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Aug 27, 2012

Apple awarded $1 billion in Samsung patent infringement case

SAN JOSE - Apple Inc. won an overwhelming victory over rival Samsung Electronics Co. in a widely watched federal patent battle, a decision that some worry could stymie competition in the fast-moving markets for smartphones and computer tablets.

Aug 26, 2012

Consumer Habit Change - Evolutionary or Revolutionary?

Mobile commerce is the latest technology trend. Will the user adoption be evolutionary or revolutionary?

Legacy Behavior Change

Traditionally, change evolves through multiple phases. Customer learning time, small changes in user-interface, and account set-up times become barriers to adoption.

More recently, customers have dropped mice in favor of touch screens; eliminated the need for floppy disks and hard drives; and integrated their cameras, music box, game players, and cell phone into one smartphone. Sea-change has occurred at an unbelievable pace.

Which pattern applies for mobile commerce?

Phone In Takeout Orders

Today, some customers make a phone call to request takeout orders. With foreign workers handling the phone line, ordering by voice can be difficult to get the exact order correct. Further, customers usually call when the restaurant is busy - thus, resulting in slower services.

We believe many of these customers have switched to online ordering. For pizza, over 32% is already via online sources. It's a small habit change to switch from online to mobile ordering. These customers will lead the wave to mobile commerce adoption.

Wait, Wait, Wait

Most customers like to wait in lines: wait to get the menu, wait to order, wait to pay, and wait to receive foods.

The cool pattern is to find a seat, order/pay via an app, and relax with their meal and conversatin. Surprisingly, this has been a tough habit to overcome.

  • Some customers complain that this is jumping the line. Doesn't the phone-in order jump the line as well?

  • Some customers like the interaction with the owner. Ironically, if the owner takes fewer orders, won't they have more time to socialize with their customers?

  • Most customers simply admit that it's cool, but they forgot.

    Mobile commerce improves the restaurant ambiance - as cashiers and waitresses become less hasseled, and more service friendly.

    Conclusion

    MoAppo is early in the adoption curve. We believe that we need to be prepared for rapid adoption. Only time will tell.

  • Aug 22, 2012

    Cupertino Restaurants - The leading mobile network for Suburban cities

    TEARN media released the Cupertino Restaurant app for ordering from smartphones; with 15% of the restaurants participating. For web access, visit http://cupertino.moAPPo.com.

    About Cupertino

    Cupertino is a city in Santa Clara County, California in the U.S., directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 58,302 at the time of the 2010 census.

    Why Cupertino as the first city for mobile commerce?

    Forbes ranked it as one of the most educated, wealthy small towns. It is best known as home to the worldwide headquarters of Apple Inc, as well as the laboratory for Amazon's Kindle Fire development team of thousands. Other Fortune 1,000 companies include Seagate, Agilent, and Symantec - while hundreds of high-tech start-ups work from their Cupertino homes.

    Restaurants in Cupertino

    About 200 restaurants serve the various ethnic groups who live and work in Cupertino. 15% of these Casual Dining (CDR), Quick Serve (QSR), and Fine Dining (FDR) restaurants have signed on to provide smartphone access to their menus and/or payment for their orders. This list includes BBQ from Hawaii, Greece, Armenia, Mexico, and India; Chinese, Indian, Thai, Italian, Californian, Mexican, and American venues; and unusual snacks like Beard Papa or Verde Pearl Tea.

    Mobile Ordering from MoAPPo

    MoAPPo integrates four digital businesses with mobile apps, Wi-Fi hotspots, payment, and online ordering experiences. One of the companies dominates the Wi-Fi hotspots in Silicon Valley while another has already gained 8 million downloads.

    The Cupertino Restaurants App allows users to sign-up once, save their payment data, and save time at any of their favorite restaurants.

    The innovative app supports various iPhone/iPad/iPod configurations; multiple versions of Android phones; multiple Kindles from Amazon; Palm, Blackberry, and Window Mobile; and many featured phones from Nokia, Pantech, and LG. No other company provides the same level of device support for menu display.

    Feedback Welcome

    Try the app. Provide feedback. Watch us grow to service all Bay Area restaurants.

    Aug 20, 2012

    MoAppo Platform for Mobile Commerce

    The next big wave for technology is mobile commerce. What are the platform challenges to service this pioneering market?

    Designing the MoAppo system for storing a catalog of products or food items; and allowing users to order and pay for items has been a trivial problem. Designing the true killer platform requires resolving a multitude of moving parts.

    Let's get started.

    Engaging Animated Menu

    Most menus have, at most, a single, lo-res, small picture for each food item. As a result, the menus are boring, uninteresting, and fail to engage users. In addition, most photographers will tell us that shots of food are boring, at best.

    Using the unique, tested methods from our Keys by TEARN edutainment platform (ie over 8 million downloads), we crowd-source relevant, hi-res slide-shows for every product and item in a menu. This creates an engaging presentation that allows new customers to discover interesting, new dishes. The slide show easily replaces thousands of words - and get the salivary glands working.

    This single feature already makes MoAppo the technical leader in mobile commerce.

    Cross Platform Services Using HTML5

    Most competitors choose between the WAP platform - which works on any featured phone, but without images; and native support for single platforms - like the iPhone. Neither approach has gained much success.

    Using our unique, cross-platform methods for animating the menu (ie the cool, sideways elevator bounce) that supports iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Palm, Windows, advanced feature phones, and online use - extends our technical leadership far beyond any existing competitor.

    Is this the right mix of cool versus functional support? Time will tell.

    Secured Payment and Enterprise Reporting

    A payment platform requires security against users, devices, man-in-the-middle, and server attacks. Such platforms often are burdened so badly that a single server can only handle a few hundred transactions per second.

    We have chosen to use the NoSQL and NodeJS platforms that dominate the modern social media and mobile gaming technologies. With a multitude of innovations, we have produced a secured system that has unique self-healing, live-reporting, redundant paths to the end-points at retail locations; while having a robust structure that can handle hundreds of thousands of transactions per second. No other company matches the maturity of our platform.

    Note that this is a 10,000x improvement over legacy systems.

    What's Next

    The system has been tested with a dozen merchants, without a single fail, over the past two months.

    In summary, the MoAppo Platform has required half a dozen, patent-pending methods that supply the services for mobile commerce. Stay tuned to follow our progress with this latest venture.

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