Determinants for a generic mobile commerce transformation framework

Current technological advancement has given the necessary impetus for businesses to transform from traditional ways into to mobile business or m-businesses. This transformation has begun from the Internet era, where traditional businesses transformed to e-businesses by taking advantages of the facilities offered by the Internet. Recent development in wireless technology facilitated businesses to move further to m-businesses. Despite the development in the technical domain, it appears that businesses still struggle to comprehend the processes involved in the transformation because a proper framework is yet to evolve. This work-in-progress paper provides a background to such transformation with a method to achieve this transformation

The Rise of the Wireless Internet

The introduction of the mobile phone revolutionised the way people traditionally communicated with one another. People suddenly became accessible independent of their location, at any time of the day or week. A salesperson in business for instance, who was always on the road could now be reached and could in turn make phone calls conveniently between customer meetings. Bundled with the basic mobile voice service was messaging in the form of voice or text. The latter has especially proven to be a useful and cost-effective method for conveying a short message. Collectively residential and business mobile subscribers use the short message service (SMS) to send millions of text messages per day (each not more than 160 characters in length). Information \u27push and pull\u27 services in the form of SMS, such as the latest sports results or betting odds, are now commonplace value-added features offered by second-generation (2G) mobile service providers

The Direction of mobile evolution examined through the NTT DoCoMo strategy, Mobile Frontier

NTT DoCoMo is Japan\u27s biggest mobile service provider. They added extra value into cellular phone as telephone , and contributed to the explosive spread of the mobile phone in Japan. They have still led Japan as a country with the world\u27s largest mobile Internet. The mobile phone now changes our lifestyles or work styles, and has a great influence also on business. In 1997, NTT DoCoMo created the company vision towards the year 2010, Mobile Frontier . It consists of five concepts, named MAGIC , and indicates the mobile phone figure in the future as a whole. I regard it as a guideline of this paper, and examine the direction of mobile evolution by researching the following topics: the present situation, the issues needed to realize each concept, and the future. At first, I state the background of the mobile phone spread in Japan and the cultural aspects peculiar to Japan. After that, I examine the mobile evolution along with the five concepts. The objective of this paper is to refer to and understand the vision of a leading company in the telecommunication field, and consider mobile communications\u27 influence and applications in the future. The goal is to expand knowledge in the present situation of the mobile phone and the trend towards future mobile, and to examine the direction the Mobile Frontier aims

Mobile commerce business models and technologies towards success

Mobile commerce is any transaction with a monetary value that is conducted via a mobile telecommunications network. This thesis tries to examine the factors leading to the success of mobile commerce as well as factors that may hinder its success. This research is separated into five parts: In the first part of this thesis, an analysis of wired e-commerce businesses is made; followed by advantages of mobile commerce over wired e-commerce. In the second part of this thesis, new wireless business models that are expected to generate substantial revenue flows as well as some successful examples of these business models are discussed. In the third part of this thesis, advances in wireless technologies that will lead to the success of mobile commerce are discussed. In the fourth part of this thesis, competition strategies and revenue structure of mobile commerce are discussed. And finally, in the fifth part of this thesis, drawbacks of wireless technologies towards the success of mobile commerce as well as how they can be overcome are discussed. The research and the conclusion suggest that although wireless technologies and their related business models are fairly new, they are growing at rapid speed. These are incredible sources of revenue. Once the factors hindering their usability, reliability, development and deployment are overcome, mobile technologies show great potential as revenue generators for both existing and newly developing businesse

A case study of MMO2's Madic: A framework for creating mobile internet systems

Mobile Internet applications on ubiquitous mobile networks allows real-time, anywhere, anytime connectivity to services. Due to its scalability and potential cost savings, mobile communication is being increasingly applied in the business and consumer communities to create innovative data and voice application, which run over the Internet infrastructure. This paper reports on a case study at an organisation that created an innovative approach to developing mobile applications developed by third party independent developers. A conceptual wireless reference model is presented that was used to define the various system components required to create effective mobile applications

Mcommerce - a vision in time

Global mCommerce revenues are expected to grow from $400 million in 2000, to 22.2 billion by 2005 (Raczkowski, 2002) mCommerce is a key driver in developing the global information society, with applications emerging in numerous areas including banking, financial services, security services and shopping (Khalifa and Cheng, 2002). With optimistic projections regarding its growth, many researchers are actively determining the future of mCommerce. In this paper, we have tried to synthesise some predictions and evolving definitions, explored security as a critical impediment and developing solutions; investigated the mPayment scenario; and derived a futuristic research framework. Specifically, we have attempted to capture the moving mCommerce scenario in present time, with a special focus into mPayments.<br /

Competitiveness of the Internet Industry in Korea and Japan: Case Studies of Korea Telecom Freetel and NTT DoCoMo

Koreas well-developed mobile telephony network infrastructure makes it a globally competitive country in the field of wireless Internet. Korea Telecom Freetel has enjoyed the early-mover advantage in the wireless Internet industry in Korea, although it was a late-comer in the mobile telephony industry. The competition, however, is becoming harsher than ever, and the company is now seeking a breakthrough. For benchmarking, Japans NIT DoCoMo was chosen for its tremendous success in the worlds first commercialization of the wireless Internet. Using the diamond model (Porter 1990; Moon, Rugman and Verbeke 1998), the variables are analyzed and strategic recommendations are provided. One important conclusion is that Korea Telecom Freetel is taking advantage of its Esbusiness implementation, but can be more competitive if its business environment is less restrictive. The results of this research will help policymakers as well as business people in making decisions to enhance the competitiveness of the Internet industry

The convergence of telecommunications and broadcasting in Japan

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-116).Japan has fallen far behind the United States in the extent and sophistication of its information networks and Internet use. But Japan can catch up. A combination of changes, including the rapid growth of the Internet, advances in broadband technology, the introduction of digital TV, and deregulation are driving a transformation referred to as the "convergence of telecommunications and broadcasting". At the same time, these drivers are dramatically changing the traditional industry structure of telecommunication and broadcasting, from vertical integration to horizontal stratification. Information companies need to plan strategies based on the new industry. NTT, reorganized in 1999 into a holding company system that promotes group management, has committed to an aggressive plan to deploy FTTH (Fiber to the home) everywhere in Japan by 2005. FTTH service has just begun and my research finds that NTT's decision to implement FTTH has encountered fierce competition when analyzed from the basis of Porter's Five Forces. There are fur strategic points that must be dealt with in order to win in the optical fiber service competition: 1) open access, 2) reduction in prices, 3) construction of a platform, and 4) correlation with broadcasters. In addition, cooperation with the regulatory authorities and other information companies is also required, because NTT will find it difficult to win on its own. NTT is a leader in the information/communication industry, and I believe NTT can expand its organizational capability and contribute to the development of the industry by responding to this new era.by Toru Maruoka.M.B.A

A Taxonomy of Internet Appliances

The world is evolving from one in which almost all access to the Internet comes from personal computers (PCs) to one in which so-called Internet appliances (IAs) will make up a greater share of end-user equipment. Today's PC is a general-purpose, highly configurable and extensible device ? an "intelligent end-node" of the sort the Internet's designers had in mind. As such, it allows users much freedom of choice (such as which service provider to use, which Web sites to visit, and which new software to download) in exchange for dealing with associated complexity. An IA is a device connected to the Internet, but beyond that there is little consensus on functionality and target markets. There is, however, general agreement that it reduces the level of complexity seen by the user. A variety of approaches to reducing complexity are being pursued. These fall on a spectrum from totally fixing the function of devices, to automating the configuration of more general purpose systems. In the middle are devices whose functions appear more or less fixed to the user, but which retain some limited capability for upgrade through their Internet connection