“Augmented reality has become the futuristic media of the moment, but many consumers,” Ypulse says, but even mobile’s core audience – young, hip, tech-wise adults – are “having a hard time figuring it out.”

Based on the findings of Ypulse’s research, only 11% of high schoolers and collegians have ever used an augmented reality app.

During the holiday season, retailers like Macy’s and brands like Starbucks tried to get customers in the spirit with AR apps. They’re fun and clever, but as with QR codes, Millennials don’t always get the point,” says Melanie Shreffler, Ypulse’s editor-in-chief. “They need to see value in using AR to make the effort to download and use the apps.”

Among students who have used AR apps

•  34% think they’re easy and useful;
• 26% think they’re easy but not useful;
• 18% think they’re useful but not easy; and
• 9% think AR apps are neither useful nor easy to use.

“AR apps have to be interesting enough to get users to download them, and they also need to be engaging enough to get users to come back to the apps again and again,” Ypulse says. “But mostly, they have to work right the first time.”

Are you a fan of augment reality or have you similarly found yourself bewildered by the functionality of AR in modern mobile apps?

Judging from the lofty language used by the company to announce the arrival of its new solution, it’s apparent that Digby really digs the platform.

Through powerful web-style analytics into shopping activities at a brand’s physical locations and effective, targeted location-aware mobile messaging tools, Digby Localpoint enables brands to attract, influence, understand and own the relationship with their loyal customers across all channels.

In describing how it all works, Digby says Localpoint enables brands to create geo-fences around their stores and other points of interest and embed those geo-fences into the brand’s app. Digby then leverages its patent pending technology to measure app engagement and events such as geo-fence entries/exits, store visits, UPC/QR Code scans and other key shopping oriented events triggered through the app as the consumer visits the store and uses their smartphone to find and research products to enhance their in-store shopping experience.

Localpoint can be added to a current branded app through a Software Developer Kit (SDK) or in a rich application developed by Digby.

“Multichannel retailers in particular should recognize that they need a twofold objective with their smartphone presences: enabling sales, but also serving store shoppers,” says eport author Sucharita Mulpuru, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. “Because the primary use cases of mobile devices are to support multi-channel experiences (e.g., finding more product information in stores, identifying store locations), it is imperative to include multichannel sales influence in any mobile ROI estimates.”

On Wednesday, word surfaced that Apple has begun sending legal take-down notices to the servers hosting services that assist users in unlawfully obtaining software from the App Store.

The news is a welcome revelation to app developers who claim to lose no shortage of revenue right along with Apple when their digital creations are stolen.

As Apple Insider reported this afternoon:

App Store piracy has been around for years, though there has not been much indication that Apple has been aggressive in shutting it down. The company has been engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with jailbreak developers who look for exploits in iOS to allow them to run unauthorized code.

Although it isn’t yet clear what the outcome of Apple’s renewed efforts will be, it’s evident that Apple is viewing the start of 2012 as a fresh opportunity to take down the pirates who continue to pillage and plunder their way through the iOS App Store.

According to the data, North America and Western Europe represent the greatest SMB spending opportunity for mobile SaaS, with SMBs in North America spending twice as much than those in Western Europe.  Smartphones and wireless devices form the basis of mobility and pave the way for mobile applications including access to company e-mail, calendars, CRM systems and databases.

“As SMBs continue to form mobility strategies, they will look for ways to use the SaaS gains that mobility provide,” the report explains.  ”Mobility services continue to be a viable segment for mobile operators to grow their subscriber base and revenue. Growth derives from the proliferation of personal-liable devices in business.”

PhoneGap is a popular open source platform for building cross-platform mobile applications with HTML5 and JavaScript.

According to the formal announcement from Adobe, with PhoneGap, Adobe will “offer developers the choice of two powerful solutions for cross-platform development of native mobile apps, one using HTML5 and JavaScript with PhoneGap and the other using Adobe Flash with Adobe AIR.

Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close before the end of October, were not immediately disclosed.

PhoneGap’s open source framework has been downloaded more than 600,000 times to date and thousands of applications built using PhoneGap are available in mobile app stores that span devices based on Android, iOS, BlackBerry and other operating systems.

“PhoneGap has proven to be an industry-defining app solution for HTML5 developers,” says Danny Winokur, an executive with Adobe. “PhoneGap is a fantastic solution for developing a broad range of mobile apps using the latest Web standards, and is already integrated with Dreamweaver CS5.5. It’s a perfect complement to Adobe’s broad family of developer solutions, including Adobe AIR, and will allow us to continue to provide content publishers and developers with the best, cutting-edge solutions for creating innovative applications across platforms and devices.”

And it sounds like the team at Nitobi is just as excited.

“Adobe has always been a big supporter of the open source community and at the forefront of enabling rich, Web based applications across screens,” says Andre Charland, Nitobi CEO. “We share the same philosophy about enabling extraordinary mobile and Web applications. Becoming part of the Adobe family with its industry-leading tools and technologies opens up amazing new opportunities for PhoneGap and our customers.”

And the carrier is putting its money where its mouth is.

Aware of the increasing need to protect consumer and enterprise mobile devices from the growing number of troubling cyber attacks, AT&T is investing in a new mobile security platform, the telecom giant said Thursday. It will allow customers to better protect their devices against security threats.

AT&T has executed an agreement with Juniper Networks to deliver this security capability and additional services based on the platform in the future. This new agreement is part of AT&T’s mobile security strategy to manage and protect smartphones and customer information.

AT&T says that its strategy is distinguished from other approaches to mobile security. According to AT&T, the endeavor will provide a comprehensive security solution that will integrate wireline and wireless security policies for consumer, enterprise and government customers.

The first phase of the platform – the AT&T Mobile Security application – is expected to be available later this year and is based on the Juniper Networks Junos Pulse solution.

“Mobile security is the ‘next frontier’ for our continued effort to mitigate cyber-threats and to help protect our customers’ information,” says Ed Amoroso, chief security officer at AT&T. “With the help of Juniper Networks and the power of AT&T Labs and the AT&T Mobility Security Research Center behind us, we’ll be able to deliver new security capabilities to provide peace of mind to companies and consumers alike.”

The following is the weekly guest series by Derek Johnson, Founder & CEO of mobile marketing company Tatango. You can text him at (206) 334-4012 or email him at derek@tatango.com.

When I first saw the title of the press release last Thursday, “Augme Technologies Enters Into Agreement to Purchase Assets of Mobile Marketing Pioneer JAGTAG“, the first thought through my head was WTF?

A little background on what JAGTAG does, for you that aren’t familiar. JAGTAG believes that “no one should feel left out”, which is why they developed a mobile barcode that could be used by any mobile phone. More specifically though, they developed a technology that would allow any feature phone, (a modern low-end mobile phone that is not a smartphone) which represents 70% of U.S. mobile phones, to interact with mobile barcodes.

How did this work? A consumer would take a picture of a special JAGTAG mobile barcode on their phone, then if they were on the Verizon or AT&T network, they would MMS the picture to the short code 524824. If the consumer was on one of the other 178 wireless networks in the U.S., they would text or email the picture to an email address specific to the campaign, like contest@jagtag.com. If this sounds confusing, you aren’t alone. For a funny read, check out the post by my friends at Mobile Marketing Fail about their experience with a JAGTAG.

So why my WTF response after hearing of the JAGTAG acquisition? Two reasons.

1. The JAGTAG technology will be obsolete very soon. Yes, I realize that currently their technology allows that 70% of the market to interact with mobile barcodes, but times are changing, and fast. With 70% of all new phone purchases being smartphones with the ability to scan mobile barcodes without the JAGTAG software, it will only be a short matter of time until the JAGTAG technology will be rendered obsolete. When I heard about the acquisition of JAGTAG, with their technology that is becoming more ancient every day, you can see why my WTF response was justified.

2. The sale price math didn’t add up to a success for JAGTAG. According to the company’s form D filing, they raised a round of equity financing in late 2009 to the tune of $3,628,372. This most likely was an Angel round as there was no VC associated with the deal and their form D filing identifies 30 different investors participating in the round. For hypothetical sake, lets investors bought 20% equity in JAGTAG for their investment of 3.6M. That means JAGTAG’s pre-money valuation would have been just north of $18M in 2009. With Augme acquiring JAGTAG for $5.25M, that means that JAGTAG had lost over two thirds of it’s value in the last couple of years, prompting another WTF moment from myself. These numbers to me represent that JAGTAG management saw the coming trends and the future of their product, or lack their of, and decided to abandon ship before it actually sank.

So why did Augme acquire JAGTAG? Two reasons in my opinion.

1. Talent - It’s reported that JAGTAG’s CEO will become the chief financial officer of Augme, and all employees will be hired by Augme. This deal will add a considerable amount of value to Augme, as JAGTAG looked to have a significant amount of talent in both sales and mobile at the time of acquisition.

2. Clients – JAGTAG has an extremely impressive client base including well know brands such as 20th Century Fox, Dell, Unilever, Pepsi, IBM, Sybase, T.G.I. Friday’s, Nine West and LG. These brands coupled with Augme’s mobile offering will add significant value to Augme’s stock.

It’s pretty clear to me that Augme didn’t acquire JAGTAG for their technology, and I would wager that after the completion of the acquisition, we can officially say goodbye to the JAGTAG.

If not for the acquisition, would JAGTAG have become another drop in the mobile deadpool? What do you think?

Just hours after a Fox New Twitter account was broken into by hackers who subsequently Tweeted false information about US President Barack Obama, an unrelated incident was reported involving PayPal UK’s Twitter account.

According to a report from Reuters, hackers managed to force access to the PayPal Twitter feed for more than an hour – a period in which the digital intruder distributed messages criticizing the payment processor.

In PayPal’s case, the attackers sent out messages promoting paypalsucks.com, a site devoted to what it says is “exposing the nightmare of doing business ‘the PayPal way.’”

Within 120 minutes of the Twitter hijacking, PayPal officials managed to have Twitter suspend the account until the damaging posts could be removed and the page could be properly secured.

Two high-profile attacks in two days have gotten the attention of some digital safety experts who believe Twitter and its users need to take greater precautions to curb the social media hacks that are becoming far too frequent for comfort.

Fortunately, PayPal says the attack on the Twitter account “had not affected the company’s operations or its internal computer networks.” Additionally, no sensitive information or user data was compromised during the attack.

Humana, one of the nation’s largest publicly traded health benefits companies, introduced a number of smartphone applications beginning in early 2010 with the simple aim of improving member health and well-being and to “arm people with powerful tools at the point of service.”  One of the company’s apps, MyHumana Mobile, was recently honored at this year’s OMMA Global Conference in San Francisco with a first-ever Appy Award for “Best Medical App.”  Why did it earn this award above all the other mHealth apps on the market?  According to Chris Nicholson, Humana’s Director of Strategic Communication, the answer is simple; “because the app meets consumer expectation in what an mHealth application should be.”

The free MyHumana app includes a number of features and a wealth of information for Humana members, including a mobile member information tool that shows users personalized details about their health plan on demand — including their Member ID number, group name and number, deductibles and copayments.  Members can also check their claim status and details from within the app.  MyHumana Mobile also leverages a users’ location to search for health care providers and to obtain provider credentials, affiliations, phone numbers, driving directions and maps.  Members can also use the app to review drug prices and alternative drug options all of which they can discuss with their doctor.  The app even includes a mobile spending account viewer which displays recent activity and current balance details for people using spending accounts, such as Health Savings Accounts.

Humana also provides these same features in a mobile web environment and sends SMS alerts to members such as health and wellness alerts — like flu-shot reminders.  Since its launch in March of 2010, Humana has added new features and provided regular updates to bring more personalized resources — and will continue to do so as members continue to request additional features.  MyHumana is available for iOS and Android devices.  In addition to the MyHumana app, Humana also has health entertainment apps including Colorfall and GoldWalker, as well as the latest Humana Fit app that encourages healthy behaviors using social networking.

I had a chance to speak in-depth with Mr. Nicholson about the MyHumana app and Humana’s mobile initiatives in general.  Below is the Q&A from that interview…

MMW:  Why do you feel the MyHumana Mobile app won the Appy “Best Medical App” award beyond being one of the first of its kind?

Mr. Nicholson:  ”We built the MyHumana Mobile app with feedback from consumers in terms of what key features they wanted and what users felt was most needed in a mobile healthcare app.  It came down to fundamental consumer need.  We feel the recognition came from seeing something that was applicable to that consumer need and that demonstrated key baseline features from any health plan provider.  It’s disappointing that most health plans haven’t gotten into the mobile space yet.”

MMW:  As a healthcare payer, self-service on behalf of users is obviously important for efficiency and improved overall care – do you see mobile technology as a leading channel to promote this?

Mr. Nicholson:  ”Mobile is in the top two in terms of self-service at this point, with the Humana Website still being number one.  We’re seeing that adoption is very quick, especially with those who are mobile savvy, and we expect that mobile will quickly overtake the Website for the simple reason that mobile is available for  people when they want information the most.  The member can use the tools when they’re at the physician’s office, when they’re at the pharmacy or in the car looking for an urgent care center for example.  The mobile channel provides an instant link to information when there’s an immediate need.”

MMW:  What levels of engagement have been identified with the MyHumana Mobile app so far?

Mr. Nicholson:  ”Humana is very metrics-driven in general and especially in terms of tracking activity in the contact space.   We track everything from downloads, number of logins, registrations, pageloads, etc.  We’ve identified that the three top features are claim summary, healthcare provider search and member information (including ID card, etc.).  User satisfaction is an important metric as well.  The MyHumana iOS app currently has a 4.5 star rating in the Apple App Store which is the result of listening to what users want and responding immediately with updates and new core feature additions.”

MMW:  Do you see users being actively engaged over the long-term, or do you see spikes and plateaus in usage?

Mr Nicholson:  ”Our space is different than many industries such as retail, where users may actively engage consistently over the long-term.  We see spikes in usage surrounding member events such as needing to go to the doctor, when they have a claim, when there’s money processed on their account, etc.  Our engagement is more transaction and activity-based, which is a different model than most industries with mobile app offerings.  Looking forward, we hope that different components related to mobile messaging will drive engagement in a different ways.  Health-related rewards, for example, and leveraging synergies between other Humana mobile apps is on the road map.”

MMW:  How many downloads have been recorded so far?

Mr. Nicholson:  ”We’ve seen over 30,000 total downloads over the last 12 months with exponential month-over-month growth rates during that period.  We didn’t actively promote the existence of the app for the first 6 to 8 months while features were being built-out, and over the last 60-90 days, we’ve doubled our promotion of the app.  We’re continuing to launch new features and updating components each and every month which drives continued engagement.”

MMW:  What’s the breakdown between iOS users and Android users?

Mr. Nicholson:  ”We’ve seen roughly double the amount of downloads for iOS over Android, or about 20,000 on iOS and 10,000 on Android.  Interestingly though, Android users are more active with our mobile web services, with higher utilization over iOS users.  We predict much higher growth on the Android platform over iOS going forward.  In terms of other platforms, we’ve slowed down development on Blackberry.  Utilization is very low on the RIM platform and the development environment is more challenging.  The mobile web capabilities can support members with any phone that has access to the web.”MMW: Do you have plans to introduce the app on other platforms?

Mr. Nicholson:  ”We’re keeping a close eye on the marketplace and looking at mobile web numbers first.  Right now Windows Mobile only represents .42% of users, for example.  We’ll respond to the market as it changes and evolves.  We will keep an eye on the tablet marketplace too.”

MMW:  What additional features are planned for the app?

Mr. Nicholson:  ”Future features fall into four categories; 1.) Health and wellness solutions that will integrate with Humana’s Vitality joint venture (which provides point balances differences, incentives, etc.)  2.) Biometric monitoring, particularly on the diabetes side.  3.) A continued push with pharmacy to integrate solutions and tools such as medication adherence and reminders using secure messaging (the latter of which being powered by mobileStorm’s recently introduced HIPAA-Compliant mobile messaging solution).  4.)  Mobile tools to help our sales force.”

MMW:  Why do you feel mobile healthcare innovation is so important?

Mr. Nicholson:  ”It all comes down to access.  Mobile healthcare is so key because it gives members the information they need when they need it.  The more relevant information available in real-time, the better.”

This week, Square rolled out the “Square Register,” a new application optimized for the iPad that effectively replaces the cash registers of yesterday with a cutting edge “touch-enabled point-of-sale solution” that even sends customers a digital receipt for their transaction.

But Register delivers more than just a new way to check-out. It also helps small business owners create a mobile virtual storefront. Consequently, merchants can display their products (complete with in-depth product descriptions) “on virtual shelves.”

As one can easily imagine, the functionalities provided by Register also assist business owners in no shortage of practical ways – particularly, the improved management of product inventory.

Nonetheless, it’s evident why many industry analysts believe the future of Square could be bigger than anyone may presently imagine.

Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Square and founder of Twitter, revealed over the weekend that the mobile payments system is already processing an incredible $3 million in transactions per day. Just three months ago, Square was seeing only $1 million in transactions per 24-hours.