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Mobile Payment and Processing
Mobile devices are the fastest vehicles in the drive to a cashless society. In many parts of the world, e-wallet and near field payment apps have revolutionized the way people do business. In fact, in some developing countries, the primary mode of banking is via mobile handset. In Vietnam, for instance, the Vinapay app for Android is "an easy, convenient and safe payment service for everyday transaction [sic]: transferring / receiving money, paying post-paid, prepaid bills, direct mobile phone topup in all Vietnamese mobile networks."
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Development of enterprise-level apps will likely prove to be big business in coming years. |
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profitable and ripe market space. Apps
like XORA GPS Timetrack "tracks the
near real-time locations, speeds and
stop times for your fleet using either
hard-mounted tracking units or GPS-
enabled mobile phones," and it
integrates with payroll processing like
ADP. There are also several CRM clients
and apps that offer SAP and Citrix
integration. This area of app
development will likely prove to be big
business in coming years.
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In the United States, e-wallets are not yet a reality, and handsets are just beginning to be released with NFC (Near Field Communication) chips that enable near-field or swipe payment. However, many apps exist that turn a handset into a mobile payment processor. Apps like ePay and Intuit GoPayment can turn any garage sale into a credit-card accepting retail establishment. These apps either rely on a phone's camera or a Bluetooth swiper to capture credit/debit data.
Starship Enterprise
While functionality and security
concerns have kept many larger
business customers from deploying
smartphones other than the Blackberry
to manage mobile enterprise, this
trend is starting to change, and savvy
app developers are scrambling to
create offerings that cater to this
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The Road Ahead
There are currently around 300,000 apps in Apple's App Store, and about 100,000
in the Android Market. This number is rapidly growing. As mobile devices become
more feature laden and networks ratchet up their speed and capacity, many
amazing new applications will be realized. 4G networks and higher-end phones
will enable videoconferencing without WIFI and streaming HD video, realtime
translation and facial recognition apps that auto tag and sort photos taken by
phones with high megapixel (8+) cameras. These apps will likely be available
bythe end of 2011. Beyond that, virtual or augmented reality applications will
become a reality in the next few years, yet again redefining the
mobileexperience. It's truly an exciting time for both users and developers of
mobile applications.
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