You can now use your mobile phone as a cash register!?!

A recent article featured in CNN discusses how a new app, called Square, let's users accept a credit card payment through their phone with a free app and a plastic card reader. The fee will be a $.15 charge plus 2.75 percent of the transaction cost - which the founder of the app, Jack Dorsey (who also is a co-founder of Twitter), says is in line with the industry.

Due to the fact that fewer and fewer people carry cash anymore, this new app could have huge implications on how many businesses conduct their transactions. Take, for example, a street vendor that sells t-shirts on the corner of Wrigley Field. Once can only imagine the additional amount of t-shirts that the vendor can sell if they also accept credit card in addition to cash.

For smaller, independent companies, this new app could provide the opportunity to sell to an entire separate clientele, thus generating additional revenue that previously would not have purchased their items simply because they did not carry enough cash.

As consumers, we are becoming more and more reliant on our smart phones and expect them to not only be at the peak of technology, but also to constantly improve upon themselves in order to make our individual lives easier. This is a perfect example of technology creating a use that consumers didn't even know they needed until it is available.

There is also some notoriety that comes with it being created by the co-founder of Twitter. I am interested to see how consumers adapt to this new technology and when (not if) this starts to integrate into everyday life.

What is the iPad being used for?

A recent study conducted by Nielsen stated that only 32% of iPad users questioned have downloaded or installed a single app. This is a very interesting statement, since the iPad is somewhat viewed as a technology piece that will change the way that people live their lives.

The question is - if consumers are not downloading apps, then what are they doing?

(source: Nielsen)

The draw of the iPad, from Apple's perspective, is not only the price to purchase the iPad, but the constant visitation of consumers to the apple app store so that they can continually be involved in the latest and greatest.

I would be interested to see if Nielsen is going to continue this research to find out what reason these consumers are purchasing and iPad if they are not going to use any of the apps available. Are they only downloading the free apps?

And, if so, was that worth the price of an iPad?

There are lots of insights that the marketing world can learn from this research.

This information can potentially affect the way that creating applications are approached. Is this a certain demographic that could potentially have apps created that target them specifically? If so, that is a complete untapped market!

Time will tell whether or not the iPad, and it's apps, are here to stay - and be used.

Are Facebook & Skype Going to Hold Hands?

A recent article in Cnn.com speaks about a rumored deal between Skype and Facebook. The article talks about a possiblity that these two social media powerhouses will integrate to the point where you can Facebook chat over cell phones. While it is still just a rumor, there is speculation that you can video chat with Facebook friends, or chat over a browser on cell phones (assumedly similar to a gchat session).

The real question is - do we want to interact with our facebook friends more than just learning about a short blurb about their day? I'd argue that Facebook is used more to stay up to date with those friends that you want to keep in your life vs. a way that you speak to your best friends on a day-to-day basis. While it would be great to have more opportunity to integrate different media options, most that are Facebook saavy are also Skype saavy.

Considering that one can assume that most people have similar friends on both Skype and Facebook, it would be useful to only have to go through one single system to video chat with friends and loved one's.

This partnership does have implications on social media as a whole. This will only further the integration and partnerships of the social media applications available. As consumers, we are getting more and more used to integration (i.e - we can pretty much do anything on our cell phone's these days), so are all of these different options going to integrate to the point where they are all transparent and we have one big social media hub? I don't know if that will happen, but I am open to see what happens next...