WIRELESS & MOBILE COMMERCE A summary of the main things one would need to know as of April 2001. This summary #2 was compiled by students in IEC 802, Seneca College, Toronto, Canada www.iec.senecac.on.ca/

Three main points for driving the mobile commerce and the trend in the “wireless” future:

·Increasing use of the Internet – local and global

·Handheld devices 

·Cellphone services – accessible and affordable

Our approach in understanding the future of mobile and wireless industry is taken from the perspective of the four “P”s of Marketing- Product, Place, Price and Promotion

PROMOTION:

• The wireless revolution will open up many opportunities for marketing and advertising industries
• Currently, wireless phones are being used to check email, surf the net and make special orders.
• Example would be for an individual to walk past a Starbucks and an instant coupon will “pop” up on your cellphone prompting the consumer to purchase a coffee.
• M-commerce will eventually expand markets, improve services and reduce costs.
• The technological sophistication of m-commerce will allow marketers to expand their reach anyone carrying a mobile device

PLACE:

• Location is indeterminant 

• North America – 1.1 million web-ready cell phones
• By 2003 – 79 million cell phones and 12 million PDAs

• Japan - 17 million web enabled phones

• UK - 41 million mobile Internet users by 2005

·Third World – wireless technologies and m-commerce hold special promise for third world countries where the communication infrastructure is under-developed. Companies and individuals will be able to go directly m-commerce and not be hindered by the lack of phone services and land lines.

PRICE

·Cost of upgrading websites to be WAP compatible is $100K to $150K

·Batteries are getting smaller and cheaper

·Every year the cost of wireless technology goes down = exponential growth from mass consumerism = acceptance 

·Bluetooth it an example of cheap. Currently implemented at a cost of $15 and predicted to be only $5 as it becomes widely accepted in the future

·Small component prices are dropping

·Marketingà Can start offering wireless devices for cheap

PRODUCT

·Bandwidth

·Handset design limitations (physical limitations – screen size, key pad)

·Range (reception range

·Speed (limited to 9600 bps – much slower than 56K)

·Servicesà VoiceXML and CallXML applications

oBanking

oCheck email

oTrade stocks

oWeather and traffic reports

o911, 411, maps and directories

oentertainment

oadverstising