on.

If you’re an o2 customer, you can apply for your own debit card here:

http://money.o2.co.uk/

Posted in Mobile Commerce | Comments

SocialCord mobile payment platform is going places

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Watch this one like a hawk; I’ve seen it demonstrated and it’s utter, utter genius.  This kind of concept has been around for a while in the UK and Europe but it’s been poorly delivered and the market hasn’t been mature enough for it.

Quite simply you’re presented with a screen to type in your mobile number prior to accessing some content/joining a club/activating a subscription.  Type in your number and you’re sent a text message. Confirm your approval and the agreed amount is removed from your mobile operator credit account (or charged to your bill).  Done. Simple. Genius.  There’s an API ‘n everything.  ;-)

Easy, easy mobile payments… VentureBeat has more.

Let the monetization begin: SocialCord has created a platform for musicians, writers and brands to build a “freemium” model delivered over Twitter or mobile phones. For example, bands wrestling with how to make a living from their music can send links to songs or videos of live performances to their most devoted fans first for a monthly charge. (“Freemium” is the business model of giving away basics for free while charging for special or advanced content.)

via SocialCord creates payment platform for Twitter; now what will people pay for? | VentureBeat.

The link you want? http://www.socialcord.com/

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Posted in Mobile Commerce | Comments

O2 launch ‘O2 Money’ pre-paid credit cards

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Interesting news on O2’s launch of their pre-paid credit cards. They are launching 2 Visa cards in mid August one called the ‘Cash Manager’ and the other ‘Load and Go”.

The o2 money site says:

“O2 is all about finding the best ways of connecting you to your world. And we know that you’d appreciate an easy way to stay on top of your cash using your mobile. So that’s why we’ve launched O2 Money cards. You load money onto your O2 Money card, then whenever you use it you’ll receive a free real time text alert.”

The ‘Cash Manager’ card is there to help you stay on top of your spending by providing a prepaid Visa card. The card has an annual limit of up to £10,000 and is free to sign up and use as long as you are an O2 customer.

The ‘Load and Go’ card is aimed at the younger generation (13+) and can be topped up with a maximum £1,800 a year. Cash can be added to the card using O2 shops, debit card online (i.e. parents) and also Paypoint and e-pay locations across the UK. Again users will receive text alerts and is available exclusively for o2 customers.

Whilst both cards can be used to top up your Pay as You go I couldnt work out why O2 were launching these cards. What do they get out of it? The cards would cost next to nothing for them I imagine and the are run by Natwest.

I saw this tweet by the official O2 stream: 

The wallet and the mobile phone are coming together – this will allow us to bring new services to our customers

To me this seems a strange way of bridging the gap between ‘the wallet’ and the mobile phone when it would be very easy for the MNO’s to effectively become banks themselves which they have shied away from but that’s another story in itself.

The tweet lead me to think Advertising. O2 will be able to monitor users spend as well as their mobile usage and offer targeted advertisements to users and make revenues from brands etc. Competition for Blyk? Or is this just the future of mobile? after the 118800 fiasco it seems all fingers are starting to point at reaching people directly to there mobiles.

Maybe O2 will give Natwest and Visa access to their user base. The student banking market is huge in the UK with banks putting out all efforts to sign up students knowing that they will leave university with overdrafts and credit cards thus effectively signed up to that bank for years whilst they pay it back when they start fulltime employment. This gives O2 and Natwest a good opportunity to build a detailed ‘relationship’ with these consumers and understand their lifestyles.

Personally I think the card is a great idea considering the state of ‘credit Britain’ but this shouldn’t be done by O2 let alone an MNO. Maybe O2 should think about updating there Payforit scheme which offers a lot more potential and still uses the old Premium SMS technology.

What do you think?

Posted in Mobile, Mobile Commerce | Comments

Take card payments on your Nokia with TaxiPay

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Well this is rather neat.

A company by the name of Adelante is offering TaxiPay for mobile handsets. The service is targeted initially at Taxi Drivers who’d like to be able to take card payments with the minimum of fuss — it’s a really cool idea.

- It takes about a week to get setup with an account.
- You don’t need to have a merchant account. TaxiPay process the payments on your behalf — charging you for the privilege (6.5%) of course, but you can pass that on to the customers.
- The transaction details are encrypted
- Free to setup, you just pay as you go
- You’ve got to be a registered taxi driver to participate

It’s aimed at owner-drivers and I can see it being a total boon to them. It’s the sort of service I’d like to see more people having access to — so that when I get in the car and ask to be driven to [wherever] they can say yes and I can stick it on the company card. And avoid having to spend 20 minutes driving round looking for cashpoints.

I suspect that since it’s a Nokia handset in the demo, the service works for S60 devices.

It’d be rather interesting to see what would happen if this service was stuck on the iTunes App Store and made available to anyone who wanted to take card payments…

More details here: Adelante TaxiPay

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Posted in Mobile Commerce | Comments

The Highs and Lows of 2008.

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

What an interesting year!
Since I joined the formerly SMS Text News/MIR team in July of this year, a lot has happened. But there has also been so much more too… And here are some of my highlights, or should I say, more notable occurrences!

The iPhone 3G! This was bound to appear somewhere, and so I thought it’s best to get it out of the way sooner, rather than later. Personally, I’m not a fan; and from what I’ve read, seen and heard accounts of, it hasn’t been all too great for Apple too. However, as much as I insist that it’s a pile of rubbish (feel free to beg to differ); it sold once again in its thousands.

Apple has conquered another market, and whether it’s because they found monopolising the MP3 market too easy, they’ve certainly made a statement. And even though the 3G came out way back in June/July the device still makes a regular appearance here on MIR. I do not doubt for a second that Apple have something lurking up their well-tailored sleeves, and if the rumours of an iPhone Nano are anything to go by… Then 2009 will be dominated with more Apples than your doctor can prescribe!

Secondly, Blyk! Hmm, well, me and Ricky between have more than enough to say on Blyk. For me, I was so hopeful that Blyk could be that turning point, especially here in the UK – where we ever so often fall behind in the world of technology and thought – and I was so disheartened with what eventually happened with them, it still annoys me now.

It can’t all be bad, and as much as I say I don’t like them and that their bound to fail… They haven’t yet. In fact, Blyk is over one year old now, and it still seems to be maintaining momentum. I think in 2009 we’ll either start to see how incredibly flawed Blyk’s aims and business model is; or dare I say it, it still surviving and the European expansion working out for the better for the company.

For me also, as I’ve begun to really take note and interest in the world of the Mobile Phone, I’ve seen certainly more usability on the rise, and a better use of SMS and mobile communications from businesses and services.

The “Knife Crime” Crime Stoppers text in service has to be, for me one of the single best things I have come across. It’s been implemented correctly in schools (well, at least in my school), without making itself appear too formal, and scary to use. And it’s using basic innovation, which as I know I have repeated many-a-time over the past few months; is severely lacking.

Slowly though, I’m beginning to see more and more use of mobile communications, for example my local hospital texting me when I have an upcoming appointment so I can’t forget; or my School using a system to ensure parents know if you’re not in school – when say you’re meant to be.

Hopefully over the next twelve months more of this good thinking and logic will be applied to other aspects of our general lives; and maybe with that, we might even get some more innovation out of that… And surely, that can only be a good thing?

Finally, my favourite mobile application… Well this has to go to MusicStation, which is available to Vodafone users. When I was first introduced to it by Ewan, I’ll admit I was majorly sceptical; I’m a music lover in every sense of the word. I don’t like the idea of being sold half-hearted 96kps versions of a song, or only having a minute and pointless library of music to download from; and this is all I expected to get.

I was wrong, and I loved the service. I haven’t yet seen it used by anyone I know on Vodafone, in fact, I’m not even sure if any of my friends are even aware of what they can get on their mobiles for a small fee per month; but if they did, then I do not doubt that it would be highly used by all of them.

Nokia I suppose are heading out in a similar direction, although I can’t comment on how the “Comes with Music” service works; I don’t doubt for a second that music services like the ones Vodafone and Nokia are offering are going to stop or end here.

—

I look forward to the next year, and I look forward to the new technologies developing, and being released, and being pleasantly surprised as I have been this year. I also see that as much optimism that I have, one cannot forget the looming “recession” and what impact will that have? I dare not speculate, but for more than one reason I’m pretty sure next year will be interesting and something to look forward to!

Anyway, I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Samantha.
samantha@mobileindustryreview.com

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Posted in Apple, Applications, Blyk, Devices, MMS, Mobile, Mobile Applications, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Development, Mobile Services, Operators, Opinion, SMS, iPhone | Comments

UK Rail Agrees Mobile Ticketing Standard

Friday, December 19th, 2008

Nick Dillon, on behalf of the chaps at secure mobile specialist, Masabi, dropped me a briefing note on the state of mobile ticketing on UK railways.

It makes interesting reading:

- – - – -

Hi Ewan,

I thought you might be interested to hear that the Association of Train Operating Companies, (which represents all UK rail operators) has introduced an industry-wide mobile ticketing standard based on 2D barcodes. This standard means that rail operators are now able to sell mobile tickets which can be used on other rail operator’s networks, thus removing a major hurdle to mobile ticketing.

I’ve put a bit of information and background on the standard below – please let me know if you need any further info or would like to speak to Masabi, the company which developed the standard. You can see what the barcode looks like here: http://www.masabi.com/solutions_ticketing.html.

[ Ewan: Here's some screenshots ]

State of the Market

* As it stands today some of the more pioneering rail operators have started offering mobile ticketing across some of their routes. These include National Express (who bought GNER), as well as Virgin, Heathrow Express and Chiltern Railways.
* This typically allows commuters to buy a ticket on a web site which is then delivered by an encrypted SMS or MMS to their handset and comes in the form of a 2D barcode. When they travel the ticket inspector simply uses a barcode scanner to read the ticket on their phone.
* As you’re undoubtedly aware mobile tickets have not yet become a widespread phenomenon. This is due to a few important reasons:-
o First off, it is fundamentally difficult to develop a secure ticket that cannot be fraudulently recreated which would obviously enable people to make their own free tickets
o Secondly, existing rail operator mobile ticket services require a PC to buy the ticket but for the service to be much more successful commuters need to be able to buy and display tickets on their handset wherever they are thereby creating the killer convenience factor. 88% of tickets are bought at the station You can imagine how useful it would be to buy a ticket once you’ve got on the train or on your way to the station or even when you’re at the station and there is a queue for the ticket machines
o Thirdly, it is crucial that the tickets work on mass market handsets not just smart phones. For example there’s been a lot of excitement around NFC, the communications technology used in Oyster cards, but to date NFC has only found its way into a couple of phones. Any system needs to work on all phones.
o Finally, the few mobile ticketing solutions on the market all use different systems so commuters can’t buy a ticket that goes across multiple rail operators.

The New Standard

* With these issues in mind ATOC (the Association of Train Operating Companies), which is owned by and represents all UK rail operators, decided to introduce an industry-wide mobile ticketing standard and brought on us at Masabi to put it together.
* The result is we now have a finalised 2d bar code standard that overcomes all of the aforementioned mobile ticketing difficulties.
* All the rail operators now have a system at their disposal with the highest level of security to ensure that mobile ticketing fraud can’t take place.
* The 2d bar code contains all information about the ticket so there is no need to for the ticket inspector’s machines to check any database. This enables commuters to buy mobile tickets at any point, including on the phone, so they don’t need to be bought on the web before-hand.
* The 2d bar code works on 90% of mobile handsets i.e. Any mobile phone with a colour screen or that has been introduced in the last five years. This means almost everyone can use the service.
* Finally, the standard means that a mobile ticket can be used on a journey spanning lots of rail operators.
* Over the next few months, we expect the existing rail operators with mobile ticketing services to migrate to the new system.
* The barriers for other rail operators have now been removed so hopefully we can now start seeing wider mobile ticketing offerings

Regards,
Nick

- – - – -

Nick, thanks for emailing that over. I reckon that will be very useful for a lot of people considering or actually already doing business in this space.

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Posted in Mobile Commerce | Comments

Two Weeks and Nothing?

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

I’ve been away for a week (because I moved house); and it’s all been a bit hectic! Unfortunately I didn’t have the internet for about two weeks, and thus I’ve been cut out of the online world of MIR.

So when I got my connection back some time late last week, I was mildly hoping to see something massively interesting to inspire me to write about; some major piece of news – I mean it’s nearly Christmas after all – or just something that might catch my eye.

Now even on my trawl across the internet in search of mobile news, and the latest goings-on in this brilliant segment of society and business I was expecting something.

Did I?
No.

Am I happy?
No.

You see, even I, a relatively technological “young” person/student, who has a keen interest in the world around me, and with Christmas looming just around the corner, just something eh?

Well, apparently not.

Now maybe some good news, and/or surprises are waiting around the corner for the New Year; or maybe something spectacular will happen in the after-Christmas sales. Needless to say though, I was expecting some major news about something; a big price cut, or some other form of attempt to gain more consumer interest in this very dismal financial situation.

I know I’ve said numerous times now about the lack of real spark at the moment, and the generally poor attempts at gaining custom; and although nothing major, I’m quite amazed at how little I’ve read about anything enticing me – as a probable and likely customer – to go and spend money.

Maybe I’m wrong in my presumptions that the mobile market is avoiding the “Credit Crunch” and that when I walked down my high street the other day, Phones4U, CPW, O2, Three, and the numerous other shops which hoard the high street were meant to be relatively empty on a busy Thursday leading up to Christmas?

Hmm…

Well, I’ll try not to be so pessimistic, and I will believe that someone somewhere is planning something out to ensure that the mobile industry remains in-tact.

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Posted in Mobile, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Presence, News, Operators, Opinion | Comments

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