The Mobile App Internet Arrives

Today's Forrester Research release pegs the mobile app market for smartphones at about $1.9 billion for 2010.

Does that sound like a lot?  Well.  By 2015, Forrester forecasts a total mobile app market for both smartphones and tablets 20 TIMES as large, with smartphones alone driving nearly $30 billion. 

Corporations will spend up to $17 billion creating apps for their products and working with services and solutions providers. Combined revenues from mobile applications, services and business management?  $54.6 billion a year by 2015. 

Today, fully 1-in-3 smartphone users say they downloaded an app in the past month.  As the base grows, and as penetration grows, so will our economy - we have found the driver for the next age of computing.

Are Cellphones Safe?

Well, it would probably be a good idea to keep studying. 

After last week's JAMA article, no one will be doubting that cellphones have the potential to alter brain chemistry.  Does the artificial increase in blood glucose usage near the cellphone antenna constitute a health problem?  It might, if you do it frequently enough, say, for hours every single day.

Thanks NIH folks (and NY Times).

Look Past Online for Mobile Banking Potential

Perhaps what is most interesting about Forrester Research's US Mobile Banking Forecast, 2010 To 2015 is the idea that there is vast potential in getting those who do not bank online with a PC to do so with their smartphone.  While most mobile banking programs seek out active online adults, far more adults currently own a cell phone and use it daily than access the Internet on a PC, and it is here where there is more potential to both add value for customers and reduce delivery costs for the bank.

Forrester reports, however, that Gen X and Y will be the drivers behind mobile adoption.  “Gen X adults (ages 31 to 44) today make up 39 percent of U.S. mobile bankers —the most of any generation... when combined with Gen Y users, the two account for more than three-quarters of all current mobile banking users. By 2015, Gen Y will surpass Gen X and will make up 44 percent of U.S. mobile bankers. These two groups represent the present and the future of mobile banking.”

To get to that one in five US adults, banks will need to do a lot more.
   1. Introduce innovative new features, like mobile remote deposit capture, not commonly available through other channels.
   2. Optimize existing functionality to offer superior user experiences through the mobile channel.
   3. Leverage the unique capabilities of mobile devices and the mobile channel, particularly location based services.

The real ROI from mobile banking will come from engaging the 40% of US consumers who today do not bank online. As Forrester notes, today's online banking functionality won't get it done.

Wait for iPhone 5 On Verizon

You waited 4 years for Verizon to offer their version.

Apple plans to launch iPhone 5 in June, maybe July.

Why not wait another couple of months before locking in for two years? 

And they'll have the bugs out of the Verizon version by then, too.

Fox Plugs iPad Daily As Egypt Explodes

"14 cents a day" is all Rupert says it takes to enjoy his glossy daily on the iPad, in the first major test of content on that platform. 

As Fox covered this, every other major news org was showing IEDs exploding in Cairo.

Would you pay $40 a year for this?  For now, America for one has already voted - name one magazine currently succeeding with such an online model.  Will the glossy multimedia content of the Daily turn the tide?  Verizon is offering it free for two weeks, than it's 99 cents a week, $40 a year.

Do you wanna buy an "I (Heart) Hosni" t-shirt real cheap?