Tablets Are Dominating Mobile Commerce

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Tablets Drive Disproportionate Mobile Sales (eMarketer via Social Times)
Tablets will drive 65% of mobile commerce sales in 2013, even though smartphones still make up the majority of connected devices in the U.S., according to eMarketer. All told, mobile devices will make up 15% of digital sales in 2013, up from 11% last year. Studies differ in methodology, but 35% of mobile traffic in the fourth quarter of 2012 came from iPhones while just 17% came from iPads, the most popular tablet. But tablets are no longer a luxury item. They’re now found in half of all Internet-connected homes. By 2017, a quarter of digital sales will come from mobile devices, with nearly three-quarters of that coming from tablets. Similarly in the chart (shown above right), average order size is higher on a tablet as well. Read >

iPad Web Traffic Share Declining While Samsung Increasing (Chitika)
Chitika has found that despite a share drop of 10 percentage points since October 2012, iPad users still generate 81.9% of all North American tablet Web traffic. Conversely, the share of Samsung-based tablet traffic has doubled over the past 6 months, but still accounts for only 4.3% of all North American tablet Web traffic. While analyst firms have cataloged gains by competitive Android-based offerings like the Amazon Kindle Fire and Samsung Galaxy Tab in terms of tablet shipments, iPad users remain the most active user base within the entire ecosystem. Read >

How To Improve Your Android Security (CNet)
The risks to Android phones and tablets from malware, or software written with "malicious intent," are rising rapidly. These threats are multiplying faster than gremlins in a swimming pool, so how do you protect your device from evil doers' dirty deeds? The first line of defence in any form of cyber security is to modify your own behavior. Read >

Myths About Writing On Mobile Devices (edudemic)
People are falling victim to myths about mobile writing which lead them to believe that writing cannot occur on a mobile device. The following is the conventional wisdom that needs rethinking:

1. Writing = Keyboard
2. Writing = Word processing
3. Writing = Text
4. Writing = Essays

Is writing possible on a mobile device? Absolutely. Could it be easier on a computer? Read >

Teens Review Their Favorite Social Mobile Apps (The Huffington Post)
Old communication habits are dying. Think about it: When’s the last time you called a friend from a landline phone and talked for hours? Year after year, study after study, it’s shown that teens favor communicating through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. But now, there’s a new crop of social networking applications that are readily available to teens (aka free) — and there’s something for everyone. Read >

Mobile Commerce Takes Off In China (Forrester)
In China, mobile commerce has become one of the top priorities for organizations in retail, hospitality, transportation and other services industries, given the dramatic growth of smartphone adoption and the exploding e-commerce spending. Alipay, the leading third-party online payment platform in China and sister company of the country’s largest website Taobao, claims 60 million mobile payment users and estimates 10% of its 2012 transactions were from mobile devices. Read >

China Mobile Targeting August 2013 Launch For China’s First 4G Network (TNW)
China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator, is said to be aiming to launch its LTE network — which would be the first 4G service in China — for public usage by August of this year, according to Chinese media reports. The operator has previously said that it will begin releasing 4G-compliant devices during the third-quarter of 2013, and, in preparation for the launch, it has already deployed more than 200,000 LTE base stations across 150 different locations in the country. Read >