Spotify’s much anticipated iPhone app has been submitted to Apple for approval and certainly looks the part…in fact it almost looks too much the part.  This level of integration into the iPhone music playback experience may well be deemed by Apple to be too competitive to the core iPhone functionality. There is precedent, the Podcaster app was rejected, reportedly because it was too similar to iTunes functionality (it since developed a scaled back RSS Reader iPhone app).  The Spotify app certainly seems to mimic core iPhone music playback functionality (e.g. utilizing standard iPhone / iPod Touch playback controls) and would therefore be likely to compete with iPhone iTunes music playback. 

[Posted by Brad Strothkamp}

One job of an analyst is the separate the hype from the facts. We here at Forrester are fortunate enough to have access to customer survey information that allows us to do just that.

For the last 18 months, the hottest thing on the planet has been mobile banking. Forrester has fielded dozens and dozens of questions from clients wondering about mobile banking strategy to the point that you'd think every consumer on the planet was clamoring to bank on their mobile device.

But our surveys continue to tell us something different (at least for now). In our most recent survey from Q1 2009, 10% of US consumers with a mobile phone have signed up for moblie banking. And among those who have not banked using a mobile phone, the number interested remains low.

[Posted by William Band]

Hello, my name is Bill Band and I am Principal Analyst here at Forrester serving Business Process & Applications Professionals. The focus of my research is on the underlying technologies that support customer-facing business processes (a.k.a. "CRM"). To make the savvy investment decisions, customer intelligence professionals, need to know which solutions have the strongest track record for delivering results. I just surveyed 286 companies to understand which customer management processes and supporting technologies are most critical to success.

Here’s a sneak peek of my findings:

by Patti Freeman Evans

As we reported back in May, online retailers should prepare to charge sales tax in certain markets, even if they do not plan to do so across the country. Cash-strapped states are looking to tap any potential source of revenue (California, for example, has been working through an onerous $26 billion budget gap) and have in recent months been proposing legislation to require online retailers to submit tax in states in which they deliver.