AIR MILES Goes the Extra Mile with a NEW and Redesigned App a la Plastic Mobile

Courtesy of our sensational team here at Plastic Mobile, a new and completely redesigned AIR MILES App is now available for iPhone and Android.

As the first coalition loyalty application of its kind in Canada, AIR MILES’ mobile app version 2.0 was announced today.

The coolest new feature? Definitely the Check-in Challenge (on now until April 30, 2012). The Check-in Challenge is the first ever AIR MILES mobile game that ranks the number of Check-ins Collectors do at AIR MILES Sponsor locations against other Collectors each month. At the end of the month, the top 50 Collectors with the highest number of Check-ins will get a Check-in Bonus – 2x the reward miles they earned that month at the Sponsors they Checked in at.

Collectors with Android and iPhone devices can now also get on-the-go access to AIR MILES Reward Program information such as account balances, improved browsing of the complete dream rewards catalogue and in-store bonus offers at sponsor locations based on GPS.

“We really wanted to enhance the user experience with the new AIR MILES app. By simplifying the process and adding the Check-in Challenge gaming feature, we believe collectors will not only find the app more useful in their day-to-day, but also enjoy the experience of earning more rewards,” said Melody Adhami, Plastic Mobile’s President and COO.

For complete app intel, visit our made-for-media page, complete with a video, photos and all the answers to your questions (we hope!).

Or, download the new AIR MILES App on Android or upgrade or download the app on the App Store to see just what we are talking about.

We’re all a Twitter about the new app, so tweet us and tell us what you think @plasticmobile.

This week RIM announced that CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis will step down from their positions, though they will maintain majority of their shares and stay on as board members.

Thorsten Heins will take on the daunting role as RIM’s new CEO. In spite of seriously declining share prices, Heins has signalled that he will largely stay the course set by Balsillie and Lazaridis.

In a Star interview, Heins notes that RIM is still a solid financial performer and that it is the number one smartphone in many countries outside of the US. He goes on to say the their problem isn’t technology, it is in their communications and that is where they need to focus their efforts. “The perception just doesn’t match the reality,” Heins told the Star. “We’ve got $1.5 billion in the bank, and virtually no debt. We’ve also got a 75 million subscriber base.”

Regardless of this assurance, shares dropped even further after the announcement of the RIM pioneers’ resignation. Ugh. Sorry RIM, we can’t help but think the future looks grim.

What do you think? Will Heins be able to pull RIM out of its US despair? Tweet us with your thoughts @plasticmobile.

…as well as about 750 other execs, media personnel and tech enthusiasts, but, whatever.

At 7:30 this morning, this odd pastiche of professionals piled into the SONY Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, ON, to hear Duncan Stewart, Director of Technology, Media and Telecommunications, entertain and educate about Deloitt’e annual #TMTPredictions.

The tech arm of the professional services giant put together some very interesting facts and advice on what’s in store for our evolving industry in 2012. Among the most interesting prophecies were:

• continued growth of the ever-surprising TV
• the advent of data caps in many leading countries (i.e. the death of unlimited ISP deals. Le sigh.)
• the metamorphosis of our smartphones and tablets to “little PVRs”; and
• the immediate future of NFCs (hint: it’s not what you think).

One mobile prediction that really stood out was the hypothesis that the purchase of tablets would continue to increase, but that it would be less by new buyers and more concentrated by a secondary tablet in the home – apparently we’re not very good at sharing with our families.

Likewise, while the creation of apps continues to surge, Duncan Stewart pointed out that a great number of them are not unique - meaning that, while a number of new apps are being developed, so are existing apps being expanded to cover other operating systems. So, an app that was made last year for iOS, may this year be added to the Android and Microsoft markets.

According to Duncan Stewart, developing a mandate (like we have here at Plastic, not to brag, but we’re just saying) to develop cross-platform apps as often as possible, or as often as makes sense for our partners, will be crucial to increasing efficiencies in the future, and staying competitive in the mobile game.

Every Friday, Plastic Mobile brings you a video blog that answers some of the burning questions surrounding mobile, e-commerce, the future of retail and other exciting mobile topics. Watch the “Queen of Apps,” Melody Adhami, and other industry experts, squeeze their answers into “60 Mobile Seconds” (or, close enough, anyway).

What happens when you don’t go mobile? Well, you can ask Sears and K-Mart – that is if you can find a store that’s still open (was that mean?).

Sears recently announced it would be closing between 100 and 120 Sears and K-Mart stores because of abismal holiday sales numbers, and the blame fingers are pointing at e-commerce, mobile and social technology, among others.

An article in Forbes suggests that brick-and-mortar stores are becoming little more than showrooms for shoppers to see, hear, touch and smell (?) the products in real life, before they turn online to make their actual purchases. The article also states that the depleted economy is partially to blame, suggesting that recession-shocked shoppers are looking for the best steals and deals to make their buys, which can often be found online. Take for instance Amazon’s most recent app that actually encourages consumers to walk into retail stores and quickly and easily compare costs to the online giant’s low low prices. Greedy or genius, one thing is certain; Amazon saw an opportunity to use mobile commerce to its advantage, and boy did it take it.

So how can real-life retailers marry their needs with consumer needs to better battle the inherent advantages of online? One answer lies in the many benefits of mobile marketing and social media to bolster brand presence and awareness.

The fact is, the mobile space is developing at an amazing pace. And, more and more brands such as  Lexus and American Airlines are finding new and exciting ways to harness the power of mobile to increase the value of their brands through providing better service and consumer experiences.

It should come as no surprise that consumers are relying more and more on their mobile smart devices – haven’t we all seen someone nearly walk into someone else (or a lamp post, if you’re lucky) while they talk, text or play on their favourite pocket pal? In an Oracle research report published in May of 2011, the stats showed that mobile commerce is growing dramatically and that that three in 10 consumers are making mobile purchases, and close to half are researching and browsing products and services on their mobile devices. The simple conclusion: mobile is becoming a connector of all other shopping channels.

AND, the beauty of the mobile arena is that it still remains largely untapped, so the potential for innovation is boundless. With the financial resources available to large big box stores like Walmart and Best Buy, finding new and exciting ways for people to utilize their mobile smart phones could be a critical move to their future.

Had Sears better adapted to the evolving digital space, making it easier, cheaper and more convenient for shoppers to get what they wanted from retail locations, maybe they wouldn’t be looking bleakly into a similar fate to the dodo.

What do you think? Could Sears have saved itself some stores, and possibly some $, if they had innovated using e- and m-commerce?

Spending money on lavish items is fine, if you have the money. However, there is a limit to everything, and we say a $50,000 featurephone has definitely exceeded that limit! Pricey luxury items should at least try and justify why they are pricier – unfortunately, the Gresso Grand Premier does no such thing. Yes, there is about 150 grams of gold and 138.5 carats of sapphire crystals in each handset, but if that is what you are looking for, why not just buy some serious jewellery?

What really gets to me is the fact that this bedazzled phone isn’t even SMART (meaning, it’s not of the smartphone variety)! In a time where everything is moving towards mobile – from the way we communicate to the way we shop or entertain ourselves – Gresso has the audacity to design a phone with an ancient S40 UI and charge $50,000 for it! Who is exactly the target market here? We ask you.

Maybe it’s just me, but even if I had the cash, I would rather buy an iPhone and use the rest of the money to purchase a YAMAHA Disklavier Piano, a beautiful Arkiane Kephren fireplace and a 16 year old bottle of Lagavulin scotch. That way I could stare at my stunning fireplace and sip on my scotch while I ask SIRI to play me some Wagner on my Disklavier Piano.

The mobile space has set the wheels in motion for its world domination…well, maybe not quite. But we’re getting there according to research firm Berg Insight, which reported this week that mobile is expected to grow from $3.4 billion in 2010 (at a compound annual growth rate of 37 percent) to $22.5 billion in 2016. Yikes! The report suggests that by 2016, mobile will account for 15.2 per cent of all global online advertising and marketing spending.

While mobile has been a bit of a nouveux trend until now, with some savvy and innovative agencies testing the waters, Berg Insight suggests that companies have begun changing their strategies to incorporate mobile into their annual ad plans as a key media component. Rickard Andersson, telecom analyst for Berg Insight, stated in the article from GIGAOM: “The popularity of smartphones and the increasing availability of mobile media that can include mobile advertising are the main game changers. Brands are now progressively embracing the mobile channel, including the entire range of apps from games and entertainment to utility applications.” He suspects that, while in-app ads have been the leaders in mobile marketing thus far, the advent of HTML5 brings traditional channels such as SMS as well as mobile web advertising, back on the table. He thinks that location-based advertising has the potential to unleash the full power of mobile advertising.

Location-based advertising is certainly having a hay-day in the world of mobile commerce, and should continue to be a driver of the mobile ad world. We second the emotion that it would be to a brand’s benefit to find new and innovative ways to employ mobile campaigns to enhance other advertising channels, and vice versa.

Today was a big day at Plastic. The Marketing Intern brought in homemade chocolate chips cookies so we were all on a major sugar high for the launch of “ETF Central,” our latest app that was created in partnership with Claymore Investments, a subsidiary of Guggenheim Funds Services Group, Inc.

Because a part of our mandate is to pioneer innovative products and solutions that allow the financial industry to expand into the mobile space, we wanted to be sure that ETF (Exchange-traded Funds) Central met all of the user needs, in an engaging and easy-to-use format.

So, employing both tech and creative wizardry (our magical formula for super apps) we created a sophisticated tool that sets the bar for excellence in the financial space. Voila! ETF Central. A new, free, customized, dual-purpose mobile app available on BlackBerry, PlayBook, iPhone and iPad.

ETF Central satisfies both the need to better educate users unfamiliar with the relatively new exchange-traded funds, as well as allows them to manage their ETF investments easily and conveniently. The app puts all Canadian-listed ETFs into the user’s palm, allowing them to view market prices of all TSX listed ETFs, create and track their ETF portfolio, view ETF educational resources, link to all online brokerages to trade ETFs, track upcoming ETF events and more. Ultimately, it’s a pretty outstanding financial gadget.

The leading force behind the app creation, and our very own “Queen of Apps,” Melody Adhami was excited to launch ETF Central as ETFs represent a sizable industry, but public awareness about them has been limited. She and our team here at Plastic Mobile set out to create a tool that would both educate and manage ETFs for the average user/investor. To read the full media release, click here.

In the news:

Advisor

Investment Executive News

CNW News

Digital Journal

The buzz continued to circulate over the weekend about RIM’s future in the mobile space. Research In Motion Inc. is currently meeting with a stock price that values the company at less than the by and large regard of its assets. After myriad product delays and an international three-day service outage, RIM’s stock price has fallen more than 68% this year and was trading this morning at about $18.61 per share.

However, two weeks back an article in the Los Angeles Times suggested that, although the faster iPhones and Android devices have been raking in market share from Research in Motion’s once-addictive and adroitly nick-named “CrackBerry,” analysts and executives are not ready to count the smartphone out just yet.

Further commentary over the weekend seemed to imply the that upcoming BBX operating logic, which will run on a new line of RIM’s BlackBerry tablets and smartphones, might just be the company’s salvation, bringing a third contendor back into the current two-man race.

BBX Photo Leaked on The Verge

As reported today, “People reckon it’s a melting ice cube,” Leon Cooperman told  Bloomberg. ”We reckon the new operating logic is going to surprise people.” BBX, which is set to launch early next year, will enable apps built for Google’s Android operating logic to run on BlackBerry devices. The new line of BBX phones will also focus more on touchscreens and less on physical keyboards, which have been a hardware trademark of BlackBerry phones. Those fairly lacklustre items aside, we still know very little about the BBX. But that isn’t deterring Leon Cooperman, RIM investor and hedge-fund manager slash founder of Omega Advisors Inc., which bought a sizeable stake of about $28 million in RIM last quarter.

According to the Dow Jones Newswires, he also recently reported a purchase of 1.43 million shares in RIM in a regulatory filing, betting that the BlackBerry-maker’s new devices are attracting customers. “We bought (the shares) because we think (the stock) is undervalued, and we will be proven right or wrong in a few weeks when they report results,” Cooperman is quoted as saying in an article in businessmobilebriefing.com.

While we at Plastic Mobile love a tale of the underdog rising to acclaim, we’re not convinced we’d bet our beer money on the new BBX operating system.

Tweet us @plasticmobile with your verdict – will Cooperman and RIM be high on a much-needed success, or will they live to eat their BlackBerries?

We found this great infographic from G+ and wanted to share it on our blog as it illustrates the state of mobile commerce pretty well.  The infographic shows the continued pattern of growth with m-commerce and the major impact from NFC.