Another big winner at CTIA 2013 was our partner Samsung. Their Galaxy S4, the first ever-mobile device embedded with Mobeam technology, took first place in the Smartphones & Handsets category. Samsung also came in first place for its Galaxy Camera in the Connected Lifestyle category. Congratulations Samsung from the Mobeam team!

Also, be sure to check out this article about all the cool features in the Samsung Wallet, including Mobeam’s patented barcode technology!

And if you haven’t seen our Mobeam: Supermarket Musical video yet, or it’s just been awhile since the last time you watched, check it out!

In a recent report from Business Insider’s BI Intelligence, a few reasons for the growth in mobile are investigated. One of those reasons is that companies are starting to experiment with mobile marketing including mobile coupons. According the report:

Mobile coupons have helped major retailers and brands increase foot traffic into physical stores, and are a great way for them to collect data on offline purchases and close the mobile-to-offline purchase loop. Mobile coupons are also proving to be a path into mobile for large consumer packaged goods brands that have previously shunned the medium. By 2014 the number of mobile coupon users is expected to increase to 53.2 million a year. At roughly 10%, the redemption rate of mobile coupons crushes that of print coupons, which hovers around 1%.

Mobeam is excited to help make shopping with your phone easier for consumers and retailers a like support the growing mobile commerce industry. Before we developed our patented scanning technology, it was impossible for traditional red laser scanners at grocery stores, retail outlets and nearly every point-of-sale (POS) system to scan bar codes when they were displayed on a mobile device. Mobeam bridges the gaps between laser scanning technology that has been around for decades, and the massive increase in smartphone use in recent years.

Mobeam’s technology provides solutions to substantial issues affecting both consumers and companies. For customers, we offer the convenience of storing all of your barcodes, whether it’s coupons, loyalty programs, or concert tickets on your mobile device. That means you’ll never have to worry about forgetting a stack of clipped coupons at home when you go grocery shopping, or worrying about printing out a ticket to an event you’re rushing to get to. For companies, Mobeam allows them to keep their current POS infrastructure, potentially saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars in new scanning equipment.

Mobeam is very excited about the new norm of mobile shopping, and we can’t wait for customers to start using our technology. Be sure to check out the video to see just exactly how Mobeam works.

40 years later, that 10-pack of Juicy Fruit now hangs in the Smithsonian. But barcode technology is far from obsolete. Countless items are still being scanned millions of times per day, in grocery stores, shopping malls, and sporting events all over the country. And what’s more amazing, even at forty years old barcode technology is anything but static. It’s now operating in the dynamic marketplace of online shopping and mobile technology that will revolutionize the way companies do business.

Since 2010, mobile commerce has increased by over 10 percent, and in those three short years, already accounts for over $18 billion in consumer spending. As companies adapt and evolve into this new digital space, barcodes will need to make the leap into a paperless infrastructure as well. This is where Mobeam comes in. We’ve developed technology that allows you to beam barcodes directly from your phone.

Mobeam’s patented technology makes life easier for consumers by consolidating all of your barcodes (coupons, gift cards, loyalty programs, etc) on to a device you’re already carrying around anyway. Mobeam is also a huge cost saver for the millions of grocery stores, hardware stores, and gas stations that won’t need to invest in an entirely new, untested, POS infrastructure, just because barcodes have gone digital.

As the way consumers shop continues to change, the Mobeam team is very excited to see how the barcode continues to evolve from its humble beginnings in Troy, Ohio, all the way into the mobile device of every consumer around the world.

Also, check out this video to see how Mobeam’s patented technology works!

We’re also thrilled that the Samsung Galaxy S4 with Mobeam’s patented technology that turns anything with a barcode into light is starting to hit the shelves. Mobeam continues to receive a lot of attention from the media as reviewers break down all the innovative features in Samsung’s new phone. In a recent review of the Galaxy S4, Engadget details Mobeam’s “unique capability that we’ve yet to see elsewhere” that “makes it possible for any standard bar code scanner…to scan digital coupons stored on your smartphone.

Others are talking about Mobeam’s “implications for mobile commerce [that] are potentially huge, as merchants don’t have to install any additional equipment like with NFC, or any extra mobile sales solutions on the backend.”

Keep an eye out to see when the Samsung Galaxy S4 is available in your area so you can see all the potential Mobeam has to offer firsthand!

As we mentioned, “MOBEAM! The Supermarket Musical,” now has over 250,000 views! If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t seen this awesome video, with a song that’s sure to get stuck in your head, check it out!

The E-Tech Awards honor the industry’s most innovative new wireless products and services in mobile apps, consumer electronics, enterprise & vertical markets and network. Mobeam is a finalist in the Mobile Apps– Money – Payments, Banking, Mobile Commerce, Shopping & Rewards category. Nearly 300 entries were judged by a panel of industry experts, reporters and analysts who scored on innovation, functionality, technological importance, implementation and overall “wow” factor.

CTIA 2013™ takes place May 21-23 in Las Vegas. E-Tech winners, including Best in Show and Online Pick, will be announced at the awards ceremony hosted by CNBC’s Jon Fortt on Wednesday, May 22 at 2:00 p.m. PDT at CTIA’s Exhibit Innovations Stage.

Vote for mobeam! Between now and May 20, you can vote for mobeam as the “Best Online Pick” by visiting this E-Tech page.

Learn how Mobeam works. Check out this video on our transformative technology!

In a recent Business 2 Community blog post, Mobeam was singled out as one of the seven key user-related factors influencing mobile advertising and payments, “innovations from companies such as Mobeam empowers customers by enabling retailers to directly accept loyalty cards, coupons, barcodes and QR codes from mobile phones and accept mobile payments without the need to invest in new scanners.”

And the International Business Times is praising Mobeam as one of the 10 Ultimate Features of Samsung Galaxy S4, calling our patented light beam technology, “a very useful feature for centralising coupons or [loyalty] cards.” They also featured our MOBEAM! The Supermarket Musical video, which you should definitely check out if you haven’t already. It will be tough to shake the song from your head once you hear it.

Samsung is “reinventing the barcode” with our technology, and one of Kiosk Marketplace’s Top 5 most-read stories this year. The article explains why our technology is so powerful, and how it “may solve another problem facing merchant adoption of mobile technology…mobeam works with the scanners already in use by many grocery stores, convenience stores and retailers.”

Check out this video on our site to see how it works!

We’re really excited about all this recognition we’re getting, and frankly can’t wait until the Galaxy S4 is released so everyone will be able to put Mobeam into action for themselves. We’re certain even more people will start talking about all the cool things you’re able to do with Mobeam on the Galaxy, once that happens. But don’t worry…we won’t let it go to our head!

It’s been great to see all the attention our technology has been receiving.

VentureBeat said, “Mobeam’s technology could be an essential piece of the mobile payments puzzle,” and Forbes noted, “Mobeam’s solution to the barcode problem illustrates some important lessons for tech innovators.”

We also received write-ups from the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, San Francisco Chronicle, The Verge and Engadget among others, that are definitely worth checking out.

As you can see, mobeam is moving forward at lightning speed – and we expect 2013 to be a banner year for our company. The announcement that mobeam will be integrated on the Samsung Galaxy S4 has fueled an incredible amount of interest in our product and each day it seems like new leads for potential partners come through the door. But this is just the beginning and we are excited for the possibilities that lie ahead.

But using coupons to save money isn’t anything new. In fact, coupon use in the United States has a pretty storied history. Asa Chandler, co-owner of the Coca-Cola Company, created the first coupons in 1887. Chandler handed out hand-written tickets for free glasses of the new soda, at that time priced at 5 cents. Between 1894-1913, the company had given out over 8,500,000 free glasses, and Coke was being served in every state!

The use of coupons only took off from there. In 1909, C.W. Post used 1-cent coupons to market Post’s new cereal, Grape Nuts. By 1930, the Great Depression made coupons even more popular as families throughout the country struggled with financial difficulties. By the 1940s, supermarkets had started handing out coupons to customers in order to attract them away from local markets. And by 1965, fifty percent of American families were cutting coupons. Finally in the late eighties and early nineties, the Internet allowed companies to issue downloadable coupons that customers could print from home, and even more recently the ubiquity of smartphones has allowed them to start offering mobile coupons.

But this year, mobeam is taking coupons one-step further. Embedded in the recently unveiled Samsung Galaxy S4, our patented technology will allow coupons, loyalty programs, and gift cards to go truly digital. Because of mobeam, using coupons has never been easier, so while you may lose the nostalgia of cutting them from the Sunday paper, at least you’ll always have coupons on your smartphone and at your fingertips, to save you time, money, and paper cuts.

Coupon History Source: http://business.time.com/2010/04/06/the-history-of-coupons/#ixzz2O6NVl7VB

Here’s what the media is saying about Mobeam and our launch with Samsung:

◦ “Mobeam’s technology could be an essential piece of the mobile payments puzzle.” [VentureBeat]

◦ “Mobeam’s solution to the barcode problem illustrates some important lessons for tech innovators.” [Forbes]

◦ “Mobeam, which spun out of parent company Ecrio in 2010, approached the problem differently, with a focus on working with existing laser scanners already in use.” [Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones]

◦ “Rather than sticking to the tried and not-so-true approach of trying to display a barcode on a phone’s screen, Mobeam coaxes the device’s infrared proximity sensor to pulse a pattern at a barcode scanner…” [TechCrunch]

◦ “Mobeam believes its technology could turn more smartphones into digital wallets stuffed with items that rely on the ubiquitous linear bar code system – like newspaper coupons, store loyalty cards, gift cards and concert tickets.” [San Francisco Chronicle]

◦ “The real draw for Mobeam…is the fact that no new equipment is needed — the Galaxy S4 will be able to beam coupons, tickets, or anything else with a barcode to the estimated 165 million standard scanners around the world.” [The Verge]

◦ “For over a year, mobile commerce startup Mobeam has been looking for OEM suitors willing to embed its bar code scanning tech into phones — and it’s found an ideal partner in Samsung.” [Engadget]

Yesterday’s announcement was a major first step for our company. But much work remains to be done. For those of you that still have questions about how our technology works, we recommend you watch our “How It Works” video to see just how simple and easy it is to use mobeam.

And if you’re in the mood to dance, we suggest you watch our “Supermarket Musical,” which today just passed over 225,000 views on YouTube. What better way to celebrate TGIF than with some auto-tune and a dancing fish…

The Galaxy S4 is the world’s first phone embedded with mobeam technology. It will have the ability to transmit traditional 1D bar codes at millions of retail locations – without requiring retailers to make changes to their existing point-of-sale (POS) systems or technologies. As Samsung highlighted during this year’s Mobile World Congress, retailers prefer bar codes because they don’t have to install any new infrastructure to support it. Samsung Galaxy S4 users will now be able to securely redeem bar coded content and offers (coupons, tickets, payment/gift cards and loyalty cards) anywhere that uses POS laser scanners.

Just think about what that means. Let’s use Starbucks as an example. They have the top retail mobile app with over 7 million downloads. It yields 2.1 million mobile transactions a week. But it requires 2D imaging scanners in all their stores, and since 2D image scanners require upgrading existing infrastructure, Starbucks has only been able to implement them in 7,000 of their 11,000 stores. The Galaxy S4 with embedded mobeam technology will work anywhere that uses traditional 1D bar code scanners, like department stores, grocery stores and convenience stores  – it’s that simple.

That’s not all. The ability for handsets to finally transact at point-of-sale using bar codes will create frequently used and highly valuable mobile apps. Retail sales will increase because of reduced checkout time. Customer satisfaction will increase by reducing your time in line. And for brand marketers, it will offer a powerful, valuable, personal marketing ad channel.

Here are a few more reasons why today’s news is important:

1. Integrating mobeam on the Galaxy S4 eliminates the need for wasteful paper coupons, ends the paper-coupon processing nightmare for retailers and enables the next wave of digitized, eco-friendly mobile commerce. More than 500 million people around the world are expected to receive mobile coupons this year, representing an increase of 30% increase over 2012. Until now, bar coded coupons you received via e-mail needed to be printed out or manually entered for redemption. On the Galaxy S4, it will be as simple as pressing a button and aiming your phone at the scanner – and in the process you will save the 13 million trees that are used every year to make paper coupons.

2. We’re partnering with some of the biggest coupon distributors in the world to make sure mobeam works everywhere you take your Galaxy S4. We’re working with P&G to ensure that before we phase out paper, we can make mobile couponing work seamlessly for everyone involved in transactions: CPG manufacturers, retailers and brand marketers. And we’ve partnered with ProLogic Solutions, one of the industry’s leading coupon processors and clearinghouses, to integrate their technologies and close the gap that exists between the digital coupons available today on consumer mobile devices and their redemption at point of sale, specifically the back-end processing by retailers.

3. With mobeam technology on the Samsung Galaxy S4, content providers and consumers can rest assured that fraud is abated and personal information is safe. All content delivered via mobeam is carefully managed, authenticated and verified by our software. In fact, mobile coupons have far superior targeting and tracking capabilities, significantly enhancing the ability to use coupons to introduce new products, convincing consumers to try products, engendering repeat purchases and attracting new customers to existing product lines. CPG companies will know exactly who is redeeming their coupons, reducing the fraud that exists in today’s redemption process.

As you can see, today’s news is significant not just for all of us mobeam, it’s significant for anyone who truly believes in the future of mobile commerce. Having our technology on the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a major leap that will create new possibilities for consumers, retailers, brand marketers, app developers – the entire mobile commerce food chain. We are excited for what lies ahead and we hope you will join us on this journey.

Stay tuned and we hope to see you all beaming from your Galaxy S4’s soon.