BRANDING UNBOUND

Business Week: M-Commerce To Top $300B By 2013

That's totally both digital and physical goods, according to projections from Juniper Research.

According to the research firm, the value of payments made via mobile for digital goods - music, games - and physical items - tickets, books - will grow more than fivefold over the next five years.

The ticketing segment alone could top 40% of the total, representing rail, air and bus networks, as well as sporting and entertainment events.

As Juniper analyst Howard Wilcox tells Business Week:  "Merchants in North America and Western Europe are just starting to realize the potential of a mobile web presence as a fourth channel to market. Retailers should be evaluating the benefits of the mobile web, and be mindful of the success of regular ec-ommerce sites in generating sales.

"They need to move quickly to exploit the opportunity presented, and ensure that they maintain ease of use for their customers who are already familiar with web shopping from their PCs."

I think that could be wildly optimistic, unless the transaction mechanism can be webified, ie, be fully hosted by a credit card company. Otherwise, waiting for retailers to transition to systems to handle these mobile transactions will slow down the growth significantly.

One idea: In BRANDING UNBOUND the book, I do a Q&A style interview with Don Peppers of 1:1 marketing fame. He puts forth the idea of a "digital aggregation agent" - a trusted party that consumers can sign up for once and provide credit card information for all their credit cards, as well as personal preferences aisle seats in the travel ticketing scenario) that would host these transactions virtually to make this a seamless, easy experience for consumer uptake.

One easy platform to do m-commerce with any participating retailer - without retailers having to make big investments in technology solutions.

For other ideas, and how others are already using them, start here.

To read an excerpt of the Peppers UNBOUND interview, click here.

For the Business Week piece, click here.

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Mobile Commerce Services for Content Topped $1B In '08; Set To Reach $1.9B By 2012

A new study from research firm MultiMedia Intelligence projects that digital content services are expected to top $1.9 billion in transactions by 2012, after reaching $1.1 billion last year.

Digital commerce service providers process the financial transactions that monetize premium content from music, video and gaming companies over the mobile operator’s network.

Get the full scoop here.

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Lufthansa Turns Your Mobile Into Your Boarding Pass

Passengers flying Lufthansa are getting a new reason to love their mobile phone.

Various news organizations are reporting that passengers flying the airline from Hamburg to Munich or Frankfurt will now be able to use a new mobile boarding pass service.

Passengers with web-enabled p hones will be able to be sent an electronic boarding pass by email or SMS link. An onscreen 2D barcode can be read by a scanner at the gate.

Word has it hackers have been able to do this with just about any boarding pass using iPhones, but that's another story.

Read about the Lufthansa initiative, here.

And see how other airlines are rolling out a whole slew of mobile-enabled services for travelers, here.

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Sweet Sensation: Godiva Mobile

Need some chocolate to go with that BlackBerry.

Godiva's got your fix.

The chocolatier announced today it is working with mobile commerce company Digby to launch Godiva Mobile, a new downloadable application that provides access to Godiva's best selling products, which are updated daily to keep content fresh, on BlackBerrys.

"Godiva Mobile gives our customers another way to order the perfect last minute gift of chocolates, truffles and gift baskets," says Kimberly Land, vice president of the Direct-to-Consumer division of Godiva Chocolatier, in a statement.

"This is a perfect complement to our boutiques, catalog and website. We've been exploring the market for several months, and believe that mobile commerce is emerging as a truly viable fourth channel."

Features include:

•     The ability to complete a shopping transaction in less than thirty

       seconds, without having to endure the frustration of using a mobile browser

•     Rich product descriptions and full-color images

•     A "One-Touch Store-Locator" that utilizes GPS or cell-tower location to
       automatically identify stores close to the user's location.

•     Integration with BlackBerry Maps to provide point-to-point navigation and directions

•     Secure transactions and password protected buying.

But the real genius: Address book integration, which provides the ability to input shipping information with just a few clicks.

So why didn't they also launch an app for the Chocolate cell phone, even just for publicity's sake?

It's food for thought.

Read more here.

Download here. 

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Banking Going Mobile - Or Else

With 85% of respondents in one consumer survey saying they wouldn't bank with an institution that doesn't offer online banking, many view mobile as the next major wave.

"It will evolve into a mobile wallet, allowing banks to generate greater electronic payment volume through the combination of electronic loyalty programs, mobile marketing, and contactless payments,” Dan Schatt, senior analyst at Celent, tells NewsOK.com. In fact, according to Celent, 35% of all online banking households will use mobile banking by 2010, up from only 1% last year.
 

In BRANDING UNBOUND the book, I take an in-depth look at how m-banking is transforming the way Citbank, Wells Fargo and others serve their customers - and market themselves to new ones.

This will also extend to trading, by the way. Already, mobile "responsive trading" - by which a broker sends a recommendation to a client's mobile phone - already accounts for 17.6% of all electronic trade transactions, according to Jupiter Research. By decade's end, commissions for these kinds of trades could top $1 billion.

Seems upwardly mobile types want m-banking - and smart institutions are finding exciting new ways to serve them.

For more on the Celent study, click here.

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Priceline.com Goes Wireless

There's a certain symmetry in the announcement that Priceline.com is going wireless.

It was, after all, William Shatner, who used to travel to far away places and futz around with hand held wireless communicators that would inspire today's flip phones.

Now, The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Priceline, the outfit for whom Shatner has played goofy/creepy spokesguy, is futzing around with hand held wireless communicators inspired by the devices Shatner used to sport, for those who travel to far away places.

We really don't want to know what his TJ Hooker and The Practice years might inspire.

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Spain's Largest Bank Turns Your Mobile Phone Into A Personal ATM

The Financial Times is reporting that La Caixa, Spain's largest savings bank, will launch a campaign today  to urge customers to skip the line at the bank and call up a virtual cash machine via their 3G mobile phones.

The bank's new service will give users access to most conventional ATM functions, with the obvious exception of cash withdrawal, with keypad convenience.

In BRANDING UNBOUND the book, I look at show E*TRADE, Schwab, Fidelity, Harrisdirect and a growing number of other financial institutions are deploying such "m-banking" services. Wells Fargo, for one, already has over 25,000 customers who use Schwab Wireless, where they can manage their bank accounts via mobile phone.

Jupiter Research predicts that while most financial services will continue to be made through personal computers, a growing percentage will initiated via mobile.

Read more about La Caixa's initiative, here.

And read more about BRANDING UNBOUND the book, here.

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BookMyShow Brings Movie Tickets To Your Mobile

Mobio had better take notice.

BookMyShow.com is bringing its real-time ticketing service to mobile phones in India.

BookMyShow’s new mobile application allows the users to book tickets for any Hollywood/Bollywood movie playing at any multiplex or play or concert nationwide that is listed with BookMyshow.

Says Ashish Hemrajani, CEO of Big Tree Entertainment: “Movie watching is an experience for Indian families. Long queues & unfavorable seats normally spoil the overall enjoyment. With immense growth in mobile telephony, India presents a great opportunity for our rapidly expanding global business. Keeping the consumers needs and demands in mind, this is for the first time in India that tickets can be booked on real time basis on the mobile.”

Indeed, mobile's on the move in India, where the handset seems to be emergin as the de facto web platform. For a look at how Mobio, for one, hopes to bring a new world of mobile apps to India - including services to rival BookyMyShow, no doubt, check out my recent interview with Mobio CEO Ramneek Bhasin, here, here, here and here.

Read all about BookMyShow's mobile app, here.

And be sure to check out Prentice-Hall's new Indian edition of BRANDING UNBOUND the book, here.

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Amazon.com Goes Mobile

The world's largest bookseller is going wireless in a whole new way.

The Financial Times is reporting today that Amazon.com has launched Amazon Mobile, which provides mobile phone users with a streamlined version of Amazon’s main website, enabling registered customers to buy online using their existing credit card or bank accounts.

According to the pub, the service includes features from the company’s regular website, including customer reviews and product images. And purchased products are shipped to the primary address on the customer’s Amazon account.

In BRANDING UNBOUND the book, I look at how a growing number of companies are introducing mobile commerce services for today's on-the-go consumer. Indeed, in the book, business futurist Jaclyn Easton predicts tells me: "[Amazon CEO] Jeff Bezos estimates by the year 2010, 100 percent of Amazon transactions will happen wirelessly."

He meant of course, wirelessly over a wireless local area network at home or work, or a wireless/mobile laptop, or from a strictly mobile device.

Time will tell if his prediction is correct.

But this announcement indicates he's putting his money where his mouth is.

Read the FT piece, here.

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San Francisco's BART Conducts Mobile Payment Test

The San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART) is buying into pay-by-phone systems.

The authority, which runs San Francisco's BART trains, is piloting a new system that would enable commuters to pay for transit with a wave of their Sprint mobile phone,, according to today's San Francisco Chronicle.

The pub reports that BART has been using the contact-free technology in its EZ Rider pilot program, which allows riders to pay at the turnstiles by waving a plastic card that has a wireless chip. The latest test puts a similar chip inside a phone, eliminating the need for additional cards. Apparently, BART is also working with Jack in the Box so trial participants can pay for food with their cell phones as well.

"This becomes a credit-debit card," said BART Director James Fang, holding up a cell phone. "This becomes more convenient than carrying a bunch of cards in your wallet."

As I talk about in BRANDING UNBOUND the book, such systems are common in other parts of the world. And in here California, transit authorities long ago adopted RFID-based badges affixed to automobiles for paying for toll roads and bridges - and have even tested the badges as payment methods at McDonald's drive-thrus.

As a frequent BART user, I can truly say, this pay-by-phone system is definitely something to call home about.

Read all about it, here.

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