1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mobile electronic devices and, more particularly, to usage or location monitoring of mobile electronic devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many people carry at least one mobile electronic device every day and through out the day. These mobile electronic devices tend to be very important digital tools or companions for users. Examples of some common mobile electronic devices are Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), digital media players, mobile phones, and portable computers.
Today, merchants can track customer buying patterns. If customers make purchases during their visits using a “loyalty card” (or loyalty number), then the merchants can track purchases by customers. Using a loyalty card, a user can receive a discount or other reward for repeated purchases with a particular merchant. Also, conventionally, use of a particular credit card for a purchase made at a particular merchant can also facilitate monitoring customer buying patterns. However, when no purchases are made, merchants generally have no understanding of who are visiting their stores and how often. As a result, in many instances, merchants are not able to reward its repeat patrons.
Also, today, users of network browsers can configure their access webpage (e.g., “MyYahoo” provided by Yahoo! Inc.) for a network browser application (e.g., Safari™ application from Apple Inc.) to be presented with information of interest. However, configured preferences or settings that are used to determine the content for the webpage are fixed; hence, the characteristics for the webpage are fixed until subsequently changed through user interaction to alter the preferences or settings.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds