The founders of Boku are expected to make it big in mobile payment. The start-up, founded by Ron Hirson and Mark Britto has already secured boku bills; $38 million in funding from high-profile investors like DAG Ventures, Benchmark Capital and Index Ventures.

Focused on social networks and operated on mobile phones, users can make payments for games, apps and a slew of other services – think PayPal, but for your cell.

BOKU’s system doesn’t require users to have a credit card or bank account. Instead, users enter their cell phone number on the site, reply to a Paymo text message and then all virtual charges are automatically charged to the user’s monthly cell phone bill. It’s dangerously easy.

Since its acquisition of competitors, Paymo and Mobillcash, Boku is gaining a significant international base. Paymo is already live in 45 markets around the globe, enabling mobile payments in Europe, Asian, Africa, North and South American and the Middle East.  Additionally, they have already struck deals with major mobile carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile.

Paymo has said in the past that 75 percent of the online community worldwide does not have a credit card but 3 billion consumers own a mobile phone. With the market for online payments via mobile for virtual goods and games on social networks and mobile applications expanding, there is huge potential to take off.

Expect more to come.

You phone is only as smart as its apps and the good news; the average app price, especially for the best selling, is constantly falling. We’re still spending though; the average iPhone user spends $80 on apps (as indicated by this survey).

However, 90% of app developers do not make a sustainable return on investment.

The money making apps? Of the top 20 all time paid apps sold by Apple, 14 of them were games – of the six remaining include the ‘Best Fart app’.

Is there an app that you absolutely can’t live without?  In the office, we’ve been discussing the retail experience, both on and offline.   Is there an app produced by a retailer that you will never delete?

Apps, Apps, & More Apps [via MBA Online]

Let the buzz begin!

No, I’m not talking about the LeBron James free agent competition. It’s just been pseudo-announced that as of January 2011, just six short months away, iPhones will be available on the Verizon network.

We’ve all seen this coming, and a lot of people have been waiting for the day to finally come. It seems some loophole in contractual jargon will allow this to happen earlier than expected (A five year contract was supposed to tie iPhone solely to AT&T through 2012).

What will this mean?

What will the implications be for Verizon? Apple? AT&T? Droid?

Came across this infographic from mashable.com :

mashable.com : iPhone through the years

So, what are our predictions for 2011?

• APPLE ALSO GETS: Another bite taken out of its logo. Seriously, it’s been a while. With everyone wanting a piece of Apple, you can’t expect that one lonely bite to be the only one taken out of it for too long.
• THE WORLD GETS: Oprah… Bigger than ever before. Not necessarily a weight joke, but with the O! Network looming large, how long will it be before she runs all media? AND all the pizza shops in Chicago?
• # OF APPS: With the overall numbers of iPhone users about to increase drastically, more money will be invested in app development. When the iPhone 4 launched, there were 200,000 apps. Between Steve Jobs and Jesus, who knows what that number will grow to.
• iPHONE FOR VERIZON STATS -

1. Release Date: January 2010.
2. 1 Million Sold date: Seriously? Pre-order sales will dwarf 1 million.
3. Apple Stock Price : Just like it completely took over the music industry, Apple will likely own and run the stock exchange by 2011.

So, really, this move should work to benefit everyone… except for AT&T … and Droid … Google … well, you get the picture.

• How do you see things playing out in 2011?

With the HTC EVO, iPhone 4 and Droid Incredible just dropping on the market, it’s difficult to decide which smartphone to get. How about bringing it old school and dusting off that 2-way pager and training a messenger pigeon.

Mashable’s may have chosen the iPhone against the other heavyweight smartphones, but which would you choose?

[via Mashable]

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“The laptop is yesterday’s news”

-DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.

This statement sums up the second day of the All Things Digital conference, as most of the devices exclusively demoed at D8 themed around a tablet computing interface.

Walt asked Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs why his company

left the phone market. His answer: “We sucked at it.”

Can the Kno Tablet Finally Replace the Textbook?

Dell’s entry into the Apple-dominated market:

The Android-based Streak Tablet

Microsoft’s new gesture-based controller for the Xbox.

What are your thoughts? Any device particularly stand out? There is definitely a demand for a modern textbook tablet, but will the Kno Tablet be the answer?

The buzz on the first day of the D8 conference was all about Steve Jobs and the stir around Flash, the iPad, Google and more.  Find the video highlights here.

The 2nd day of D8 featured a wider range of tech and media figures, from DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to NPR CEO Vivian Schiller and movie director James Cameron.

As our founder, Arthur Ceria, furiously tweeted from the #D8 conference, we were busy following all the interesting Q&A sessions and tech releases back at the NYC CreativeFeed office.

Here are some of the highlights we thought you should see. The tech releases deserved its own blog posts, so you can find that here.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Privacy

James Cameron on BP

DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg on 3D

NPR CEO Vivian Schiller on Journalism Industry

Since 2003, the All Things Digital conference has been breaking news, highlighting innovation, and showcasing conversations with the most influential figures in media and technology.

This year marks the eighth anniversary of the conference, hence the D8 name.

Last night, Steve Jobs kicked off the event with a Q&A session with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Wall Street Journal’s digital duo.

Here are some highlights from the event, including Jobs’ thoughts on the missing 4GS phone, Adobe Flash, Google and the origin of the iPad.

Google, Android and Apple

Jobs on Flash

The missing 4GS Phone

Origins of the iPad