On April 3, eBay will take mobile commerce a step further, with a new version of the eBay app for iPad.

“We offer more choice in ecommerce formats for sellers and buyers than any other online shopping destination,” said Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay Marketplaces. “The eBay Selling app makes it easy for sellers to bring even greater value and selection to eBay and offer more great deals for buyers. Whether selling or shopping, we’ve put the world’s largest online marketplace in the palm of your hand, and we’ve introduced a great new option for consumers who prefer to sell and buy in a trusted, family friendly local classifieds format.”

eBay is the world’s leading mobile commerce innovator. With more than 8 million people using their iPhones to shop eBay, the company expects to generate $1.5 billion in merchandise volume through its mobile platform in 2010. That’s approximately two-and-a-half times the more than $600 million eBay generated in mobile commerce merchandise volume in 2009. The eBay mobile apps are available in more than 190 countries and eight languages. And, with the new mobile apps adding more easy ways to sell on eBay.com and eBayClassifieds.com, buyers have more options than ever to access incredible value and selection online and find the best deals in their neighborhood, across the country and around the world.

With the new eBay Selling app, which is free to download, eBay sellers can:

• Point, shoot and click to list an item from their iPhones in 60 seconds or less
• Research sales trends and price ranges on eBay and list similar items for sale
• Easily and clearly view the status of items for sale
• Share listings with Facebook and Twitter social networks
• Quickly link to other eBay and PayPal iPhone apps

The new eBay Classifieds application for the iPhone, also free to download, creates an unmatched shopping experience for classifieds sellers and buyers. The eBay Classifieds mobile app provides:

• Free ad postings in less than a minute with up to eight photos, either from the iPhone’s photo library or its camera
• Fast and simple search by keyword, location, price range and other attributes
• Single-page ad view with reply, watch, and share features – all while on the go

With the recent release of PayPal Mobile for iPhone, paying for classifieds transactions is easier and safer than ever. A buyer can quickly email money or “bump” iPhones with a seller to transfer funds between PayPal accounts.

Not really sold out - but 300,000 is a deal...

“It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world—it’s going to be a game changer,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPad users, on average, downloaded more than three apps and close to one book within hours of unpacking their new iPad.”

“The global potential for connected devices is huge – it’s more than just mobile phones and laptop PCs. It can be anything that has a mobile connection embedded in it such as a camera, a music player, a car, a smart meter or a health monitor,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at the GSMA. “Predictions around how many devices will be connected to mobile networks vary, but we expect to see up to 50 billion connected devices over the next 15 years, finally making the prospect of a truly connected lifestyle a reality. Reducing the cost of innovative healthcare solutions, lowering carbon emissions and substantially improving energy efficiency are just some of the significant societal benefits connected devices will provide the world over.”

Cost Effective Modules for the Embedded Mobile Market

The GSMA and 25 leading organisations1 have developed a set of industry guidelines for the design and implementation of embedded modules in new device categories. These guidelines promote a core family of module types with the aim of driving economies of scale to lower the cost of embedding modules in everyday devices. The guidelines also provide an opportunity for the mobile industry to work with the consumer electronics, healthcare, automotive and utilities sectors by addressing sector-specific connectivity needs. Initial proposals have been outlined for simpler certification and cost-effective provisioning processes to speed up the launch of new embedded devices and services. The industry will also play a key role in helping users understand which devices are ready to use on a mobile network through a simple service mark identification programme.

GSMA Forges mHealth Relationship with Continua Health Alliance

Recognising the important role embedded mobile technology will play in healthcare, the GSMA announced its collaboration with the Continua Health Alliance to grow and promote the global mHealth sector. The two organisations will leverage the expertise of their members to enable interoperability for connected devices and create a scalable and viable market for mHealth. They will jointly work on standardisation processes in both the mobile and healthcare sectors, providing guidelines to enable mobility in mHealth devices, and jointly promote mHealth-related activities. The mobile industry can contribute substantially to improving the accessibility of healthcare systems around the world, as well as helping to reduce costs, by providing solutions to diagnose disease, monitor patient health and intervene ahead of acute events.  McKinsey, the global management consultancy, and the GSMA predict the healthcare industry could see approximately $175-200 billion in annual cost savings for managing chronic diseases in OECD and BRIC countries alone through remote monitoring.

Other key areas of focus for the GSMA’s Embedded Mobile initiative include energy management and transportation. The use of smart meters that can transmit detailed, real-time information back to a utility company and to a home or business can typically reduce energy consumption by 3.5% to 7%2. A new breed of mobile applications will allow users to remotely adjust heating and lighting to improve energy efficiency and reduce consumption. For the automotive industry, mobile connectivity in vehicles can improve everything from vehicle maintenance to in-car entertainment, as well as helping motorists avoid areas of traffic congestion and providing efficient destination management for commercial transportation.

Winners of Embedded Mobile Competition Announced

The GSMA named the winners of its Embedded Mobile Competition, which recognises new and innovative devices and services and is designed to encourage innovation and partnerships. This phase of the competition identified best-in-class devices and services that are commercially available now or will be in the near future. A panel of nine judges from organisations including ABI Research, Beecham Research, Current Analysis, Orange, Telecom Italia, Vodafone, Ventura Team and Yankee Group, rated entries on innovation, functionality, business models and market potential.

The winners are:

Best Embedded Mobile Device Category
• Isabella and AT&T for Vizit (two-way, fully interactive digital photo frame)

Best Embedded Mobile End-to-End Service Category (jointly awarded)
• Samsung and KT for its ‘connected digital signage and consumer electronics convergence service’
• Philips and Cinterion for System One (mHealth respironics sleep therapy service)

“With its compelling, high-speed and cost-effective network architecture, LTE is bringing the GSM and CDMA communities together. We are delighted that China Telecom, KDDI, and Verizon Wireless have joined the GSMA along with Qualcomm, and will be among the first operators to launch commercial LTE services,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at the GSMA. “The rapid rise in demand for Mobile Broadband devices, applications and services is driving both GSM and CDMA operators to evolve their network infrastructures and embrace new, cutting-edge technologies, and LTE is widely regarded as ‘the’ Mobile Broadband technology that will be adopted by the vast majority of mobile operators globally.”

“As the largest state-owned operator in China, China Telecom is very excited to join the GSMA, which will enable us to extend our reach and network across the global mobile ecosystem,” said Mr. Cao Lei, Director of Technology, China Telecom.

“We have succeeded in bringing our customers satisfaction with the performance and quality of services via our CDMA network, but the growing demand for broader bandwidth and richer multimedia applications drove us to move towards LTE. We look forward to deploying LTE by the end of 2012 and the benefits a global ecosystem for Mobile Broadband will provide,” said Tadashi Onodera, President and Chairman, KDDI.

“User demand for Mobile Broadband services is today’s key network driver, and LTE provides a valuable addition for operators to address this demand,” said Andrew Gilbert, Executive Vice President and President of Qualcomm Internet Services and Qualcomm Europe. “LTE has the advantage of leveraging the existing 3G Mobile Broadband ecosystem, which includes hundreds of successful operators, vendors and developers already achieving significant economies of scale. These partnerships – and the collaborations they enable – greatly amplify LTE’s benefits and clear the path for future Mobile Broadband growth.”

Dick Lynch, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Verizon, said, “In the one year since Verizon Wireless first announced our LTE plans here at Mobile World Congress, LTE has quickly become the global technology choice for 4G. We’re proud of that global leadership, and believe our work will advance by aligning with the GSMA’s mission and members to advance LTE throughout the globe.”

LTE is set to out-perform most of today’s fixed-line broadband networks by delivering very fast, highly responsive mobile voice and data services with peak rate speeds of up to 100Mbs downlink and 50Mbs uplink. LTE was developed to enable a significant increase in the bandwidth achievable over mobile networks, while also boosting network capacity and reducing latency. LTE is designed to be interoperable with widely-used global technologies such as GPRS, WCDMA and HSPA, building on the all-pervasive international roaming capabilities available today. This will allow mobile operators deploying LTE to provide a seamless service and multi-mode devices for their customers, who will benefit from using high-speed mobile internet to surf the web or download applications wherever they are on a wide range of devices.

More than 74 mobile operators from around the world have committed to plans, trials or deployments for LTE, with many more commitments expected to be announced over the coming year. The world’s first commercial LTE network was launched at the end of 2009 in Sweden by TeliaSonera, with NTT DoCoMo in Japan on track to join China Telecom and Verizon Wireless in deploying commercial LTE services by the end of 2010. LTE is expected to experience substantial growth over the next three years with research firm Infonetics predicting the number of  global LTE connections to exceed 72 million by 2013.

OPUS-M’s architecture enforces a modular and very flexible format made up of client selectable components catered to the specific needs of each customer, whether that be increased security, massive transaction support, fancy mobile features or enhanced application browsing. OPUS-M’s components are separated into the 3 layers outlined below: the Core, the Service Layer, and the Application Layer.

Core

The Core of OPUS-M provides a framework upon which modules and applications are built. The core is part of OPUS-M for all clients. Some of the more notable components belonging to the core include the following:

• Messaging Framework
• Security
• Device Recognition
• Image Re-sampling
• Transaction History
• Billing

Service Layer

The Service Layer of OPUS-M addresses and offers several selectable components to cater to the business needs of customers setting up their m-commerce storefronts with such components as:

• Sales and Marketing Support
• Customer Relationship Management
• Content Management
• Business Intelligence and Reports
• Augmented Reality and New Media apps
• Location-based Systems
• Application Migration
• Interface Adapter for 3rd Party Tools and Apps

Application Layer

The Application Layer of OPUS-M is comprised of Artificial Life business modules as well as 3rd party contributions to the platform. By launching applications on the OPUS-M platform, content providers may leverage the existing customer base and exposure provided by service operators.

• Business Applications
• Games
• New Media
• Social Networking

With so much to offer, OPUS-M appeals to a wide customer base in the mobile market: business customers, content providers, and end-consumers. Clients can select their individual set of modules needed, providing support for social networking and even the latest augmented reality technology.

The pricing of the components is based on a monthly rental and usage fee and can be adjusted according to the transaction numbers executed via the platform. Artificial Life also provides hosting services for the platform and applications and cloud computing and data distribution support for its clients. OPUS-M is scheduled for commercial release in Q2, 2010.

“As recently announced, we will focus in 2010 on products and services for the business community in addition to our mobile games and applications. OPUS-M, with its broad appeal, flexible module concept, innovative pricing, hosting support and comprehensive feature set is our key product to implement the new expanded business strategy. Further details about OPUS-M will be provided on our corporate website soon,” said Eberhard Schoneburg, CEO of Artificial Life, Inc.

Sterling Store Associate Mobile Inventory Availability detail view (Image: Sterling Commerce)

Two new Sterling Commerce mobile applications — Sterling Store Associate Mobile and Sterling Mobile Store Channel — will be demonstrated at the National Retail Federation Convention and Expo (NRF) at booth #2203.

These new applications enable anytime, anywhere access to capabilities of key Sterling Commerce offerings as part of the company’s strategy to extend its collaborative applications and integration solutions to mobile devices. Its first mobile applications work with Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Suite, the company’s applications suite for orchestrating the entire inquiry-to-cash process, including order capture/management, logistics management and supply chain visibility.

“It’s only a matter of time before most people will have some sort of smartphone, similar to the way cell phones eventually became ubiquitous,” said Bob Irwin, president and CEO of Sterling Commerce, “and the compelling user interface of the iPhone makes it the perfect venue for us to explore ‘The Art of the Possible’ by showing companies things they might not have even thought of doing or knew they could do with our solutions. We are excited to introduce our new mobile offerings at NRF because retailers are facing the greatest demand right now to make mobile devices the ‘fourth channel,’ on top of in-store, Web and call center sales channels.”

By offering access to the company’s powerful order management capabilities from a mobile device, the new mobile applications help retailers enhance the cross-channel shopping experience and improve their ability to save the sale. The new Sterling Store Associate Mobile and Sterling Mobile Store Channel applications work with Sterling Order Management and enable consumers to:

• Get the products they want when facing an out-of-stock situation

Sterling Store Associate Mobile enables store associates to be more effective in meeting consumer needs by finding and reserving available-to-promise inventory and completing the sale from the mobile device, minimizing customer wait time and inconvenience when stock is not immediately available. The new mobile application extends access to the
capabilities of recently announced Sterling Always In Stock to the iPhone.
(see release here)

• Shop via their mobile device through a mobile store front

Sterling Mobile Store Channel provides mobile commerce capabilities for retailers to build and deploy a mobile store presence that enables consumers to browse available products, find inventory, select their fulfillment method, and order and pay for products all from their mobile handheld device.

“Just as the Internet and e-commerce emerged as key elements of buying and selling more than decade ago, mobile capabilities and m-commerce are just another wave in how retailers and consumers can and want to leverage new technology in doing business,” said Jim Bengier, global industry executive, Retail, at Sterling Commerce. “With a customer list that includes eight of the world’s top ten retailers, Sterling Commerce understands the key cross-channel challenges retailers face. These new mobile applications demonstrate our continued innovation in helping retailers deliver value in managing and executing their cross-channel experience accurately, securely, and more efficiently than their competitors.”

Sterling Mobile Store Channel offers visibility into inventory (Image: Sterling Commerce)

According to an independent report, “For eBusinesses and retailers, one clear benefit of mobile applications is how they can provide unprecedented opportunities for cross-channel interaction; they can be the conduit that ties the channels together, linking them through consumers’ mobile devices,” wrote Brian K. Walker, senior analyst, eBusiness & Channel Strategy (“Is The Time Right To Build A Mobile App?,” Forrester Research, Inc., October 2009).

According to Juniper Research, consumer use of mobile coupons will generate close to $6 billion globally in retail redemption value by 2014.(1) With shoppers expecting more from their favorite retailers, Motorola recognizes the importance of customer loyalty and satisfaction, and its new Mobile Loyalty Solution is the first in a planned series of mobile commerce offerings to help retailers create a great shopping experience for their best customers.

“Consumer use of the mobile phone is evolving – and its importance during the shopping experience is increasing significantly. With a growing number of smart phone users and the enhanced capability of their operating platforms, an era where a constant digital connection via a mobile phone enhances the consumer’s shopping experience has begun,” said Dana Warszona, global lead for the m-commerce portfolio within Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility Solutions division. “From enabling consumers to easily search for product information to completing transactions, the mobile phone has become a business critical tool that retailers must incorporate into their strategy to meet the needs of customers, now and in the future.”

A perfect extension to a retailer’s existing loyalty program, or a viable option for retailers who wish to create a new loyalty program, Motorola’s Mobile Loyalty Solution will enable retailers to proactively send offers and incentives to the customer’s mobile phone – eliminating the need for membership cards and paper coupons. Customers can opt in to the program online or in the store by text messaging a short code to indicate interest in receiving offers on their mobile phone. Consumers then receive a mobile application with a bar code on their mobile phone that acts as the shopper’s unique identifier or mobile loyalty card and can be scanned at the point of sale (POS). By mobilizing the card, retailers are afforded the opportunity to increase program participation, and shoppers are rewarded with special offers, more convenient access to customized coupons and a quicker check-out experience.

“Kerr Drug recognizes that accessibility to product information, services and discounts is critical to maintaining customer loyalty,” said Bill Baxley, Kerr Drug’s Senior Vice President Merchandising and Marketing. “In a few weeks we will be launching Motorola’s Mobile Loyalty Solution as part of a larger Kerr Reward’s program. It’s a critical piece because it will let us speak directly to shoppers with targeted digital coupons and offerings to help us foster a stronger relationship with our customers.”

Motorola’s Mobile Loyalty Solution enables a “closed-loop” system that allows retailers to maintain a rich database of shopper product interests, purchase habits and preferences. While Motorola manages distribution to the program members, retailers can focus on creating the most relevant marketing messages, as well as determining how frequently coupons and offerings are sent. As a result, offers are timely and redemption rates are accurately tracked.

As customers enjoy the convenience of using their mobile phone to access store offers and the nearest store locations, retailers are able to attract shoppers and increase store traffic with targeted incentives. This new approach gives the retail supply chain a tool to improve sales, increase rewards redemption and improve customer satisfaction levels by eliminating the traditional approach of rewarding customers as they leave the store, which also increases the opportunity for retailers and their manufacturing trading partners to collaborate more effectively on real-time offers. Customers no longer need to carry coupons or membership cards to redeem rewards, so checkout time is significantly reduced to ultimately improve the shopping experience. And this environmentally friendly offering also eliminates the need to print coupons – creating a paper-free program, reducing costs and helping retailers drive more environmentally sustainable programs.

In addition to the mobile game business for 2010, the Company will focus strongly on mobile business and lifestyle applications. In 2009, approximately 58% of the revenues were generated from the sales and licensing of mobile games, with the remaining 42% generated by mobile business and lifestyle applications. The Company expects this ratio to increase further in favor of the business and lifestyle applications in 2010.

Artificial Life is currently preparing and developing new mobile business and lifestyle products in the following fields:

• Mobile health care and health monitoring for diabetes
• Mobile security, digital watermarking and virtual reconstruction of objects
• Augmented reality and mobile image recognition
• Mobile green technology, environmental protection monitoring and control applications

Artificial Life also announced the upcoming release of a new version and major extension of its MobileBooster platform. The new platform will serve as a full and flexible m-commerce platform for business clients that can be configured to suit customer needs by the clients themselves. Further announcements to detail the features of this new and powerful m-commerce platform will be issued shortly by the Company.

“With the support of our business partners and new shareholders, we will venture into more mobile business and lifestyle applications in 2010. The demand in the mobile business and lifestyle applications arena will keep growing with the ever increasing number of smartphones produced and sold worldwide. We expect that the new business and lifestyle applications and especially our new m-commerce platform will also help us to win new B2B clients and to create an even broader international corporate client base,” said Schoneburg.

iPod Touch and iPhone users loaded 3 billion Apps until today (Image: Apple)

iPhone and iPod touch customers in 77 countries worldwide can choose from an incredible range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

“Most Enterprises are struggling to support the vastly growing population of mobile workers and users worldwide,” said Jack Gold, president and principal analyst of J.Gold Associates, LLC. “This is increasing the demand for hosted/managed services, richer applications, broader device support, access to backend systems, SMS, MMS and IMS integration, and centralized management and security. Although sometimes challenging, mobility is creating a new, convenient communication and transaction channel to end users. To achieve maximum effectiveness, enterprises must rely on third parties, like Sybase, that can provide proven technology, expertise and services to implement the most productive mobile solutions for their workforce.”

“This year we have made major strides in advancing our mobile middleware and mobile commerce solutions, moving to a Mobile IP infrastructure, while building out our partnership ecosystem. Our proven expertise and enterprise mobility platform is unrivaled in the industry, enabling enterprises to fully embrace the current transformation of both the mobile workforce and mobile users through improved collaboration, and seamless, highly secure access to information and transaction capabilities,” said Raj Nathan, senior vice president and CMO, Sybase, Inc. “In 2010, continuing to extend our partner eco-system is an important focus for Sybase in order to significantly expand our offerings and reach to enterprises around the world.”