MasterCard Launches its Own Mobile Wallet Solution - PayPass Mobile Wallet

When Google Wallet launched last September MasterCard was named a key partner. This summer MasterCard will launch a partnership with wireless carrier mobile wallet player, Isis, in select markets (Salt Lake City and Austin). Clearly, though, MasterCard is prioritizing mobile wallet solution capabilities because now the credit card giant is launching its own mobile wallet solution – PayPass Mobile Wallet.

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Amazon Raises the Stakes in Mobile Commerce, But Business Model Challenges in Media Remain

Over the last few weeks, Amazon has been on the move to enhance and extend app developer monetization opportunities distributed through its branded Amazon Appstore, and supported across all platforms including Android smartphones, tablets, and Kindle Fire. The in-app billing capability, announced on April 10, extends monetization beyond one-time sales to ongoing purchases within the app, including expansion packs, virtual currency and subscriptions. Then, on April 17, Amazon announced that it was planning on eliminating the $20 upper-limit restrictions on in-app purchases, which is also enhanced greatly by parental control features and Amazon’s existing one-click checkout process.
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“March Madness” Week One-Results Are In: ESPN Mobile Content (Web and App) Scores Biggest With Android Smartphone Users

While CBS Sports and Turner Sports have exclusive coverage of the 2012 NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Championship tournament, televised across its four broadcast networks TBS, CBS, TNT, and truTV; ESPN properties are tops among Android smartphone users in mobile web and apps.

During Week 1 of the tournament, Android smartphone users, including March-Madness-crazed smartphone users, went to the top mobile website that they typically do – ESPN – for tournament- and other sports-related information needs, including the oh so important brackets to feed the immediate need to update NCAA-related basketball (office- or wherever-, whatever-) pools. Interestingly, according to NPD’s Connected Intelligence SmartMeter, which tracks consumer use of smartphone applications, websites, communications and content services, the NCAA’s mobile website, while a distant second (based on reach), was second. Just last month, it didn’t even show up in the top ten sports websites. To better position the daily data trends, it’s important to look at the tournament broadcast schedule for Week 1: Sunday evening EST – the Bracket Picks are announced; Monday – No games; Tuesday-Wednesday – First Round games; Thursday-Friday – Second Round games; and Saturday – Third Round games.

More general-purpose and popular sports apps, like ESPN Score Center, CBS Sports, and ScoreMobile, were among the top performers during the first week of the tournament, but we also saw some NCAA Championship tournament-specific apps, such as ESPN Bracket Bound and NCAA March Madness Live, rise to the top.

NCAA March Madness Live free version includes scores, bracket capabilities, and live audio streaming; while the premium upgrade ($3.99 one-time fee) includes live streaming video of the games. However, streaming video capabilities on Android are limited based on OS flavor. While Google Play (formerly Android Market), indicates app support for Android 2.2 and up, there have been reported app-support problems with devices in that OS mix – some of which may have contributed to the limited reach figures seen during this Week 1. Who wouldn’t want to watch live games on their smartphones (while at work – with your phone under your desk of course) for only $3.99 (for some three weeks and some 67 games)?

Once again, this data is instructive as to how general sports and March Madness-specific/designed content are performing (or not) among smartphone users. NPD Connected Intelligence will be trending the data during the entire tournament, so it will be interesting to watch the ebbs and flows not just daily, which is a bit of a roller-coaster, but weekly and over multiple weeks, particularly as the field of teams continues to whittle, which generally lead to a drop in avid team- and fan-driven interest. But, speaking from personal experience, some (I) will always want to know how they’re (I’m) doing in (my) (not office) March Madness pool(s). [Go Kansas!]

“Words With Friends” Finds lots of Friends on Android Smartphones

“Words With Friends,” the Zynga Scrabble-like (or “inspired”) game that garnered both notoriety and lots of free marketing thanks in part to Alec Baldwin’s antics on an American Airlines flight, has come into its own among Android smartphone users.

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HSN Showcases Digital And Women In Tech Success Story

Beyond all of the “cloud chatter” and plethora of device announcements at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), HSN talked-up their “boundary less” retail strategy; digital efforts (driven in part by mobile gaming veteran and their EVP of Digital, Jill Braff); and offered sell-through proof points driven by their largely female audience (85 percent).
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Embracing Digital Publishing Brings Revenue Challenges

Connected Intelligence’s recently published “Content Adoption Report,” highlights both the good and bad news for publishers resulting from the impact of digital. The bad news for book publishers, nearly 40 percent of consumers who read e-content say that they are buying fewer books. The good news, more than one third of consumers say that they are filling the physical book gap with digital e-book content.
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Let the Google M-Wallet Games Begin . . . Well, Sort Of

With the launch of Google’s Nexus S smartphone, the ability to pay for items with a phone (using Near Field Communication) instead of a credit card has arrived in the U.S. One small step for mankind, one just as small step for payment solutions. The caveats for this service abound: You must be a Sprint customer to get the phone; you need a PayPass-enabled Citi MasterCard (or a Google Prepaid MasterCard); and, most importantly, you must understand what this all means and have a desire to use the phone for payments. Read more »

It’s an Android-Android-Android World in Smartphones . . . At Least for Now

In thinking about how Android has turned the U.S. smartphone market on its head over the past eighteen months, the musical anthem that most readily comes to mind is James Brown’s “This is a Man’s World.” This really is an Android world . . . an Android-Android-Android world . . . at least from a smartphone OS penetration perspective. At least half of all smartphone purchases in the past three quarters have been Android-based. Read more »

Broadband Video: On Demand, On the Go, and On the Rise

Is video “cord-cutting” really much ado about nothing? Well, sort of. In our inaugural report for Connected Intelligence, Broadband Video: On Demand, On the Go, and On the Rise, we cut (pun intended) through the cord-cutting hype and look at how the growth of broadband video, including heightened competition from Over-The-Top (OTT) video providers, is impacting incumbent pay TV providers, device manufacturers and content owners in the home, and the growth and evolution of video services outside of the home for nomadic (fixed settings outside the home, e.g., coffee shops) and for mobile (on-the-go) use.

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