Mobile Payments Fragmentation - Growing Number Of Players

Growing field of mobile payments increasing with standards still to be determined.

 
The idea of Mobile Payments is one which is expected to take hold this year around the world. The US appears to be a little slower on the uptake for getting on board, but it is the supporting structures which are necessary to make this happen. From the mobile phone and the Near Field Communication (NFC) chips which are embedded, the necessary flow from that point on needs to be provided and is being worked on. The Point Of Sale (POS) devices are being installed in retail outlets and you probably have seen them already. It is the handling of the transactions which has been the problem because of a lack of standards. The first company to get the biggest share of the market will probably have more leverage in establishing their standards for everyone else. The latest one to join the push is MasterCard and their PayPass Wallet.

This was announced this week and joins a growing field of players which look to fragment the market along with fragmenting the standards. There are at least 4 primary players now including MasterCard PayPass, Google Wallet, Visa PayWave and PayPal Digital Wallet. There is also the Isis group and their mobile wallet of which MasterCard and Visa are members of the group. Exactly how all of these will work together is an unknown right now. It would appear that the Isis group is working to handle the mobile payments from the back end so that they can go through a bank, credit card or wireless carrier's bill.

There are all these competing methods of making payments from the mobile device via NFC and it at times causes problems. I am simplifying the process and only talking about the NFC and in reality, there are other chips and processes involved in making mobile payments. When the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was about to be released by Verizon, problems as to whether they would support Google Wallet became an issue and in the end, Verizon chose to not use Google's payment method. Instead they are going to be supporting the Isis group and the methods that are determined there. Whether they go with the MasterCard or Visa mobile solution has yet to be announced by Verizon, but we can expect to hear that decision this year. Given that Google has worldwide coverage, this will create more fragmentation in the market and standards.

It is the fragmentation which looks to be coming as a potential problem. Each wireless carrier is going to potentially have a say as to which one their wireless network is going to be supporting and that is a problem. When you purchase a smart phone from a carrier, you will more than likely be forced to use their predefined method for NFC payments. If you switch wireless carriers in the future, how you make your payments will more than likely change given the way that things are looking right now.

Given that Google has their Google Wallet, we can expect that Apple has some payment method in the works as well. We have not heard from them, but knowing the past with Apple, they have something which we will hear about when the NFC enabled iPhone 5 is announced.

In Asia, they are already using mobile payments and have been for years with a majority of the population using the payment system. They have one primary method which sets them apart from what we are seeing. And of course the US has to do things differently. One of those differences is to make sure that things will work around the globe. In Asia, many of the systems are local to a country and not much further beyond that.

Where all this is going to end up and which standards are going to be established is up in the air. We do expect to see more competition this year, such as Apple entering with their version. This is leading up to the US utilizing mobile payments in a way we have never done before and may take years to gain the kind of acceptance which is needed. For now, there appears to be growing fragmentation.

Android Fragmentation: Finger Pointing Begins For ICS

AT&T implies Google is to blame for slow roll out of Android 4.0

 
The battle to get Android 4.0 rolled out in order to upgrade existing smart phones has now turned to finger pointing as to exactly who is at fault. This has been building for a time, but has suddenly emerged into the spotlight based on recent comments from AT&T this week. There have been hints of this growing trouble over the past few months as to where the real problem lies in getting the latest version of the Android OS cleanly and quickly rolled out. It is those comments regarding "negotiated agreements" which seemed to have caused some problems.

Stephenson said, in response to a question from the audience. "Google kind of determines what platform gets the newest releases and when. Often times that's a negotiated arrangement, and so that's something we work at hard. We know that it's important to our customers."

A negotiated arrangement has been responded to by Google and a negotiated arrangement does not exist. So, the question comes up as to where the problems really lies with the Android fragmentation. The most recent reports are showing disappointing growth for Android 4.0 and the numbers are showing it is going to take a long time to get upgrades rolled out. Jean-Baptiste Queru is part of the Android Open Source Project (ASOP) and is in the know as to what is going on. From his Google+ page under "15 minutes, and 8 months" he lays out the waiting game to get things rolled out for a new Android OS. This is just the reality in the industry.

Now starts another 8-month waiting game. In over 10 years working on the software side of the cell phone industry, I've learned that it takes about 8 months between getting the software ready and seeing it widely deployed. Edit: Meaning, deployed on new devices.

But does it have to be. Once Google (or Microsoft) rolls out an updated OS, it first goes to the manufacturers so that they can make the necessary changes to the OS to support the chip set on the mobile device. That is to be expected and does take a certain amount of time to make sure it works correctly under testing conditions. It is after this point when things start to break down. Various manufacturers then add their pieces to the OS, such as a customized interface or other software add ons. Once they have finished with that, it is turned over to wireless carriers who then add their pieces to the puzzle as interface changes or added software to the mix. All of this take a lot of time to be done. Especially as the OS gets more complicated beyond the pure Ice Cream Sandwich released by Google.

All of this takes time and apparently is understood by Jean-Baptiste Queru as part of the process. There are some things which could be done in an effort to speed up the process, such as what Microsoft has done to move things forward quicker. But Android is Open Source and there in lies part of the problem. Manufacturers and wireless carriers are free to do pretty much anything they want to OS, all of which take time. So, why is AT&T pointing fingers at Google in the roll out process?

AT&T may be doing this as part of a bigger strategy to deflect blame away from the carrier which in the end is not really going to change public opinion. They have been trying to blame the FCC for their recent price hikes because of the failure of the T-Mobile deal. The reality is they probably would have raised their prices anyway and this is a smoke screen to deflect blame. The same thing applies to the slow Android roll out. The manufacturers are the first barrier to the roll out and then the wireless carriers are the second barrier to the roll out.

What would happen if the manufacturers and wireless carriers did not change or add to Android 4.0? We probably would not have the level of fragmentation we are seeing today.

Rethinking Your Password Strategies

As more sites are hacked and holes emerge in programs, changing how you think of passwords is critical.

 
The use of good passwords is the first line of defense you have to protect your information. It does not matter whether it is your password to log on to your computer, access your email over the web or your password to Social Networking sites. Each and everyone of them is your first line of defense to stop those who are up to no good. We have seen way too many breaches over the past 12 months making the whole idea of secure passwords far more important than they have ever been before.

Some parts of the problem are outside your control. As an example, when hackers gain access to a server which contains passwords of users, there is not much you can do about protecting yourself. The best thing is to change your password as soon as you hear about an event like this happening. Unfortunately, the trend is to not release information until days or weeks later and at that point, the damage has already been done. So, what are you to do to protect yourself. There are several strategies you can employee.

Do not reuse passwords

This is the first strategy you should employee. If you use the same password on your GMail account as you do on your Facebook account, you are asking for trouble. Some people use the same password across everything which requires one. That alone will cause you major problems if someone gets a list of passwords from a server and you are one of them. Hackers know that many people do not create unique passwords, but instead take the easy path. Keeping each password unique is very important.

Use a variety of characters to make a complex password

Some people only use letters to define their password. This makes it very easy for hackers to guess. You should include a variety of characters which includes letters (upper and lower case), numbers and special characters. I realize that some locations limit you on the special characters and some do not allow them at all. In those situations, you need to take other measures. Remember, you are trying to protect your information and that should make it critical to protect. So, do not use something that is easily guessed, like your first and last name put together.

Longer passwords are harder to crack

It used to be a password of 6 characters was consider to be safe. The number of characters necessary to protect your password is continuing to change. It used to be a lower length, but now a length of 12 characters is considered the minimum to be consider secure. That's right a minimum of 12. The majority of the population probably is not using a password that long. It makes it too hard to remember. The reason for the longer passwords is because the hackers tools have become more sophisticated, so you need to try and stay ahead of them. Software to maintain a list of your passwords may be something you should consider.

Password security questions

When you forget your password, there are many locations which give you the option of changing it. In those situations, they ask you questions when you set up your account. The key is to not create and answer questions which are easily guessed. Such as what elementary school did you go to is one that is seen a lot. If you put that information on your Facebook page, you just gave someone part of what they need to reset your password and log on to your account. It is important to create questions or provide answers which are not going to be easily guessed. One that I see a lot is what is your mother's maiden name. With so much information on the web, that one could probably be easily found and used. Do not put in a name that is easily found, but one that cannot be found. Yes, I am saying to not put in your mothers maiden name unless you want to have someone get into your account. Pick another name to put in so as to make it that much harder.

Password management software

There is a trend to use password management tools, such as RoboForm which has features to manage all your passwords and generate unique passwords for you. With something like this, you do not have to remember the logon and password once you set it up. You click on the item in the password management software and it goes to the site and logs you on. This is something which I see growing in need as longer passwords become the norm to protect your accounts. With this type of software, you only have to remember a single password rather than the passwords for each of your logons.

The landscape continues to change when it comes to passwords and you must adapt and adjust to protect yourself.

Patent Infringement Suits Force Lawyers Involvement In Design

Are lawyers becoming part of the design process for smart phones?

 
We have been hearing about the on going war between Samsung and Apple over patent infringements between the two companies. This has been happening all over the world between the 2 companies. And in a strange twist, Samsung still provides Apple with components for their devices. All of this has seen a lot of injunctions being filed between the two companies and most recently a court ordered mediation in California between the companies in an effort to settle the long running dispute. Apple has claimed on multiple occasions that Samsung has literally "copied" their technology and designs to create the Samsung models we are seeing. It is those kinds of claims which cause legal departments to inject themselves into the creative process.

And that may well be the case with the recently announced Samsung Galaxy S3 which was announced this past week. While it appears that Samsung (S Voice) has been adding features which mimic what Apple has provided on the iPhone (Siri), the actual design, or shape, of the phone has changed from what we might have expected. It raises the question of why Samsung would have made a design change and it did not leak out to match the final product. All of this may be explained because the Galaxy S3 was designed by lawyers or so goes a great article at Android Police where they lay out the facts and draw the conclusions. Given the growing spate of lawsuits we are seeing around the world, it does not surprise us that lawyers have been involved in the design of a smart phone.

So Samsung, was it worth it? Your product won't sell as well, but you won't piss off one of your biggest component customers either. I understand the motivation, but I still feel like you've sold your soul.

Back in April of 2011, Apple filed a laundry lists of infringements made by Samsung for their smart phones which were taken from the iPhone. While that is a legal matter, the article takes to task a number of specific items listed in the infringements and lays out how Samsung made sure to not tread on them in the latest Galaxy S3. And for each item, they show just what lengths Samsung supposedly went to so as to avoid the listed items and protect them from further patent infringement claims from Apple. Will this be enough to stop infringement claims against Samsung? Probably not, as companies bring out an army of lawyers for more than patent infringement, but to attempt to hold off the competition.

While you may not believe the claims that lawyers designed the Galaxy S3, there is evidence that they were involved in the process. The rounded corners of the phone are far difference from the Galaxy S II and do not add to the design of the phone. Instead they take away from the smart phone look. When I first saw the phone, I thought something looked strange about it and soon realized they have rounded the corners in a strange way. After reading the story about the lawyers designing the phone to avoid more suits, I realized what was so strange. The rounders corners at the top are different than the rounded corners at the bottom. It is that difference that seems to make the phone look funny. And, it addresses one of the infringement complaints from Apple back in April 2011.

The other item the story revealed was that the space above and below the touch screen was not the same. The vast majority of phones have the top and bottom area of the phone being exactly the same size. The Android Police article is suggesting the difference is to satisfy the lawyers so as to not infringe on Apple's claims from previous smart phones from Samsung. And that may well be the case as it does not add to the phone, but rather takes away from how it looks. The top area is 16% smaller than the bottom area and that is enough to throw the eyes off when looking at the phone. The only plausible explanation for this is because the lawyers wanted to make sure to not repeat the designs which Apple is complaining about.

Given Steve Job's design extremes for perfection, this one would have driven him crazy. Looking at it continues to bother me and that is not a good thing. I was very hopeful that Samsung would deliver a fantastic product and take a larger share of the smart phone market. With this most recent design, it appears they have missed the mark which may cost them some sales in the end. They have opened the door for Apple and the iPhone 5 which is a mistake.

It sure does look like the lawyers had a definite hand in the design process for the Galaxy S3. Do you believe the lawyers influenced the final design of the Galaxy S3?

Dropbox Offering 50 GB Of Free Storage For 2 Years

Dropbox providing space as promotion with Samsung Galaxy S3 phone

 
Dropbox has been seeing competition over the past year and the most recent in that competition is Google and their Google Drive which offers up 5 GB of free space for the free account. Dropbox only offers 2 GB as part of the free space and then you have to do other activities to increase that space. They make you jump through some hoops to grow your space with the most recent efforts involving your pictures. All of this may now have to change with Google entering the game in a David and Goliath story. When Google enters a market, they have an impact to the market and impact smaller sized companies quite often. But that is not always the case with Google taking over and the Dropbox story may be another situation where Google does not grab a large market share.

Dropbox has teamed up with Samsung to provide you with 50 GB of free storage space. That sounds like a fantastic deal as compared to the normal 2 GB which they offer when you sign up. Obviously there are rules and regulations associated with this, but they are worth considering. There is a limited amount of time for the 50 GB of storage and it is 2 years. After that, you would have to pay for the continued usage of that space which is current $99 per year (or $9.99 per month) for the Pro 50 package. This is a great marketing idea from Dropbox as once you have the space used, you are more than likely to continue using it after the 2 year free period. But, there is still one more catch to the rules and regulations.


You have to purchase the new Samsung Galaxy S3 smart phone which was announced this week. The 2 year subscription comes bundled with the purchase of this recently announced smart phone as a way to promote it. The joint offering is an excellent way to promote both product offerings. Samsung sold over 20 million of their Galaxy S II smart phone in February after being launched last April. The expectations for the Galaxy S3 are even higher and with the Dropbox deal, they are adding to the movement for this device. There are many other features which will have higher sales and it is expected to be available this summer.

The idea of cloud storage has been growing for smart phones as you can store things on your local computer and then have them available on other devices including your smart phone. Apple raised the idea up with iCloud last year and the iPhone 4S and it looked to be a big hit. Samsung has followed up on the cloud storage, but rather than create their own service, they took a smarter route and partnered with a well know provider in Dropbox. This is a much better route to take and opens things up for consumers in a way that Apple's iCloud cannot do.

Dropbox has the distinction of providing their Dropbox functionality on far more devices than the competition and sets them ahead of all the others out their providing cloud storage. With the growing importance of pictures for social media and the improving picture taking capabilities of smart phones, adding Dropbox makes sense. You can take pictures with the coming Galaxy S3 and put them in your Dropbox folder on the phone and immediately have them available on your desktop computer in the Dropbox folder. This is a big deal and is only going to grow much larger this year.

While you may not be interested in purchasing the Galaxy S3 and getting the 50 GB of free storage, the idea of higher end smart phones having free cloud storage through providers like Dropbox is hopefully going to become the standard with all new phones this year.

Do you believe all smart phones should come with bundled cloud storage?

Android 4.0 ICS Growth Disappointing

Disappointing increase from 2.9% to 4.9% indicate a slow down in adoption.

 
Numbers for the various flavors of Android have been updated on the Android Developers site. Those new numbers are an update to the April 2nd ones and are as of May 1st which reflect the previous 14 days and reflect active mobile devices during that time frame. The much smaller than expected increase continues to magnify the Google Android Fragmentation issues which are a growing problem for Google. Given the number of active version in play, the expectation was for Ice Cream Sandwich to be in double digits with this latest report. There has been a growing number of reports for mobile devices getting Android 4.0 and that was expected to drive the numbers much higher than they are being reported. You can take a look at the most recent information at the Android developers site under the Platform Versions.

I talked about the numbers last month and the reported delays in mobile devices getting Ice Cream Sandwich. Some popular Android phones are in the process of getting Android 4.0, such as the Galaxy S2 but it is still rolling out and Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy S3 in a few days. That speaks to the problems which are plaguing the latest OS from Google. Even the Galaxy Note 5.3, which was announced to be getting Ice Cream Sandwich in the first quarter and has yet to receive the update. It is now being reported that the Galaxy Note will get it some time this quarter which is a pretty vague statement for the arrival. And this is for a phone which Samsung is heavily promoting.



While some are promoting the idea of Android fragmentation as good for developers, it is problematic for consumers. Those who have purchased smart phones in the past 6 months have expected to already have received the latest update to Android 4.0 and many are still waiting. There are new Android smart phones being sold this year which are not coming with Ice Cream Sandwich and that condition continues today. It has been almost 6 months since Google announced Ice Cream Sandwich and another month before it appeared on the Galaxy Nexus. That was in December and here we are in May and still Android 4.0 has yet to roll out to all possible mobile devices. This is a huge mistake and should be at a point where we are seeing the last few devices getting the latest OS. It looks more like we are in the middle of the roll out given the poor showing of the numbers here.

Given that Jean-Baptiste Queru of the Android Open Source Project has said it takes about 8 months to "seeing it widely deployed" for software in the cell phone industry to be distributed. Since Android 4.0 came out in November, that would mean we would see it widely deployed by July. At a 4.9% distribution as being reported here, they have a really long ways to go before it will get to that point.

The expectation of Android 4.0 being "widely distributed" by July do not seem realistic given we are at 4.9%. That is no where near where they need to be if a substantial distribution is expected. At this point, Jelly Bean , Android 5.0, is rumored to arrive in Q3 and there have already been leaked builds. At the rate of distribution for Android 4.0, there will be some mobile devices still waiting for for Ice Cream Sandwich when Android 5.0 is released. Android fragmentation is only going to get worse given what we are seeing from this most recent report.

Do you believe that Android fragmentation is going to get much worse?

Will Mobile Payments Have Slow Adoption In The US?

Based on a recent survey, people are concerned about privacy.

 
Mobile payments have been in the news this week as reports of various organizations are talking about rolling out mobile payments through the use of your smart phone. More phones are beginning to arrive with NFC (Near Field Communication) chips contained in them. Rumors have the coming iPhone 5 as containing the NFC chip. In the US, that means that by the end of the 3rd quarter, the majority of new smart phones will contain NFC chips for utilizing mobile payments. One of the big players in this was believed to be Google and their Google Wallet which has been in the news with the Galaxy Nexus and Verizon conflict. Unfortunately, things have slowed down and competition from Isis which has the support of several wireless carriers here in the US is causing confusion as to who is the leader. There are all the competing methods and some fighting to stop them in the European Union.

We talked about mobile payments being part of your strategy as it looks like 2012 is going to be the year we finally see wide spread roll out into the market. Credit card companies are also embedding chips in the cards for mobile payments as well. There are growing signs that it is going to happen in the US and around the world as well. So, why have we not been seeing a faster adoption rate here in the US? There may be an answer to that question as a result of a recent survey done by the University of California at Berkeley.

It would appear that the idea of tracking someone's purchasing habits or location are becoming an obstacle to the adoption of mobile payments. We all remember the big uproar when it was revealed that some wireless carriers here in the US were tracking people's actual location via cell towers. People like their privacy. You then add in all the hacking which has been done over the past year exposing names, address information, emails and other personal information. People here in the US are sensitive to the potential exposure of more information through the use of mobile payment systems used via smart phones.

We found that Americans overwhelmingly oppose the revelation of
contact information (phone number, email address, and home
address) to merchants when making purchases with mobile payment
systems. Furthermore, an even higher level of opposition exists to
systems that track consumers’ movements through their mobile
phones

While this survey was actually sponsored by Nokia, there is apparently valuable information here which those wanting to handle mobile payments need to pay attention to. There are a large number of benefits from moving to mobile payment systems and predictions of them replacing the use of currency have been circulating. But, it is the idea that some company or marketer may know your buying habits or movements through the use of mobile payments is an issue. This is what has people very concerned about this coming change in technology.

We are bombarded with phone calls from people trying to sell you something, get you to take a survey or donate money to some cause that has people weary of other intrusions. These are on our home phones. Since mobile payments via your smart phone provides the people handling the processing of information access to personal information, such as your mobile phone number, it has many concerned. I have tried to not give out my cell phone number because I do not want to get the same type of calls I get at home. I do not need someone calling my cell phone asking me to take a survey. And that is the potential with all the personal information which is potentially exposed each time that you make a purchase.

Existing "Do Not Call" lists do not stop this potential because of the "existing relationship" loop hole in the law. While I want to take full advantage of mobile payments once things become more widespread here in the US, my concerns about my privacy are something I worry about. There are probably a lot more people who are more than concerned and will hesitate to make a decision to use NFC as a payment method using their smart phone. The privacy issues have not been talked about much and we can hope that this recent survey raises this topic up and is addressed.

You can download the UC Berkeley report and read it for yourself.

Are you concerned about possible exposure of personal information through the use of mobile payments on your smart phone?