M-Business - The Race to Mobility
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The Mobile Environment
Some questions have to be answered
like what are the reasons for companies to go for mobile commerce when already
there is e-commerce?
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In other words, what is the need
of m-business when transactions are already being conducted online and
companies have already adjusted themselves in an online environment?
Following are the three major factors that explains why there is a need
to go for m-business:
Changing customer priorities:
In today's changing business environment,
companies know that they have to fulfill their consumers' needs and
preferences and if they are not able to do that then they will be soon out of
business. In a highly competitive market, the market leader will be that
company, which would provide differentiated value-added services to its
consumers. Hence, few companies adopted wireless technologies. Anywhere and
anytime services, speed of service, simplicity and convenience are the major
advantages enjoyed by the consumers of mobile applications.
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Other factors that increased customers' expectations are:
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Mobile devices are becoming the best
alternatives for networking and hence building strong foundations of networked
society.
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Rising young generation market all
over the world.
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Services like Short Message Service (SMS)
are becoming a social necessity.
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Faster delivery of products and
services i.e. Time is Money concept is getting real.
Innovation in Infrastructure: This factor relates to the
development of existing infrastructure to support latest technologies. The
existing infrastructure is being developed to support various new features in
networking areas, which includes home-office networks. Increased bandwidth is
one of the major developments and most of the companies are using it to offer
customized solutions for wireless devices like PDAs, mobile phones. Other
factors that have contributed to infrastructure innovation are:
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Upgradation of wireless technologies
from 2G to 3G.
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Combination of wideband radio
communications and Internet protocol based services.
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Concepts like bandwidth of demand
coming in application.
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Bluetooth - a new technology in the
area of personalized bandwidth.
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Wireless home networking - another
area where IBM and Carrier are developing wireless remote monitoring and control
services.
Hardware and Device Innovation:
The hardware products gets cheaper as and when new products are introduced.
However, this segment has an important role to play, as this is where end users
will use mobile technology. Some of the emerging trends in this segment are:
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Many new channels are being
introduced. For example, companies are now equipping cars, toys, refrigerators
and so on with wireless devices that are making them to interact with the users
or other devices.
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Convergence of information,
communication and entertainment industry is another distinct trend emerging that
will further increase the role of mobile devices.
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The introduction of voice user
interface is enabling speech recognition into various wireless devices and
providing more convenience for the users.
Mobile Application Infrastructure
Companies must know the type of
infrastructure required by mobile applications. They must also understand the
costs associated with the development of mobile infrastructure. Let us
understand the various building blocks of mobile infrastructure and which are
the major companies providing the infrastructure and their business models:
Application Gateways: Also known as platform providers they are the
companies, which provide user management services like secure access,
directories and administration services. Companies in this category also provide
services like e-mail, message scheduling, portal services like content,
knowledge management and e-commerce services like catalog, transactions and
billing services. Companies in this category include Openwave that provides
end-to-end software solutions to large carrier companies. It also provides
software solutions in applications and infrastructure area.
Mobile Application Service Providers: These companies provide outsourcing
services to the companies, which do not have enough money to develop their own
mobile infrastructure, or do not want to get into this segment. They also offer
data center and infrastructure hosting services besides renting their equipment,
space and bandwidth to other companies. A company in this category is Aether
that provides mobile software solutions for government, logistics and healthcare
sectors. Aether derives its revenues from three services including recurring
subscriptions for its services, software licensing and engineering services.
Mobile Internet Service Providers: They are an important component of the
mobile infrastructure as these companies provide end users with Internet
connectivity. Companies like AT&T, OmniSky and Verizon provide wireless Internet
connectivity to the mobile users. They also provide services like e-mail,
instant messaging, and information surfing and secure m-commerce transactions. OmniSky provides unlimited use of wireless e-mail and Internet services for its
subscribers. The subscribers have to purchase a wireless modem from the company,
which enables their handheld devices to access the company's services. OmniSky
charges a flat rate fee for its services.
Mobile Application Enablers: The companies under this group provide data
and transaction security services. Verisign, Sybase and Synchrologic are
companies, which provide these services to the mobile users. Verisign provides
services in the area of transaction security, Sybase in micro-database and Synchrologic in the area of data synchronization.
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