Tech Mania: Google Wallet Launched But Maybe Some Issues with Paypal plus 1 more articles

Google Wallet Launched But Maybe Some Issues with Paypal

Posted: 28 May 2011 09:47 AM PDT

Google Wallet Launched But Maybe Some Issues with Paypal is a post from: Tech Mania.Check out more of the latest news by Subscribing to feed

This guest post is written by Colm Byrne. He is a writer and online marketing professional, and has written this post courtesy of press1.co.uk, who offer Virtual Phone Numbers, and leaves most of the marketing to professionals.

Mobile commerce has been talked about for a long time with a number of solutions already available in the marketplace. Stepping into this space we now have the Internet giant Google and a group of partners including Sprint Nextel, Citibank and MasterCard.

In an effort to dominate as much as possible Google yesterday unveiled the “Google Wallet”. With Google’s vice president for commerce and payments Stephanie Tilenius saying “With Citi, MasterCard, First Data and Sprint we're building an open commerce ecosystem that for the first time will make it possible for you to pay with an NFC wallet and redeem consumer promotions all in one tap, while shopping offline”

It’s expected that the service will launch in San Francisco and New York this summer with a number of retailers already lined up to help promote and launched the service. The company has already lined up Coca-Cola vending machines, CVS, Jack in the Box, Sports Authority and Sunoco. At the moment this is an android application which is available at no cost and will allow users to make payments for products or services that the use of a credit card or cash.

google wallet 250x170 image

You can find more details over at the official website (http://www.google.com/wallet/) it’s expected to launch until Midsummer. There are plans to promote this of course in the beginning with various benefits going to be offered to consumers like discounts, promotions and of course a lot of the rewards.

Separately, since the launch yesterday PayPal has gone on the defense and filed a lawsuit to protect their trade secrets. They are claiming protection of trade secrets because Google lured some senior executives from the payment service in recent months from PayPal to Google Osama Bedier and former general manager and vice president of PayPal Merchant Services Stephanie Tilenius.

The legal complaint is also accusing Google of betraying a possible deal that they were working on which would have seen PayPal being used as a payment option within the Android market.

When you see this kind of response from PayPal and the fact that Google are launching an M-commerce solution is a clear indication that many big corporations are trying to move into the digital money space and try to become leaders within this.

It’ll also be interesting to see over the next couple of years how to stand out and who will win the race to become standardized service provider (if there’s such a thing). The Google wallet service would also be against the competition including Isis which is being set up by some top US cell phone network operators (T-mobile, Verizon Wireless and AT&T) as well as a number of payment networks and banks. The service is expected to launch in 2012

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By Blogsdna

Nokia to deliver first “batch” of WP7 handsets in 2011 and then every 3 months

Posted: 28 May 2011 09:17 AM PDT

Nokia to deliver first "batch" of WP7 handsets in 2011 and then every 3 months is a post from: Tech Mania.Check out more of the latest news by Subscribing to feed

Nokia's Marketing and Operation Chief Jo Harlow has revealed that the Espoo will be flooding the market with Windows Phone 7 handsets, releasing one every 3 months.

We should be launching new devices in a rhythm that might be every couple of months,every three months, something like that….We're going to keep coming with new devices in order to have something to talk about

She also confirmed that Nokia Windows phone 7 handsets were still on track for 2011, saying ”Our target is absolutely still this year…and the target looks good.”, saying the company is aiming to deliver a "small batch" this year.

So far it appears OEMs producing Windows Phones are on a yearly cycle, unlike the rapid release cycle for their Android handsets, which Harlow suggested was due to them not being fully committed to the platform. Nokia did not have this problem.

Nokia to deliver first

The Gartner figures showing 1.6m handsets sold in Q1 2011, indicate that Windows Phone has sold badly for HTC, LG and Samsung.

Citi Analyst Walter Pritchard says Microsoft is earning a licensing fee of $5 per Android device made by HTC.according to the report, Microsoft is looking to nail other Android smartphone manufacturers with a similar agreement for $7.50 to $12.50 per device. According to the math, that means Microsoft is currently making five times more from Android than Windows Phone.

Strategically, this is a great spot for Microsoft, since it means the more the competition scales up, the more money Microsoft has to sink into Windows Phone and getting it all caught up. Many of the manufacturers currently involved with Android are also interested in Windows Phone, and they may lean more heavily towards WP7 if they're going to be paying Microsoft in licensing fees anyway when using Android.

As is, analysts are already pretty optimistic about the future of Windows Phone (especially with Nokia in the picture), and no doubt this continual revenue stream and the promise of tapping a few others for licensing will solidify those projections.

I’m not against Nokia. But everyone talks about it as the savior for Windows Phone, which it may well be. Not disputing that, but I’m curious about what factors about Nokia will make it work where the other OEMs failed.

Nokia has brand loyalty, unlike Microsoft (with their phone OS’s). Like the sheeple, people will buy Nokia because it’s Nokia. Not necessarily because of what OS it runs.People that use it love it – they just need more people to use it.Nokia still sold 24 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2011. They have a strong worldwide sales channel.A slice of that 24 million pie would be nice for Microsoft.

Via Wmpoweruser