Daily Dose of iQ

Last week, we blogged about Facebook's mobile ad shortcomings and this week, some more untimely news has befallen the company in the midst of its IPO: General Motors is pulling its ads (all ads, not just mobile ones) off Facebook.

According to 9to5mac.com, Apple will drop the Google Maps app on iOS 6, in favor of a completely in-house maps application.

"The application design is said to be fairly similar to the current Google Maps program on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but it is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience," wrote 9to5mac.com.

Dana Mattioli and Miguel Bustillo of the Wall Street Journal wrote an article yesterday on how some retailers are hoping "geo-fencing" -- sending promotions to people's phones as they come within a few hundred yards of their stores --can help win them new and repeat business.

Offering hyper-local deals and promos through geo-fencing technology seems to be a novel way at getting “impulse buys.”

Our theme at CTIA this year was "Energizing Retail End to End," and this means connecting virtual (online and mobile) and physical (in-store) retail channels, and managing these channels from the back-of-house operations (RQ4) to the front-of-house customer experience (XQ).

The central hub for all of these retail experiences is the physical store itself.

93% of In-Store App Users Make Purchases at Physical Stores

Mobile payments company Boku announced a billing partership with Sprint today.

"(The agreement) allows Sprint customers to charge online purchases to their Sprint wireless bill through a two-step authorization process," wrote Leena Rao of TechCrunch.