By Eleanor Reader
A SAP survey conducted at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2013 has revealed the top issues that are facing the mobile ecosystem.
The survey of 300 respondents found industry leaders believe improved data speed for customers (36 per cent) and offering new IP-based services (30 per cent) are the primary drivers for operators launching LTE services.
IP-based services are set to be the main driver of revenue for operators in 2013, along with new offerings such as rich communication services (RCS) and 4G/LTE and increased data usage by smartphone users.
“Leaders across the mobile industry believe that new IP-based services, such as our recently announced SAP Rich Communication Services 365 mobile service, will be key to driving LTE adoption,” said Diarmuid Mallon, lead, global mobile marketing programs, SAP. “The survey results provide a roadmap for operators looking to expand their customer service portfolio through high speed 4G LTE networks.”
The lack of compatible devices continued to be an issue for mobile operators rolling out LTE offerings. Twenty-six per cent of respondents cited device incompatibility as a major obstacle.
Fifty-three per cent of the respondents believed that improving customers’ retail experience would be essential to creating a successful mobile payments scheme.
Location-based point-of-sale offerings (24 per cent), point-of-sale services such as near field communication (NFC) (28 per cent) and facilitating universal acceptance of mobile payments (25 per cent) were seen as the key factors in creating a better retail experience.
“We are seeing a maturing of the mobile payments market, as we move from a service that is driven by person-to-person payments to one that must tackle the challenges of the retail environment,” said Diarmuid Mallon, lead, global mobile marketing programs, SAP. “It is clear from our survey that in addition to improving the payment experience, mobile wallet apps need to support a multitude of services such as loyalty and couponing.”
The anticipated leaders of future successful mobile payments offerings included banks (29 per cent); online payment schemes, such as PayPal, Apple iTunes or Amazon Payments (28 per cent); credit cards (26 per cent) or a consortium of operators (26 per cent).
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