iPad 2 and Ecommerce

Posted on March 11, 2011, 7:10 am, by David Hills and received No Comments ».

Last week, Apple announced the iPad 2, the next generation of their highly successfully iPad.  The iPad 2 has cool, new features like a dual-core processor and front and rear cameras.  It is lighter and thinner.  But alas, it is still missing a feature that I deem critical.

First, let me state that I own the original iPad, use it almost every day, and originally wrote about it when it first came out.  I use my iPad to check Facebook, do some reading using the Kindle app, view online news articles, and occasionally do some shopping.  But the one thing that I can’t do from my iPad or the new iPad 2 is view Flash content, such as is found on many websites and in some online videos.

Now, I don’t often need to view Flash content, but when I do need to and can’t, it is a pain!  Often someone has posted a link to a short video clip and I can’t watch it.  Yeah, sometimes the videos are those silly ones on Youtube, but sometimes they are serious ones and I can’t watch them either.  And why can’t I watch them?  Because Apple’s Steve Jobs has decided that Adobe’s Flash is bad on the iPhone, iPod, and iPad, but it is ok for the Mac!

It doesn’t matter that some Android-based smartphones can display Flash content while the iPhone cannot – Apple will not support Flash on their mobile devices.  Personally, if there was a tablet computer equivalent to the iPad that supported Flash, I would have purchased that instead.  But the iPad has been the only serious game in town.  I thought that when Motorola’s Xoom tablet came out that the iPad would have some serious competition, but even it does not yet support Flash.  (Motorola does plan to add support for Flash on the Xoom later this month.)

Ok, what does this have to do with Ecommerce?  Well, Apple makes cool, useful products and has tons of users.  If Apple’s devices do not support a given technology, then many potential shoppers will not have access to the technology.  If possible, I recommend that you do not use Flash content on your web site.  The iOS ecosystem of iPhone, iPod, and iPad is estimated to be over 185 million units and growing.  That is a significant install base that cannot be ignored.

And what is the alternative to Flash?  Apple wants vendors to move to HTML5.  And while this is happening, the Flash install base is so large that it will take a very long time before all current Flash content migrates over, if ever.

 

Two-Step Authentication

Posted on February 18, 2011, 12:14 pm, by David Hills and received No Comments ».

If you have ever watched the original Get Smart television series, you’ve seen in the opening credits how Agent 86 walks through a series of security doors before getting to a phone booth that descends to take him to headquarters.  The series of doors reflect how secure the building is.  I was reminded of this scene when Google introduced two-step verification for their apps this past week.

Two-step (or two-factor) authentication requires two things before you can gain access.  The first step is the typical login name and password.  The second step, in Google’s case, is a code – six digits – sent to your cell phone or generated by their app on your smartphone.  Since only you should have access to your cell phone, even if a malicious site got a hold of your password, they would still not be able to gain access because they do not know the random code.

ShopSite has provided two-factor authentication since version 8.1.  For merchants that store credit cards, two-factor authentication is one of the requirements for PCI compliance.  Besides logging in with a username and password, ShopSite has a Merchant Key that needs to be uploaded (the second step) before you can view credit card information.  The Merchant Key is an encrypted file that is stored locally on your computer or a memory stick.  Without the key, ShopSite cannot decrypt the credit card data, so it is important to have a backup copy of the key stored on a CD or other device.

Besides making a merchant’s access to credit cards much more secure, the Merchant Key allows stores where multiple employees can log in the ability to restrict credit card information to only those employees that have been given the key.  For example, an order fulfillment employee without access to the Merchant Key can log in to process an order, but cannot view the credit card information.

I have no doubt that two-step authentication is here to stay.  And the more important the data, the more one needs this feature.  It is an extra step, but that’s the way security works – the more security we have, the more inconvenient it becomes.  At least we don’t (yet!) need to go through multiple doors and a phone booth like Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, had to!

Increase In Wireless Data Usage Is Good for Ecommerce

Posted on February 4, 2011, 10:44 am, by David Hills and received No Comments ».

Wireless data traffic will see a 26 times increase in 5 years.  That was the headline that caught my attention.  Traffic will not just double or triple but increase 26 times!  An increase in smartphone and tablet use by consumers will be the driving force behind this.  And which service will be producing most of the traffic?  Video.

You might be asking yourself “How is this good for ecommerce?”  Well, the more online services that are available at peoples’ finger tips, the easier it is for them to shop.  Video looks best on larger screens and we’ve already seen smartphone screen sizes getting larger.  That same larger screen will also make it easier for a shopper to navigate within a merchant’s store.

Talking about larger screens, we’ve seen how successful the iPad tablet has become.  Whether surfing the web or placing orders with your favorite merchants, it is easy to use (see iPads, e-commerce and ShopSite).  While there are a few other tablets available right now, the field is about to get a lot more crowded.  Just this week Google announced Honeycomb – their Android OS designed for tablets.  The Motorola Xoom looks to be the first tablet to support Honeycomb and it has been getting a number of positive pre-release reviews.

As more and more smartphones and tablets become available, competition will continue to drive prices down, thus getting them into the hands of even more shoppers.  Mobile carriers are also doing their part to speed up web surfing.  You can’t watch a phone commercial any more without a carrier touting the faster speeds of 4G (fourth generation) networks.  All of this bodes well for ecommerce.

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