Apple Will Moves In on Your Wallet.

With the iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad, and iMac, Apple is the most powerful technology company in the world. It’s also the No. 1 music retailer in the U.S. and among the top sellers of online movies, too.
And Now, It might become an iBank.

After the great acheivement, Thanks to a technology that lets you use your mobile phone to pay for your stuffs, not just online. This tech, called near-field communication, involves a microchip that can send and receive data across very short distances, about four(4) inches. That instead of swiping a credit card, you hold your phone near a reader and let the data zip between the two devices, thats all.


Research director(Richard Doherty) at Envisioneering Group, a research firm in Seaford, New York., said he believes Apple intends to put NFC chips into the next versions of the iPhone and iPad (like after 2010) as the first step toward a business that Doherty calls “iCash.” This could transform the market for mobile commerce, not to mention the company itself: “It’s the bank of Apple.” As usual, Apple says it does not comment about speculations. But Doherty says his firm has sources on standards bodies and at contract manufacturers that lead him to believe a mobile-payment system is in the works.
There’s nothing new about this technology. Nokia and other manufacturers have been shipping phones with NFC chips in them for several years. Doherty says he's used an NFC phone to pay for a tram ride in Barcelona. But so far the chips’ use has been limited.

Where things get interesting is in the system for processing payments. Apple’s iTunes Store already has above 150 million credit-card numbers on file. People use iTunes to buy music, movies, books, and appllications. Why not extend that to other purchases as well—like groceries, movie tickets, general other things, etc? “When NFC meshes with iTunes, the world suddenly changes,

Right now, when you use iTunes, Apple bills your credit-card company—and pays onerous processing fees. But with this new system, iTunes could draw money directly from your bank account to you. Apple would be showing credit cards in the form of smart phones and other devices and operating its own payment-processing system, something akin to PayPal.

Read more »

CIO — Goodbye, $.99 iPhone apps.

In fact, mobile app developers are weighing seven business models, the most prevalent still being application store sales with 59 percent of respondents using this model. Other models include advertising (43 percent), in-app purchase (42 percent), brand loyalty and engagement (34 percent), mobile commerce (26 percent), subscription (26 percent), and coupons programs (10 percent).
The fastest growing business model is mobile commerce. In a similar survey last year, only 14 percent of mobile app developers had mobile commerce as part of their business model mix. Today, one out of four have mobile commerce, a growth of 86 percent.
Applications are also maturing and becoming more complex, evolving from simple content-based applications to applications that make use of location, social and cloud services to transactional applications that tap the power of mobile commerce, according to the study.
"As the customer experience evolves, so does application sophistication, customer expectations, business transformation opportunities and the underlying business models," the study concludes.
On the tablet front, the survey found that Androids and, to a lesser degree, the BlackBerry PlayBook are gaining mindshare among developers at a faster rate than the market-making iPad.
Seventy-four(74) percent of respondents said they are "very interested" in developing for Android tablets, up from sixty-two(62) percent last year. Twenty-eight(28) percent are eyeing the BlackBerry PlayBook, up from sixteen(16) percent last year. The iPad leads with eighty-seven(87) percent, only a 3 percent increase from last year. Web OS tablet interest remained flat.
So who is going to host these Android applications? The survey found that eighty-two(82) percent of respondents are interested in distributing their apps via the Android market, thirty-seven(37) percent in Amazon's new Android Appstore, 13 percent on Verizon (VZ) VCAST, and 9 percent on GetJar.
The survey's bullish Android results, however, could have been affected by the Android tablet hype at this year's CES in Las Vegas. More than 85 Android tablets stole the show, and Appcelerator and IDC surveyed mobile app developers only a week after the CES.

Read more »

Manufacturing of iPad 2 to begin in February(2011), iPhone 5 in May(2011)?

According to a report, Apple’s manufacturing partners overseas they are going to start their ipad, ipad2 in February which would be followed by the manufacturing of the iPhone 5 in May. China’s commercial time have reported that production of  of iPad 2 will be starting from the next month i.e. (February02-2011). The companies shipment for the second quarter of 2011 is expected to increase significantly, it is expected that iPad 2 sales will cross over the peak of sales attain by its predecessor.


It is also reported that Foxconn have once again taken the lead in getting the greater share of the pie, as it remains apples biggest manufacturing partner. This company previously manufactured iPhone 4, iPad and Mac systems for Apple. This company is one of the biggest suppliers of Apples product Pegatron is also involved in the device this time around.
The report also claims that the “mass production” of iPhone 5 will start in May(2011) and as we all know that Apple always release the new generation of iPhone somewhere around in June(2011), so the mass production of iPhone 5 makes sense.
This report also states that Apples Charismatic Steve Jobs won’t be attending the Mac World conference on the 26th of January, Due to his health issues. Jobs a pancreatic cancer survivor has turn around so many things for Apple from the last decade. His recent health issue is scaring a lot of potential investors these days

Read more »

"The company is doing out additional ways to visualize data on iPads and iPhones, including "heat map" and calendar-style presentations and many more. Another new feature will enable in-memory data stores on mobile devices to receive new information without having to remake the whole repository. MicroStrategy's in-memory capabilities will now also be able to suck in data from multidimensional databases such as Oracle's Essbase"


"A product called MicroStrategy Transaction Services like barcode reader which will allow mobile applications to talk to transactional systems back at the home office. For example, a store worker could use an iPhone "to scan the bar code of an item, identify the product as a top-seller, see the sales forecast for the item, and immediately initiate a re-order," the company said  on their statement"



"MicroStrategy is also use to discuss tools. Business users can use to explore large data sets in visual fashion, as well as an on-demand version of its BI platform, which is now in beta"


"Of all the announcements, MicroStrategy's mobile plans are the most significant, said Forrester Research analyst Boris Evelson"

Read more »

''French broadcaster TF1 has launched a application in the Apple App Store for both iPhone and iPad. The app gives access to streaming live content, as well as on-demand catch-up TV and ‘bonus’ content.

The broadcaster has said the TF1 Vision app will offer at least 80 hours a week of fresh programming, “representing the variety and richness of TF1′s programme grid”. The application is full of free of charge.

The application also offers social media integration via its TF1&Vous (TF1 and you) functionality, which connects the channel to Facebook. The broadcaster claims it is the most popular media company in Europe on Facebook with over 4 million fans. “We are leaders in social TV”.

Read more »

"Apple will add NFC (near-field communication) capabilities to next generation iPhone and iPad, director of the consulting firm Some Group.  NFC is a Basic form of wireless data transfer over short (up to Some-inch) distances, which could be used to make purchases with a mobile device. If Apple ties the technology with customers’ iTunes account, making purchases may become as easy as swiping your phone over a specified designed sticker or payment terminal.
"Apple is thinking of starting a mobile payment service as early as mid-2011, integrating it into iTunes and adding the familiar concept of loyalty credits and points into the service.Doherty claims, which may be heavily subsidized or even given away to small businesses, starting the service.  At first glance, NFC may not seem like a big deal, but making payments simple and easier makes a world of difference, which Apple already demonstrated with the success of its App Store. Turning the iPhone and the iPad into digital wallets opens up a great of things which can give potentially mean billions in revenue for Apple"

Read more »