C7 Mobile Commerce Notes

Mobile Commerce

The Evolution of Mobile Commerce

  • Evolution from 1G to 2G, 2.5G, and 3G.

Outline

  • Introduction

  • Characteristics of M-commerce

  • Enabling Technologies

  • Mobile Payment

  • Conclusion

Mobile Commerce: Overview

  • Mobile commerce (m-commerce, m-business): Any e-commerce done in a wireless environment, especially via the Internet.

  • Can be done via the Internet, private communication lines, smart cards, etc.

  • Creates opportunity to deliver new services to existing customers and to attract new ones.

The Drivers

  • Widespread availability of devices

  • No need for a PC

  • Handset culture

  • Vendors’ push

  • Declining prices

  • Improvement of bandwidth

  • Explosion of EC in general

Mobile Interfaces

  • Examples of mobile interfaces from Nokia and Motorola.

Classification of M-Commerce Services

  • Financial: Secure banking services

  • Entertainment: Mobile Gambling

  • Shopping: Purchase of goods

  • Information: Local Information

  • Payment: Electronic Wallet

  • Advertising: Intelligent Advertising

Characteristics of M-Commerce

  • Mobility

  • Reachability

  • Value-added attributes

  • Product and service localization

  • Product personalization

  • Ubiquity enhancement

  • Instant connectivity

  • Convenience

A Example (The next bus model)

  • The Problem:

    • Buses in San Francisco have difficulty keeping to 20 minute schedule during rush hours

    • Posted schedule becomes meaningless

  • The Solution:

    • Bus riders carrying Internet-enabled cell phone or PDA helps:

    • Find estimated arrival time at each stop, digitally in real time

    • Soon location-based advertisements will pop up—you have time to get a cup of coffee before the bus arrives—Starbuck’s is 200 feet to the right

NextBus (cont.)

  • The Results:

    • Passengers in San Francisco are happy with the system

    • Worries about missing the bus are diminished

    • May discover they have time for a cup of coffee before the bus arrives

  • Bus company can:

    • Schedule better

    • Arrange for extra buses when needed

    • Improve operations

Enabling Technologies

  • Introduce two transmission mode, GPRS and W-CDMA

    • GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)

      • A step between GSM and 3G cellular networks.

      • Transmission rate via a GSM network within 9.6Kbps 115Kbps9.6Kbps ~ 115Kbps.

      • GPRS supports the widespread range of bandwidth, it is a effective application under the limited bandwidth.

      • Mobile phone can receive and transmit data at the same time. (e.g. make a phone call and receives e-mail at the same time)

    • W-CDMA (Wideband Code-Division Multiple Acces)

      • the transmission technology for third generation (3G) UMTS mobile communication.

      • The transmission rate is up to 2Mbps2Mbps, it makes mobile multimedia grows rapidly.

Enabling Technologies (cont.)

  • WAP(Protocol) and i-mode(Service)

    • WAP(Wireless Application Protocol)

      • It is a open and standard wireless application software protocol.

      • The WAP system are composed of two main factors：

        • WML（Wireless Markup Language） : similar to HTML

        • WAP Gateway / Proxy : to change the webpage source code to the suitable one.

      • Need a connecting action

      • Payment according to time used.

    • i-mode

      • The first packet-based, always-on, mobile Internet service

      • Various services available : Banking, game, wallpaper, music….

      • Payment according to packets received.

Enabling Technologies (cont.)

  • Other related technologies

    • J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition)

      • A kind of programming language used in small, connectable consumer and embedded devices. it makes mobile phones have a ability to execute program.

    • XML（eXtensible Markup Language）

      • A Standard for structured document interchange on the Web. It makes the description language used by different browsers can be changed more quickly.

    • IPv6

      • IPv4 use 32bit, this is not enough. IPv6 expand it to 128bit, so that every mobile phone can get its own IP.

Mobile Payment Players

  • Mobile Payment involves several players: User, Network Operator, Financial Institution, and Content Provider/Merchant.

Mobile Payment Issues

  • User: Security, Privacy, Ease of Use, Devices

  • Network Operator: Open Standards, Inter-operability, Roaming

  • Financial Institution: Authentication, Integrity, Non-repudiation, Fraud reduction, Getting Paid

  • Content Provider/Merchant: User adoption, Low Cost Issues

Mobipay system

  • A detailed description of how the Mobipay system works, involving the user, operator network, processor, issuer/acquirer, and merchant.

  • Steps include user choosing Mobipay payment, merchant sending a unique reference, validation, PIN request and response, authorization, and confirmation.

Conclusion

  • Meteoric growth of the Internet and mobile communications

  • Increasing mobility

  • New applications, services and business models

  • Enabling technologies

  • 87%87\% Telephone lines Annual growth 1990-1999

  • 52%52\% Cellular subscribers Annual growth 1990-1999

  • 6%6\% Internet hosts Annual growth 1990-1999

Internet Waves

  • Progression from Government & Research to Email, Worldwide Web, then Wireless/Mobile Internet, and finally Embedded Internet.