During the Final 4 weekend (April 5-7), AT&T incorporated NFC into our Fan Zone experience to educate consumers about NFC technology. We realized that a lot of people who own NFC-enabled phones don’t know the benefit of the technology and look forward to providing education in this area.

For app developers, we hosted our first NFC Hackathon, where five teams completed their NFC apps based on the education provided. This white paper offers more information on NFC technology, NFC tags, and Open Mode mobile app development.

Is this a good time to develop NFC apps?

Here are some stats you might want to consider deciding if this is the right time for NFC apps:

• On April 10, SIMalliance data showed that 30 million NFC-enabled SIMs were shipped in 2012. That is an 87% increase over 2011. The strongest NFC SIM markets were Japan/Korea (21 million) and Western Europe (6 million). Note: SIMalliance’s membership represents approximately 90% of the global SIM market.
• In March, ABI Research published a new report titled “NFC Devices, Strategies, and Form Factors: Update and Roadmap.” The analyst firm anticipates that the number of NFC-enabled devices in use will exceed 500 million in 2014.
• NFC-enabled devices continue to be released with innovation.  HTC First is one example. A 4G LTE-capable and NFC-enabled smartphone, this device is uniquely designed around Facebook Home. Facebook Home is a mobile app that enables users to connect with Facebook from the moment they turn on their phones — even while using another app.

WIMA, a leading global conference and exhibition dedicated to NFC, hosted its 7th WIMA NFC MONACO in Monaco on April 10-12. Solutions and products were showcased on an innovative exhibition floor. Sessions highlighted current case studies around the world, offering a clear view of where NFC is today. It’s an exciting time to explore NFC use cases, potential, and ideas for supporting the ecosystem.

What NFC applications have your business experienced first hand? What potential does this technology offer for your business?

In 2011, when I visited Ghana, I learned that adults were  using cell phones to do money exchanges and teens were  playing games in their feature (non-smart) phones all the time. I realized that apps have entered into people’s daily lives universally, even in a developing community.

Last fall, I visited the App World in London. Businesses and developers were trying to figure out how to use NFC (near field communication) technology to make people’s lives easier despite the fact that over 25 million Oyster NFC-enabled cards are already being used for public transportation in UK.

Having worked in the wireless field for many years,  I am always inspired by AT&T’s mission statement: “Connect people with their world, everywhere they live and work, and do it better than anyone else.” Nowadays, connectivity happens beyond the network infrastructure layer; apps increasingly play a huge role in the creation of social connectivity and are continuing to enter our world rapidly, yet quietly.

In early March, Mobile Future released a new infographic – All About Apps – showcasing this relatively new segment of the mobile marketplace and its contributions to U.S. innovation, job creation, and economic growth. It indicated that by the end of 2013, two billion apps will be downloaded per week.

 Click here to view an expanded version of the infographic.

_

Why is NFC your friend in this app world? Adding NFC functionalities into various apps will enhance the user experience tremendously. The simplicity of tapping to connect and share data will change consumers’ habits and facilitate a new way of human interaction that combines the real world with the virtual world. In turn, higher demands for more innovative apps will result.

For example: NFC was selected by the Car Tech editors as the “most promising future tech” as part of the 2012 Car Tech Awards. By 2015, you’ll be able to unlock your Hyundai car, start its engine, and more by using your NFC-enabled smartphone.

The exciting world of apps presents us with endless possibilities: What will your role in this new world be?

For those of us that use Windows, we are familiar with Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.). Since those applications make our lives easier, and our business productive, we are willing to buy Office Home and Student for $139.99 when we have a new laptop.

In this case, the Microsoft Office applications run on the Windows Operating System. Windows is responsible for allocating and managing resources (CPU, memory, etc.) needed for running these applications. As users, most of us don’t know (or really care) what it takes for Office to do the background work since it is hidden from us. We just open the application and do our work. This level of abstraction is perfect for a single server. But sometimes, we get the message “low memory” while we are running many applications at the same time. This signifies that the system design is not scalable.

How VM and Cloud help you scale

Cloud is designed to be scalable and it uses VM to facilitate resource management. VMs are created within a virtualization layer that runs on top of an Operating System. VM emulates a physical computing environment and requests for CPU, memory, hard disk, network and other resources through the virtualization layer.

Cloud usually consists of many physical servers and the virtualization layer can be used to create many individual and isolated VM environments. Applications can run on one VM or more than one VM. When an application is assigned to a VM, no other application will be assigned to the same VM. VM is responsible to manage the resources needed by the applications and is abstracted away from the user.

For example, if you have a short term project and need for Microsoft office, you might want to pay $9.99 per month to use Cloud-based Microsoft office applications rather than pay the full price for to load the software on each laptop. All of the apps that you pay for are in the Microsoft Cloud (Azure). You pay only for the services that you use and when you use them.

This business model saves a lot of money for small businesses and consumers. That’s why Cloud-based applications are becoming popular. As a Cloud user, you can pay as you go and you don’t have to worry about the resource management. This lets you focus on the tasks at hand, leaving the heavy lifting in the Cloud.

What is your preference when it comes to the software you use? Are you taking advantage of the cost-efficiencies of Cloud? What more would you like to learn about Cloud?

The traditional client-server authentication and authorization model often uses username and password mechanism. However when users provide their password to an application, the application get access to not only the data  it needs, but all other data in the users’ account. It’s a risk for the users and extra liability for the application developer.

OAuth 2.0 is an industry standard authorization protocol that enables applications to access protected resources without getting into the complexity of the traditional model. Whether you develop Web applications or mobile apps, OAuth will save you time and energy by allowing you to use an authorization layer with an access token mechanism. Having a standardized authorization protocol greatly improves developers’ productivity.

For developers accessing the AT&T Network and services, the AT&T API Platform provides a rich set of APIs they can leverage. Since each API requires an access token provided by the AT&T OAuth 2.0 service, developers are required to register with the AT&T Developer Program first. Registration enables developers to obtain client credentials for using OAuth 2.0 service.

4 Steps for Integrating Your App with the AT&T OAuth 2.0 Service

Here are the steps developers can follow to integrate their apps:

1. Specify the API that your app will use.

2. Specify the scope for the API.

• Scope information includes CMS (Call Management), DC (Device capabilities), TL(location), IMMN & MIN (In App Messaging), MMS (MMS), Payment (Payment), SMS (SMS), SPEECH (Speech) and WAP (WAP Push).
• OAuth scopes must all be upper-case letters. You may get an HTTP 403 Forbidden error when you attempt to use an API if your original scope request has lower-case letters.

3. For the APIs that require the consent of the customer — i.e. Location, In App Mobile Messaging and Device Capabilities — use the OAuth authorization code flow

• Redirect the user’s browser through the Consent Request process
• Use the authorization code to get an access token
• Use the access token to access the AT&T API that you wish to use

4. For the APIs that do not require the consent of the customer — i.e. Call Management, MMS, Payment, SMS, Speech, and WAP Push — use the client credentials flow:

• Call the OAuth API to request an access token
• Use the access token to access the AT&T API that you wish to use

Examples (Client Credentials Access Token)

Example 1: Getting an access token

POST https://api.att.com/oauth/token

client_id=$my_app_id&client_secret=$my_app_secret&grant_type=client_credentials&scope=SPEECH

Extract an access token from the response

{ “access_token”:”0123456789abcdef”, “expires_in”:”0″, “refresh_token”:”abcdef12345667890″

Example 2:  Using an access token

POST /rest/2/SpeechToText HTTP/1.1

Host: api.att.com

Authorization: Bearer 38C2399A23999

Accept: application/xml

Content-length: 5655

Content-Type: audio/amr

X-SpeechContext: BusinessSearch  …audio data…

Now, enjoy coding your apps using the AT&T OAuth Service and APIs.

How important a concern is security in your app development process? What apps are on the horizon for your company?

NFC-enabled, from start to finish

At the conference, NFC took center stage from the time we arrived. An NFC chip was embedded in attendee badges and read by an NFC-enabled device to check attendees into each session and visits to the booths. A backend server tracked all activities. An NFC key ring was used as a drink voucher. Tapping the key ring on a NFC enabled device at the bar counter, attendees were notified how many drinks they had available.

ITN international offered free loaner NFC devices. The attendees could use these devices to tap each other’s badges in order to exchange contact information. They could retrieve the information from a website after they returned the device. BrilliantService provided a game (NFC Quest) to demonstrate how to leverage the NFC experience at a conference or trade show. It’s an interesting way to direct attendees to different locations within the exhibition area.

NFC from a global perspective

The conference had a global representation as well. The exhibitors included vendors from Finland, China, Greece, UK, South Korea, France, Monaco, the Netherlands, the U.S.A. Products included software solutions, management platforms, access control, mobile commerce, advertisement, debugging/testing tools, semiconductors, handsets, tags and card readers. Because Europe and Asia are early adopters of NFC technology, vendors from those areas see the U.S. as a market with great potential.

Vertical implications

From a vertical market perspective, the airline industry is doing some interesting things with the technology and is creating a good user experience. Both Japan Airline and Scandinavian airline shared their experiences with using NFC to serve their customers. Scandinavian airline offers “SAS smart pass” NFC tags to their 300,000+ Gold members. The smart pass is designed to attach to the back of a mobile phone and can be used for starting self-service, fast tracking through security, accessing the member lounge, and boarding.  Customers who are short on time are well served through the smart pass NFC readers and tags, which speed up the check-in and boarding process. Most of the Gold members adopted the technology right away. In fact, 87 percent of the Gold members used it and 50 percent have used it regularly since its launch in October 2011.

NFC drill-down in keynote and panel discussions

The conference featured some interesting panels and keynote speakers. There was a brand panel discussion that discussed the importance of positioning NFC in terms of improved user experience rather than as a new technology. With effective branding, people will understand the benefits of NFC.

There is a clear call to drive collaboration and standardization of this technology so that it can be used widely to improve our lives. The NFC Forum is leading the effort. Unless vendors and carriers work together to standardize the NFC technology, it will be a long time before it can be used to its fullest potential.

WIMA did a good job to bring together brands and solution providers to highlight the latest uses of NFC. What questions do you have about the technology? Do you see applications for it in your business?

These questions remain to be answered – and getting there will be exciting. However, as an LTE consumer myself, I look to 4G LTE to do more and faster video streaming, music, FaceTime, social networking, and Internet browsing.  For small business owners, LTE offers new potential for services that help run the business and more seamless participation in social networks to market their products and services. Cloud service providers benefit as well, with new opportunities to promote their cloud services.

For developers, it’s all about the app. They are beginning to think about what apps can be developed in order to leverage the faster mobile network, faster response time, Big Data management, and new devices. It’s an exciting time to be a developer with technology moving so fast and with the market demand increasing for mobile apps. At the same time, there are questions to be answered: How will this new speed impact the apps that were written for 3G? What will happen when a 4G app ends up running in a 3G network?

Some of these concerns are answered in the white paper “Best Practices for 3G and 4G App Development.”

Depending on your role – as a consumer, small business owner, cloud service provider, or developer — what does LTE mean to your online experience? Will it change how you do business, or the types of applications you develop? How about productivity, creativity, and innovation? Share your thoughts below.

NFC is a short-range wireless connectivity technology that is built upon Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. It is often referred to as a contactless card technology. An NFC-enabled phone has an NFC chip with NFC antenna for radio communication within a distance of 0.4 cm.

Secured or Unsecured?

Open mode:

You can use an NFC-enabled phone to share data with another NFC-enabled phone, which is referred to as peer-to-peer mode. You can also write data onto NFC tags and allow NFC-enabled phones to download the data. This is called read-and-write mode.  These modes are referred to as NFC open mode; however, it is not a secured means of communication.

Secure mode:

For those interested in making ISIS mobile payments, NFC also has a secured mode, which is called the card-emulate mode. It supports secured apps — for example, ISIS Mobile Payment. What makes it secure is the extra component stored in the SIM card. The component is called Secure Element (SE). The Secure Element is a secure microprocessor that includes a cryptographic processor to facilitate transaction authentication and security.

Why ISIS Mobile Payment is the secure option – Secure Element

ISIS mobile payment runs on AT&T NFC secured mode. Consumers’ credentials and data are securely stored in the Secure Element. There are different technologies of using Secure Element for mobile payment.  Also, Secure Element can be placed in different locations and comes in various forms — for example, SWP-SIM cards versus embedded chips, MicroSD, and NFC stickers. Therefore, there are different business models and infrastructure to support the diversified choices. In order to use ISIS mobile payment, you must acquire a SIM card with Secure Element for your NFC phones.

The NFC emerging market – Ripe for apps

When consumers find out how much easier an NFC phone can make their lives, they will demand apps both on open mode and secure mode. The NFC ecosystem needs to be in place to accommodate such demands. So far, the market is emerging but not driving the user experience broadly enough to make an impact on people’s lives. But innovation is coming and it will be exciting to see what comes next.

Are you interested in or using NFC technology? What has your experience been?

AT&T launched Isis Mobile Wallet in Austin, Texas and Salt Lake City, Utah on October 22.  Isis, a mobile payment system based on the NFC technology, is a joint venture among AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Isis Mobile Wallet supports a variety of smartphones, including Galaxy S III, HTC One X, Samsung Exhilarate, LG Escape and Samsung Rugby Pro. Customers can pick up an Isis SIM card and download the free Isis Mobile Wallet app from Google Play and begin making mobile payments. As a small business owner, you can obtain an NFC payment reader and allow your customers to pay their merchants with a tap of their NFC-enabled phone through Isis Mobile Wallet.

The Wallet holds credit, debit, and loyalty cards while simultaneously organizing offers, deals, and promotions. Isis can help customers manage spending by showing card balances and recent purchases for most of the cards in the Wallet.

Will mobile payments work for your small business? With regards to mobile payment, the first thought that comes to mind might be. “Is it safe?” The Isis Mobile Wallet has multiple layers of protection, including pin-protection, an auto-lock feature, and the ability to suspend use remotely which helps keep card data securely stored on the SIM card.

Has your business taken advantage of mobile payments? Do you have security concerns, and how are you addressing them?

In the article “Are you sure you have a strategy?” Donald Hambrick and James Fredrickson define strategy as the “central integrated, externally oriented concept of how we will achieve our objectives.”

They crafted a strategy diamond to illustrate five key elements to consider when composing a strategy:

• Arenas: where will we be active?
• Vehicles: how will we get there?
• Differentiators: how will we win in the marketplace?
• Staging: what will be our speed and sequence of moves?
• Economic logic: how will we obtain our returns?

Whether you are running a small business or have a leadership role within an enterprise, you can grow your business without confusion if you are clear about your business strategy. What sets a business objectives and strategy in context is the mission of a business.

A mission guides business objectives.  It is important for the mission to be clearly defined, embraced by the employees, and visibly maintained.  Business owners and executives should also translate their mission into a set of well-defined objectives.

For example, Starbucks’ mission is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.” When the mission is well defined, business objectives are derived from the mission and a strategy is put in place in order to achieve the business objectives.

What was Starbuck’s strategy to grow its business to over 16,000 stores worldwide in 2011 since it opened its first store in 1971? Is this the same strategy that accommodates a high income and coffee-loving neighborhood like Redmond?

Hambrick and Fredrickson offer six criteria to evaluate your strategy:

 1. Does your strategy fit with what’s going on in the environment?

Is there healthy profit potential where you’re headed? Does your strategy align with the key success factors of your chosen environment?

 2. Does your strategy exploit your key resources?

With your particular mix of resources, does this strategy give you a good head start on competitors? Can you pursue this strategy more economically than competitors?

 3. Will your envisioned differentiators be sustainable?

Will competitors have difficulty matching you? If not, does your strategy explicitly include a ceaseless regimen of innovation and opportunity creation?

 4. Are the elements of your strategy internally consistent?

Have you made choices of arenas, vehicles, differentiators, and staging, and economic logic? Do they all fit and mutually reinforce each other?

 5. Do you have enough resources to pursue this strategy?

Do you have the money, managerial time and talent, and other capabilities to do all you envision? Are you sure you’re not spreading your resources too thinly, only to be left with a collection of feeble positions?

 6. Is your strategy implementable?

Will your key constituencies allow you to pursue this strategy? Can your organization make it through the transition? Are you and your management team able and willing to lead the required changes?

Using Starbucks as an example, what do you think about their strategy relative to the six criteria? As a small business owner or an enterprise executive, do you have a sound strategy in place to grow your business?

The Evolution of LTE

In January 2011, a Forrester research paper titled “2011 Mobile Trends” wrote, “The attention paid to 4G will vastly outweigh the impact of these new networks” and “We recommend that you ignore the hype.”

LTE (Long Term Evolution), marketed as 4G LTE, is a mobile broadband communication standard based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies. 4G LTE brings four key benefits to mobile devices: higher bandwidth, lower latency, improved security, and prioritized QoS.

In January 2012, a Pyramid report on “LTE Devices and Applications; Next-generation mobile networks driven by video services” pointed out in one of their key findings that “LTE is gaining strong momentum and has already overtaken mobile WiMAX subscriptions during 2011. To date, 35 mobile operators have launched commercial LTE networks, a range of 197 devices have become available and the technology is maturing since the first network became live in late 2009.”

AT&T 4G LTE is now live in 51 markets and 74 Million Americans have access to AT&T 4G LTE (as of January 2012). LTE deployment is to be largely completed by year-end 2013. Quite a few LTE devices are available and consumers are excited to take advantage of the speed of 4G LTE.

What LTE Means to Developers, Business Owners, and Operators

As a developer, ignoring the LTE trend in 2012 would be unwise. It is to your advantage to be familiar with LTE technology, and it will be beneficial to understand its implication for app development. The white paper “Best Practices for 3G and 4G App Development” addresses best practices that can help developers leverage the benefits of LTE.

As a business owner, it’s time to consider what product is the best offer for the LTE network.  A good question to ask might be, “What services can be enabled or enriched in the LTE mobile space?” For operators, a good question to ask might be, “What are the new possibilities and revenues with the 4G LTE network and devices?” “Do we have the infrastructure in place to realize the possibilities sooner and better than our competitors?”

Many can benefit from LTE, but no matter what role you play, now is the time to get up to speed and answer the questions at hand.

What are your thoughts on the LTE trend, and how is your business positioned to leverage it?