Today In Data: The Evolving Face Of What’s Next In Mobile

It’s been an up and down week on the stock market as earnings reports have piled in and investors have like, or not liked, what they’ve seen. Western Union’s pair-up with Amazon got a lot of positive attention, while Apple’s decision to stop breaking out iPhone sales each quarter caused a bit of controversy. But cheer- or jeer-inducing, the story of the week is that the times, they are a-changin’. And in some cases, they are at last evolving forward. Cloud-based point of sale systems are emerging with retailers new and old this holiday season and beyond, as retailers of all stripes are preparing for customers ramping up for a very digital shopping season.

Data:

$10 billion: The approximate value of Apple’s Services business last quarter.

$1.39 billion: Western Union’s Q3 revenue, just shy of the $1.42 billion expected by Wall Street.

46.9 million: Number of iPhone units sold last quarter (missing analyst expectations of 47.9 million units), flat growth compared to last year’s sales.

100 percent: Share of transactions done through mPOS at some Banana Republic locations.

62 percent: Share of new merchants that prefer cloud-based point of sale systems.