Global Mobile Commerce

Date Published: October 2006, Pages: 603, Tables: 39, Figures: 23

Single User License: US $ 8000

Global Site License: US $ 32,000

Summary

Text Box: Sample Pages KEY APPLICATIONS OF THE FUTURE As of now the top applications are e-mail and SMS, but emerging applications are developing. The real killer application for the mobile Internet will be transactional, and the two key areas will be financial services/banking and home shopping. Applications of the future include those aimed at the working professionals as well as consumers. Applications aimed at the former include instant messages, stock quotes, sale details, client information, shipment schedules etc. Applications aimed at the latter may be banking, broking, email news, sports, weather, calendar etc. Being always connected lets the employees’ access critical information at the right time and take quick decisions. Firms need to customize the content to account for the constraints imposed by bandwidth and small display size of hand held devices. The applications aimed at the consumer need to be simple and easy to understand. They user should be able to get the required information within a few clicks. The constraints imposed by bandwidth and small display size applies here also. Like the fixed Internet, Email applications would be the killer applications in the wireless Internet also. Locations based services and banking are some of the applications, which have tremendous potential for growth. Specific opportunities There is a large potential for mobile portals as mobile Internet caches up. These portals can gain competitive advantage by offering services that may not be available in fixed Internet portals such as location specific services. The mobile portals could gain customer loyalty by offering personalized location specific content and services. These may be services such as hotel reservations, movie listings etc. Speech recognition technology has very good potential to complement mobile commerce. Speech recognition technology could be a very important driver considering the fact that mobile hand held devices have small screens and keyboard sizes. This makes keying in details a difficult process. The speech recognition software allows the mobile network operators and portals to reduce costs and improve customer service by reducing customer churn. Mobile content providers and aggregators can offer a one-stop shop for services such as news, weather, stock quotes, travel information, ticketing services etc. Mobile content providers and aggregators need to enter into alliances with mobile operators so that they can have access to the end customers. The mobile aggregators can package the content offered by sellers for multiple mobile operators. As users start to demand services regardless of their location, satellite based mobile services would become prevalent. This is particular in the case of users who travel a lot to remote places. However satellite based mobile services would not emerge into a mass market phenomenon due to the costs involved as well as the size of hand held devices. Pricing of mobile satellite services as well as hand held devices would hold the key to the success of the service. In future data traffic would be the primary driver of revenue from airtime charges and revenue from voice traffic would support the same. However revenue from airtime is bound to come down in future as technology advances and more bandwidth is available and also from increased competition, which would result in airtime being a commodity

Text Box: Abstract Mobile Internet market is different from the fixed Internet due to its unique aspects such as: mass customizable location specific content, anytime anywhere access to data and transfer of cash from the mobile instrument to the merchants. As the use of wireless increases, there will also be a surge in demand for complementary services such as secure wireless storage, delivery, authentication, content provision etc. As people start using wireless to conduct transactions, new applications may emerge in future. Mobile service providers need to offer new pricing schemes, location-specific and personalized services to its customers. The emergence of technologies such as Bluetooth, which allows the wireless electronic devices to communicate with each other, is expected to add to the value proposition offered by application providers. Services which link smart cards with mobile hand held devices would play a major role in future. However the users may take more time in getting used to the concept of a mobile hand held device with a smart card which can be used to download digital cash and carry out purchases. Increased competition among the service providers would bring down the ARPU, as the service providers would start competing on price. To keep ahead of the competition, they need to continuously innovate and offer value added services to their customers. By having a presence in various segments of the value chain, the partner can serve the customers better and also create a workable lock-in for their services. Operators should be equipped to offer a variety of services to the