Put On Your Favorite Dream And Fly

Make Use of Mobile Marketing   –   Play Where You Can Win

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Sorry for the big shocker. Almost a year after reports that Amazon was testing smartphones in Asia, half a year after rumors Amazon was buying a smartphone chip processor, a year after more reports that Amazon was building its own smartphone, five months after unveiling a notifications system that would look really nice on a smartphone, and six months after probably wild speculation that Amazon was going to unveil a smartphone for the pre-Christmas shopping spree in 2012, there’s yet another report that Amazon is building a smartphone.

But this one has a 3D screen.

The Wall Street Journal says that Amazon is building at least two smartphones, including a high-end model with 3D graphics and retina-tracking technology so that users can navigate content by “using just their eyes.” Plus an audio-only “streaming content device.”

Harrumph.

Amazon is almost certainly working on a smartphone and almost certainly planning to release it in 2013. There’s just too much smoke for there not to be fire. And having made its bet on digital content being the growth engine of the company’s future success — 12 of the 15 highlights in Amazon’s recent earnings release were about digital content — a smartphone that makes use of Amazon’s recently expanded app store and burgeoning virtual shelves of ebooks, TV shows, movies, and all other forms of digital content makes way too much sense.

But a couple grains of salt.

Amazon hasn’t made its bones in the tablet market by offering the absolutely latest and greatest technology but by presenting a solid product at a rock-bottom price. So I’m a little skeptical about all the wild 3D speculation — especially because that could be a sweet datapoint plant for the company to identify leak sources. And, in reality, a company the size of Amazon, like Apple, is working on many different projects at any given time. Some of them will come to market, and some of them won’t.

One company that can’t be happy about Amazon impending smartphone plans, however, has to be Google. Amazon has essentially hijacked Android for its Kindle offerings, taking the open-source mobile operating system that Google has developed, stripping out the Google app store, Google apps, and Google branding, and replacing them with its own offerings. Amazon will doubtless adopt the exact same strategy with any smartphone play — as Samsung might as well.

And, given the fact that Kindle is probably the leading Android-based tablet, it has the potential to do well in smartphones as well.

Of course, incumbent leader in Android sales Samsung might have a thing or two to say about that.

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Samsung has announced a fourth-quarter profit for 2012 double what it was the year before, capping a record year for the company. The Korean technology giant made 20 trillion won ($18.8 billion) in profits in 2012 and 8.8 trillion won ($8.3 billion) in the fourth quarter alone. Revenue was boosted in part by record sales for Samsung’s high-end smart phones. The company launched 37 models in 2012, and its flagship, the Galaxy S III, sold 30 million units.

Analysts from Nomura and Macquarie Securities are projecting that Samsung’s stock will rise 40%-50% in 2013, on the back of a 35% increase in smartphone sales, to a mind-boggling 290 million units. Apple, by contrast, is expected to sell 180 million.

Samsung’s move into mobile devices seems especially savvy given stagnating sales of other consumer-electronics goods, such as televisions, where it faces stiff competition from cheaper Chinese rivals. Giants in mainland China like Huawei and Hisense, which made its stateside debut at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, are eager to take market share from Samsung, moving up from contract manufacturing to high-end branded products—which is exactly how Samsung became so successful.

However, it’s not all about mobile. Samsung is also projecting that it will becomethe biggest supplier of home appliances (like refrigerators and washing machines) by 2015.

Despite all this, Samsung is still not the most profitable technology company on Earth. Apple will retain that title through 2013, out-earning Samsung despite selling fewer phones and making none of the other products in which Samsung dominates, like chips and displays.

That difference in profitability reflects, in part, that fact that Samsung started out making parts and got into branded goods only later. The company’s diverse portfolio buffers it against the success or failure of any one product, but it also means that Samsung competes in increasingly commoditized products with manufacturers throughout mainland China and Taiwan.

They might out-compete it eventually. But for now Samsung can boast of being the largest vertically integrated technology company on the planet. It enjoys both healthy margins for its high-end products and huge volumes for its basic goods. Success across this spectrum should bolster the company’s fortunes through 2013, at least.

www.netkaup.is

Managing Editor, Mobile Commerce

Topics: Amazon, Amazon.com, Best Buy, m-commerce, Mobile,mobile commerce, mobile comparison shopping, mobile in-store, mobile statistics, Target, Wal-Mart Stores

51% of mobile comparison shoppers who research in-store and buy online are between the ages of 18 and 39.

It’s a store retailer’s worst mobile commercenightmare come true. 29% of consumers who use a smartphone to research a product while in a retail store end up purchasing the item online, many fromAmazon.com Inc., according to a new study by market research firm ClickIQ.

Of consumers who used a smartphone to research in-store and then purchase online, 55% were men and 45% were women, says the survey of 406 U.S. consumers who have researched a product while in a store and purchased that product.

For store merchants wandering their aisles watching shoppers on smartphones, age is a key indicator of who is comparing products and buying online. 26% of consumers age 30-39 and 25% age 18-29 recently used a mobile device to research a product while in a store. The numbers fall drastically from there with only 12% of those age 40-49, 6% age 50-59 and 2% age 60 or over researching products in a store using a mobile device.

Some big retailers are being hit the hardest by this m-commerce activity. Respondents possibly visited more than one retailer but the study shows that the retailers most frequented for research were Best Buy Co. at 36%, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. at 30% and Target Corp. at 29%.

To find out what happened after the in-store research was complete, survey respondents were asked to state where they eventually purchased the product they were researching. Best Buy did the best job of retaining the sale. 35% of those that researched at Best Buy ended up purchasing at the Best Buy store with another 14% purchasing at BestBuy.com. However, 21% purchased the product from Amazon.com. The rest did not purchase. Of those that did their research at Target, 29% purchased at the Target store, 8% purchased at Target.com and 21% purchased from Amazon.com. Wal-Mart retained 26% who purchased at the Wal-Mart store and 10% who purchased at Walmart.com. Wal-Mart lost 24% to Amazon.com.

When respondents were asked why they made the purchase where they did, an overwhelming 67% stated price as the determining factor. Lagging behind are availability at 14%, product features at 8%, free shipping at 7%, and already at the store 4%.

Amazon.com is No. 1 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. Best Buy is No. 11, Target is No. 22 and Walmart.com is No. 6.

Árni Rafnsson
Nco online – netkaup.is
The Goal of “Netkaup” is To Make a Positive Difference for Others.

Put On Your Favorite Dream And Fly

Make Use of Mobile Marketing   –   Play Where You Can Win

Ætla að ráða þúsundir starfsmanna

Frá skrifstofu Facebook í New York Reuters  : Stjórnendur samskiptavefjarins Facebook tilkynntu í dag að fyrirtækið myndi ráða þúsundir nýrra starfsmanna á næsta ári. Eru það einkum verkfræðingar sem ráðnir verða til fyrirtækisins í New York. Þetta kom fram í máli framkvæmdastjóra Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, á blaðamannafundi í New York í dag en Michael Bloomberg, borgarstjóri New York, var einnig á blaðamannafundinum.

„Við ætlum að vaxa eins hratt og við getum í New York,” segir Sandberg.

Auk þess verða fleiri verkfræðingar ráðnir til starfa í höfuðstöðvum Facebook í Palo Alto í Kaliforníu og í Seattle.

Notendur Facebook eru yfir 800 milljónir talsins í heiminum. Fastlega er gert ráð fyrir að Facebook fari á markað á næsta ári en um þrjú þúsund manns starfa hjá Facebook í dag.

Nú starfa um 100 á skrifstofu Facebook í New York en Sandberg neitaði að upplýsa hversu margir nákvæmlega verða ráðnir til fyrirtækisins í New York.

Mobile Marketing :

Siminn – 3G – Nunnur

He just had to beat Rupert Murdoch, didn’t he? Project, Richard Branson’s iPad magazine, is now available in the iTunes store — at least in Italy and the United Kingdom, since it’s past midnight there. App is free, cost per issue is $2.99 for “a full month’s worth of updating content.” We suspect it’ll hit US, too, the next few hours, but for now, those across the pond can read up on Jeff Bridges (audio and video interview), Earth 2.0, and a “well-informed Godzilla.” Take that, yet-to-be-released The Daily.