App Publishing of Portland, Maine Believes in the Mobile Commerce Revolution

Back in 1998, many people had doubts that the internet would be a serious business tool. Bets were made on Amazon's chances of survival. That was when eCommerce was considered tech lingo. PPC, SEO and affiliate marketing were only novel ideas to many. Skepticism was common, but innovative merchants forged ahead. A decade later, no one doubts the viability of Amazon. Amazon's CEO, once an Accountant from Seattle, believed in eCommerce and it paid off. eCommerce is a part of our lives now.

Today, mobile commerce is the new frontier for innovative merchants worldwide. Back before the turn of the century, the United States was ahead of the curve and is credited with being a pioneer in eCommerce. Today, the world is different and mobile commerce is growing worldwide. In many places, the adoption of mobile commerce is well ahead of the United States. We are not the early innovators any more.

A recent Chinese newspaper article states:
“Currently, the mobile commerce industry is facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges for development. On the one hand, opportunities are like never before. Presently, 3G is witnessing large-scale commercialization in China, and the number of mobile phone users keeps growing, which has exceeded 700 million, with a mobile net-user population of 155 million. The trend of modern commerce moving to the mobile Internet platform is becoming obvious.”
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In Africa, mobile currency payments are becoming commonplace:
“I feared opening a bank account because I didn't have the money to pay in bank charges,” said Mr Ddumba adding: “With mobile money, I don't need to open a bank account any more now that I can keep, send and receive money via my phone at a very low cost.”
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This is not to say that the United States is not making headway. Apple has sold so many mobile applications that the gross income of iTunes App Store is higher than some country's GNP. Microsoft, Google and Nokia are also competing; along with Research in Motion and Palm. Plus, mobile banking is surging in popularity. In the U.S. there is significant mobile activity.

Reminiscent of ecommerce in 1998, mobile commerce is just beginning to take hold. Papa John's Pizza sold over a million dollars on mobile devices within months of launching their mobile commerce application. Amazon, Starbucks and a few others have major mobile initiatives based upon their initial success. The mobile commerce revolution is here and mobile commerce in 2009 is similar to ecmmerce before the turn of the century. Today, there is again tremendous opportunity for the innovative merchant. In fact, mobile commerce (mCommerce), with its worldwide adoption rate, may be a more lucrative opportunity than eCommerce.

Because of the mature level of eCommerce, the new mCommerce opportunity is available to an even broader audience. In 1998, you had to fill out huge forms, pass a credit check and wait forever to get approval to accept credit cards online. Today, just about anyone with a bank account can apply to PayPal and Google Checkout in minutes. You can apply, be accepted and begin charging customer's credit cards the same day. The mobile commerce opportunity is wide open and available to everyone.

This where App Publishing comes in. App Publishing is a start-up software development company from Portland, Maine that focuses exclusively on mobile commerce. On their six month anniversary, they are launching two ground-breaking mobile commerce applications. These applications put mobile commerce in the hands of the average person. They benefit everyone from established merchants to garage sale proprietors.

The first application is “Mobile Invoicer” (www.MobileInvoicer.com). It's a Mobile Billing and Invoicing System. This allows users to charge other people for products and services from their phone. The user creates an invoice and can hand their phone to the customer for immediate payment, or they can email or text the invoice to the customer allowing them to pay the invoice right from their phone or from any computer. Payments can be made by credit card, PayPal or Google Checkout.

The second application is “Mobile Store Maker” (www.MobileStoreMaker.com). This application allows people to add products and build their own mobile store that can be viewed on any smartphone. Using this application to build a mobile store does not require the user to know html, css or any other programming language. In fact, users can add their products to a spreadsheet, their product images to a zip file and upload them from the store administration panel populating their store in minutes. Again, customers can pay by credit card, PayPal or Google Checkout.

App Publishing is taking the mobile commerce opportunity to the streets and putting it in the hands of everyday people. Considering the current economy with its high unemployment, the need for new commercial opportunity is there and the potential customer base is in the billions, worldwide.

Ten years from now, the folks at App Publishing hope to hobnob with people like Jeff Bezos reminiscing about back in the day when the mobile commerce revolution was young and opportunity existed for everyone.

 

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