It is the end of the week and what a week it was.  Monday Apple dazzled everyone with their  product launches (iOS6 can be seen as a direct to Google, that is going to be a separate post soon) and then word came of the struggles of Nokia. Mobile commerce is something that I encounter on a daily basis, so these story lines are of importance.

Conference organizers, I have a simple request for you. As someone who is interested in some of the ecommerce conferences that happen all over the world. how about a single user rate to view some of the speakers? I love reading posts like Tim Kilroy’s in which he summarises IRCE 2012, but the missing context is an issue. So videos or livestreams would be beneficial. Please folks.. spread the knowledge.

Without further ado, here are the stories that got my attention this past week:

1. Data Monday: Mind Blowing iPad Stats by Luke Wroblewski. Apple on Monday announced their latest round of stats. Needless to say if you can create an industry and then making profit from it, then you know begin to understand just how dominant Apple is in the tablet space. Simple question for all eCommerce executives – do you have a tablet strategy and how are you monetizing that traffic?

2. Rick Watson (as he usually does after presenting at a conference) put his slides up from his talk at the Global e-commerce summit held in Barcelona. Is Running a Marketplace Right for Me? is an excellent presentation on Marketplace management and the things that need to considered.

3. Five Big Ideas That Could Transform the Future of Commerce, Dave Bruno marketing director for RedPrairie, states a few ideas on where ecommerce is headed. I am still not convince NFC is not just a buzzword but the rest leads to strategy formulation.

4. In this weeks installment of  “The Adventures of the Samwer Brothers”, the brothers terminate their fab clone in Germany called Bamarang. The headlines such as “Samwers kill their Fab clone after just six months” makes me realise that they have a firm understanding of fail fast concept.

5. China and in particular Alibaba was in the news this week. Tmall to Launch Online Bookstore This Week, Promises 60 Million Titles. It is becoming clear that Jack Ma is following the Amazon blueprint and is after domination in China, and nothing else…

6. Amazon’s Innovation Will Dominate the Future. I must admit, Amazon is one company that has a lot going for it. Has the Kindle Fire been a succeess? For me, Amazon is a blueprint but also an inspiration. The finance folks are concerned, yet with Bezos at the helm I wont bet on them becoming a global company which the similar financials as seen with Walmart.

7. Rakuten, the Japanese super power is also steadily creating themselves a handy portfolio of holdings. I have a few concerns over their acquisitions (which deserves a seperate post) but they continue to acquire companies. I wonder how much frequent flier miles Hiroshi Mikitani has? Pinterest investor Rakuten buys its way in to European VOD.. need I say more?

8. Tim Kilroy has an excellent post on themes that he observed at IRCE 2012. The 5 things overheard at IRCE 2012 can just as well be seen as strategy planning themes for the next 18 months. Go an read the post and ensure that you have a cup of coffee with you to digest it all…

9. Kogan to Tax IE7 Users. I want to recommend this as a candidate for one of the posts of the year. If you work alongside development teams then you will understand the pain cross browser testing causes. I think the solution that Kogan are thinking of doing is a clever one. For the record, friends don’t let friends use Internet Explorer 7.

10. This story is one that I am going to be following as at the moment it is nothing more than a rumor. Is Jack Ma seriously moving away from day to day operations at Alibaba?