Walmart starts testing same-day delivery with online orders

Definitely useful when holiday shopping at the last minute, Walmart's new same-day delivery service is being tested in select markets.

Covered by Techcrunch earlier today, Walmart has launched a trial same-day delivery service in select areas within the United States. Specifically, the service has already rolled out in northern Virginia around Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Minneapolis. In addition, Walmart plans to add the San Jose / San Francisco market by early November. Rather that attempting to fulfill online orders from a distribution center, all same-day orders will be routed through a customer’s local store. Assuming the test over the holidays is successful, Walmart could make same-day delivery service standard policy due to the significant amount of Walmart locations around the United States.

Detailed on Walmart’s same-day delivery landing page, customers can order a variety of products including computers, televisions, tablets, office equipment, children’s toys, video game consoles and sports equipment as well as home goods like appliances, bedding, furniture, kitchen tools, luggage and outdoor grills.

However, the items available to each customer are specifically limited to the items carried at their local store within the Walmart-To-Go program. Pricing of those items is also dependent on the prices listed at the local stores rather than corporate prices viewed through the main online portal. The launch of this new service was based off the results of a survey in which many customers stated they would use the service at least once a month.

In a partnership with UPS, Walmart is charging a flat rate of $10 to deliver an unlimited number of items per order. With the exception of a $45 minimum purchase within the San Jose / San Francisco market, all other test markets do not require a minimum purchase. Orders have to be placed by noon to qualify for same-day delivery. When an order is placed, the customer selects one of three delivery windows with the earliest between 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and the latest being 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. If a customer changes their mind about the order after it’s been placed, they can simply refuse delivery of the item. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Google boss Eric Schmidt launches Nexus 7 tablet in Japan

Google continued with its roll out of its Nexus 7 tablet on Tuesday, launching it in Japan, one of the world's most lucrative markets.

Google boss Eric Schmidt was in Japan on Tuesday to launch the company’s Nexus 7 tablet.

At a special event in Tokyo, Schmidt said the 7-inch device would be available on its website from today and from retail stores starting October 2. The Android-powered tablet is priced at 19,800 yen ($250) for the 16GB version, Reuters said.

Stores in Japan set to stock the device include Edion, K’s Denki, Kojima Denki, Joshin Denki, Bic Camera, Best Denki, and Yodobashi Camera. As an added incentive, buyers will bag 2,000 yen ($26) of credit to spend in the Google Play store.

Schmidt told the gathered audience that adoption of Google’s Android operating system is rising rapidly in the Asian country, with the number of devices powered by the mobile OS almost tripling in the last 12 months. As a result of the take-up, the Japanese Google Play store is now the third most popular in the world in terms of the number of app downloads.

The tablet, now available in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Australia, was well received by critics when it launched in July. Outside of Australia, Japan is the first country in Asia to start selling the Nexus 7, though earlier this month it became available for pre-order in Taiwan, which is, incidentally, where Asus, the tablet’s manufacturer, is based.

The launch in Japan gives Google a head start over one of its main rivals in the tablet market, Amazon. Its Kindle Fire range of tablets are yet to launch in the country, one of the most lucrative markets in the world.

Whether the Nexus 7 – with its 1.3GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM, a front-facing camera for video chat, and the latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS – will have any effect on sales in Japan of the popular iPad remains to be seen. It may also have to contend with another tablet expected to be unveiled next month, the iPad Mini.

[via Reuters, TNW]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Portland Digital eXperience: Startups take on the finance industry and all its red tape

The digital and money markets collide as new startups like Simple and Chirpify take on the ancient finance industry.

A hot topic at Portland Digital eXperience has been traditional industry disruption — and what old market doesn’t fit the bill better than payments? The finance industry is chock-full of regulation, governmental bodies, and ancient attitudes. Suffice it to say there are hurdles.

The CEO’s of Simple, a banking solution, and Chirpify, a Twitter payment client (you read that right) were on hand to talk about the evolution of digital finance, and how they’re helping to change it.

“On Wall Street there’s so much innovation, but so little of it helps real people,” Simple founder and CEO Josh Reich, a Wall Street vet, said. “Our real motivation was to make a financial application that would help people’s lives.”

The idea behind Simple: It’s a fully digital banking card and account, that includes a physical debit card accepted everywhere Visa is accepted. Simple believes its customer service and attention to detail, along with its mobile-friendly tracking and payments system, are its biggest assets.

Chirpify’s stab at uncomplicating how we pay for things is less calculated, although it’s had a huge early impact. The concept: Connect your Twitter and Paypal accounts using Chirpify, and then use the integrated service to @ pay connections. Shocked people would do that? You’re not the only one. “The first surprise with Chirpify was that people wanted to use it at all… to pay for something with a tweet online,” said founder Chris Teso.

But clearly, the masses approve. During this past SXSW, Chirpify got its API wrapped and ready for a tweet-a-beer promotion, where Chirpify users could buy a beer for their Twitter contacts at certain locations in Austin. And the viral nature of online — very, very public — payments has only helped Chirpify’s usage spread.

“There’s a pretty high conversion rate when you get a tweet saying ‘someone sent you money, come here and sign up to claim,” said Teso.

All the viral usage and word-of-mouth in world isn’t enough to topple what is arguably the oldest, most institutionalized industry though. For every brilliant idea, there is a mountain of red tape to deal with and work-around. “It’s hard because engineers want to work fast,” says Reich. “And banks work slow. You have to manage your product process carefully.”

For its part, Chirpify hasn’t had to go its own road — yet. For now, the service piggybacks off of Twitter and Paypal, the latter of which being a service which Teso mentions gets and deserves plenty of user ire. Not for long, though; he says that Chirpify plans to go it alone, launching its own payment service within the application and cutting out the middle man.

“We are platform agnostic, but the one friction point for us is Paypal,” he says. “People don’t like it. There’s no mobile flow. So we’re working on owning the entire payment platform. So in the next year, we’re going to do that and handle it ourselves.”

For its part, Simple would like to add business banking support (it’s focused on individual usage at the moment)  – something that will require a great many hoops to jump through, regulation-wise.

Combining tech and money is a tough sell, and the road ahead is paved with plenty of potholes. But the outlook is bright: Both Simple and Chirpify have launched alternative payment platforms that five years ago would have sounded impossible — and people are buying into it quickly. Blame it on distrust or frustration or trust in tech… whatever is happening, it’s clear users are increasingly comfortable with new and innovative solutions when it comes to handling their money.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Google Nexus 7 now available in France, Germany and Spain

Google has expanded the availability of their Nexus 7 tablets to three additional markets. Users in France, Germany and Spain will now be able to purchase the Nexus 7 from the Google Play Store.

The 8GB model is priced at €199 ($249) and the 16GB model is priced at €249 ($312), which, as you can see, is a bit higher than what it costs in the US. Also, it doesn’t seem like you will get any extra credit, such as the $25 you get in the US. Lastly, the Play Store in these other countries also doesn’t have some of the contents such as magazines that you will find in its American counterpart.

Despite that, these are still good prices and many people will be glad that they now have the option of purchasing the tablet officially, extra credit be damned. Hopefully, Google will expand to other markets shortly.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

LG launches world’s first 84-inch, 4K 3D TV in Korea

LG has launched the world’s first 84-inch ‘Ultra Definition’ 4K 3D TV in Korea, with plans to release in international markets soon. This gigantic panel has a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160, which is basically four times the resolution of a 1080p display.

The TV, which is named 84LM9600, comes with LG’s Cinema 3D and a whole bunch of other features with 3D in the name. You also get a pair of passive 3D glasses for viewing the 3D content.

While on paper, this display sounds fantastic, but the reality is that there is very little 4K resolution content available at the moment, which means most of the time you’ll be looking at 1080p content quadrupled to its original size, on an 84-inch panel. This, along with the 25 million won (US$22,105) price tag, makes the whole thing hard to swallow. But if you’re someone who has loads of money to spend and want the absolute best TV to watch all the videos you shot using your RED Scarlet camera then this should make a great buy.

The LG 84LM9600 is out in South Korea right now and will be available in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America starting in September.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Digital music spending to outstrip analog spending globally by 2015

Music industry purists, beware: A new report from industry analysts predicts that digital spending on music will pass physical sales internationally by 2015, and as early as this year in certain markets - including the United States.

Here’s a potentially surprising piece of trivia masquerading as news (or vice versa, dependent on whether or not you work in the music industry): According to analysts, we’re just three years away from seeing global digital music sales surpass physical music sales, with digital sales set to rise more than 15 percent worldwide by the end of the year. The real question is, which part of that is the most surprising?

The prediction comes courtesy of international market research company Strategy Analytics, specifically the company’s latest “Global Recorded Music Forecast” report. The report explains that digital music spending will represent 39 percent of global music spending this year, with streaming digital content rising by an impressive 40 percent throughout the year to become the dominant growth engine for the digital format (Download growth is at 8.5 percent worldwide); however, downloads still represent the bulk of digital spending generating $3.9 billion to streaming’s $1.1 billion. Overall digital spending is expected to be up 17.8 percent for 2012 – reaching $8.6 billion – compared with a 12.1 percent decline in physical sales.

Based on the movement of the markets, Strategy Analytics is predicting that 2015 will be the first year where digital global spending outstrips physical spending in terms of music, although it points out that some countries – amongst them, Sweden, South Korea and the US – are already ahead of the curve in that respect. It’s that last point that reinforces my point from above: Doesn’t it feel as if digital music spending should already be above physical spending by this point? Hasn’t analog music become an entirely niche market already?

That attitude likely comes from my location-based thinking. According to the Global Recorded Music Forecast, digital music spending in the US is almost double what it is, percentage-wise, in the rest of the world – 41 percent to 22 percent – which, combined with the decline in physical spending, underscores the feeling of digital being where it’s at, these days (Interestingly, despite the increased spending percentage for digital, the decline in physical music spending in the US is actually slower than globally; just 9 percent). In fact, the US is well ahead of the curve when it comes to the digital tipping point; we’re expected to see digital music spending outweigh analog as early as this year, if predictions hold.

According to Strategy Analytics director of digital media Ed Barton, this changeover may mean a turnaround in fortunes for the American music industry. “Having stabilized long term revenue declines resulting from the downsizing of packaged music spending,” he explained, “the industry will be hoping that digital can rebuild the US music market to something approaching its former stature.”

A large part of that rebuilding effort will rely on the continued success of the streaming music format; as with the global view, streaming is growing faster in the US than downloading, with growth rates hitting 27.8 percent against downloading’s 6.7 percent. As Barton points out, “this [download] market is maturing and spending is flattening in all key territories. Streaming music services such as Spotify and Pandora will be the key growth drivers over the next five years as usage and spending grow rapidly.” Good news for Spotify, Pandora and the like, but maybe not such good news for the record labels that were hoping to see a renewed emphasis on actual sales any time soon..

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com