When should I invest in mobile?

When should I invest in a mobile strategy? I think this is a question that most marketers, technologists and broadly businesses are asking themselves now. I also think if you feel the time is now then certainly from my perspective you are setting up for success and giving yourself the right learning time so that as this space matures you are ready to capitalise.

Let’s do some math’s and apologies if some of the percentages I am quoting change by the time you read this post, in this space things are rapidly evolving.

So according to the latest Sensis Smart Phone survey in Australia by 2012, 60% of the roughly 20 million population will have a smartphone. To build on this the latest Google stats show that 79% of people use their mobile phone to help with shopping to affirm they are making the right purchase decision.  Making this even more compelling a recent Microsoft survey shared that 51% of Smart Phone owners are more likely to purchase from a retailer with a mobile site & mobile experience.

On this basis the opportunity is ripe as speaking today less than 4.2% of retailers have a mobile presence.

The Intelligent Shopper

This info-graphic is a great representation by Microsoft showing how mobile plays a part in the consumer buying experience. For a better look visit the below link:

http://rww.readwriteweb.netdna-cdn.com/assets_c/2011/06/the-intellegent-shopper-30494.php.

I think beyond potentially getting brownie points for creating a new channel & technology that let’s your business connect with customers, introducing your business to a mobile presence truly allows you to immerse your customers in Social Media & real 1:1 experience with your brand.

So hopefully if you have read this far I have provided you a rational argument for having a mobile phone presence and why I think the time is now.

The start of having a mobile presence can start of being as simple as having a mobile site for people trying to access your online site via mobile. Where appropriate and where you have a compelling utility there is an opportunity to provide a mobile app/s (*I will shortly be writting an article about customer advocacy and the journey from a mobile site to your company app providing for true love 🙂 ).

There are two things that I would like to say at this point:

• Creating a mobile presence does not have to be exceptionally expensive, however you get one or two chances to connect with customers in such a 1:1 way so ensure your presence is a reflection of the brand image you want to create.
• A mobile strategy starts of with a mobile site, but should be inclusive of a channel strategy which encompasses a presence for Tablet devices, Mobile Apps, Social Media, your Digital Ecosystem, Retail Store Integration and how mobile devices interact within this environment (* I will talk more about this in a coming article)

So in short my advice is, the time to invest in a mobile strategy for your business is now and the more experience and comfort you get in this space the better for your businesses upcoming success.

As always this is our point of view and should you have any comments or further questions we at mobiDdiction welcome them.

 

The Mobile Revolution – Great video by Google

This is an interesting video we came across from Google, and as mobile marketing and related solutions provider, our job at mobiDdiction is to be on top of the latest consumer behaviour so that we can adapt to meet their needs and advise our clients on how they can benefit from the ever changing consumer behaviour.

This latest video from google really highlights to me how the mobile smart phone enables people to do more things in less time, and if you are a business you need to make sure you are ready for this next mobile evolution as it’s here! Google points out that mobiles are changing consumer behaviour and a point in case they make is that your mobile is now your shopping companion and I tend to agree.

Your mobile is helping you to make choices on what is available locally and then it helps you get there. Your mobile can ensure that you get your “loyalty” credit at your favourite coffee place whilst paying for your latte!  Your mobile can give you your latest bank balance, to see if you have enough money to pay for that impulse buy, your mobile can then let you know if you need to pick something up before heading home or meeting friends, and that is just for starters! Utility is great angle to start thinking about mobile.

Those businesses who recognise that this mobile evolution is just at the beginning and they adapt to how their customers would like to interact with them, will continue to learn on how better to serve customers, resulting in happy customers and therefore better revenue.

 

Commonwealth Bank updates Mobile App [Pics]

Commonwealth Bank – updates their mobile banking App. iPad and Windows 7 versions included.

Further on the mobile bank side of things from one of our previous stories about how banks seem to have taken the mobile side of things in their stride, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia have announced updates to their mobile banking app, also referred to as NetBanking. We’ve seen a few example of banking apps but must admit, for what CommBank have done so far with the latest updates – this seems to be quite a smart app packed with a heap of new features but also what makes it interesting. It does deliver that app experience.

An updated experience, includes a version for Windows 7 & tablet devices too…

Comm Bank App - updated look

One noticeable difference for users who have been using the CommBank App is that there is a significant improvement in the number of features and also a considerable improvement in the quality of the visual or creative elements from the the previous app. In the earlier version, logging onto NetBanking used to just kick off and open a new browser window via a mobile optimised site and it still seems to do that but as a user you probably don’t realise it as it’s probably hidden off – so yes a better user experience there.

The updates also includes locating a nearest branch or ATM based on your location co-ordinates and native GPS device capabilities. For a first time user or for someone who has updated the App, there are location aware notifications, push notification & also if you’re wanting to take a tour of the app to understand how the app works which is quite user friendly and clicking on different bits takes you through some of the key functions.

Push notification on the CommBank App

The Comm bank App now also includes feeds and links to their social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and links to their YouTube channel.

The Comm Bank updated App include feeds from their Social Media channels

The updated CommBank mobile banking app supports NetBank for the standard online banking, CommSec for the share trading side of things & there’s also a CommBank Property Guide and a new included foreign exchange tool kit.

Some of the Apps you would’ve noticed do log you out when you click on the “home” button of your phone but this one seems to be a ‘timed’ app so doesn’t log you out. Think it might’ve been good to actually have the auto log-out function due to security reasons if that’s possible too as then I’m not worried if I leave my phone on my desk or get started on something else and forget to log out – or the worse is if you’re logged on and you lose your phone and I know a few of us don’t have our phones auto-lock but a potential danger if you logged on. I do note that under security tips – there is a mention of a log out at the end of a period of inactivity.

There is a link to “visit commbank.com.au’ from the App and clicking through it takes you straight to their PC website. We think having a mobile optimised (cut down) version that displays properly on a mobile device would be good to present with an option of visiting the PC (full version) website. But guess, this is not a biggie.

And if you haven’t noticed yet – they even a version which we haven’t tried out for Windows 7 and must be quite assuring for Windows users so they’re not left out. The CommBank have even set up a page for more info for tablet users on their website.

In all, think they’ve done a great job in putting this together and an App that delivers an update experience.

Note that you can’t use your phone as an ATM just yet and withdraw cash from it 😉 but maybe we wouldn’t need those ATM’s anyways once NFC comes in which is being talked about in a big way!

If you have seen or heard of any other banking or related apps – please share them. It would be great to hear from you if you have any other comments too.

Check our more on the CommBank website.

 

Future of Mobile Payments – infographic & Video

Trying to understand what is a mobile wallet?

It’s quite a simple concept really, you carry your smart mobile phone that has all the info you need on it and now technology makes it possible that your mobile device will be soon able to be used instead of your wallet. Sure it’ll take some time but hey who would’ve thought a few years ago that the iPhone and Android will make it this big too that they’re such a big part of our everyday lives now!

There’s a few different ways being talked about how this is going to be possible and what’s in it for an everyday user as well as a business. How is this new technology going to affect how consumers make payments & businesses transact.

Google have started to push the ‘Google Wallet‘ service. QR code strike rates are on the rise and there’s talks about NFC going to be used for all our everyday transactions.

Mobile payments are on the rise as the mobile is one device no matter what we all carry around. Even if we forget to carry our wallet, we need a mobile to ring someone. And now that technology such as NFC (Near Field Communications) is just around the corner.

Guess by now you’ve seen that in the U.S. people have already started to use the mobile as a transaction device in places such as Starbucks. In Japan, the mobile has been used as a device to transact since many years now…

Check out this video from Google about why is Google Wallet important for businesses?

Info-Graphic on the future of Mobile payments

Here’s an infographic from G+ that predicts the massive uptake in payments using the mobile device for everyday transactions. Thanks to G plus for this info-graphic.

Interesting to note:

By 2013. Sales of NFC enabled devices will exceed $75 Billion.
By 2014. NFC transactions alone will exceed $50 Billion.
By 2015. The value of all mobile money transactions is expected to reach $670 Billion.

 

Mobile Banking – On the go!

When was the last time you stood in the queue to check your account balance? When was the last time you felt the need to walk into a branch? Or do you just use your mobile…

A lot of us I’m sure use mobile banking on the go on our mobiles and not surprising that it is quite a utility that we like to have at our finger tips. Just like many other services being made available on our smartphones, whether you’re travelling or just know that your banking information is available at hand when required by you.

Just like many of us, I remember starting to use the banking on my mobile when my bank started to offer it and really there wasn’t much available at that point in time except the fact that you could log-on and check your balances, the updates weren’t that quite synced with your actual account and moreover the look and feel of it too wasn’t that polished. Well, we’ve now moved on and you would’ve noticed that almost all the banking institutions now have started to push the ‘mobility’ factor as a feature or a value-add as part of their day to day services. 

Mobile Banking – On the go!

Commonwealth Bank in Australia a few months ago, started to list property using Augmented Reality and not sure if you’ve come across the vision piece from Commonwealth Bank video from the bank. It’s a bit old now but you can see the thinking behind it. The Commonwealth Bank also have information on their website about mobile banking. Interestingly, you will note that the iPhone and Android have apps whereas if you’re on a blackberry then you still have access to the banking but not via an App experience but a mobile site. Not sure if you’ve noticed but the banks have tailored their experiences depending on the number of users on a particular device e.g. iPhone, Android being the two most widely used phones. It’s also worthy to note that some of the experiences are also different – for example, the Commonwealth ‘NetBanking’ user login from the mobile takes you to a new screen which seems like a mobile site version whereas banks such as ANZ in their goMoney give you a native iPhone experience so you’re not jumping around screens. But again, that’s a different topic with a lot of variants whether it needs to be via a mobile website or all through an App, in this instance let me not start off being nerdy and going away on a tangent!  

Banks seem to have realised the potential of mobile!  

There are many industries out there which are still yet to harness the potential of using mobile as a channel, be it for their marketing or providing customer service via mobile or leverage the mobile as a true one on one loyalty channel. But, on the other hand, banks seem to have taken this on their stride and have developed a good amount of services and seem to be busy actively pushing the mobile factor as part of their service offering. Sure you’ve seen some of their messages such as the St. George Bank, NAB and Westpac leveraging marketing material to push the message out to consumers including signage, posters and visual displays outside of their branches. The ING gorilla holds an iPhone too in newspaper AD’s and the info on ING’s mobile banking is on their website too. NAB on their YouTube channel has videos with demo’s for banking on iPad’s  which has features such as branch locator, getting directions to get there, foreign exchange rates and a few other handy features. NAB also has the info on their website. The Commonwealth Banking mobile banking App shows you the transactions almost in real-time so there’s no wait for it to be updated as that could be quite frustrating when you’re on the go and need to know. There’s also the ANZ banking app that has a feature where you could pay to a mobile number which I’ve used a few times and find it quite useful especially in social circumstances. Example, the other day we were at a restaurant and we were bill sharing – and all I did was took out my iPhone, fired up the ANZ goMoney App and used the “pay to mobile” function transferring the dosh straight onto my friends account by punching his mobile number. The other bit, which a few of mobile banking apps have done is taking customers who use the App for the first time through a series of say tutorials or a guide of some sort that reassures you of the services and also leveraging the true potential of messaging that is relevant to the medium. In this example here, I’ve taken some screenshots from when I used the ANZ goMoney App.

ANZ's "About" screen from the goMoney banking App

Catering for Android too.

Don’t have an iPhone? A lot of banks are now moving towards having services available on phones running Google’s Android operating system too. The National Australia Bank (or NAB as we refer it to…) also caters for the non-iPhone audience and has a video demo’ing their service and how it works on an Android. I’m not an NAB customer but it does seem quite simple and user friendly to use. Commonwealth Bank also announced and has services for folks on Android.

Some banks such as Bank of America have and obviously gone all the way to catering to people on different mobile platforms or accessing the banking from different devices such as the iPad, iPhone, Blackberry.

With the onset of new technology just around the corner such as the ‘Near Field Communications’ or ‘NFC’ as the NFC term is quite being thrown around as a buzz word already. Think we’ll see a lot more of Augmented Reality, 3D and interactive experiences via mobile devices. Maybe we’ll be able to see money flying into our accounts!! I’d rather be positive and not say money flying out 😉

Here’s some of the useful links on mobile banking which we’ve discussed in this piece.

Commonwealth Bank Vision Piece Video

ANZ  goMoney Demo

NAB Android Demo

NAB iPad Demo

NAB Website with info on their mobile banking

 St.George Banking App – iPad Video

Bank of America mobile banking – Video

Happy banking on the go! Do let us know your thoughts and if there’s any other cool apps or mobile banking stuff out there that you’d like to share.

For those who would like to know more about NFC. This video is a lengthy one, but goes through it all from Google.

 

 

Android – Onwards & Upwards!

Google’s Android market share seems to be keeping up it’s upward pace in the latest figures released by comScore.

The share of people owning a smartphone in the U.S also moved up by 11 percent from the previous three month period to 76.8 million.

Google’s Android operating system used on popular devices such as the HTC, Samsung etc seems to be keeping up it’s upward pace as the top operating system with 38.1% of the US smartphone subscribers, up 5.1 percentage points. Apple also strengthened its #2 position with 26.6% of the smartphone market, up 1.4 percentage points. RIM [Blackberry] ranked 3rd in position with 24.7% share, followed by Microsoft (5.8%) and Palm (2.4%).

It’s been interesting to note that everyone compares Android Vs Apple the most whereas in actual fact the Android platform is being used and supported by multiple device manufacturers (HTC, Samsung, Motorola…) and Apple is only available on the devices from Apple – a.k.a the hugely popular iPhone & iPad.

The coming few months will be interesting as we see Nokia products with Microsoft’s Operating Systems and the Android’s getting smarter and the iPhone 5 is due for a release not that long from now!

Read the full story: CLICK HERE

DID YOU KNOW? There are now over 100 million Android devices activated around the world. This video was first shown at Google I/O 2011

 

Smart mobiles and now SmartTV’s!

Are TV’s still going to be referred as the idiot box?

Yep we all know that Smart phones have taken on the world and now here’s another screen undergoing some real change in it’s character – the good ol ‘idiot box’ – the TV. Well, this statement might be redundant already as Smart TV’s are here and I remember not that long ago, I was researching online contemplating whether to buy a plasma or a LCD? And just last week when I visited one of my techy friends who has not only a good understanding of what’s good in the market but also has the smarts to identify and connect with smart products. At this place, I recently had an opportunity to play with a live fully connected ‘SmartTV’ from Samsung.

I was aware that just like mobile phones are a lot smarter, TV’s are going through it’s own metamorphosis – Plasma standard became High Definition & LCD TV’s were a lot more higher in their picture quality. Then came the LED TV’s and I was aware that all this time, the 3D’ability of TV’s was being worked on and so was the persuasion from a few brands to make the TV a lot more useful than just watching your traditional free to air or subscription channels such as your FOXTEL’s etc.Probably las year or so is when I saw the Sony TV with a built-in operating system and you were able to connect to the internet via Wi-Fi and if you were smart enough you could hook up say an X-Box Kinect and play online games. But a few weeks ago, I came across the SmartTV from Samsung and must say this is probably the first experience which I thought was quite seamless in terms of really leveraging the smarts through your TV, which no longer is average!

The Samsung Smart TV connects to the internet directly and you can use your iPhone or Android smartphone to control your TV and this is much more than just using your phone as a remote control – one of the cool features is that you can browse say for example, YouTube clips etc and pressing ‘Play’ on your mobile phone can play that clip on the TV instantly. And for those of us who actually use the TV as a screen to connect and watch content a.k.a movies, pictures etc via a hard cable – this I’m sure is a welcome relief as you can browse through your files and connect to all your content wirelessly. There’s been a few ways you could set this up before too but either you had to be a bit nerdy or needed to research, struggle and try and make it work or like a few would have to be using Apple TV, but I’ve heard that you not only need to connect with Apple products the device is not that greatly compatible with all file types. The best bit that I really liked in the little time that I spent was that seamless integration between the mobile and TV. There’s also apps available you could download and also the ability to easily connect to your social platform too i.e. Twitter, Facebook etc. And the app interface looks like we’ve started to use on the smart phones which makes it a tad easier to browse through.

Sure there’s a lot more brands who are going to be coming up with such smart and smarter TV’s but now think Samsung is surely a SmartTV. Our idiot Box is a lot more meaningful now!

DO YOU HAVE A SAMSUNG OR ANY OTHER SMART TV…PLS SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK?

Here’s a link to the Samsung Smart TV site

ps; I dont work for Samsung nor have I been paid to say this 😉