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Amazon's Smartphone Ambitions Taking Shape July 06, 2012 
Both Amazon and Google have seen their respective businesses grow by adapting and expanding into areas far removed from their original bookstore and Internet search focuses. Thus it didn't seem far-fetched when rumors intensified Friday that Amazon plans tso enter the smartphone arena -- in part to fend off competition from Apple and Google in the digital content space.
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Amazon May Be Closing Its Map Gap July 06, 2012 
Amazon has acquired 3D-mapping startup UpNext, according to a report earlier this week. Mapping functionality has become a must-have feature for mobile device makers, but that alone may not explain what Amazon is planning for UpNext. Amazon's tablet, the Kindle Fire, does not sport a GPS radio.
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Americans Are Phoning the Web June 27, 2012 
Cellphones have become a primary way for people in the U.S. to access the Web, according to a recent survey released by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. Seventeen percent of of cellphone owners surveyed said they surfed the Web primarily with their phones rather than computers.
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Multitude of Mobile Wallets Could Give Consumers Crowded Pockets June 12, 2012 
Sprint, a carrier that offers at least five smartphones preloaded with Google Wallet, is reportedly working on its own digital wallet system, separate from Google's offering. Slides from a presentation on the so-called Touch wallet were recently posted by Android Central. Like Google Wallet, the Sprint digital wallet will apparently be based on the near-field communications standard.
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Israel: We Didn't Start the Fire May 31, 2012 
Today in international tech news: Israel says it is not responsible for the Flame malware that has spread throughout the Middle East. Also: Germany is in trouble with the EU for its failure to implement data collection laws, and PayPal continues its experiments as the company introduces a barcode payment system for mobile devices in the UK.
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Connectivity: The New Currency May 29, 2012 
The trend toward an "always on, always connected" lifestyle driven by the use of social networks and mobile technology has, if nothing else, groomed consumers to become demanding in their expectations of the online experience. Unfortunately, the e-commerce experience has changed little since early days and, until recently, continued to be a process more to be endured than enjoyed.
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CTIA Wireless 2012: A Show of a Different Color April 26, 2012 
Would it surprise you if I said the upcoming CTIA Wireless 2012 show will be very different from those in the past? I've been going to these wireless shows for more years than I can remember.
Every few years, the show -- and in fact the entire industry -- changes. This is a great showplace for what is new and what is coming next in the wireless industry -- and next month's show should be no exception.
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Tech Leaders See Smartphones Replacing Credit Cards, Cash April 18, 2012 
By 2020, the majority of U.S. consumers will use smartphones to pay for goods and services, concluded a new study from Pew and Elon University. The survey is unusual in that it queried tech stakeholders and leaders about the subject, as opposed to a random sample of the general population. Executives from such companies as Microsoft and Google were included in the mix, as well as professors and other thought leaders.
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Sage Launches Mobile Payments Portal April 13, 2012 
Sage is getting ready to enhance its mobile payments offerings. Next month, the company will roll out Sage Exchange.com, an interface for Sage Exchange, which it introduced two years ago.
The rollout of Sage Exchange.com will considerably enhance what Sage Exchange offers customers, said Greg Hammermaster, president of Sage Payment Solutions.
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Will a Different Yahoo Be Good Enough? April 11, 2012 
When he announced plans to lay off 2,000 employees, Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson said it was a necessary step in the company's strategic plan to move forward. Critics noted, however, that he had not explained exactly what that plan was. Now, via an internal memo made public, Thompson has obliged. Beginning May 1, the company will be divided into three core divisions: Consumer, Regions and Technology.
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Facebook Has Big Plans for Its Billion-Dollar Baby April 10, 2012 
Facebook has snagged the highly popular photo-sharing application Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. It is among the biggest acquisitions in the social media space, second only to Google's $1.65 billion stock-for-stock purchase of YouTube in 2006. The deal, both in size and intent, is very much a departure for Facebook.
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Catching the Mobile Commerce Wave April 07, 2012 
Riding the wave of technology change these days is a bit like surfing. The ocean and waves often change much faster than our ability to stay out in front of the transformation. Now another current is approaching the wireless world as mobile commerce curls to challenge conventional e-commerce.
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Amazon Ratchets Up Its M-Commerce Cred April 04, 2012 
Amazon is testing a service that will let tablet users purchase items through mobile applications. It is expected to enhance the Kindle Fire tablet's de facto role as a shopping conduit for its users. It already is second nature for users to download books and movies from Amazon's content library. With an in-app purchase mechanism, items can be bought via downloadable software.
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Small Screen Gets a Lot of Video Action April 03, 2012 
It finally has happened -- the number of U.S. mobile subscribers who own smartphones is just about equal to the number who own feature phones, according to new data. As of Feb. 2012, 49.7 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers carried a smartphone -- an increase of 38 percent from Feb. 2011, when only 36 percent of mobile subscribers owned smartphones. The driver behind this trend was the lopsided adoption of smartphones by mobile phone buyers in recent months.
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PayPal Hits the Pavement With Mobile Payment System March 16, 2012 
PayPal has introduced PayPal Here, a mobile payment product that is meant to continue its push into retailing's brick-and-mortar world, no matter the size of the retailer. The global mobile payment system will allow small businesses to accept almost any form of payment, PayPal said. Businesses can accept payments by swiping cards with a fully encrypted thumb-sized card reader.
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Sites Have More Mobile Shopper Mojo Than Apps March 12, 2012 
Although it seems there is an app for everything nowadays, new research indicates mobile shopping is one area in which consumers prefer retailers' websites over dedicated smartphone apps. Although the recent Nielsen report found users generally spend more time with mobile apps rather than sites, the process can turn off some consumers, according to John Burbank, president of strategic initiatives at Nielsen.
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2011's Lessons for Holiday Retail 2012 March 10, 2012 
OK, it's time to officially close the book on the 2011 holiday retail season and to shift our attention forward to 2012. For me personally, what makes it difficult to stop looking back are the new trends that emerged that will forever change holiday shopping: The empowered customer turned to multiple mobile devices to conduct mobile shopping; and social media sites such as Facebook proved they have an influence on consumer buying.
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Groupon: Business Is Booming February 28, 2012 
Groupon's push into mobile is firing on all cylinders, to hear the company describe its progress. The daily deal giant posted record mobile performance in North America in Dec. 2011, with one quarter of all Groupon vouchers purchased via a mobile device. Also, both consumer and merchant app usage were up significantly year over year, it said. Groupon mobile app users tripled from last December to more than 9 million.
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Groupon, LivingSocial and the Holy Grail of Commerce December 16, 2011 
The market for local commerce has been the holy grail for Internet companies since the dawn of the modem. However, that market has been more like "Monty Python And The Holy Grail." Until now. The missing link for local commerce hasn't been the Web, it's been four things: web usage as everyday "utility"; the growth of mobile; the inefficiency of "old-fashioned" advertising; and time-shifting.
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Online Cash Registers in Holiday Overdrive December 15, 2011 
Ask just about any research company that tracks online spending about this holiday season and you will get bombarded with cheer: "good," "strong," "robust," and "surprisingly strong" are among the adjectives used to describe online shopping activity this month and last. The latest indicator is a report on the holiday season-to-date: $24.6 billion has been spent online, for a 15-percent increase over the same period last year.
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