With the increasing popularity of smartphones, it has somehow changed our daily lives where people tend to go for mobile payments. Are you also one of them? We used to "stick" with our phones and thus mobile phones act as important medium of communication.
It will come as no surprise that Mobile World Congress this year has been dominated by smartphones and how they impact our day-to-day lives. Figures vary, but there is general agreement that the industry has reached a tipping point; soon enough, mobile internet use will surpass that of PC use. The age of the mobile is clearly upon us.
In this mobile age, one major focus is mobile payments. Whether it’s mobile banking, apps or NFC, it is clear that as smartphone use increases, so too will interest in mobile payments.
However, as we look to use the mobile as a payment device, the issue of security raises its head. With the explosion of mobile, where billions of people, especially in the developing markets, are using vast amounts of data, it appears that the current security frameworks are not fit for purpose.
In today’s seminar ‘Cyber security in a mobile world’, hosted by UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), the conclusion was clear; mobile security is an issue with the potential to cause problems if we don’t address it now.
The problems with mobile security identified at MWC are numerous. Firstly, most mobile users do not apply the same caution to phone transactions as they do on the internet. For example, only half of mobile users have a password or PIN and 59% have never changed their security settings.
Secondly, mobile capabilities are endless and so too is the range of security threats. This is why mobile operators need to be ahead of the game, offering a range of bespoke security measures to tackle these challenges. In the Mobile World Congress daily conference paper, Gareth Maclachlan, CEO and Founder of Adaptive Mobile, wrote that mobile users in pretty much all cases of security problems would hold their mobile network responsible. Mobile payments have the potential to cause a complex and difficult situation for MNOs, and now is the time to prepare against this.
The underlying message of the day for me was that there is no one silver bullet to sort out all the facets of mobile security. Collaboration, long overdue, between financial institutions and MNOs, is needed in order to guarantee security as well as high quality mobile payments services.
Source: By NICK OGDEN on 28th February 2012.
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Thursday, 1 March 2012
The Importance of Speed for Mobile Commerce
In the world of mobile, I guess you do have the same experiences as everyone else - Sometimes, a mobile site takes ages to load especially when the site is heavy and the connection is slow. It's kinda frustrated when you are in a hurry, don't you think so? So let's read more to learn some tips!
It's not enough to just have a mobile optimised website, it's vital that its performance meets customer expectations.
Speed (or lack of) kills conversions on the web, and it's no different for mobile.
In fact, with differing performance levels by device, and variable mobile internet connections, it's even more important to keep mobile sites light.
Here is some great advice taken from our Mobile Websites and Apps Otimisation Best Practice Guide, authored by Belron's Craig Sullivan....
Mobile performance and customer expectations
A few years ago, just having mobile internet was a novelty, but now customer expectations on performance have changed.
Stats from Gomez show that the majority of users expect performance levels close to that on desktop:
The stats also show that:
- 74% of users will abandon after waiting five seconds for a mobile site to load.
- 57% have experienced problems when accessing a mobile site.
- 46% would not return to a poor performing site.
If your customers are using Wi-Fi for their mobile device connection, it‟s interesting to see how many people are sitting at home. I know, because a huge proportion of our mobile site visits come from recognisable UK internet service providers.
This multi-screening – with TV, laptop, phone – is something that is fairly common these days.
However, if you don‟t have a decent Wi-Fi connection, the data speeds your customers get will vary hugely when they are using mobile data networks. Even in central London, where you would expect a decent signal, it can be very poor.
According to Aberdeen Group:
There are some cool hobbyists who are really into measuring the speed of mobile phone networks. They‟ll drive around for a few hours with their phone in the car, and map out the download speeds they get during the ride.
There are a number of people developing maps of the performance across the UK – from a signal and a performance perspective.
Aside from actually needing to stay in more and watch TV, these brave hobbyists learn what we all experience on mobile surfing – speed varies heavily, even when you get a 3G connection.
Sometimes page loading is glacially slow, like stuffing a pig down a toilet using a twiglet.
I'm tired of mobile sites that take 40, 60, 90 seconds to load, because they are bloated and I don‟t want to wait. Why should they be big, like a desktop site? Can‟t they be smaller and faster?
Keeping page size down
Don‟t be swayed to include fancy graphics or pages that take a long time to download. Speed is absolutely vital on mobile, as it impacts hugely on conversion rate, page views and other metrics.
If the customer has a less than optimal data rate, every byte on your site you can remove will improve their experience, conversion rate and raw satisfaction.
According to more stats from Gomez, on November 15 last year, the average response time for 14 industry-leading mobile retail sites was 4.73 seconds. Amazon led with a response time of 2.85 seconds.
Conversion rate increases 74% when page load time improves from 8 to 2 seconds.
Speed doesn't mean ugly
And if you think that speed means an ugly design, think again. There are heaps of templates and libraries (like jQuery) that give you great smartphone design patterns and elements to make your site slick, fast and app-like.
Test for speed
Force everyone involved to test your website on smartphones with the Wi-Fi turned off. Get them to try it when travelling or in places with poor signal reception. Give your developers some of the nice resources in this section and send them to mobile conferences regularly.
Just try harder to get a balance between good design and something that loads before my train journey is over!
Use a Content Distribution Network (CDN)
If you‟re operating internationally, I‟d advise using a Content Distribution Network (CDN) like Akamai, Level 3 etc. These content networks can speed up site load time by caching your site or data at a city level for your mobile users to get fast response. Every millisecond counts.
I‟d like to see more work here from big retail brands and popular sites, to get the size of their mobile websites optimised and trimmed. I regularly see pages where you‟re downloading 30 or 40 items and pages of 100 or more Kilobytes, which can turn into 1-2 minutes of download time. Yawn.
Avoid redirection
The other problem I see often is where a visitor is bounced around when they visit a site. You start by loading www.domain.com, which then takes ages to redirect to domain.com, which then redirects to the mobile website, m.domain.com.
This is really slow for the customer and it sucks money, as well as experience. It's called redirection and it happens when the technical people haven‟t done it a better way.
Every mobile device shouldn't be tossed around like a salad. Take them directly to their experience.
Of course, if you have a fast and solid 3G connection everywhere you go, the performance hit becomes less important. But the idea of the 'always on everywhere' fast connection stuff, it's simply not a reality yet, so stop making people wait ages to use your pages.
Conclusion
Slow page performance makes for a lousy mobile experience and poor sales. If companies let this happen through inaction, they‟re harming their own business through lack of respect for the customer.
Some of these people may also be heard saying "Hey, this mobile thing is never taking off – we never sell anything anyway. Ha ha ha!" How ironically put, as the opportunity then gets siphoned off by the competition!
There is a huge amount of data to show that every millisecond in page load time on your site makes a noticeable difference to your conversion or engagement. Mobile is where this becomes critically important for success. The attention span and patience of a mobile user is equivalent to a Peruvian gnat that‟s been at the white powder.
This isn‟t a geek thing – this desire and design for speed – it‟s a business thing, a conversion thing and a competitive advantage. Take it.
Source: By Graham Charlton on 29th February 2012.
It's not enough to just have a mobile optimised website, it's vital that its performance meets customer expectations.
Speed (or lack of) kills conversions on the web, and it's no different for mobile.
In fact, with differing performance levels by device, and variable mobile internet connections, it's even more important to keep mobile sites light.
Here is some great advice taken from our Mobile Websites and Apps Otimisation Best Practice Guide, authored by Belron's Craig Sullivan....
Mobile performance and customer expectations
A few years ago, just having mobile internet was a novelty, but now customer expectations on performance have changed.
Stats from Gomez show that the majority of users expect performance levels close to that on desktop:
The stats also show that:
- 74% of users will abandon after waiting five seconds for a mobile site to load.
- 57% have experienced problems when accessing a mobile site.
- 46% would not return to a poor performing site.
If your customers are using Wi-Fi for their mobile device connection, it‟s interesting to see how many people are sitting at home. I know, because a huge proportion of our mobile site visits come from recognisable UK internet service providers.
This multi-screening – with TV, laptop, phone – is something that is fairly common these days.
However, if you don‟t have a decent Wi-Fi connection, the data speeds your customers get will vary hugely when they are using mobile data networks. Even in central London, where you would expect a decent signal, it can be very poor.
According to Aberdeen Group:
A 1-second delay in page load time equals 11% fewer page views, a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction, and 7% loss in conversions. (In dollar terms, this means that if your site typically earns £10,000 a day, this year you could lose £250K in sales).
There are some cool hobbyists who are really into measuring the speed of mobile phone networks. They‟ll drive around for a few hours with their phone in the car, and map out the download speeds they get during the ride.
There are a number of people developing maps of the performance across the UK – from a signal and a performance perspective.
Aside from actually needing to stay in more and watch TV, these brave hobbyists learn what we all experience on mobile surfing – speed varies heavily, even when you get a 3G connection.
Sometimes page loading is glacially slow, like stuffing a pig down a toilet using a twiglet.
I'm tired of mobile sites that take 40, 60, 90 seconds to load, because they are bloated and I don‟t want to wait. Why should they be big, like a desktop site? Can‟t they be smaller and faster?
Keeping page size down
Don‟t be swayed to include fancy graphics or pages that take a long time to download. Speed is absolutely vital on mobile, as it impacts hugely on conversion rate, page views and other metrics.
If the customer has a less than optimal data rate, every byte on your site you can remove will improve their experience, conversion rate and raw satisfaction.
According to more stats from Gomez, on November 15 last year, the average response time for 14 industry-leading mobile retail sites was 4.73 seconds. Amazon led with a response time of 2.85 seconds.
Conversion rate increases 74% when page load time improves from 8 to 2 seconds.
Speed doesn't mean ugly
And if you think that speed means an ugly design, think again. There are heaps of templates and libraries (like jQuery) that give you great smartphone design patterns and elements to make your site slick, fast and app-like.
Test for speed
Force everyone involved to test your website on smartphones with the Wi-Fi turned off. Get them to try it when travelling or in places with poor signal reception. Give your developers some of the nice resources in this section and send them to mobile conferences regularly.
Just try harder to get a balance between good design and something that loads before my train journey is over!
Use a Content Distribution Network (CDN)
If you‟re operating internationally, I‟d advise using a Content Distribution Network (CDN) like Akamai, Level 3 etc. These content networks can speed up site load time by caching your site or data at a city level for your mobile users to get fast response. Every millisecond counts.
I‟d like to see more work here from big retail brands and popular sites, to get the size of their mobile websites optimised and trimmed. I regularly see pages where you‟re downloading 30 or 40 items and pages of 100 or more Kilobytes, which can turn into 1-2 minutes of download time. Yawn.
Avoid redirection
The other problem I see often is where a visitor is bounced around when they visit a site. You start by loading www.domain.com, which then takes ages to redirect to domain.com, which then redirects to the mobile website, m.domain.com.
This is really slow for the customer and it sucks money, as well as experience. It's called redirection and it happens when the technical people haven‟t done it a better way.
Every mobile device shouldn't be tossed around like a salad. Take them directly to their experience.
Of course, if you have a fast and solid 3G connection everywhere you go, the performance hit becomes less important. But the idea of the 'always on everywhere' fast connection stuff, it's simply not a reality yet, so stop making people wait ages to use your pages.
Conclusion
Slow page performance makes for a lousy mobile experience and poor sales. If companies let this happen through inaction, they‟re harming their own business through lack of respect for the customer.
Some of these people may also be heard saying "Hey, this mobile thing is never taking off – we never sell anything anyway. Ha ha ha!" How ironically put, as the opportunity then gets siphoned off by the competition!
There is a huge amount of data to show that every millisecond in page load time on your site makes a noticeable difference to your conversion or engagement. Mobile is where this becomes critically important for success. The attention span and patience of a mobile user is equivalent to a Peruvian gnat that‟s been at the white powder.
This isn‟t a geek thing – this desire and design for speed – it‟s a business thing, a conversion thing and a competitive advantage. Take it.
Source: By Graham Charlton on 29th February 2012.
Monday, 27 February 2012
Kenya - Safaricom Blocked All International Bulk SMS
Kenya Safaricom has taken a dramatic changes on international bulk sms by blocking any incoming SMS from any modified foreign alphanumeric code to its subscribers.
According to an article written by Gythan Munga of HumanIPO, Safaricom has decided that any bulk SMS purchased away from them will be blocked from terminating to its subscribers.
Why Block Incoming Messages From International Bulk SMS
“We have simply tightened our internal controls to ensure total compliance with inter-connect agreements for the exchange of voice and SMS traffic.” Nzioka Waita, Corporate Affairs Director, Safaricom told HumanIPO.
Impact of Safaricom Decision To Businesses:
This will deal a huge blow to Bulk SMS businesses in Kenya because companies that uses foreign alphanumeric code won’t be able to communicate with its customers who are Safaricom subscribers.
What this means is that your business won’t be able to use International Bulk SMS service unless it complies with Safaricom new regulations where all the Sender ID has to be registered with Safaricom.
Prevention of Crime:
There has been an increase in crime through Bulk SMS which likely influenced the decision that Safaricom made. It had becomes easier for anyone to send SMS using any Sender ID (e.g. Safaricom, M-pesa, Citizen TV, Nakumatt) of a particular brand so that they could solicit money from unaware users. Although it was a noble decision, the manner it was carried out was completely unethical since many businesses were not informed about the changes.
What Next?
The new condition will indirectly encourage businesses to start using Safaricom’s Premium Rate Service (PRS) which is more costly compared to International Bulk SMS. Most businesses will protest this move as it will increase the cost of communication through Bulk SMS to its customers.
Source: by Enock Kiprono on Feb 27, 2012
According to an article written by Gythan Munga of HumanIPO, Safaricom has decided that any bulk SMS purchased away from them will be blocked from terminating to its subscribers.
Why Block Incoming Messages From International Bulk SMS
“We have simply tightened our internal controls to ensure total compliance with inter-connect agreements for the exchange of voice and SMS traffic.” Nzioka Waita, Corporate Affairs Director, Safaricom told HumanIPO.
Impact of Safaricom Decision To Businesses:
This will deal a huge blow to Bulk SMS businesses in Kenya because companies that uses foreign alphanumeric code won’t be able to communicate with its customers who are Safaricom subscribers.
What this means is that your business won’t be able to use International Bulk SMS service unless it complies with Safaricom new regulations where all the Sender ID has to be registered with Safaricom.
Prevention of Crime:
There has been an increase in crime through Bulk SMS which likely influenced the decision that Safaricom made. It had becomes easier for anyone to send SMS using any Sender ID (e.g. Safaricom, M-pesa, Citizen TV, Nakumatt) of a particular brand so that they could solicit money from unaware users. Although it was a noble decision, the manner it was carried out was completely unethical since many businesses were not informed about the changes.
What Next?
The new condition will indirectly encourage businesses to start using Safaricom’s Premium Rate Service (PRS) which is more costly compared to International Bulk SMS. Most businesses will protest this move as it will increase the cost of communication through Bulk SMS to its customers.
Source: by Enock Kiprono on Feb 27, 2012
Acision Research Shows SMS is Still the King of Messaging With Half of UK Smartphone Users Stating They Would be Lost Without it
Due to its convenience, ubiquity, reliability, speed of delivery and price, SMS still dominates the majority of the market despite the rising of IM. It's simply because not everyone has smartphone(s) that are always connected to the Internet and thus, SMS has become the best choice for marketers to target the market who has access to SMS.
New opportunities for operators to ensure messaging relevance and revenue by providing new services which consumers want and are willing to pay for
- 95% of UK consumers polled actively use SMS
- 93% of Smartphone owners communicate with SMS, despite access to Instant Messaging (IM) services
- 3 out of 4 Smartphone owners (74%) said they need SMS, of which 51% state they would be lost without it
- 68% of Smartphone owners are willing to pay for RCS type services
According to new research launched by Acision at Mobile World Congress, SMS still dominates the mobile messaging market when compared to other messaging services such as 'Over the Top' (OTT) Instant Messaging (IM) services. 95% of all respondents questioned stated they actively use texting, significantly more than the Smartphone owners actively using OTT/IM services such as Facebook Chat (37%), Skype (20%), Twitter (17%), Blackberry Messenger (17%) and WhatsApp (16%) - the five most popular OTT/IM services today.
The research, which was conducted by Vanson Bourne and examines consumer messaging habits and preferences, is the most comprehensive study to date on the mobile messaging landscape. Based on interviews with 1000 mobile device users in the UK across smartphone (63%) and feature phone (37%) owners, the research revealed that SMS proves most popular with smartphone owners - 93% of this demographic reported using SMS. In fact, Smartphone owners appear to appreciate SMS the most, with 3 out of 4 stating a clear need for SMS (74%) - 51% of which say they would be lost without it, despite the ability to access different OTT/IM messaging services on a Smartphone. This highlights the immense value and dependence of text messaging in consumers' lives today.
When asked about their preference to SMS or OTT/IM mobile messaging services, smartphone owners cited they preferred SMS because of its reach (42%); reliability (42%); price (38%), speed of delivery (37%) and the ability to send to groups (28%). Only 4% of smartphone users said that IM is more reliable and faster than SMS, with 35% saying that they find SMS to be more reliable and faster.
Commenting on the research, Jorgen Nilsson, Chief Executive at Acision, said: "Reports that suggest that SMS is on its deathbed, it seems, have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, it appears that smartphone and feature phone owners alike are united by their affection for text messaging. What is interesting is that SMS seems to excel on devices that have been more commonly associated with IM services. Based on these results, we can see a long and healthy future for SMS, the first and still the greatest of mobile applications."
While the research shows there is a continuing appetite for SMS, users are also interested in enhanced messaging services. When asked about SMS based personalised services, a significant number of respondents said they would be like to use: message delivery notifications (47%), black/white listing (40%); message copy (37%); message search (37%) and reminder services (35%). This is evidence that there is an opportunity for operators to extend the functionality and life span of text, increase customer loyalty and generate premium revenues.
In order to test the appetite for Rich Communication Suite type services (RCS and RCS-e), respondents were asked to rate a service offered by their operator that would include IM, file transfer, group chat and video sharing, and allow them to exchange messages with all SMS and MMS users. Only 5% of UK Smartphone users said they would not use such a service and 68% said they would be happy to pay for such services, highlighting the revenue-generating potential messaging still has to offer.
Nilsson concluded, "After looking at these results it is clear that while IM is growing in popularity it still has a long way to go to catch up with the reach, reliability and ubiquitous nature of SMS. Analysts are predicting that Mobile IM will exceed 1.3 billion users by 2016*, compared to over 5 billion users with access to SMS today.
"Mobile IM does have its advantages but the market is currently fragmented as services cannot communicate with each other, and relies on a smartphone or tablet device with a mobile broadband connection. As experts in delivering both SMS and IP messaging services, we are excited about the new opportunities in IP messaging services but believe SMS will still play a leading role in our messaging backbone, not only as a connectivity tool but particularly for brands wanting to reach the 5 billion consumers with access to SMS today."
Source: By PRNewswire on 27th February 2012.
New opportunities for operators to ensure messaging relevance and revenue by providing new services which consumers want and are willing to pay for
- 95% of UK consumers polled actively use SMS
- 93% of Smartphone owners communicate with SMS, despite access to Instant Messaging (IM) services
- 3 out of 4 Smartphone owners (74%) said they need SMS, of which 51% state they would be lost without it
- 68% of Smartphone owners are willing to pay for RCS type services
According to new research launched by Acision at Mobile World Congress, SMS still dominates the mobile messaging market when compared to other messaging services such as 'Over the Top' (OTT) Instant Messaging (IM) services. 95% of all respondents questioned stated they actively use texting, significantly more than the Smartphone owners actively using OTT/IM services such as Facebook Chat (37%), Skype (20%), Twitter (17%), Blackberry Messenger (17%) and WhatsApp (16%) - the five most popular OTT/IM services today.
The research, which was conducted by Vanson Bourne and examines consumer messaging habits and preferences, is the most comprehensive study to date on the mobile messaging landscape. Based on interviews with 1000 mobile device users in the UK across smartphone (63%) and feature phone (37%) owners, the research revealed that SMS proves most popular with smartphone owners - 93% of this demographic reported using SMS. In fact, Smartphone owners appear to appreciate SMS the most, with 3 out of 4 stating a clear need for SMS (74%) - 51% of which say they would be lost without it, despite the ability to access different OTT/IM messaging services on a Smartphone. This highlights the immense value and dependence of text messaging in consumers' lives today.
When asked about their preference to SMS or OTT/IM mobile messaging services, smartphone owners cited they preferred SMS because of its reach (42%); reliability (42%); price (38%), speed of delivery (37%) and the ability to send to groups (28%). Only 4% of smartphone users said that IM is more reliable and faster than SMS, with 35% saying that they find SMS to be more reliable and faster.
Commenting on the research, Jorgen Nilsson, Chief Executive at Acision, said: "Reports that suggest that SMS is on its deathbed, it seems, have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, it appears that smartphone and feature phone owners alike are united by their affection for text messaging. What is interesting is that SMS seems to excel on devices that have been more commonly associated with IM services. Based on these results, we can see a long and healthy future for SMS, the first and still the greatest of mobile applications."
While the research shows there is a continuing appetite for SMS, users are also interested in enhanced messaging services. When asked about SMS based personalised services, a significant number of respondents said they would be like to use: message delivery notifications (47%), black/white listing (40%); message copy (37%); message search (37%) and reminder services (35%). This is evidence that there is an opportunity for operators to extend the functionality and life span of text, increase customer loyalty and generate premium revenues.
In order to test the appetite for Rich Communication Suite type services (RCS and RCS-e), respondents were asked to rate a service offered by their operator that would include IM, file transfer, group chat and video sharing, and allow them to exchange messages with all SMS and MMS users. Only 5% of UK Smartphone users said they would not use such a service and 68% said they would be happy to pay for such services, highlighting the revenue-generating potential messaging still has to offer.
Nilsson concluded, "After looking at these results it is clear that while IM is growing in popularity it still has a long way to go to catch up with the reach, reliability and ubiquitous nature of SMS. Analysts are predicting that Mobile IM will exceed 1.3 billion users by 2016*, compared to over 5 billion users with access to SMS today.
"Mobile IM does have its advantages but the market is currently fragmented as services cannot communicate with each other, and relies on a smartphone or tablet device with a mobile broadband connection. As experts in delivering both SMS and IP messaging services, we are excited about the new opportunities in IP messaging services but believe SMS will still play a leading role in our messaging backbone, not only as a connectivity tool but particularly for brands wanting to reach the 5 billion consumers with access to SMS today."
Source: By PRNewswire on 27th February 2012.
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