Luis is a Managing Director and the Chief Technology Officer for Proof Integrated Communications, a WPP Company.
Before joining Proof, Luis was a Senior Vice President and Director of Marketing Technology for Wunderman New York, a Y&R Group and WPP Company.
Apple’s greatest success isn’t in creating the micro-economy infrastructure; it’s user behavior that they’ve changed, creating an entire community of individuals that value, and pay for, the convenience of access to content, which made the app payment options a simple extension of it. So, while the reduced friction of in-app payments and carrier billing may making payments easier for the user, is it really just a question of audience conditioning to cure them of the aversion to paid / premium applications and content? This begs the question that if a premium / curated experience is their desire, isn’t the Apple ecosystem a much more compelling offering? Now that carrier concerns have been elicited with the iPhone coming to Verizon, it will be interesting to see.
As to the announcements of additional services offerings:
* Carrier Billing - Apple proved the best model is an independent one, so carrier billing may not be the answer, especially if it translates into increased app costs.
* In-App Transactions - While in-app sales have been an important revenue generator for Apple, it ties back into the fundamental culture of paying-to-play that’s been firmly established within the ecosystem they’ve created, and that’s still the fundamental challenge for Google.
The potential for Android to come out ahead is great, but as Google has already sensed, the overall experience is key.
