Urban Airship acquires Tello to expand mobile commerce and other services
Urban Airship, a mobile technolog
y company based in the U.S., has announced its acquisition of Tello, a mobile application developer that aims to bring simplicity to the current generation of mobile technologies. Tello launched in September of this year but already accounts for thousands of customers, including famous sports teams and telecommunications companies. Tello has a strong focus on Apple’s Passbook service, which is a pseudo-mobile commerce platform that allows consumers to store digital coupons, tickets, and other such content in their mobile device.
Passbook continues receiving interest from Urban Airship and Tello
Passbook is something that Urban Airship has shown a great deal of interest in recently. Through its acquisition of Tello, the company believes that it will be able to broaden its reach to consumers, as they will not be required to download an application in order to access services Urban Airship and Tello offer through Passbook. Currently, much of the company’s interest in Passbook concerns the marketing sector. Urban Airship believes that Passbook could be a strong platform for marketers that are looking to engage mobile consumers.
Apple attempts to placate mobile commerce demands with Passbook
Apple has shown some interest in mobile commerce, but chose not to include NFC technology in the latest rendition of its popular iPhone platform. This decision was harshly criticized by Apple fans that have been demanding mobile commerce capabilities. Passbook was developed as a way to address these demands and is meant to serve as a digital wallet that can store a wide range of information and content for users. Though Passbook cannot facilitate mobile payments by itself, it can be used as an effective tool for the other aspects of mobile commerce.
Push notifications could be a boon for app developers
Urban Airship currently powers the push notifications in many of the world’s most popular mobile applications. These notifications allow businesses to send messages directly to consumers who have their application in stalled on their smart phone or tablet device. According to Urban Airship, applications that make use of push notifications experience a 400% increase in consumer engagement.
