Apple's 'On the Grid' Highlights LBS Apps

Apple has collected about a dozen location-based apps in a new featured iTunes area called "On the Grid." While there are many more apps that offer location as a central element of the experience -- yellow pages apps for example or various cityguides -- the bias appears to be  toward check-in style apps.

Apple should recognize that location and check-ins are not entirely synonymous.  And I would expect the selection to grow over time. Here's what's there now:

Third party sites that monitor the app store recently indicated that it now exceeds 250,000 apps from more than 50,000 developers. Here's the distribution of apps from 148Apps.biz. Somewhat surprisingly books has taken the top spot from games.

CardStar Launches iPad App, Coupons

Mobile loyalty platform CardStar launched an iPad app. It expands the functionality of the company's earlier iPhone app (and other smartphones) by adding coupons and deals that are tied to users' registered loyalty cards. In other words you see the deals for the companies whose cards/programs you've registered on the app. 

Here are the features of the new iPad app:

• Scissor-Free Coupon Clipping & Hassle-Free Redemption – To select a coupon, drag and drop it onto the corresponding merchant’s digital loyalty card inside of CardStar for iPad. To redeem saved coupons, simply use the loyalty card at checkout
• Retailer & Manufacturer Coupons – CardStar currently partners with numerous retailers and coupon providers, including Zavers, to provide a wide range of saving opportunities.
• Personalization – CardStar helps avoid information overload by only sending coupons for retailers saved in a user’s CardStar card catalog.
• Filtering – CardStar offers filters so users can easily see coupons they’ve previously selected or search for those from specific brands.
• Social Sharing – Coupons can be e-mailed to friends and family through the app and users can also automatically check in through Foursquare at checkout.

One of the nice things about the new app is that offers saved on the iPad are in the "cloud." So they're automatically logged on the iPhone and other smartphone apps.

People obviously aren't going to bring the iPad to the point of sale. But they can browse deals on the couch and associate them with their registered loyalty cards. By using the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry apps at the POS, users automatically get the benefit of the coupons previously "clipped" on the iPad accordingly. 

In addition, one spouse can clip coupons on the iPad and the other one can use the CardStar smartphone app and get the benefit of those coupons at the POS without any knowledge of the spouse's prior iPad clipping activity. 

Adding coupons (tied to loyalty cards) is a logical move for CardStar, whose iPad app becomes something analogous to the Sunday circulars. And the automatic linkage of the deals to the loyalty card/account offers a "closed loop" to merchants. CardStar told me that they're were going to greatly expand the variety and range of coupons offered. However I believe offers presented will remain largely "personalized" via the filter of existing loyalty memberships.

CardStar is compiling some fantastic data on user behavior that it can use in a variety of ways to be determined. The company says it's had two million downloads since launch in 2009 and currently has 700,000 active mobile users. 

See our earlier posts on CardStar:

• CardStar Lets You Check-in at Checkout
• CardStar Gains Small Investment from Verizon
• Cardstar: Mobile Loyalty and Much More

Intuit GoPayment Adds Smartphone Credit Card Swiping

Mobile consumer payment solutions are starting to emerge and proliferate. The flip side of that development is small business smartphone-based credit card acceptance and processing. Many people are familiar with Square and its smarpthone credit-card swiping hardware. This enables anyone -- SMB or consumer -- to easily accept a credit card on the spot with a smartphone.

Intuit has a small business payments platform (GoPayment) that integrates with QuickBooks. It's really a PayPal competitor. The product has been in the market for a year. Fees are $12.95 a month, plus a 1.7% to 3.7% commission and $0.30 to $0.34 per transaction fee. Now Intuit has teamed up with Mophie to offer an intelligent case (and software) that enables the iPhone -- like Square -- to swipe a credit card. (Previously credit card numbers were manually keyed in.)

Per the release:

The speedy new Intuit Merchant Account application process is designed to let small business owners easily and quickly apply and be approved to start processing credit cards. A user can apply from the GoPayment App, online or by calling Intuit right from their iPhone.

By adding the sleek, clip-on mophie marketplace card reader, merchants can save time by securely swiping credit cards instead of entering numbers by hand. After swiping the card, data is immediately encrypted using Intuit’s industry-standard security methods.

Customers authorize the payment by signing their name on the iPhone touch screen. The merchant can then send them an e-mail or text receipt. GoPayment processes the credit card within seconds and funds are deposited into the businesses’ bank account.

Square doesn't require monthly fees but takes a higher percentage of the transaction than Intuit GoPayment. The decision of which system to use will be driven by the volume of credit cards being processed and the average transaction values. QuickBooks integration may also be determinative for some. 

Report: GMail to Soon Offer VoIP Calls

We've been waiting for Google to implement its Gizmo5 acquistion and turn Google Voice into a true VoIP solution and Skype competitor. However CNET is reporting that Google may be about to offer direct calls (to phones) through GMail:

Google could be ready to turn Gmail into a communications hub by adding the ability to make phone calls from the Google Chat interface.

CNET has learned that Google is testing a Web-based service within Gmail that will allow users to place phone calls from their in-boxes. It's launched from the Google Chat window on the lower left-hand side of a Gmail page and allows users to place and receive calls from within their contacts through a user interface that strongly resembles the one used in Google Voice.

At some point (apparently pretty soon), whether through GMail or Google Voice, Google will make it possible to place and receive calls directly rather than having to rely on an underlying phone number (landline or wireless). That's the moment when Google becomes a carrier/telco. Right now Google Voice is effectively a call-connection service.

(credit: CNET)

The image above suggests the system might allow free calls to landlines and mobile phones. Quality is always an issue with VoIP but I would imagine this would become an immediately popular service.

It would also allow all kinds of connected non-phone devices to become phones, in the way that Skype does too. 

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Update: Google announced this feature this morning: 

Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at our very low rates. We worked hard to make these rates really cheap (see comparison table) with calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan—and many more countries—for as little as $0.02 per minute.

Dialing a phone number works just like a normal phone. Just click “Call phone” at the top of your chat list and dial a number or enter a contact’s name.

Google will also be promoting Google Voice calls via UK-style red telephone kioks at various sites around the country. 

Android Users: Natural Born Clickers?

I'm an Android EVO user and I rarely click on ads, but that's apparently not true of my Android brethren and sistren. According to ad network Chitika, "people on the Android OS clicked on ads 81% more often than people on the iPhone." Chitika quickly comes to the conclusion that 'Android users [are] 80% more valuable than iPhone users." However I wouldn't equally jump to that immediate conclusion. 

Ad mediator/exchange Smaato previously found, similarly, (in February) that Android users clicked-through more than iPhone users: 

But later Smaato reports, as Android penetration grew, saw its CTR position decline. Compare July numbers for the US and then globally:

There may be some novelty around mobile advertising for many Android users, especially if they've upgraded from feature phones and this is their first smartphone. However, the Smaato figures suggest that the Chitika numbers will similarly change in a few months after the newbie Androids become jaded and embittered.

Once again, however, this all begs the question of whether we should be paying any attention to CTRs on mobile ads (other than paid search). If there's a lead-gen form on a landing page or a store locator, then arguably yes. But otherwise CTR is probably the wrong metric.

It's an easy, lowest-common denominator metric so people gravitate to it. But comScore has repeatedly argued and shown that CTR is the wrong metric to assess the efficacy of onlne display advertising. That should equally apply to mobile. 

There are a range of metrics that mobile marketers can and should be using to assess the success of their campaigns, depending on their objectives. The generic CTR is not necessarily very helpful or meaningful in terms of brand lift, purchase intent or other actions that mean something in the real world. 

Consumer Reports Publisher Warns on Mobile Payments

Perhaps as more confirmation that the era of mobile payments is finally upon us the publisher of Consumer Reports is offering warnings and best practices to consumers. The publisher, Consumers Union, says that people should link mobile payments to 1) credit cards, 2) debit cards and 3) carrier bills or pre-paid cards in that order for maximum protection and recourse should there be any fraud or disputes.

As Consumers Union explains, credit cards offer consumers the most legal protection, while carrier billing is the most risky: 

[W]hile mobile payment technologies may offer a convenient new way to pay for goods and services, consumers could be at risk of losing money when mistakes are made by merchants and processors or as a result of fraud, according to Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports . . . 

Federal law protects consumers in the event that their credit card or debit card is lost, stolen or misused. But current protections are badly fragmented and don't apply to all new types of payments . . .

If mobile payment transactions are backed by a credit card and appear on the credit card bill, then consumers are entitled to all available protections.  If the transaction amount is deducted from the consumer's deposit account with a financial institution like with a debit card, it should receive the same protections as any other electronic fund transfer.  This means consumers receive a legal right to get back money for errors and theft, but not for a dispute with a merchant about the goods and services.

However, if the transaction is funded by a prepaid card, even the protections for unauthorized use may be missing, and there also will be no legal guarantee of protection in the event of a dispute with a merchant.  If the payment service is provided directly by the mobile carrier . . . the product might escape consumer protections entirely.  If the cell phone company asks the consumer to make a prepaid deposit to the phone company to cover future charges, protections also will be missing unless the contract provides them.

Depending on how the forthcoming mobile carrier payments systems are structured this type of warning to consumers -- if widely publicized -- could harm or even doom their competitive chances vs. traditional credit card issuers, PayPal (if tied to a credit card) and iTunes. 

Geodelic Does White Label Deal with Clear Channel

Clear Channel Airports, a division of Clear Channel Outdoor, has partnered with Geodelic to create a co-branded airport-centric local search app called FLYsmart. It offers fairly comprehensive information about services, flights, transportation, as well as places to eat and shop within and nearby the user's airport of choice.

Presumably Clear Channel will be extending its ads into the app, appropriate to the location and airport in question.

I found it to be a nicely done application, with a number of ways to view desired information (carousel view, list or map view). I'm not a fan of the Geodelic carousel. According to the press release:

FLYsmart is available now for free download for the iPhone smart phones, with an Android version expected to be released soon. A BlackBerry version is slated for release in early Fall. The app will initially be launched in ten of North America's largest airports including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle. New airports, of all sizes, will be added each week.

Dedicated to airport advertising for more than 30 years, CCA is the premier innovator of contemporary display concepts that currently handles more than 200 airport programs across the globe. CCA has a presence in 32 of the top 50 U.S. markets with major airports.

Geodelic has done co-branded projects in the past, with T-Mobile initially and then Universal Studios. In each case users get the Geodelic-branded app as part of the partner app (T-Mobile offered a branded version of Geodelic). The same is true with FLYsmart; Geodelic is one of the options (screen far right). 

The company will likely pursue a dual course, doing more partner deals like Clear Channel while continuing to try and build its consumer brand and usage -- a much more challenging proposition. But the co-branded download also provides Geodelic with a kind of backdoor into consumer usage.  

Millennial: Android Passes RIM, iPhone Still on Top

Millennial's July data were released earlier this morning. They reflect what's been broadly reported elsewhere: continued growth of Android (and the iPad). Here are the headlines:

• Android grew 47% month-over-month. Since January Android has grown 690%.
• Android also officially became the number two OS on the Millennial network (surpassing RIM)
• Apple ad requests increased 24% month-over-month, but are actually down 15% since January; iPad ad requests grew 327% month-over-month.
• Smartphones and connected devices increased their impression share 7%, and now represent 68% of the total impression share.

Basically, the story is that Android is now a rapidly gaining number two to the iPhone's number one on the Millennial network.

RIM has grown both in terms of representation on the network and in terms of developer involvement, but the news that Android has passed it is more confirmation that the company is in an increasingly challenging competitive position.

And now for the graphics: 

ShopKick, MyTown and Mobile Loyalty

Coupons and mobile loyalty marketing have emerged as a huge area for brands, retailers and potentially small businesses alike. A potentially significant player in that market, ShopKick, formally launches on the iPhone today. Android is coming later.

ShopKick is like a marriage of Foursquare and Placecast's ShopAlerts. I previously posted about ShopKick on Screenwerk:

• ShopKick, ShopLocal and ‘Social Retail’
• Shopkick: Fourquare for Retail

In a nutshell ShopKick offers coupons and rewards for entering stores and checking in (this extends to store departments in some cases). Users can also scan products for information and additional offers. Points ("Kickbucks") are accumulated toward rewards that include gift cards and promotional products. Inaugural retailers are BestBuy, American Eagle Outfitters, Macy's and Sports Authority.

ShopKick will also show nearby offers and potential rewards to lure people into stores in addition to rewarding them for "walking in."

Separately but in a related vein, Booyah's MyTown is seeking to differentiate itself from competitors Foursquare and Gowalla by offering product check-ins. The company claimed "over 350,000 Product Check-ins a week by our players!" during a test period. 

Product check-ins on MyTown are not necessarily store specific. Users scan products with their phone's camera (iPhone) and get rewards or enter to win contests, etc. Inaugural brands in this program were H&M stores and Pantene haircare products. 

There a few things significant about these developments: 

• Traditional loyalty programs are mobilizing (see also, CardStar) and morphing into games
• Mobile users can receive push messages about offers near stores
• The mobile angle allows new types of on-site analytics (based on foot traffic, time of day, etc.)
• These services can also be promoted through and integrated into traditional media (e.g., print, TV, DOOH)

Related: There's a lengthy article in the NYTimes about ShopKick. And Barcode Hero is another app that ties rewards to product scanning.

iPay: Will iTunes Become a Payments Platform?

For the longest time Apple has been the "sleeping giant" of mobile payments with its more than 100 million registered iTunes users (credit cards on file). PayPal reportedly has about 75 million by comparison. 

A new Apple hire reported in NFC World and by the NY Times suggests that Apple may be waking up to mobile payments and seek to turn iTunes into iWallet. It's a very logical step for the company to take.

Beyond PayPal Apple would have competition directly from Visa and AT&T and Verizon, potentially. Smaller companies such as Zong and Boku offer carrier billing. There are a range of other m-payments companies such as Bango and Obopay. Nokia is in there as well, though its current solution is focused on the developing world. 

Like most segments the market doesn't have room for more than a few large competitors. If Apple does enter the space it's sure to be one of them (in the US). Apple's brand credibility could also dramatically accelerate the adoption of mobile wallets/payments in the way that iAd has help to do with mobile advertising. 

Google Checkout should be one of these payment giants but the company so far has blown the opportunity with consumers, though it has been trying to reinvigorate Checkout of late. If PayPal hadn't already been bought by eBay you can be sure that Google would be buying it now.

Will Google now pick up one of the smaller players in mobile payments even though it has checkout? My guess is yes and that it will either be Boku or Zong. 

Would a Verizon iPhone Slow Android's Rise?

The answer is yes and no. First Android is available across major carriers and so has diverisified distribution. But there is sufficient empricial reason to believe that some number of would-be Droid buyers would opt for a Verizon iPhone instead.

As many have already reported, a July survey of 1,000 US mobile users from Morpace found that 51% of current Verizon customers would consider buying an iPhone if/when it comes to Verizon (now speculated to be January, 2011).

That's a very significant number considering Verizon has more than 80 million subscribers in the US. The survey also reports that some number of AT&T subscribers would switch to Verizon if the iPhone were available there. 

Previous ChangeWave data showed a somewhat lower percentage of Verizon mobile subscribers with pent-up demand for the iPhone:

 

On the subject of current Android users that are interested in potentially switching to the iPhone, Nielsen previously found that about 30% of Android users were interested in an alternative handset (either iPhone or another type):

• It would provide for access to millions more mobile users for the iPhone and its apps
• It would stop Verizon from funding Droid brand building anti-iPhone bashing media campaigns

The value of the latter should not be underestimated either. Before Verizon there was no "Droid" and Verizon has spent millions promoting the platform as a worthy alternative to AT&T and the iPhone. We'll see if the Verizon iPhone actually happens in January. If it does I suspect it would be a "material" development for the US market. Given Android's momentum (see below), Apple should be interested in getting the iPhone to as many carriers as possible:

As a final note, one interesting question to ask of Android buyers is: what phone are you not buying because you bought an Android handset (iPhone, RIM, WinMo)?  In my case it's the iPhone.

Nokia Builds Mobile Craigslist for Developing Countries

There have been other mobile classifieds marketplaces but none with the potential heft of Nokia. Craigslist has many associated third party apps on the iPhone that mobilize its listings content; eBay of course has had great success in mobile, to name two big names. 

Nokia has now created Listings, a sales and services marketplace aimed right now at the developing world. It's only available in India during the beta test. 

The downloadable app features several categories of information:

• Buy & Sell – Find or post items for sale
• Jobs – Find or post a job
• Local Services – Access or advertise services such as auto repairs, driver services, plumbers, etc.

The success of such a service is all about penetration and inventory. If lots of people use the service it could become quite successful and potentially generate meaningful revenue on a global basis. User experience is key but more important is getting the listings content into the system so that users show up.

The service is also more likely to succeed in countries where there aren't already established online marketplaces, which means developing nations primarily. Yet if the content is there and the UX is good enough it could potentially compete elsewhere in world, in Europe perhaps.

Report: Deeper Mobile Internet Penetration in China

Nielsen offers some very interesting data on China's mobile market, based on almost 5,000 face-to-face consumer interviews, and compares it to mobile behavior in the US. The finding: a higher percentage of Chinese subscribers use the mobile Internet than their US counterparts. 

Just over 37% of China's 755 million mobile phone subscribers in China access the Internet on their handsets. That represents roughly 279 million people overall. In the US there are 77 million mobile Internet users, representing about 27% of subscribers, according to the most recent Nielsen estimates.

The size of the Chinese market is currently about three times larger than the US market. However there's much more growth potential in China vs. the US, which is already a mature market in terms of subscriber penetration. By contrast just over half of China's population has a mobile phone. And China is one of those developing markets where primary Internet access is very quickly likely to be via mobile vs. a PC. 

The mobile market in China is almost equally split between men and women and different age groups. Almost 90% (87%) are pre-paid subscribers. Below is the breakdown of mobile activities by category and then a comparison with US mobile user behavior. 

Android a Massive Success for Google

There are some people who still don't recognize how successful Android is for Google. Even some financial analysts scratch their heads because Google is not making direct revenue from Android. Google is snidely still referred to as a "one trick pony" regularly. I don't agree but even if it is, it's a pretty good trick. 

At the "Techonomy" conference in Lake Tahoe, California yesterday Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that 200,000 new Android devices are being sold (or activated depending on the report) each day -- a million a week. Only a few months ago that number was smaller by half.

It has been estimated -- though I believe this is not entirely accurate -- that Google's mobile search share in the US is almost 100%. Even if the number is 10 or 15 points less it's still dramatic.

Google doesn't break out how much revenue it generates from mobile search but it's starting to show up. And Schmidt casually said the other week (according to the WSJ) that ultimately Android-generated mobile revenue might become a $10 billion business for Google. 

“If we have a billion people using Android, you think we can’t make money from that?” Schmidt asked rhetorically. All it would take, he said, is $10 per user per year. Among other things, Google might earn such sums from selling access to digital content from newspapers.

It's a forgone conclusion that mobile search will at some point in the next 5-7 years match or exceed query volumes coming from the PC. That will happen much sooner in developing countries that lack the PC infrastructure of the West.

Google has positioned itself already to "own" that market, as the chart above indicates. And notwithstanding some substitution of Google here and there on Android devices (Motorola-Bing in China or Baidu, AT&T-Yahoo in the US), almost every Android device sold is a Google search device. 

It's very clear that in only two years Android has become Google's second most successful product after PC search. One could even characterize Android's success as "radical." Over the long term, it threatens Nokia in developing countries and the combined iPhone-Android juggernaut is beginning to threaten RIM in the US and Europe. 

Why It May Be Time to Buy Skyhook

The news that Skyhook's triangulation data had been replaced on iOS 4 with Apple's own proprietary system is seemingly very bad for Skyhook Wireless. Apple was the company's sexiest and most visible client. I confirmed that had happened last week with founder Ted Morgan.

Here's how the WSJ presented the news this morning:

Beginning with iPhone operating system version 3.2, which was released in April, Apple began using its own proprietary database of WiFi access points to help determine the location of a mobile device. Apple disclosed the change in a July 12 letter to U.S. Rep. Edward Markey and Rep. Joe Barton. The congressmen had asked Apple to explain its privacy policy after the computer maker alerted users in June that it would be collecting location data in order to provide location-based services . . .

The move is a blow to Skyhook, a startup that helped pioneer the practice of mapping WiFi networks to determine location. In 2008, Apple tapped Skyhook to provide WiFi-based location services for the new iPhone and iPod Touch. In the same letter to Congress, Apple also said it has stopped using Google for location data.

But this is also a moment of opportunity for Skyhook and the time may be ripe for an acquisition by a third party. Skyhook arguably has the best location database in the market -- Morgan says so and believes it. It's undoubtedly better than Apple's new system and better than Google/Android (for sure).

Skyhook has raised (by my count) just under $17 million in funding and so would not be terribly expensive for an Apple, a Google, a Nokia, a Samsung or a Microsoft to pick up, given the strategic nature of location on mobile devices. Skyhook's challenge, however, may be the perception that its database can be replicated or recreated with sufficient time and effort. 

Apple is perhaps unlikely to make the Skyhook acquisition given the recent development, so perhaps Google or Microsoft should step up and buy the company. Google would certainly benefit immediately from Skyhook's assets and creativity around location products. I'm not sure Skyhook CEO Morgan would like to be a Google employee but perhaps if the price were right . . .

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Update: Another reason to buy the company is that it has 15 patents around location and locaton detection.  

Report: Android on a Tear, Passes iPhone in US

With multiple handset OEMs and multiple carriers the "Android army" of devices has reportedly overtaken the iPhone in terms of market share in the US smartphone market according to Nielsen (via GigaOm). The data show the following Q2 (survey based) US smartphone market share distribution:

• RIM: 33%
• Android: 27%
• iPhone: 23% 
• Windows Mobile: 11%
• Combined others: 6% 

The Nielsen data reflect that Android's share in Q1 was 17%, which would mean an amazing 10 point leap in a single quarter.

We may see some sort of Apple push-back on or attempted spin of this data. For context and comparison purposes, here are Gartner global smartphone data share figures for Q1, 2010:

The Nielsen data, however, continue to show greater loyalty among iPhone owners vs. Android and other handset types: 

Android has clearly emerged as a viable alternative to the iPhone in the US, which remains locked up with AT&T so to speak -- a strategic blunder by Apple that has now apparently cost the company some of its credibility and potentially its mindshare in the smartphone segment. While Android continues to be not as "elegant" or polished as the iPhone (it isn't), it's much more widely available and for a large number of people a perfectly acceptable alternative.

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Related: Android smart phone shipments grow 886% year-on-year in Q2 2010

Game-Creep: United Gets into Mobile Gaming

Mobile gaming and game dynamics are very much in the marketing zeitgeist. And even companies that might be unlikely players, so to speak, are getting into casual gaming. As a case in point, over the weekend I got an email from United Airllines inviting me to play some casual games on my iPhone or Android device.

It's not entirely clear what the objective is here, given that United already has my email and all my details -- and I'm a loyalty program member. That's how they notified me in fact. 

It may be an effort to more deeply engage certain groups of users or to make them aware of various marketing programs the airline is running. I suspect it's the latter, since the theme of the game is "options," which is part of a larger promotional campaign from United. The prizes (lower right) are also part of the a la carte menu of "upsells" that United is pushing on its economy customers. 

Carriers Conspire Against Credit Cards to Rule Mobile Payments

The promise of mobile payments and Near Field Communications has been lurking and inchoate in the US for years. There's much greater deployment in Europe and Asia than in the US. However Bloomberg reports that mobile carriers AT&T and Verizon are "conspiring" with several others -- Discovery would be the payment processor -- to outflank Visa and MasterCard and rule the now-inevitable world of mobile payments:

AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile carriers, are planning a venture to displace credit and debit cards with smartphones, posing a new threat to Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., three people with direct knowledge of the plan said.

The partnership, which also includes Deutsche Telekom AG unit T-Mobile USA, may work with Discover Financial Services and Barclays Plc to test a system at stores in Atlanta and three other U.S. cities that would let a consumer pay with the contactless wave of a smartphone, the people said. The carriers have been searching for a chief executive officer.

The trial would be the carriers’ biggest effort to spur mobile payments in the U.S. and supplant more than 1 billion plastic cards in American wallets. Smartphones have encroached on tasks ranging from Web browsing to street navigation and now may help the phone companies compete with San Francisco-based Visa and MasterCard, the world’s biggest payments networks.

One of the key issues in the hypothetical adoption of such carrier-based payment systems is: whom do consumers trust more: their credit card companies or mobile phone carriers? It's a bit of a tossup. Neither are well-loved by consumers. Yet genuine mobile payments competition from mobile carriers might be a great thing and create a better environment for consumers where carriers and credit card issuers boost rewards and loyalty programs as incentives to use their systems. 

It very much remains to be seen whether this still nascent carrier effort can get off the ground. While consumers are used to seeing large credit card bills it's not clear they would be happy with massive bills from their wireless carriers. However this is one area where carriers can re-insert themselves into the consumer experience, as they're increasingly marginalized otherwise by the proliferation of smartphones.