Visa ramping up move to mobile payments

Visa is accelerating its efforts to dominate the mobile payment space, Reuters reported on Monday. Visa is no stranger to mobile payments. It began trialing an iPhone NFC payment solution in Europe early this year, has plans to work with Samsung on a system for the 2012 Olympics, and recently announced that it has partnered with ISIS for the development of a mobile payment network in the United States. “As mobile payments and other chip-based emerging technologies are poised to take off in the coming years, we are taking steps today to create a commercial framework that will support growth opportunities,” Visa’s global head of product Jim McCarty told Reuters.

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BGR

Poynt User Base Growing Tremendously But at What Cost?

 

Poynt is easily one of the best BlackBerry apps ever built and we love writing about it. What we also love about Poynt is that it’s a public corporation so their financials are available to anyone who cares to do a little digging. The mobile industry is hot right now and Poynt serves as an interesting case study about what it takes to grow a large mobile company and how profitable a free app with purely advertising-based revenues can be.

Today marks a pretty big news day for Poynt as the app/company has surpassed more than 8.5 million unique users at the end of June 2011 across North America, Western Europe and Australia, after reaching 3.2 million at the end of June 2010. Of the over 700,000+ new users added in June 2011, 500,000+ were on the Android platform. Existing preloads contributed to over 300,000+ of these Android users in the month of June. So far in July, the average number of new daily users added has exceeded 25,000, putting the Company on track for another record month. Currently, Poynt has over 9.0 million unique users.

Here are the numbers Poynt would like us to focus on:

The last financials posted on Poynt’s site were the Q3 2010 Financial Statements. We should be seeing new filings coming soon but we can see the sort of cost it takes to get to almost 10 million users and the revenue one might expect.

Obviously as Poynt grows its user base, it’s also growing as a company. Traditionally, mobile companies are pretty lean but Poynt seems to be fairly heavy in terms of management and operating costs. Salary and consulting fees increased by $619,702 or 132% in 2010 compared to the same period in 2009. Another area where Poynt differs from a typical mobile company is in advertising. Most app companies will rely on the app stores and manufacturers for promotion, with some blog and inexpensive community outreach. Poynt on the other hand, has advertising and promotion expenses that increased by $692,932 (789%). Overall, a company like Poynt is cash intensive to operate. For the three months ended September 30, 2010, the Company used $1,388,590 (2009 – $2,594,534) cash in operating activities.

Revenue for Poynt has increased but it doesn’t come close to covering their expenses. Sales and licensing revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2010 increased by 172% to $605,092 from $222,760 for the same period in 2009.

It should be interesting to see what the latest financials for Poynt bring but it would be surprising if revenues ever come close to covering expenses. Perhaps the lean, startup-style mobile company is the only way to truly be profitable in this industry.

via: bbcool

WeatherPro now available for BlackBerry

Regardless if you check the weather for travel plans, work or your daily excersise routine, a good weather app is a must-have on our BlackBerry device for a lot of us. WeatherPro by MeteoGroup, has been a top selling Android, Windows & iOS application for a while and now they have decided to show us BlackBerry users some of that love too. WeatherPro for BlackBerry 1.0 provides a 7 day forecast for more than 2 million locations. With updates every three hours you will always have access to the very latest weather, no matter where you are in the world.

With WeatherPro you can get animated worldwide satellite images and radar for much of Europe and the United States. WeatherPro for BlackBerry 1.0 supports radar for Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Denmark, the Baltic States, Sweden, Norway, Finland and the United States. WeatherPro is $4.99 and currently available for the following BlackBerry devices: 89xx, 9000, 93xx, 95xx, 96xx, 97xx & 9800.

For more information / download WeatherPro for BlackBerry 1.0

Mobile payments could balloon 76% to $86 billion this year, Gartner says

141.1 million people around the world will make mobile payments this year, a 38.2% increase from last year, Gartner said in a new report issued on Friday. Global mobile payment volume is expected to hit $86.1 billion in 2011, up 75.9% from the $48.9 billion recorded last year. Gartner says mobile payments are not growing as fast as originally projected due to slower than expected uptake in developing countries. In addition, the “complexity of the [NFC]” service model has impeded its ability to takeoff in developed countries. “The biggest hurdle is the need to change user behavior by convincing consumers to pay with mobile phones instead of cash and cards,” Gartner research director Sandy Shen said, noting that mass market adoption of near-field communications (NFC) is at least four years away. Mobile payments will be driven by prepaid top-ups and money transfers, the research firm said. “Thanks to the success of mobile application stores, such as Apple’s App Store, and the efforts in driving mobile sales by major retailers, such as Amazon and eBay, merchandise purchases far outweigh other use cases in developed markets, which include North America and Western Europe,” Shen said. “We predict that in 2011, merchandise purchases will account for 90 percent and 77 percent of all transactions in North America and Western Europe, respectively.” Read on for the full press release.

BlackBerry DevCon: Europe and Asia dates and locations announced!

Back during BlackBerry World RIM announced they would be expanding their BlackBerry Developer Conferences to new areas this year. Europe was included this time around, as was Asia after having hosted the first DevCon Asia in Indonesia back in January. The dates and locations at the time of the announcement hadn’t been worked out but now we have dates and a location for DevCon Europe and a location for DevCon Asia:

• DevCon Europe: Amsterdam, February 7 and 8, 2012.
• DevCon Asia: Bangkok, Thailand with specific dates to be announced shortly.

If you’re a BlackBerry developer and are planning on participating in either of the DevCon events scheduled, RIM has extended the call for papers until Friday July 15th for BlackBerry DEVCON Asia and Friday September 16th for DevCon Europe.

Learn more via the BlackBerry DevCon Website

via:cb

Drome – a local Canadian search application, world domination soon?

 

The word ‘drome’ is an odd one – it’s one of those words that has many different meanings. It could refer to a place to race or run, or could refer to something that moves together. It’s also a name of an application by Taste My City. Like many Local Search Applications, Drome can handle looking for Movies, Nightlife venues, Coffee shops/Internet Cafes, Hotels, Points of Interest and Restaurants. Depending on the city, you can also receive coupons for many locations via email. Your location is determined by GPS location, cell site or by manual input. Drome offers a few extras, depending on which type of search you are performing. When looking at bars and/or restaurants some locations may have an accessible menu and additionally list forms of payment accepted. For all entries, they at least have a mapped location and a phone number to call. Looking through the movies section, you can check out trailers, show times, galleries, reviews, plot synopsis and more. Extra options include options to add entries to your calendar/address book, various search or filter options and access to a favourites list.

At this point, Drome is only available in specific Canadian cities; Greater Toronto & Southern Ontario, Greater Vancouver Area, Montreal & Laval, Calgary, Ottawa, Quebec City, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Halifax. Cities in the UK and US will hopefully be announced soon. According to their website, there are plans to expand to Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa and more. Drome still has some promise, but I still prefer Poynt as I can also see weather information, have the option to use Google Maps and have the ability to purchase tickets through the app. Of course, time will tell what Drome will bring to the table. If you want to check out Drome, you can get it for free from BlackBerry App World.

More information/download Drome for BlackBerry smartphones[qrcode pix=150]http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/44125?lang=en[/qrcode]

Univision Deportes Fútbol (Soccer) for BlackBerry PlayBook

If you are a fan of soccer (Fútbol for the rest of the world) Univision  the largest U.S Spanish language network just released an application for the BlackBerry PlayBook. The Application has a fluid design and transitions from one screen to the other are smooth. The application lets you see the latest soccer news for all the current tournaments, keep up with live scores and share news through twitter.  This may not be relevant to some of you but am sure our Spanish speaking readers will enjoy knowing they have this option.

Full App description:

NOTE: Spanish only content at this time.

The Univision Deportes (Fútbol) App brings our industry-leading soccer coverage to the large and fast growing U.S. Hispanic mobile audience. The app provides ultimate soccer fans real-time, personalized access to all the latest soccer news, videos, results, stats and photos. All year long, the app delivers nonstop coverage of the best worldwide soccer tournaments and leagues from around the world. The app is now optimized for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ with a unique user interface.

The Univision Deportes (Fútbol) App is part of a great app line-up, which includes sports scores, video, and Univision content apps that resonate with Hispanics and their passion points. The app is U.S. based.

Features:

• The world’s most important soccer tournaments and leagues, from Europe to America, including the Mexican Soccer League, English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A , Brasileirao, UEFA Champions League, Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana, among many others
• Article, photo, and video sharing make it easy for you to share your passion with friends
• 24/7 results, along with and real time game casts, stats and lineups

To download the application follow this link on your PlayBook browser.

via:bbr

Possible BIS outage across Europe and North America this past Monday and Tues

OK We’ve been getting plenty of users in North America and Europe letting us know their has been some issues with BIS as of late. Many folks in the UK have spoken up in the Other Sites forums and for some North American users BIS over WiFi has been down for what is going on Monday and Tue. Some carriers are advising that it is due to a BIS update that is rolling out now but — the accuracy in that info cannot be confirmed at this time. What about you all, any issues? If so speak up in the comments

BelCompany to introduce BlackBerry PlayBook in the Netherlands

Europe, this is for you. After several retailers in the UK announcing the availability of the BlackBerry PlayBook on June 16th, BelCompany is here to do the same for the Netherlands, on the exact same date. Hopefully this means that June 16th marks the launch of the BlackBerry PlayBook in all of Europe, and perhaps other countries countries as well. As far as pricing goes, the BlackBerry PlayBook will be available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models at 479€, 579€ and 679€ respectively.

As a European myself, I am very excited about this; the BlackBerry PlayBook definitely has something to go for it and I really want to see it become available in every part and corner of the world. What do you think? Is it time for the BlackBerry PlayBook to finally shake the tablet market on a global scale? I think YES! 😉

 

via: cb

France Telecom CEO on RIM: Not Actually Declining But Needs to Fix Quality Problems

France Telecom is the 3rd largest carrier in Europe and has over 216 million customers spread over mobile, fixed line, internet, digital television and IT services. Its CEO is Stephane Richard, and in a recent interview with All Things D, he had a few things to say about RIM. First, which speaks volumes to the media’s perception of RIM that doesn’t jive particularly well with the numbers, Stephane says “[RIM] is not really declining. It’s still popular in Europe.” Stephane also continues by saying that RIM has had quality issues and that in order to stay the course and remain competitive, it needs to address these quality problems. This would probably be a fair judgement as RIM has had a few devices such as the Storm that had many quality concerns and its old trackball hardware which caused many to be frustrated with their device. Here is the exact quote:

On RIM:

It’s not really declining. It’s still popular in Europe. They have customers and users that are quite faithful to them. It works more or less like a community of people. It’s often families that are big BlackBerry users, and of course companies.

They have had some quality problems in the recent period which is a concern, especially with the next generations of devices.

In my view as a customer, or as a partner of them, I think they really should fix very quickly their quality problems.

Read the rest of the interview at All Things D.

via:bbcool