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Mobile payments iPad app accidentally released by Groupon

Lucy | May 16, 2013

The application had been available in the Apple App Store for a few hours but was then removed.

Groupon made dozens of mobile payments headlines, this week, when an app was released for the iPad at the App Store and that looked as though the company would be taking on Square in direct competition, but it the application was soon removed from the website altogether.

This has lead many in the industry to believe that the app was released prematurely.

The iPad mobile payments app had been called the Groupon POS. This looked as though Groupon was declaring itself ready to jump into the tablet transaction arena. The apparent launch of the app spawned a great deal of confusion, as there had not been any form of official announcement to accompany the release.

Though the mobile payments app was clearly live at the store though the company had been silent.

This didn’t stop the Groupon mobile payments app from being noticed, downloaded, and reviewed by a solid handful of people, who have already formed opinions about it, even though it has been removed from the App Store. So far, the consensus on the app that may not be its completed version, was that it is a simple and attractive way to manage business transactions and accept payments at rates that are lower than the competition.

Users found that it was extremely simple and fast for a company to be able to set up its offerings, and that the checkout process should be possible within a matter of seconds. Real-time analytics can be instantly viewed, to allow companies to keep a close eye on how things are doing from one moment to the next.

The Groupon POS mobile payments application can also work with an optional printer and cash drawer, for businesses that are looking for greater simplification and automation of their point of sale. Reviewers have been able to identify a wide variety of different uses for the app and the service, for a broad range of different types of merchants, from cafes to hair salons, and from florists to delis.

Technology news from Facebook shows India may be its biggest market in 4 years

Lucy | May 14, 2013

A recent eMarketer industry estimate suggests that the country may lead the way by 2017.

The most recent industry estimates that have been produced by eMarketer are now suggesting that the largest market for Facebook could become India as soon as the close of 2017.

This will easily become the case provided that the growth continues along its current anticipated path.

The current growth estimates are showing that if it progresses the way that data is suggesting, the user base at Facebook will explode to reach a whopping 1.8 billion in four years from now. To better understand the rate of growth, this was compared to the current expansion being experienced in the Facebook technology news for North America.

In North America, technology news data shows the number of Facebook users is expected to grow by 3.6 percent this year.

Also this year, the Asia-Pacific region will be seeing a growth rate of 34.4 percent for Facebook users. The Latin American region will experience a user growth of 29.5 percent. Africa and the Middle East will grow by 31.8 percent, while eastern and central Europe will have a growth in their users of 29.3 percent.

This technology news data is according to Cotton Delo, from AdAge. She went on to say that the tremendous increases in users in locations such as Brazil – where it is anticipated that there will be a growth from its 69 million users by the end of this year to a whopping 103.9 million by the end of 2017 – helps to explain the acceleration that Facebook has made to its business in terms of the development efforts that the company is making there.

At the same time, in the United States, the percentage of people in the United States who are using Facebook at least on a monthly basis will grow from this year’s predicted 46.4 percent up to 49.6 percent by the end of the year in 2017. This is a much more modest growth than what is being experienced in many of the other areas of the world. Other technology news reports have suggested that the penetration of smartphones and tablets may have a role in the growth rates of these countries.