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Marie Jones

Broadband Beloved By Britons As Technology Wins

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With a result that will keep Australian Online retailers optimistic and NBN supporters’ hopes alive, a new survey conducted in the UK says Britons rank home broadband as the innovation that has contributed most to their lives in the past decade.


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Respondents also ranked Online Shopping and Google as having made the biggest positive impact on their lives since the turn of the millennium.  In fact, technology accounted for 7 out of the top 10 most beloved innovations since the turn of the century.

The research, conducted by The Foundation in its inaugural Innovation Index, also rated products which had the most negative influence. Of these, social networking sites Facebook and Twitter scored badly coming in as bottom 2nd and 4th respectively, with Reality TV listed as the most offensive innovation.

A survey of how Australians spend their time online, last week, found that Aussies spend 22 percent of their time on social networks, with Facebook grabbing the lionshare of attention. However, 56 percent of Britons cited irritation and 43 percent said time wasting were the biggest reasons why they chose the social sites as their ‘innov-hates’.

Asked to give reasons as to why they found their favoured innovations beneficial, respondents most commonly cited usefulness and the ability to save time (with 66 and 55 per cent citing these as reasons respectively). Cost savings were cited less by 40 percent. However, only 28 per cent identified cutting-edge technology as a factor.

 

Charlie Dawson, Partner at The Foundation, said: “This survey shows what good and bad innovation looks like to customers. Home broadband was the winner, perhaps surprising if you thought innovation was all about shiny new gadgets.

“It’s a reminder of how useful broadband has become for most people in the UK. It allows us to do lots of things more quickly, more effectively and with a lot less effort, from shopping to dating to finding stuff out. Perhaps this explains why 71 percent of UK households have broadband despite it being an extra cost that no one had to pay before it existed,” said Dawson.

Most loved: the 10 products/services that have contributed most over the last decade.
1 Home broadband
2 Online shopping
3 Google
4 Chip and Pin
5 Digital cameras/photography
6 Online comparison sites
7 Community Recycling
8 Health labelling on foods, e.g. traffic lights
9 Low-cost air travel
10 Consumer GPS/Sat-Nav

 

Innov-hates: the 10 products and services that have contributed the least over the last decade.

1 Reality TV
2 Facebook and similar
3 Pop-up advertising
4 Twitter
5 IVR/Interactive voice response on telephones
6 Congestion charging
7 Paid-for plastic bags
8 DVD membership schemes, e.g. Lovefilm
9 Tracker mortgages
10 Public bike schemes

 

Nokia Launches E7 Aimed At Business Use

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Nokia’s E7 smartphone, which is aimed squarely at the business professional, takes to retail shelves in Australia today, claiming to give users a new meaning to the mobile office.

With its tilting 4 inch touchscreen AMOLED display and full qwerty keyboard, it includes a range of business applications from Microsoft and IBM, built with the professional user in mind.

Chris Carr, Nokia Australia’s managing director, said: “The smartphone is now the primary business device for many Australians, but business users – like all consumers – don’t just want functionality. They expect flexibility, reliability and style. With the Nokia E7’s touchscreen and slide out QWERTY keyboard there’s no need for compromise, and synchronisation with key corporate apps gives users access to critical business information.”

The Nokia E7 provides direct, secure and real-time access to email, calendar, contacts and tasks through Microsoft Exchange servers, as well as Office Communicator Mobile.

Other key features include private and business email along with fast, secure intranet access with the built-in VPN; access to edit and share .pdf files with Adobe Reader; an 8 megapixel camera and dual LED flash for high resolution photos and HD video; Nokia’s Ovi Maps feature which gives voice guided navigation with built in travel guides; HDMI connectivity; 16GB onboard flash memory including USB on-the-go; integrated social networks; multi-party conference calling as well as access to thousands of business-related apps from Nokia’s Ovi Store such as Bloomberg, Salesforce for Symbian and Australian apps such as BNET and Flying Solo.

Wrapped in a brushed aluminium casing with metallic finish, the Nokia E7 is available now in dark grey and silver white. A blue and orange version will launch later in the year. 

The E7 is available from selected retailers now, and will be carried by Optus and Vodafone from April. It retails at $929.

ANZ & Visa Begin Trialling ‘Virtual Wallet’

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50 participants from ANZ and Visa’s Melbourne and Sydney offices have begun a four-week internal trial of a contactless mobile phone application that brings the ‘virtual wallet’ ever closer to consumers.

The participants have each been given special protective iPhone cases with a secure microSD memory card to enable them to pay for goods at the counter simply by waving their phones in front of a contactless reader.

The trial is being tested for purchases under $100, which require no PIN or signature, and customers will get the option of receiving a receipt.

The technology is said to be compatible with existing contactless payments terminals which are alredy in place at more than 20,000 retail outlets across Australia, including fast food restaurants, electronic stores, book stores, sporting stadiums, clothing stores and vending machines.

The technology has been developed by DeviceFidelity in partnership with Visa. The microSD payment technology is protected by the special iPhone case, and has a secure memory card that hosts Visa’s contactless payment application, called Visa payWave. It also hosts a prepaid ANZ account which can be topped up via the internet.

Sam Qubrosi, ANZ’s Head of Product Management Consumer Cards & Unsecured Lending, said the trial was all about making banking simpler and more practical for customers. “Mobile contactless payment is the next step in this evolution and we’re excited to be breaking new ground with this trial.”

Visa Australia’s Country Manager, Vipin Kalra, said: “There’s no doubt that mobile Visa payWave will be the way of the future and I’m sure that the participants will find mobile payments to be a convenient and easy replacement for cash, ideal for fast, simple transactions.”

 

Mobile payments are aimed at giving consumers more flexibility in managing their accounts and receiving real time offers from merchants. Customers will also be able to detect fraudulent activity quickly, and the payment application can be quickly deactivated if the mobile phone is lost or stolen, says Visa. 

Visa is backing all payWave transactions, including those initiated by a mobile phone, with its Visa’s Zero Liability protection1 and ANZ Fraud Money Back Guarantee. This means that a cardholder is not liable for any unauthorised transactions if customers report the issue promptly to their bank or card issuer.

 

 

Google Updates Street View

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Google has updated its Street View website in what appears to be a bid to quell the disquiet over privacy issues which erupted last year when the company’s StreetView cars were involved in tapping into WiFi networks of homeowners in several countries.

The revamped website gives more of an insight into how Street View cars, trikes and snowmobiles are operated in capturing images from around the world as well as highlighting some of the more exotic imagery and history of its ‘pegman’ icon.

A slideshow greets visitors to its homepage, and visitors are also now directed to a gallery of landmark sites, including UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The site also gives a background of the technology used to capture its imagery. Google said: “After several iterations of the car and camera technology, the latest car has 15 lenses taking 360 degrees of photos. It also has motion sensors to track its position, a hard drive to store data, a small computer running the system and lasers to capture 3D data to determine distances within the Street View Trike.

While Street View cars were first introduced in capturing images of five US cities in May 2007, the site has now expanded its 360 degree panoramic views to incude locations on all seven continents.

It now also uses a bicycle baed camera system on  a Trike, a snowmobile to explore locations in Whistler and a Trolley system which takes its technology through some of the world’s greatest museums around the world.

Australians Take To MCommerce As Mobile Payments Hit $155M

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Payment transactions via mobile phones is set to rocket in Australia with MCommerce due to alter the retail landscape dramatically, it has been claimed.

Mobile payments in Australia grew 14 percent year on year in 2010, with total mobile payments hitting $155 million, according to a new survey commissioned by PayPal.

The report, entitled mCommerce: Secure Insight, was commissioned in partnership with the Autralian Retailers Association, in a bid to get the Aussie retail industry to fully embrace a multi-channel retail strategy.

With the rapid adoption of web enabled mobile devices fuelling consumer demand, Internet enabled phones now account for 65 percent of the total handset market, and more than 68 percent of Australians say they plan to use their mobile handsets for transactions and payments in the near future.

 

Consumer demand for mobile payments has been evident to Paypal for some time now – 10 percent of its 3.6 million active consumer accounts have completed transactions on mobile devices in the last quarter of 2010  – up from just one percent in 2009.

Frerk-Malte Feller, managing director for PayPal Australia, said: “With the arrival of mCommerce we expect to see more change in the retail industry in the next three years than we have seen in the last decade. 

“In the last quarter, our merchants have enjoyed a 25 per cent month on month increase in total mobile payment volumes. Retailers must embrace mCommerce now or risk being left behind. Australian retailers were late to the eCommerce market and cannot afford to make the same mistake again.”

Jennifer Cromarty, Australian Retailers Association Deputy Executive Director, added that retailers need to address the multi-channel strategy in order to remain competitive in the current retail landscape. 

She said: “Put simply, retailers must have a presence wherever their customers are – be they in store, online or on their mobile phones.”

 

One drawback to the adoption of mobile commerce has, however, been concerns over payment security on mobiles. More than half of the 165 online shoppers surveyed said they were not convinced by security measures for mobile transactions.

Half of those surveyed also thought the screens on mobile phones are too small, making usability an issue.

However, with the average consumer changing phones every two years, Internet enabled phones may reach 100 per cent penetration by 2013, the study claims, and retailers need to adapt by offering consumers a fully optimised end-to-end mobile experience.

The most popular time for mobile shopping is when consumers are traveling and 76 per cent of consumers cite convenience as the main reason for transacting on the go.

Feller continued: “The mobile device has become such an integral part of our lives that most people would rather leave the house without their wallet than forget their phone. It is highly personal, always connected and always with you.  The opportunities for retailers to create highly personalised and compelling user experiences are endless.”

Online Gains Momentum In Consumer Vote

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Last night’s win by online retailer eBay of the Choice People’s award is a resounding victory for the medium, with consumers voting with their fingers to abandon bricks and mortar retailers by turning instead to clicks.

eBay became the overwhelming winner of the online category, leading the field by 22 percent, ahead of rivals Apple and Amazon, with more than 12,000 voters registering their support.

Bricks and mortar retailers, meanwhile, gained just 2180 votes, in what is becoming a wide chasm between online and traditional retailing.

And it is a phenomenon that is fast being noted down under, with retailers starting to see online as a brand and engagement channel for driving instore traffic.

Just this week, speculation arose that a major new JB Hi Fi online appliance group could emerge out of the restructure of the struggling Clive Anthony retail operation, which is currently under review by JB Hi Fi management.

Harvey Norman also announced that his company is close to rolling out a new online store.

And John Lewis, the British retailer known for its mantra ‘never knowingly undersold’, is also set to join the brigade of online operators in Australia, aimed at stripping market share away from the likes of David Jones, Myer and Harvey Norman.

New research from Google, Salmat and the Australian Centre for Retail Studies (ACRS) also shows that online businesses will explode onto the scene as consumers demand multichannel sales points.

At the Global Retail Insights seminar held in Sydney yesterday, the Association said retailers will need to meet technological challenges to provide more channels for Australian consumers.

 

According to its report, Australian consumers now demand retailers provide pre-purchase research resources and fully transactional websites similar to what is already available to the rest of the world.

“Retailers know they should be investing in ‘new media’ but are apprehensive about making those investments and are therefore missing out on opportunities”, says the report.

According to data collected by the latest survey, while more than two-thirds of consumers are more comfortable to shop at home, Australians also browsed international retail sites, making the competition for the online dollar ever harder for Australian retailers.

The British Retail Consortium in the UK, which is seen as the most advanced e-commerce country in the world, has also highlighted the pace at which the sector is growing.

Online is by far the fastest growing part of UK retailing but online retail data has so far not been quantified.

The BRC is partnering with Google to measure the growth of online retail traffic with the Google Online Retail Monitor, which is due to be published this month.

It will report changes and trends in numbers of unique visitors to retail websites, comparing the performance of online-only retailers with multi-channel retailers (those using stores and the internet).

There will be a geographical breakdown of online activity and the growth of smartphone retail traffic will also be measured. A ranking of the most popular retail search terms is intended to show current consumer trends.

 

It is expected that the tool will be able to establish key trends and determine retail hot spots for online traffic.

According to new results from a study of online shopping in Europe by ComScore, 270.6 million unique visitors in Europe visited sites in the Retail category, representing a market penetration of 74.5 percent of Internet users, up 8.5 percentage points versus last year.

Retail sites also showed high penetration in individual markets, reaching at least 75 percent of the total online audience in 7 out of 18 European markets. 

In 2010, approximately one out of every ten Internet sessions in Europe included a visit to a retail site.

In the United Kingdom, the Retail category reached 89.4 percent of the total online audience (up 6.3 points from last year), the highest penetration of any European market.

According to the figures, shoppers used the Internet mostly for Comparison Shopping, which reached 31.6 percent of the European market in January 2011, buoyed by Bing Ciao and Shopzilla Sites.

Apparel ranked second with a 28.4-percent reach, followed by Consumer Electronics with a 27.1-percent reach.

ARA Seminar Targets E-tailers

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The Australian Retailers Association is to hold a half day seminar on online retailing in Melbourne together with the Australian Sporting Goods Association.

Engage in E-tail is aimed at retailers planning to make the switch to online retailing and enable more retailers to move with the changing market place.

ARA executive director Russell Zimmerman said the seminar will provide an invaluable opportunity for a sector struggling to post any meaningful growth, and will arming retailers with the tools, information and training to start interacting with their consumers online.

“With online retail sales estimated at $12 billion in 2010 and expected to reach $18 billion by 2014*, Australian retailers need to step up and equip themselves with relevant knowledge to widen their market reach by engaging with their customers through multiple channels,” Zimmerman said.

The seminar will be held at The Como Melbourne, 630 Chapel St South Yarra on Wednesday 13 April, and is free for ARA and ASGA members. Non members will pay a fee of $200 including GST.

Retail experts will share their insights on key topics including analysing online and consumer trends, strategies to increase retailer online presence and e-commerce capabilities. It will also explore the burgeoning growth of sharing in-store deals online.

ASGA executive director Brad Kitschke said: “The seminar is about embracing the online space in the name of better business practices that meet consumer demand for a convenient shopping experience.”

Interested retailers should email events@retail.org.au to register or for more information.

How To Get An Education In Apps

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It’s the latest trend that is sweeping the education world, mobile apps.

An American college has introduced an ‘app-making’ degree to cater for the increasing need for new software development jobs, due to more people adopting smart devices.

An estimated 300,000 new jobs are expected to be created in the next few years, with many calling for special knowledge of creating mobile apps.

Rasmussen College, which operates campuses in Florida and Minnesota as well as three other states in the US, is offering two and four year degree programmes featuring ‘mobile application development’, computer graphics programming, and ‘engineering virtual worlds’.

Hap Aziz, director of Rasmussen’s school of technology and design which has 2000 students told the technology website All Things Digital: “There is going to be a continued need as people start adopting more smart devices.”

The curriculum focusses on iPhone and Android app development, but Aziz says the mobile world is changing so fast that the landscape may change by the time students get their four year degree.

 

It’s not the first time the school has tried to tap into technology trends. A programme in computer games and simulations proved popular at the school two years ago.

Aziz said the school added a mobile class to the programme as soon as smartphones started taking off.

Business Backs Intel With Strong PC Demand

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Corporate demand for new PCs has led to a boom in orders for Intel’s chips, whose first quarter net income jumped 29 percent, topping analysts’ projections, and its own expectations.

Intel earned $3.16 billion in the first quarter, compared with $2.44 billion last year. Revenues were up 25 percent from last year at $12.8 billion, and higher than the $11.6 billion expected by analysts.

The result sends a strong message to the consumer electronics world that there’s still a huge demand for traditional PCs, despite the threat posed by tablets.

Intel has recently faced several challenges from competitors most notably in the mobile gadgets market, with smartphones and tablets.

As many as 21 million people are expected to buy tablets instead of laptops this year, and that the number could jump to 26.5 million in 2012, according to Goldman Sachs.

As a sign of the strength of its brand, last year’s iPad, let alone the iPad 2, is expected to be so successful it will make more money for Apple than the company’s entire Mac division by the end of this year.

Adding to its own competitive woes, however, Intel was also responsible for a serious product blunder in January, when a design error in a new chip delayed production of new PCs.

Meanwhile PC demand in the US and Europe is also weakening due to the emergence of tablets, and economic worries.  And demand in Japan has fallen following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Although tablets still have a long way to go before they catch up with the PC base, the highly desirable gadget is catching up fast.

 

The PC market is worth around $250 billion, while overall tablet sales in 2011 is expected to be around $35 billion.

Tablets this year should also account for around 60 million units sold, while PCs have a base of nearly 370 million units sold.

Worryingly for Intel, however, PCs have been around for 30 years, while tablets only came along last year.

Gartner also forecasts that Apple will continue to beat the drum for its surging media tablet device for years. 

And with Apple designing its own chips for the iPad, as well as other tablet makers opting for chips from its rivals, Intel has less opportunity to penetrate the market.

Nevertheless Intel recently launched its Oak Trail processor aimed at the smartphone and tablet market, as it tries to become a relevant player in the space, but it is a late entrant to the game, which has already galloped ahead.

However, it’s trump card is that chief among Oak Trail’s abilities is improved battery power, which according to sources, will be enhanced further in follow on models to take tablet power consumption from 7.5 hours to potentially weeks and months.

Meanwhile Intel maintains tablets aren’t cannibalising the computer market, one of the main reasons being that tablets are a ‘niche’ product aimed at ‘consumption’, rather than ‘creation’.