Mobile Commerce

Screen windows segment courtesy of Handmark

I know a lot of people who have purchased items from Amazon. And, I can't think of a single one that has had a bad experience with them. And, the few incidents (like non-delivered items) were taken care of by Amazon's customer service in some reasonable amount of time. I think it is safe to say that Amazon has earned a healthy degree of trust from its online customers since its online launch in 1995. So, if you as a 21st century mobile shopper were buying from some mobile site, would you feel more comfortable buying from that site if it tied into Amazon's payment system? I'd guess that many people would say, "yes." Amazon thinks so too. So, as ReadWriteWeb reports...

Amazon Announces Mobile Payments Service

You can find the details on Amazon at...

Amazon Mobile Payments Service (Amazon MPS)

Both the developer and customer experience looks simple to understand and execute based on the illustrated examples on the site. The optional Multi Use Tokens sounds especially interesting. It lets online merchant sites let a customer allow multiple payments up to a certain amount with an expiration date without requiring multiple logins. This sounds perfect for virtual world micropayments or real world coffee shops.

Screenshots courtesy of Dunkin' Donuts & Burger King

While reading about the new Dunkin' Donuts iPhone app...

Dunkin' Donuts releases 'social' iPhone app

...I wondered how many other nationwide fast food and beverage chains have also jumped on the iPhone app bandwagon to promote their brand and products. Sure, Starbucks, McDonalds and other food giants already had apps out there that I simply had not noticed among the tens of thousands of iPhone apps. Right?

I searched around the iTunes Store looking for a dozen or two chains. Surprisingly, the only apps I could find are listed below...

Burger King Now: Phone Ordering (only works in Flushing, NY in Queens)

Dunkin' Donuts Dunkin' Run

Olive Garden Step-by-Step Cooking Demonstrations

Taco Bell Why Pay More! Shaker

Are there others? And, what are the big chains like McDonalds and Starbucks plannning, if anything? If you have more information, please add it in comments here.

YouTube video courtesy of amy4mobilepayments

Intuit, well known for their Quicken personal finance software, has a mobile credit card payment processing service named Intuit GoPayment. It supports a small number of phones including several BlackBerry models and the Motorola Razr v3xx and can work with an optional Bluetooth credit card reader as well as a combo Bluetooth credit card reader with printer.

If you bought a Palm Pre over the weekend, you can now also use it with Intuit's service to process credit card payments...

Intuit GoPayment Turns Palm Pre Phone Into Credit Card Terminal

Quicken says that the Bluetooth card reader is optional and that you can process credit cards with just the Palm Pre's native features. The GoPayment service has a one-time $59.95 setup fee with a $19.95 per month recurring cost (in addition to transaction fees).

If you point your mobile browser at...

dell.com

...you'll see a mobile friendly web presentation provided by Useablenet. I'm surprised that the site shows Useablenet's URL instead of Dell though. I wonder if people will trust the site without the Dell.com showing in the address bar. I suspect most people won't notice or care. But, still...

You can read more about Dell's mobile site at...

Dell.com on a Phone Near You

Wouldn't it be cool to wave your Visa credit card in some procedurally appropriate way to make a payment? It is possible using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology which is a short-range (about 4 centimeters) wireless data transfer technology. According to this PC World article...

Visa Makes NFC Payment Commercially Available

...this is actually available... if you are in Malaysia and have a Nokia 6212 phone.

Do you ever get the feeling that U.S. consumers are falling further and further behind the rest of the world in technology?

I don't have a Kindle. But, I do have an iPhone (and iPod touch) and installed the free Kindle app on both devices. I also bought my first Kindle book to read on those devices a few weeks back before heading on a flight. Althought Kindle ebooks tend to be less expensive than those annoying (to me) individual app ebooks for the iPhone, I still thought it was a bit much to pay $7.99 for an ebook counterpart of a paperbook that also costs $7.99. After all, the ebook has no manufacturing, shipping, stocking or any other kind of physical distribution cost associated with it. And, I cannot loan or give the book to someone after I read it. So, it is less functional in that respect. According to this Wired.com item, it looks like I'm not the only one a bit annoyed about ebook prices...

Kindle Readers Ignite Protest Over E-Book Prices

Protesters are using Amazon's book tagging system to point out ebooks that are price more than $10 with '9 99 boycott'. As one person interviewed for Wired.com's article said, it doesn't make sense just to tag $10 books. The whole Kindle ebook pricing structure seems a bit whacky to me.

According to Jason Bailey, CEO of Super Rewards, mobile and online game publishers have three choices when it comes to making money: charge for it, "slap ads on it and give it away" or use the Super Rewards virtual currency platform and earn up to 100 times more than with just simple ads.

Super Rewards is now available for just about any online game or application and for iPhone applications, offers content publishers an ongoing revenue stream for their social network apps, virtual worlds or games, from casual to MMORPG.

Publishers embed the Super Rewards platform into their games using the company's SDK. From there, they can reward users with in-game points, virtual goods or virtual cash for completing a survey, signing up for an advertiser's service, paying by credit card or whatever other type of opt-in scheme they want to employ.

When Loot Wars, a collection and fighting game for the iPhone, first went up on the App Store, game publisher Golgi charged a few dollars for it. Gogli changed its strategy and began offering it for free, subsidized by ads using the Super Rewards platform. According to Loot Wars developer Aaron Abeyta, within the first month of using Super Rewards, "we've had 10 times the daily downloads and our revenues from Loot Wars have almost doubled."

Although the only mobile platform currently supported by Super Rewards is the iPhone, the company is working on Android and Symbian versions of the SDK, Bailey said.

Mobile payments start-up Mogees has bought its way into the mobile application store competition. VentureBeat reports that the company has acquired BerryStore, a still-in-beta storefront for third-party BlackBerry apps. Terms were not disclosed.

Prior to the acquisition, Mogees was solely focused on helping companies monetize their mobile apps through various methods such as subscriptions, free trials, a rewards network and the ability to buy and sell in-app virtual goods. Now, with an app store model of its own, Mogees can add content distribution to its repertoire of services (not to mention make money from the apps already up on BerryStore).

Mogees just officially launched its BlackBerry SDK earlier this month.

Nokia is supporting the mobile payments industry through an investment in Obopay. Redwood City, California-based Obopay operates a service that lets consumers and businesses make purchases and transfer money via a mobile phone through Obopay's mobile app, a text message, the mobile Web or at Obopay.com.

Although the companies aren't saying just how much Nokia is putting into the mobile payments firm, the Financial Times puts the amount at around $70 million. Nokia got a minority stake in Obopay for its investment, and Teppo Paavola, VP and head of corporate business development at Nokia, has taken a seat on Obopay's board.

Mobile billing start-up Mogees has unveiled the Mogees Reward Network for application developers and the Mogees Reward Points program for the consumers who download and use the apps in the reward network.

The company also officially launched the Mogees Payment SDK for the BlackBerry platform so BlackBerry app developers can offer free trials of their apps, sell premium content on a one-off or subscription basis and even enable virtual currency within their applications.

Mogees released and SDK for Android applications in November.
If the developers join the Mogees Network, folks who download and use their apps can earn points towards such goodies as Amazon gift certificates and Nintendo Wii consoles.