M-COMMERCE

UNIT - 1
• Wireless Communication Technology,
• Scope,
• Principles of Mobile Commerce,
• Benefits,
• Limitations,
• Mobile Commerce Framework,
• Mobile Commerce Business Models,
• Mobile Banking and Payments,
• E-Commerce vs M- Commerce,
• Mobile commerce services - Types,
• Mobile portals,
• Mobile Commerce applications - Applications of Mobile Commerce in industry,
• Mobile Application Development
Wireless Communication Technology
• Mobile commerce is based on wireless communication technology.
• The wireless networking has some distinct advantages over traditional wired
networking that employs co-axial, twisted pair or fibre optic cables for physical
connection between two or more computing devices.
• In wireless networking, the data transfer between computers are facilitated by
microwaves, radio waves or infrared waves.
• It eliminates the cumbersome cabling process involving bulky cables with a significant
reduction in labour and material cost as well as development time.
• The wireless networking technology together with wireless application protocol
provides the backbone of mobile commerce applications.
• In various vertical markets, such as retail, healthcare, manufacturing and
warehousing, mobile commerce gained acceptance and provided increased
productivity through the usage of mobile devices.
• The mobile handheld devices are used to transmit data in real time to centralized
hosts through wireless networks.
• The mobile commerce that employs wireless technology, offers some
extra advantage over the internet based e-commerce.
• In e-commerce, the internet provides information anytime of the day,
while in m-commerce, the information is available anytime,
anywhere.
• In e-commerce, the information is available as long as the user is
connected with the internet, i.e. connected with the wired network.
• If the user is involved with some other activities, i.e. travelling or
doing some offline job, which forces him/her to become disconnected
from the internet, the information becomes unavailable.
• M-commerce removes such uncertainties.
• Wireless networking allows the user to be connected with the wireless
internet even if he/she is on the move.
• Thus, in m-commerce, it is possible to stay online anywhere on earth and
anytime of the day.
• The user can access information instantly even if he/she is engaged in some
other activities, such as travelling or shopping, with the help of the mobile
device and the wireless network or internet.
• This helps the employees to make spot decisions, the customers to ask
questions spontaneously and business owners to perform transactions
anytime regardless of their geographical positions.
Scope of Mobile Commerce
• Mobile commerce provides instant connectivity between mobile users
irrespective of their geographical location and time of the day.
• With enormous growth of wireless and mobile technology and rapid
penetration of mobile phones in developing countries worldwide, the scope
of m-commerce has increased manifold.
• With the advent of super fast 3G access technology that ensures high speed
data transfer rates of the order of 20 Mbps, m-commerce is opening up new
vistas of digital media applications.
• 3G technology, equipped with WiMax and UMTS standards for high speed
mobile broadband internet connectivity, supports mobile multimedia
application delivery at far greater bandwidths.
• So, it is now possible for mobile users to watch their favourite TV programmes
or download and view famous movies in their mobile devices while travelling
Applications of M-Commerce
• Downloading MP3 music, playing online games or participating in live video
conferencing while in transit have become a reality now.
• Apart from such audio/video applications, SMS-based text messaging finds
wide acceptance in day-to-day business transactions.
• Whether to display product promos, to announce new product launches or
to give attractive discounts, SMS have become an effective tool for mobile
marketing.
• SMS-based advertisements have become an integral part of m-commerce.
• The role that SMS play in giving instant support to customers in the event of
any kind of product failures or delivery delays can neither be ignored nor
downplayed.
Applications of M-Commerce
• Another major application area of m-commerce is in the field of micro payments.
• The mobile devices are poised to replace the credit cards of the users in near
future.
• The mobile phone will replace money in the pocket and will provide a low cost,
low risk alternative for credit/debit cards for making payments anytime,
anywhere and for anything.
• Mobile phones, equipped with a contact less smart card (that stores credit card
information) along with the SIM card, can act as a digital credit card, which can
be used for making payments.
• It employs NFC (Near Field Communication) technology that uses radio waves to
transmit/receive credit card information from the mobile device to the remote
credit card service providers without any physical contact.
Principles of Mobile Commerce
• Mobile commerce is based on
• wireless mobile communication system, which utilizes digital cellular
technology.
• The cellular network consists of a number of cell sites.
Principles of Mobile Commerce
• Each cell site consists of
• a stationary base station (a radio frequency transceiver),
• an adjacent tower antenna (for transmission and reception
of signals) and
• a surrounding cell (a hexagonal-shaped geographical area).
• Each cell is allotted a band of radio frequencies and
provides coverage to any portable mobile device that
comes within the geographical range of the cell.
• Whenever a mobile device such as a mobile phone or a
pager, etc., comes inside a cell, it starts communicating
with the base station using one of the cell frequencies.
Principles of Mobile Commerce
• The base station receives the signal from the mobile device and transmits
using the tower antenna to a distant base station for call delivery.
• To distinguish signals received from different mobile devices at the same
base station, different access technologies such as
• Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA),
• Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) or
• Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) are used.
• Whenever a mobile user tends to move away from one cell to another
adjacent cell, the cell frequency switching occurs, whereby the old cell
frequency is dropped and the mobile device is automatically allotted a
new frequency corresponding to the adjacent base station.
• The mobile device switches from previous base station frequency to
current base station frequency and the communication with the new
base station continues without interruption.
• This is known as cell handover.
• There are a number of different digital cellular technologies which are
used in various mobile phone networks worldwide.
• These are: Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communication, General
Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution
(EDGE), Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT), etc.
Figure 1.1 shows scope of Mobile Commerce
• The geographical location of a base station is fixed,
• i.e. stationary and the frequency band and location of each base station are registered in
the database of a centralized Mobile Telecommunication Switching Office (MTSO).
• So, whenever a mobile device changes position from one cell site to another, its
geographical location can be easily tracked from MTSO.
• Utilizing this fact, mobile commerce offers a number of location-based services,
such as
• tracking and monitoring of people/vehicles,
• identifying or discovering nearest ATM machines/banks/hospitals/restaurants
• and local weather/traffic reports.
• People tracking can help in criminal investigation where the mobile phone used
by a criminal can be tracked and its location is identified.
• The vehicle tracking is utilized in finding out the actual position of the goods to be delivered
and helps in supply chain operation management. The local traffic and weather report can be
generated in a local office and delivered to the mobile phone of a user on request.
• The local bank/ATM/hospital/restaurant info can also be delivered to a mobile user at a
minimal cost.
• The scope of mobile commerce is all pervasive, and is gradually engulfing all aspects of lives
of modern day citizens.
• Ranging from mobile banking, mobile browsing and mobile ticketing up to mobile marketing,
mobile advertising and mobile computing, mobile commerce is gradually becoming an
integral part of both corporate world and common people.
• With the prices of mobile phone decreasing exponentially and the number of different
mobile applications increasing enormously, more and more people will indulge in m-
commerce applications and soon it will become the preferred choice of the digital business
world.
Benefits of Mobile Commerce
• The main advantage of mobile commerce is that it provides instant connectivity
to the mobile user, irrespective of his/her geographical location and time of the
day.
• The mobile user can stay connected with his/her business network and gather
information even if he/she is in transit and remotely located away from the
business installation.
• The same light weight mobile device can be used for making business
transactions or making online payments round-the-clock in a cost-effective way.
• Highly personalized information can be delivered in the mobile device in an
efficient manner to satisfy numerous needs of a large number of customers.
• The major benefits of mobile commerce are as follows:
 Anytime Anywhere
• Mobile commerce together with wireless communication technology and wireless broadband internet
access, keeps the mobile user connected with the internet while travelling across the globe.
• The business information is available to the mobile user any time of the day and anywhere around the
globe.
• This anytime/anywhere internet access makes business transactions more flexible and customer
communications more efficient, which in turn improves the productivity of the company and increases
customer satisfaction.
• The valuable market information, stock/share prices, inventory position, delivery schedule, etc. are
instantly available at the fingertips.
• Handheld devices, such as Blackberry, etc. work on internet mode and allow users to continuously
send/receive electronic mail, download news alerts, stock prices and receive weather updates.
• The round the clock (24 7) internet availability benefits many users to conduct business transactions
from their homes or from any other place while on the move and at any convenient time.
• Thus m-commerce offers greater mobility and flexibility to mobile users in performing business
transactions using their handheld mobile devices.
Cost-effective
• The costs of transactions using mobile devices are relatively low.
• The time-critical business data, such as reports, photographs, etc. can be captured and
transmitted easily from the mobile devices without involving any bulky expensive equipment.
• The customer queries can be attended and support provided instantly from the mobile device,
thus making customer support more comprehensive.
• The SMS-based micro payments facilitate bank account transfer within a few seconds and at the
cost of an SMS.
• Contact less smartcard-based mobile payments provide a low cost alternative for toll tax payments
in mass transit systems.
• In case of mobile billing, users can pay for electricity bills, telephone bills, petrol, grocery, etc.
through their mobile phones.
• The payments made in the mobile phones for such items will appear as part of their mobile phone
bills, thus eliminating the need for a third party payment mechanism such as, credit cards. This
reduces the cost of payment to a large extent.
Personalized Service
• Mobile commerce offers a number of personalized services to the mobile users
depending on their various requirements and purposes.
• The digital cellular technology can monitor the location of user performing mobile
transactions.
• Knowledge of the user’s location may be used to deliver timely and useful contents such
as product availability and discount information to the potential customer. Timely
information, such as flight schedules and flight availability can be delivered to the user
at the last minute. Delivery of time critical as well as emergency information, SMS-based
notifications and alerts can be easily made if the location of the user is tracked.
• The location tracking is also utilized in offering customized services to the user, such as
delivery of discount coupons that can be cashed in and around of the location of the
customer. Delivery of regional maps, driving directions and online directories are also
possible if the location of the mobile user is known.
• Another major advantage of location tracking is that, in criminal investigation, the
location of the mobile user can be monitored and recorded as part of the investigation
process.
Limitations of Mobile Commerce
Although mobile commerce has some distinctive advantages, such as instant connectivity
and location and time independence over electronic commerce and offers low cost
personalized services to the mobile users, it suffers from some serious limitations which
restrict its use in mainstream business world.
• The mobile device limitations, such as small screen size, small memory capacity and lower
processor speed makes it unsuitable for high quality internet graphics applications.
• The limited availability of bandwidth to various mobile operators imposes a limitation on
the speed of operation of different mobile commerce applications.
• The wireless networks used in mobile commerce are more vulnerable to external hacker
attacks compared to wired networks and stringent security arrangements in the form of
encryption and authentication should be adopted to prevent unwanted intrusions.
• The main disadvantages of mobile commerce are explained in detail below
Mobile Device Limitations
• 1. Small screen size: Mobile devices have smaller screen size (of the order of 2 by 3
inches) and poor resolution which makes them inconvenient for browsing applications.
• Data entry can be quite difficult using small combinational keypad that comes with
most of the mobile handheld devices. The wide and high resolution screens in
conventional desktops or laptops used in e-commerce applications offer ease of use in
data entry operations as well as viewing web pages.
• These larger screens support 1920 1080 resolution and 3D graphics display.
• Although mobile devices offer greater mobility and flexibility in accessing information,
the smaller screen size restricts the amount of information that could be presented and
offers a less convenient user interface in the form of menu-based scroll-and-click mode
of data entry.
• 2. Low speed processor:
• Most mobile devices come with lowpowered processors with much lower
processing speed compared to sophisticated processors (i.e. core 2 duo or i-core
series) used in desktops or laptops.
• Such low speed processors restrict the download speed in most mobile commerce
applications.
• The applications requiring too much processing power should be avoided as they
may become irritably slow due to low speed processors.

• Also, keeping the low processor speed in mind, the mobile websites must be
optimized to ensure customer satisfaction. Unnecessary plug-ins, flash images and
animations should be removed to ensure speed of delivery.
3. Small memory capacity
• The mobile devices do not have large storage space. The memory capacity in mobile devices
is in the order of 5 GB to 10 GB compared to 2 TB or higher used in desktops/laptops.
• So, it is difficult to store large video files in mobile devices for future use.
• The mobile application developers must be concerned about the size of their applications
during the development phase.
4. Low power backup:
• Mobile devices use batteries as their power supply.
• Normally, power for a mobile device lasts up to 2–3 days, depending on the size of the
device.
• After this period, the battery should be recharged again, and it adds an additional burden to
the user who has to remember every now and then to recharge it.
Mobile Commerce Framework
• M-commerce transactions are growing exponentially.
• As m-commerce provides mobility to busy professionals, more and more
people tend to access internet through their mobile phones.
• People find it more convenient to shift from e-commerce to m-
commerce.
• The day-to-day functioning of individuals as well as corporations are
being transformed to mobile applications and is embedded in mobile
devices.
• The mobile network operators have started providing value-added
services that supports the new concepts of anytime anywhere
computing.
Mobile Commerce Framework
• Accordingly, a new mobile business model has emerged, which is based on
shared revenue distribution through sales in respective channels.
• For example, in mobile retail, a diverse range of mobile applications are
developed to enable the multi-channel retailer to perform the key functions,
such as mobile promotions, mobile payment, product information display,
order management, catalogue management, create and display shopping list,
loyalty programs and other value-added services.
• Similarly, in travel industry, location-based tourism, mobile ticketing,
navigational guidance and local weather and traffic information delivery results
in new revenue generating opportunities.
• In order to make these value-added services work efficiently, and in a cost-
effective manner, perfect collaboration between various network providers,
technology providers and application developers is required.
Mobile Commerce Framework
• In order to integrate different mobile services, applications and
technologies in a well-coordinated and controlled architecture, a
mobile commerce framework needs to be developed.
• The purpose of the framework is to develop
• a structured integration of mobile services, applications and technology
resources so that it will be able to deliver diverse range of value-added
services in different industry sectors, and at the same time aim to reduce
operating cost and improve efficiency to attract the end user population.
Mobile Commerce Framework
The mobile commerce framework consists of the four basic building
blocks as follows
• Content Management
• Technology Infrastructure
• Application Development
• Business Service Infrastructure
Content Management

• This component deals with the creation, distribution and

management of diverse range of media rich digital contents that can
be browsed through the small screens of the mobile devices.
• The digital contents are used in performing various business
transactions such as buying and selling of goods, making online
payments, product promos and providing on line customer support.
• An important part of content management is the ability to track
different content providers and maintain and manage the
relationships among them.
• The security and authenticity of the contents must be guaranteed and
the access control mechanism must be provided to prevent unwanted
users from misusing the document.
• The content distribution, rights management and clearing financial
settlements, all come under the purview of content management
module.
Technology Infrastructure
• This component deals with the distribution of digital contents and transaction
details over wireless communication networks to customer locations or other
business installations.
• The wireless network infrastructure provides the very foundation of mobile
commerce framework as it fulfils the basic requirements of data transmission
between various business partners while performing any business transaction.
• The technology infrastructure includes wireless communication technology,
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and mobile security technology.
• These technologies need to support digital content distribution, mobile
application development and distribution and also provide a secure technological
platform for mobile billing and prepaid services through the use of mobile Virtual
Private Networks (VPN).
Application Development
• The application development component of mobile commerce framework
deals with the diverse range of mobile commerce applications.
• The main purpose of these mobile applications is to provide the product
information to the end users, and also to enable them in performing the
mobile business transactions.
• There are four major categories of mobile applications namely the
information applications, communication applications, entertainment
applications and commerce applications.
• Several mobile applications, such as mobile ticketing, mobile banking,
mobile advertising, mobile office applications, etc. fall under these
categories.
• These applications support key business functionalities in respective
verticals and are meant to achieve higher revenue generation as well as
cost reduction
Application Development
• Sometimes, more than one application are combined together to
deliver an aggregated service, which leads to further cost reduction.
• With the rapid development in various emerging mobile
technologies, the application development is going through an
evolutional stage.
• In order to meet the requirements of today’s rapidly evolving
markets, the mobile applications must be developed in an innovative
manner so that it allows the service provider to quickly address the
growing demands of the market and also at the same time offer more
profitability and greater cost reduction.
Business Service Infrastructure
• The business service infrastructure provides the backbone to the
mobile commerce framework.
• It supports the back office functionalities, such as payment services,
location and search facilities and security arrangements of the
mobile commerce systems.
• Production and fulfillment of these services are beyond the scope of
traditional telecom service providers.
• These services are managed and delivered by some outside vendors,
who have the ability and experience to provide such functionalities.
Business Service Infrastructure
• They maintain the required infrastructure for supporting secured financial
transactions in mobile commerce environments and also provide back-end
support for searching and other facilities.
• Such back office systems are meant to be flexible enough and also are
capable of rapid deployment of new services.
• They have a direct impact on end user experience, and have the greatest
influence on the success or failure of the service provider.
• With the help of such back office infrastructures,
• mobile service providers can avoid upfront capital IT expenditure,
• and also these managed services offer the service providers the ability to quickly
upgrade to the newer technological environment without any significant investment.
• Above four components are the four pillars of mobile commerce
framework and all m-commerce activities revolve around them.
• Whenever a mobile user tends to download MP3 music or a latest
movie in his/her mobile device, sends an SMS requesting online
payment to a bank, submits online order form requesting purchase in
a mobile browser or books a mobile airline ticket, he/she is indulging
in either or all four of the above mobile commerce framework
components.
• In order to cope with the dynamic nature of the modern day lifestyle,
people are demanding more mobility in accessing their business
applications.
• A properly integrated and well-coordinated mobile commerce
framework needs to be developed in order to provide easy-to-use and
secure mobile services to end customers.
• The main purpose of a structured and balanced mobile commerce
framework is to enable the organizations to rapidly adapt to the latest
mobile technologies and to ensure customer loyalty by providing them
improved and enhanced services in sync with the growing market
demands.
MOBILE COMMERCE BUSINESS
MODELS
• A business model determines the path or process through which a
business organization can realize some profit.
• It shows the way by which an organization
• can make some investment,
• add some value to the investment,
• get a finished product or service and
• generate some revenue through sales of the product or service.
• The revenue generated through sales must exceed the operating
cost, so that the company gets some profit.
• Business models specify the mechanism for generating profit margins
and to sustain in the value chain.
• Thus, business models help managers in strategic planning and
formulating overall business strategy of the organization.
• Electronic commerce has some traditional business models that are
widely followed by all major e-commerce vendors worldwide.
• These include
• Merchant model,
• Broker model,
• Service Provider model,
• Advertiser model, etc.
Mobile commerce business models differ from those of electronic commerce due to their intrinsic difference
in operations and technology.
• As mobile commerce imparts extra mobility to the users, the
business models also reflect the mobility in their nature.
• The four major services offered by mobile commerce are the
• payment services,
• mobile advertisements,
• mobile shopping and
• mobile entertainment.
• Accordingly, mobile commerce business models also revolve around
these four applications.
• The four major mobile commerce business models are described
below:
 Payment Model
 Advertiser Model
 Shopping Model
 Content Provider Model
Payment Model
• In this model, mobile payment service providers offer mobile payment services
that allow users to make cashless payment transactions including banking
transactions, share trading, tax/bill payments and ticket or other retail
purchases using credit/debit card or bank PIN.
• The payment service providers have collaboration with banks (or other financial
institutions) and/or mobile network operators, and accordingly get bank-
controlled mobile payment model or operator controlled mobile payment
model.
• The payment service provider charges a certain percentage fee for each
payment transaction made through the payment application.
• Alternatively, the user can pay a nominal monthly subscription fee to the
payment service provider and can use the service as and when required.
Advertiser Model
• This model is an extension of traditional e-commerce advertiser
model and provides mobile websites which can be viewed by mobile
users in their handheld mobile devices.
• Advertising companies can display their advertising messages in the
website and pay a rental fee to the hosting website for displaying
their messages.
• These mobile advertising websites usually offer some basic services
such as email service, search engines, news service or social
networking service to the users and post advertising messages in
these sites to enjoy greater coverage.
Advertiser Model
• The advertisements often come with purchase buttons that allow
users to purchase the product directly from their mobile devices.
• The mobile payment service is also provided to facilitate mobile
purchase directly from the advertising websites.
• The advertiser companies pay a fixed fee to the advertising website
for displaying their advertising messages.
• Additional revenue is generated for each purchase transaction made
by the user through the website.
Shopping Model
• This model is similar to e-commerce merchant model where retailers
create mobile websites to display their range of products to the
mobile devices of the customers.
• The mobile users can browse the mobile websites in their WAP
enabled mobile screens and select and purchase any product of their
choice.
• Mobile payment option is also provided in the website so that the users
can make mobile payment for the purchased product and complete the
deal even while in transit or far away from the actual store location.
• Thus, shopping model allows retailers to generate additional revenues
through mobile shopping and can improve their profit margins.
Content Provider Model
• In this model, mobile service providers offer a host of entertainment contents, such as
breaking news, weather forecast, traffic updates, music, mobile games, TV shows, video
content, movies, etc. that could be downloaded to user mobile devices.
• Network operators have tie-ups with various content providers and offer both
subscription-based services as well as pay-per-use services to mobile customers.
• Location-based services, such as map-based navigational services, discount coupons
offered in local retail stores or restaurants, news of local events, etc. are also delivered in
customer mobile devices.
• The revenue is generated through subscription fees (for news, traffic/weather updates,
movies, games), usage fees (TV shows, videos, games etc.) or data download fees (for e-
mails, e-books, etc.).
• Various media houses, press agencies or content aggregators follow this model for
generating extra revenue through mobile channel.
M-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
• The main advantage of mobile commerce is that it offers instant connectivity
to mobile users even if they are travelling in remote areas and want to
communicate in the wee hours of the day.
• With the help of digital cellular technology and wireless broadband internet
access, the mobile user can browse through websites on the screens of their
mobile devices and perform business transactions anytime and from
anywhere.
• Customers can place orders as well as pay their bills through their mobile
devices while in transit.
• As the price of mobile phones are decreasing rapidly, number of mobile phone
users are increasing in millions and more and more people resort to m-
commerce activities.
 M-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
• With the increased use of mobile devices, mobile marketing and
advertising have become an effective tool and all big corporations have
started their product campaign through mobile devices.
• In financial sector, mobile banking allows customers to access their bank
accounts and pay their bills from their mobile handheld devices.
• The same handheld device can be used for viewing the latest stock prices
and also for conducting share trading.
 M-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
• The service plan details of any mobile service, such as mobile phone
service can be accessed, mobile bill payment can be achieved and account
updates can be viewed through the mobile devices easily and effectively.
• In information services, delivery of financial news, sports events, weather
reports and traffic updates, all can be achieved with a minimal cost and
time.
• In retail industry, customers can place orders for goods/services from
their mobile devices on-the-fly.
• All these applications (see Figure 1.3) come as the direct consequences
of the instant connectivity feature of mobile commerce
Mobile Banking
• Mobile banking is the process of performing banking transactions such
as balance checking, account transfer, bill payments, credit card-based
payments, etc. through a mobile device, such as a mobile phone or a
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).
• Such transactions could be performed from any remote locations and at
any time of the day irrespective of the normal working hours of the
bank.
• In order to avail the mobile banking facility, the customer must have an
account in the bank, the mobile phone number must be pre-registered
in the bank and also the network service provider (for the mobile
device of the customer) must have a tie-up with the bank.
Mobile Banking
• When the customer wants to perform a mobile banking transaction,
the transaction request from the customer first goes to the premises
of the mobile service provider, and from there it is finally routed to
the bank.
• Depending on the type of transaction, two types of mobile banking
are available, namely SMS banking and WAP-based mobile banking.
• SMS banking is usually used for non-financial transactions, such as
viewing of balance statement, requesting for a checkbook, status
checking or stopping a check payment although some banks permit
financial transactions also through SMS banking
 Mobile Banking
• In SMS banking, an SMS code requesting a transaction is sent to a
particular number (as directed by the bank) from the mobile device of
the customer.
• As soon as the bank receives the SMS, the required transaction is
performed, the information is retrieved (in case of non-financial
transaction) and sent back to the customer mobile phone in the form of
another SMS.
• The entire transaction takes only a few seconds and the cost of the
transaction is only that of an SMS. For different types of transactions
different SMS codes are used.
Mobile Banking
• In WAP-based mobile banking, the customers are provided with a
mobile Personal Identification Number (PIN) by the bank.
• At the time of performing the transaction, the customer logs on to the
WAP website of the bank from the WAP-enabled mobile device.
• In the bank website, the customer enters the PIN to gain access to
the various financial/non-financial transactions of the bank.
Mobile Banking
• After the successful verification of the PIN by the bank, the customer
is allowed to perform various financial/non-financial transactions,
such as transfer of funds from one account to other, payment of bills,
credit card-based payments, fixed deposit enquiry, etc.
• Another facility available in mobile banking is mobile banking alerts.
• The customers are provided regular alerts whenever a special type of
transaction occurs.
• For example, the customers are alerted whenever credit/debit crosses
a threshold or a check is returned.
Mobile Banking
• Although mobile banking offers convenience and ease of use to the customers,
the security concerns have become a major challenge to mobile banking.
• The small mobile devices are prone to loss/theft and anyone who gets hold of the
device can make illegitimate transactions causing financial loss to the account
owner.
• In order to avoid such nuisances, a second level of authorization can be
introduced in the form of passwords.
• At the event of loss/theft of the mobile device, both the PIN and password can be
locked by the bank on user request to prevent further fraudulent transactions
using the device.
• Also, the regular change of password reduces the risk of misuse and tampering by
unwanted users.
Mobile Payments
• Mobile payment is an alternative payment system where the mobile
user makes payment using the mobile device for a wide range of
services or goods.
Mobile Banking
• Depending on the mode of payments, mobile payments can be
broadly classified in the following categories:
• Mobile Phone Based Payments
• SIM card based payment
• Card-based Mobile Payments
• Smartcard based mobile payments
• Mobile Web Payments through WAP
Mobile Phone Based Payments
• In this mode, the customer makes payment using the mobile device.
• In SMS-based payment, the payment is made by sending an SMS to the retailer.
• Both the customer and the retailer must have a regular credit/debit account in a partner
bank.
• After selecting an item for purchase, the customer sends an SMS from his/her
mobile device to the retailer requesting the purchase.
• The retailer responds by sending a payment request through SMS to the customer.
• The customer keys in the bank PIN number to approve the payment.
• The bank verifies the PIN and the amount is automatically debited from the customer bank
account to the retailer’s account.
• Both the retailer and the customer get SMS from the bank indicating the details of the
transaction and the entire process takes only 10–15 seconds.
SIM card based payment
• In SIM card based payment, the customer uses the mobile phone for purchase
of digitized items such as mobile ringtones, MP3 music, video games,
wallpapers, etc. that can be downloaded in the mobile device itself.
• The purchase amount is added to the monthly mobile bill of the customer.
• This offers an alternate cashless payment option that does not require use of
credit/debit cards or any other online payment service provider, such as
PayPal and thus bypass bank and credit card companies altogether.
• The payment is either debited from the subscriber’s pre-paid account or
added to the standard post-paid invoice of the subscriber as the case may be
Card-based Mobile Payments
• In credit card based mobile payments, the mobile handset is used as a
credit card for making payments.
• The credit card issuing bank gives a PIN number to the mobile handset user.
• At the time of making payments, the mobile user initiates the transaction by
entering the PIN from his/her mobile handset.
• The issuing bank verifies the PIN and authorizes the payment.
• Next, the customer enters the amount to be paid and the transaction is
completed.
• The amount is automatically deducted from the credit card account of the
mobile user and credited to the bank account of the payee business partner,
such as the shop owner.
 Smartcard based mobile payments
• In smartcard based mobile payments, the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module)
card of a mobile handset are equipped with smart card capabilities.
• Smart cards are plastic cards with embedded integrated circuits containing
microprocessor and memory to store personal data such as credit card
number, PIN, driving license number, etc.
• The information stored in a smartcard can be read by a card reader in either
contact or contact less mode.
• The SIM card of a mobile device is also a processor card containing
programmable memory to store user information for authentication purpose.
• If the smart-card capabilities are combined with the SIM card of a mobile
device, it can be used as a contact less smartcard, and can be used
effectively in making mobile payments.
 Smartcard based mobile
payments
• Mobile phones equipped with contact less smartcards employ Near Field
Communication (NFC) technology to exchange data between the mobile device
and the nearby smartcard readers.
• It combines the smartcard interface as well as the reader interface in the
mobile device so that the mobile device can communicate with the card
readers and other NFC devices/mobile phones.
• At the time of making payments, the mobile phone user waves his/her mobile
phone (equipped with contact less smartcard) near a reader module installed in
a store or in a public transport system
 Smartcard based mobile
payments
• In order to make the transaction more secure, a PIN is used for authentication
purpose, which is automatically supplied by the smartcard.
• After successful verification of the PIN, the transaction is completed and the
payment is automatically deducted from the pre-paid account of the mobile
user or charged to the bank account of the user directly.
• Such NFC-based contact less mobile payment finds wide application in
transportation services, toll-tax collection, transit fare collection in mass
transit networks, parking fee collection and other unattended POS terminals,
where the users can pay with their smartcard enabled mobile phones sitting
inside the car while driving.
Mobile Web Payments through
WAP
• In this mode of mobile payment, the payment is made through the web pages
displayed in the micro browser of the mobile phone.
• The web page is displayed following Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and
associated technology.
• At the time of making a purchase, the mobile user types the URL of the
website of a merchant in the mobile device.
• The website containing various product information is displayed in the micro
browser of the mobile handset.
• The user selects a product that he/she intends to buy and places order for the
product through the website. The merchant then sends an invoice to the user.
• If the user intends to pay through a credit card, he/she enters the credit card
number, which is transmitted to the partner bank through a secured channel
that employs encryption.
Mobile Web Payments through
WAP
• The partner bank verifies the credit card number, and if found OK,
informs the acquirer bank for making the payment.
• Alternatively, if the user wants to pay directly from the partner bank in
the form of account transfer, he/she enters the PIN number, which is
sent to the partner bank for verification. After successful verification of
the PIN, the partner bank debits the amount from the user’s account
and credits to the merchant’s account.
• In either case, an SMS is sent to both the user and the merchant
confirming the payment.
• The entire payment process is simple, quick and user-friendly as they
have a similarity to the familiar online payment systems.
• Above mobile payment systems are emerging as a potential payment
mechanism that ensures fast, smooth and transparent micro payment
solutions to mobile users.
• The mobile phones tend to replace the pocket money and provide a low cost
alternative to credit/debit cards for cashless payments anytime, anywhere and
for anything.
• However, like all other online payment systems, special care should be taken to
secure such mobile payments.
• Stringent security arrangements in the form of encryption and/or password
authentication should be adopted to ensure that the financial transaction
performed through the mobile device cannot be duplicated, re-used or
counterfeited.
Mobile Ticketing
• Mobile ticketing is a special application of m-commerce which allows
users to purchase tickets for air/rail/bus travel or for any
sports/entertainment events from any location and at any time using
mobile phones or any mobile device.
• The users can avoid tedious and time consuming process of getting
paper tickets after waiting in a long line and the organizations can
reduce production, distribution and infrastructural cost by providing
simpler ways to purchase tickets anytime/anywhere.
• Mobile tickets are available for a number of cases, such as mass
transit tickets, airline check-in, movie/theatre shows, sporting events,
consumer voucher distribution, and so on.
Mobile Ticketing
• There are a variety of options by which a user can purchase mobile
tickets, such as online purchase from merchant website, from WAP
page in the mobile handset, purchase via SMS from the mobile handset,
over the phone from a voice call or through a secure mobile ticketing
application.
• Due to the convenience it offers to the customers and cost savings it
offers to the companies, mobile ticketing is gaining momentum and
more and more people are opting for mobile ticketing.
• Around 6 million mobile tickets were sold during 2012 worldwide, and
the number is expected to increase manifold to cope with the ever-
increasing demand of the mobile users.
Mobile Ticketing
• At the time of purchasing a mobile ticket, the mobile handset owner
logs on to the website of the organization (providing the mobile
ticket) and choose “Mobile Ticketing” as the delivery option.
• Alternatively, the user can log on to WAP page of the organization in
the mobile handset.
• Next, the cell phone number, mobile carrier and cell phone model is
entered in the website.
• In another variation, the request for mobile ticket can be sent through
an SMS from the mobile handset to the designated organization
Mobile Ticketing
• After making online/mobile payment for the ticket, the user receives
the mobile ticket in the form of a text message in the phone.
• The text message includes an image (MMS) with a barcode.
• At the venue of the event/airport/railway station, the text message
with the barcode is produced at the gate.
• The gate is usually equipped with a barcode reader which after
successful verification allows the user to pass through.
• Alternatively, the alphanumeric number in the barcode can be
manually entered in a computer at the gate for verification.
Mobile Ticketing
• With affordable internet services, decline in handset prices, rapid evolution of
secured and easy-to-use mobile applications and convenience of mobile usage, more
and more people have started purchasing travel tickets through mobile devices.
• Realizing the potential of mobile ticketing, almost all major travel portals have
launched their mobile ticketing applications for booking purpose. People at the time
of making last minute changes to their travel plans find mobile ticketing the only
option giving surety and security.
• In India, Indian Railways (website irctc.com), makemytrip.com, cleartrip.com,
yatra.com and many more offer mobile ticketing in their travel offerings.
• Apart from ticket booking, such travel portals also allow other customer support
features, such as cancellation of tickets, tracking refunds on cancelled tickets, and so
on.
Mobile Ticketing
• In order to maintain security and integrity of service, special
validation techniques have been adopted to avoid reuse of mobile
tickets.
• Such systems employ encryption of barcode data of the mobile ticket,
which is decoded at the venue and validated at the centralized server
containing ticket database. The mobile ticket once scanned by the
barcode reader can never be reused again, thus preventing the
fraudulent practice of duplicate tickets.
Mobile Computing
• Mobile computing is a technology that allows users to perform normal
computing operations, such as internet surfing, document preparation,
spread sheeting, preparing PowerPoint presentations, send/receive e-
mails or download MP3 audio files using portable computing devices
while in transit.
• The portable computing devices include smart phones, personal digital
assistants, laptops, ultra mobile PC or wearable computers.
• Some of these portable computers have bigger screens compared to
mobile phones and hence overcome the small screen limitations.
• For example, Apple iPad comes with an 8” 10” screen, which is suitable
for reading e-books as well as viewing websites
• In order to communicate with the external world, mobile computing employs
wireless communication technology.
• For wireless internet access, Wi-Fi or Wi-Max technology is used that utilizes
radio waves to broadcast internet signal from a wireless router to the
surrounding area.
• Alternatively, digital cellular technology can be employed that utilizes cellular
modem in the form of a data card that connects to nearby cell towers for high
speed broadband internet access.
• The data card fits into the PC card slot of the laptop or the notebook computer.
• Broadband internet access is also provided to cell phones and PDAs using
cellular broadband technology.
• Mobile computing uses specially developed software that allows users to
perform all the functions that are possible in standard desktop PCs
connected under LAN environment.
• Such software are designed for small-power handheld devices such as
Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), enterprise digital assistants or
smartphones, and are either pre-loaded in these devices or downloaded by
customers from internet.
• Usually, mobile software is developed by transforming existing software
used by computers into software which can be used in any mobile device.
• Sometimes, new mobile applications are developed for different mobile
platforms and programming languages based on the type of mobile device.
• Different mobile devices use different hardware components, and
therefore, the corresponding mobile software needs to be developed
using different software architectures and operating systems. Well-
known mobile software platforms include Java ME, Symbian OS,
Android, Windows mobile, BREW & Palm OS. Each of these platforms
supports a development environment that provides tools to allow
software developers write numerous mobile applications in these
mobile platforms.
• Apart from normal e-commerce and m-commerce operations, mobile computing finds wide
application in transportation industry, manufacturing and mining industry and distribution
industry.
• In transportation industry, mobile computing is used in exact delivery time tracking,
consignment tracking, fleet management information gathering and real-time traffic
reporting.
• Mobile networks are employed to provide two-way communication between fleet drivers and
their dispatch centers.
• In manufacturing industry, portable computers fitted in shop floors help in real time asset
management, instant purchase verification, delivery confirmation and order tracking.
• In hospitality industry, guest check-in can be done using handheld devices, such as PDAs,
Blackberry and cellular phones.
• Portable computers can be employed in sales force automation and mobile POS (Point of Sale)
applications.
• Another service associated with mobile computing is cloud computing that allows
mobile users to access application software, databases and shared computing
resources, such as server spaces through internet from a mobile computer.
• The application software such as Microsoft Office, databases etc. reside on a
remote server and user can access and use the resource through internet as and
when required and pay for exactly what they use.
• Thus, the company field representatives can utilize company resources, such as,
databases or application software from remote locations through internet
accessed in their mobile computers, rather than carrying the company resources
with themselves in bulky machines.
• Mobile computing also provides access to company’s Virtual Private Network
(VPN) by tunneling through the internet.
• Mobile computing has become an integral part of corporate world.
From Gmail to Twitter, Skype to LinkedIn, cloud computing to VPN,
• it is virtually impossible to do without it just like it is without electricity
E-COMMERCE VS M-COMMERCE
• Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) is the process of conducting
business transactions through internet using personal computers or
laptops. It employs wired Local Area Networks and cable internet to
perform an array of operations, such as online purchase, online
payment, online banking, online share trading or online marketing
and advertising.
E-COMMERCE VS M-COMMERCE
• People get the freedom of conducting business from their home or
making online payments from their offices without travelling to the
shop location.
• However, in order to perform ecommerce transactions, wired internet
connectivity as well as personal computers or laptops having internet
facility is essential.
• Thus, in remote areas with limited or no internet facility as well as
areas without electricity, e-commerce becomes completely
ineffective.
E-COMMERCE VS M-COMMERCE
• Mobile commerce, on the other hand, allows mobile users to conduct
business transactions through their internet-enabled mobile devices,
such as smartphones, tablets, digital assistants or PDAs.
• It employs high frequency radio waves for providing wireless internet
connectivity and allows mobile users to perform mobile shopping,
mobile payments, mobile auctions or mobile ticketing through their
mobile devices even when they are out in the field or are travelling.
E-COMMERCE VS M-COMMERCE
• Thus, mobile commerce offers freedom from wired internet
connectivity, and supports critical business transactions under
completely mobile environment.
• People can perform share transactions, make tax or bill payments or
perform fund transfers through mobile banking, even if they are
travelling in remote areas far from their home or office.
• In other words, mobile commerce aptly fits into the extremely mobile
lifestyle of modern day business executives and has become an
integral part of daily lives of billions of mobile users
Difference between E-commerce
and M-commerce
• e-commerce uses wired networks
• m-commerce uses wireless networks for internet connectivity.
• wired networks require cumbersome cabling and switching
operations to provide connectivity to each and every computer and
other peripheral devices
• wired networks offer better performance and better speed as
compared to the wireless networks
• . A wired network can offer data rate of the order of 1000 Mbps,
whereas a wireless network usually offers data rate of the order of 100
Mbps.
• A wired network is much more secure than wireless networks, as it is
much more difficult to gain access to the internal wired network inside
a protected building without breaking in.
• On the other hand, it is much easier to break the security barrier of a
wireless network and gain access to private and confidential data stored
(or in transit) inside the wireless network. Proper security arrangements
in the form of encryption are employed in order to make wireless
networks as secure as their wired counterparts.
• In general, mobile commerce is considered as an extension of
conventional internet based e-commerce.
• As the number of mobile device owners is far greater than that of
internet users, mobile commerce creates a huge impact on day-to-day
activities of both customers as well as business owners.
• By providing instant internet connectivity and greater mobility to
billions of mobile users, m-commerce is redefining the relationship
between customers and goods and service providers.
• It is predicted that in near future, mobile commerce will largely
influence the marketing orientation of almost all the major industry
sectors, and hence, will alter the general dynamics of the market.
• In addition to providing the users with mobility and location tracking,
m-commerce applications are capable of achieving a high level of
personalization and offer intractability with the individual customer.
• In a highly interactive environment, personal profiles, product
preferences, home/office locations, payment details, etc. can be
collected directly from the customer from their mobile devices to
generate an accurate and personalized database.
• Conversational advertising can be delivered directly to the mobile handset by a
brand to describe the benefits of the product.
• This is an emerging concept whereby the mobile user can opt-in to receive
product information from a brand by giving the mobile number to the company.
• By utilizing the location tracking facility of m-commerce, special customer zones
can be created which will be characterized by specific customers with different
product preferences.
• The customers in a zone can be dynamically informed about various discounts
and deals available in the local stores.
• Knowledge of customer numbers and preferences in a zone will help the suppliers
to estimate the demand for a particular product, and also let the customers be
informed instantly about any discounts/price reduction offered in nearby stores.
• The popularity of mobile entertainment is growing rapidly. These
include mobile phone gambling, mobile collaborative games, mobile
sport video and mobile television.
• With rapid advancements of highly sophisticated mobile applications,
mobile gaming business is expanding at a fast rate.
• Evolutions in technologies like mobile video sequencing, mobile video
transcoding and mobile video communication are playing a key role in
the success factor of mobile entertainment industry.
• Similarly, in healthcare industry, mobile medical imaging is made
possible with the use of 3G wireless network.
• In education industry, mobile learning is introduced in the form of
SMS or text messages.
• With the introduction of newer display technologies, such as
electronic paper, liquid crystal display and digital paper, the mobile
electronic readers or e-books have become commonplace.
• A large number of mobile users have started carrying e-readers to
download online books or online newspapers while travelling.
M-COMMERCE SERVICES
• Mobile commerce allows users to conduct business transactions from their handheld
mobile devices while travelling in remote areas.
• It offers instant connectivity to internet through wireless communication networks and
offers greater mobility and ease of use to numerous mobile users worldwide.
• Apart from performing normal e-commerce trading transactions from internet-enabled
mobile devices, mobile commerce offers some highly personalized and interactive
services that became possible due to the unique capabilities of wireless environment
and user mobility.
• Such specialized services can be broadly classified in following five categories:
• location-based services,
• mobile information delivery,
• mobile entertainment services,
• mobile banking and payment services,
• mobile marketing and advertising services.
How Mobile Phone Services are
Carried Out?
• Mobile phone network operates through a number of cell tower
transmitters scattered across the country.
• Each time a mobile user sends/receives a call or message, it travels via
the nearest cell transmitter, the geographical location of which is
known to the network operator.
• Thus, it is possible to determine the location of any active mobile
device with a reasonable accuracy. In a densely populated city, with a
large number of cell towers, the location of a switched-on mobile
device can be tracked within a range of 200 meters.
• This location tracking facility is utilized in a number of personalized
services.
How Mobile Phone Services are
Carried Out?
• Similarly, most mobile devices are capable of sending/receiving text-
based messages (SMS) or Multimedia Messages (MMS).
• These devices can connect to centralized servers of organizations and
retrieve important information from remote locations.
• Such information retrieval services are vastly used by field engineers
or sales professionals for querying and updating data while in
operation in outside locations.
• Mobile devices with enhanced input facilities, such as touch screens,
scroll wheels or small fold-out keyboards further enhance such
applications.
Factors Affecting Services
• The successful implementation of above mobile services depends on
close cooperation of a number of key players, namely the mobile
network operators, content providers, mobile handset manufacturers
and financial institutions.
• These institutions, along with the mobile subscribers and consumers,
constitute the mobile commerce ecosystem.
Factors Affecting Services
• In this ecosystem, mobile operators provide the connectivity between
subscribers and merchants, the content providers provide numerous
products and services to the customers, financial institutions (such as
banks and credit card companies) provide the mobile payment
mechanism and the subscribers purchase and consume the products
and services.
Factors Affecting Services
• Each of these constituents has a number of counterparts, and in some
cases their roles overlap.
• Also, the mobile environment is a rapidly evolving technology and is
completely heterogeneous in structure.
• Different handset manufacturers follow totally different
configurations and architectures.
• The product offerings of one company do not match with the
specification requirements of other companies, and to integrate the
products and services of one constituent with other becomes a
difficult task.
Factors Affecting Services
• In order to avoid such conflicts, global regulatory bodies have
introduced some policies and guidelines to standardize the
technology and protocols for mobile devices and services.
• But, a large number of organizations still offer non-standard products
and applications, which are difficult to integrate with other
constituents’ offerings.
Factors Affecting Services
• In order to develop a comprehensive mobile commerce strategy, the
requirements and interests of each of the constituents of the mobile commerce
ecosystem need to be considered.
• For example, the mobile consumers want a wide variety of mobile services that
can be accessed from anywhere and from any device.
• Their main concerns are ease of use, security and mobility.
• On the other hand, the mobile operators will want to offer a number of value-
added services to their subscribers in order to achieve competitive advantage
over their rivals and must be able to provide access to a variety of merchants to
enable their subscribers to conduct mobile commerce.
• The content providers will want to build customer loyalty, and hence, want to
build attractive applications quickly and at a minimal cost.
Factors Affecting Services
• The financial institutes will want to integrate more and more
companies in their payment system so that customers can opt for a
number of alternate payment modes.
• The primary concern in such mobile payment mechanisms is to
provide end-to-end security of transaction and to minimize the risk
of fraudulent transactions.
• Thus, the product and service offered by each of the constituents of
mobile commerce ecosystem are highly interdependent and the
success/failure of any of these, impacts the overall functionality of
mobile commerce as a whole.
• A close collaboration and an integrated effort from all the related
vendors can only lead to faultless operation, which will benefit all and
in turn will gain consumer confidence.
TYPES OF M-COMMERCE SERVICES
• Location Based Services utilize the geographic location information of
the mobile device, and offer a number of personalized information
and entertainment services to the mobile customer.
• Figure 2.1 shows it in detail.
• The location information of the mobile device can be retrieved either
by using digital cellular network technology or by employing satellite
positioning infrastructure. Once the geographic location information
of the mobile device is determined, a variety of useful information
can be delivered to the customer location.
Location Based Services (LBS)
• These include local weather reports, local landmark information such
as nearest ATM, banks or stores, delivery of discount coupons or
location based games.
• Parcel tracking or vehicle tracking in supply chain operations or
people tracking in criminal investigation can be achieved with
reasonable accuracy.
• In healthcare, the location of the nearest hospital can be identified
and utilized for a mobile user in case of emergency.
• All the above LBS services require accurate positioning of the mobile
device.
• The positioning means determination of the location of the mobile
device with reference to either a coordinate system or address
system.
• In geocoding, the location of a mobile device is expressed in terms of
geographic coordinates, i.e. latitude and longitude.
• Alternatively, the location can be expressed in terms of street address,
block address or nearby landmark address derived from geographic
coordinates.
• The systems offering positioning of mobile devices are classified in
two major categories, namely the satellite-based positioning system
and cellular network-based positioning system.
• These two systems differ in technology and infrastructure and offer
different levels of reliability and accuracy.
• In deep mines or in dense cities, satellite systems may not work well
and cellular networks with dense coverage become more effective.
• On the other hand, in rural or remote areas, cellular networks
become unavailable and satellite visibility becomes handy.
Satellite Positioning
• Satellite positioning systems use a combination of a number of earth
orbiting geo-stationary satellites and corresponding receiver
terminals.
• The receivers are embedded in mobile handheld devices and receive
radio signals sent from three or more satellites.
• The information received from the radio signals are used to calculate
the exact position of the mobile device.
Satellite Positioning
• Such positional calculations are used in providing the location
information about the mobile device in LBS applications.
• The satellite positioning systems can provide 10– 40 meter accuracy
and are widely used to provide reliable time and location information
anywhere on earth whenever there is a unobstructed line of sight to
three or more satellites.
• Most well-known and widely used satellite positioning system is the
Global Positioning System or GPS, operated and maintained by US
defense department.
• It started operation in 1973, and was originally consisted of 24
satellites.
• It can determine the location of any object on or near the surface of
earth in terms of three location coordinates (i.e. latitude, longitude
and altitude) and also display current time.
• Anyone having a GPS receiver can access GPS service free of cost and
mobile devices with an embedded GRP receiver can be positioned
quickly and accurately even in the absence of a mobile network.
• Sometimes, a combination of GPS and mobile networks is used in
tracking mobile devices indoors, where a clear line of sight to the
satellites is not available.
• Other well-known satellite positioning systems include
• GLONASS deployed by Russian defense system,
• COMPASS deployed by Chinese Government and
• GALILEO positioning systems developed by European Union (EU).
Tracking and monitoring people
• Location information of a mobile device can be used effectively in
tracking applications.
• The examples are as follows:
• People tracking: If the mobile device is kept in power-on mode, the
geographical location of the mobile device, and hence of the mobile
user can be determined by using digital cellular technology.
• If the mobile device contains an embedded GPS receiver, the location
information can be determined even more accurately.
• Such information is utilized in criminal investigation by investigating
authorities while chasing criminals.
• Also, the information regarding some specific professionals, such as
doctors, teachers, gardeners, etc. in a particular region can be
searched out from a local directory and delivered to the user on
demand.
• Similarly, the locations of the mobile devices of kids can be tracked
and checked by parents for monitoring purpose.
• In case of outdoor field works, the exact location of field workers can
be utilized in giving on the spot instructions and help the field
managers in workforce management.
• However, all these tracking applications are available only if the
mobile device is switched on and also the tracking function can be
restricted only to authorized persons to maintain privacy.
• Vehicle tracking: The positional information of vehicles is widely used
in fleet management applications.
• If the vehicle is equipped with GPS receivers, the position of the
moving vehicle can be determined and can be used in estimating the
delivery of goods in supply chain operations.
• The knowledge of vehicle’s location, speed, direction, stop/start time,
etc. can be utilized in reporting, routing, alerting and many other fleet
management tasks.
• In another application, if the location of an empty taxi is known to the
taxi fleet centre, the taxi can be sent to a nearby customer.
• Parcel tracking:
• If the parcels containing goods or documents are equipped with RFID
tags, their positions can be tracked from remote locations and the
information can be used in item delivery.
• For example, if a truck carrying particular goods can be tracked, it can
be sent to a nearby manufacturing unit for delivering the goods. After
identifying the position of the truck, some directional messages can
be sent to the truck owner to deliver the goods at a desired location.
Local billing
• This type of application provides the ability to generate preferential
billing based on some personalized zones such as home zone, work
zone, travel zone, etc.
• In one zone, the user can enjoy flat rate calling while in other zones
special rates can be applied.
• Such services can be very helpful to customers who make a large
number of calls from each zone at different hours of the day.
• Zone specific pre-paid cards can also be used in different zones to get
separate billing for separate zones.
Emergency services
In cases of emergency, if the user dials a hospital/police/fire service
emergency number from the mobile phone, the location information of
the mobile phone is utilized and location-based emergency services are
delivered.
In such cases, the nearest appropriate authority (hospital/police
station/fire brigade) is alerted and emergency service is sent from the
centre to the user location in minimal time.
The efficiency of such location-based emergency services largely
depends on the accuracy of the location determination
Emergency services
• Most GPS-enabled devices can provide location information within a range
of 100 meters which is within the acceptable limit for stationary or slowly
moving users.
• However, the network delay can sabotage the efficiency for rapidly moving
users.
• For example, if the location information is required at point A, and by the
time information is reached the user has moved to point B, the information
may become unusable.
• In order to overcome above challenges, a combination of cellular network
signals and GPS signals and some specialized technologies, such as base
station triangulation, time difference of arrival instances, etc. are used.
LBS Products
• 1. VZ Navigator
• 2. Google Lattitude
• 3. Loopt
Information Services
• Mobile Browsing
• Mobile News Delivery
• Traffic news update
• Weather forecast
• Mobile news delivery
• Verve wireless
• AT&T mobile telephone
• Jasmine mobile news
• Traffic news update
• Google maps for on mobile
• Tom Tom Navigator
• Sygic
• Weather forecast.
• Weather Forecast
• Flight forecast
• Marine forecast
• Pocket wether
Mobile browsing
• Android browser
• Blackberry browser
• Mozilla Firefox for mobile
• Opera mobile
• Opera Mini
• Safari mobile
• MS IE Mobile
Mobile Portals
• Mobile portal is a special type of mobile website that can be accessed through WAP
enabled smartphones, and offers an array of internet resources and services
including search engines, mail services, instant messaging or various directory
services.
• Mobile portals are usually offered by internet service providers or mobile network
operators who deliver numerous customer-oriented content services (such as TV,
music or video), online catalogs (showing products to be purchased) and links to other
mobile websites and mobile portals.
• Mobile portals are often linked to the phone desktop or home-screen and allow users
to access various services and contents directly from the desktop by clicking on some
simple and user-friendly icons.
• Specially designed mobile portals can be very engaging and can attract and encourage
the mobile users for better usage of various data services offered by the mobile
operator, and thus increasing voice and data revenue of the operator to a large extent.
Mobile Portals
• Apart from mobile service providers, in western countries, various
educational institutes, such as schools and universities often provide
mobile portal service to their students so that they get access to
different programmes and services offered by the institute.
• Students and their parents can download the school/university portal
in their mobile devices and can view various institute related
information and services offered to the students.
• The mobile portals are usually password protected and the
students/parents need to enter userID/password in order to access
the portal services.
Mobile Portals
• Apple Inc. offers a mobile portal service called Infinite Campus, which
can be downloaded in iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad from App Store and
can be used by school students and their parents to receive
information and services provided by respective schools.
• The students can access class schedules, grades, assignments and
daily attendance records through the school mobile portal from their
mobile devices.
• The school authorities update the mobile portal information on
regular basis so that students and parents always get up-to-date
information about various school programmes and events.
Mobile Portals
• Similarly, various enterprises offer mobile portal services to their
employees and clients so that they can easily avail different services
and information provided by the organization through their mobile
devices.
• Thus mobile portals have become an effective communication
channel for customers who get updated product information from
respective vendors and can take instant decisions regarding the
products and services.
 Mobile Portals
• Mobile portal software are available that allow enterprises or service
providers to deliver rich and attractive portal content to a wide variety of
mobile devices.
• The software allows easy customization of the mobile portal site and
offers highly navigable and easy-to-handle user experience.
• Customization is available based on location, action or role of various
employees, customer preferences, group formation or team collaboration
requirements.
• An efficiently designed mobile portal can maximize customer reach, and
hence gain customer loyalty.
• Thus, mobile portals play a crucial role in improving market share, and
thus increasing profitability.
Mobile Portals
• Mobile portals offered by a number of vendors are as follows:
• Google mobile
• Yahoo mobile
• AOL Mobile
• MSN mobile
APPLICATIONS OF MOBILE
COMMERCE IN INDUSTRY
• Mobile commerce applications are broadly classified in three categories, namely
transactional applications, content delivery applications and telemetry applications.
• Each of these applications can be further subdivided in two types, active or passive.
• In passive applications, user can only view or download information, but they do not
have any option to send selective request for a particular content.
• In active applications, user can participate in interactive transactions, can send
personalized requests or search for selective information.
• In transactional applications, users can perform various online business transactions,
such as online purchase, online payment, online bank transactions, online ticket
booking and online share trading through their handheld mobile devices.
• Users download various websites in the mobile browsers and perform transactions
through the websites.
• In content delivery applications, users download digital contents in the form of
MP3 music CDs, movies, video, digital games, digital books and high resolution
photos in their mobile devices.
• Computer software, advertising messages and learning material can also be
downloaded and reused for business or e-learning purposes.
• In telemetry applications, activities of people and locations of objects can be
captured and transmitted in remote locations in real time.
• Such applications include
• videoconferencing, space flight monitoring, meteorological data transmission, wildlife
tracking, camera control robotics and oceanography.
• All these activities can be supported in mobile handheld devices using wireless
digital communication technology and wireless broadband internet access.
• Another important mobile application is sending e-mails or SMS from mobile
devices.
• This is an example of passive mobile application that facilitates one way
MOBILE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
• Mobile application development refers to the development of the mobile
application software for mobile devices, such as smartphones, PDAs, laptops or
tablet PCs.
• The applications can be downloaded in the mobile devices from app stores or
other application software repositories and executed by the user as and when
required.
• Some applications are embedded in the device by the manufacturer and come
with the device absolutely free of cost.
• A wide variety of mobile applications are available ranging from location-based
applications, mobile money transfer applications, mobile coupons and discount
applications, content delivery and publishing applications and mobile workforce
collaboration applications.
Software Platforms
• 1. Java ME:
• This platform mostly supports portable applications, and is widely
used in most cell phones worldwide.
• It runs on top of a Virtual Machine (JVM) that isolates the
underlying hardware of the mobile device and executes the
software with minimum or restricted access to the functionalities
of the system.
• The file size of Java ME applications are typically around 1 MB and
they are cryptographically signed in order to use system file access
APIs.
• 2. Symbian platform:
• This platform is based on Symbian operating system and uses C++
programming language.
• It is supported by Nokia, Sony Ericsson, NTT DOCOMO, Siemens and many
others.
• The Symbian applications are characterized by low memory consumption and
high programming speed and holds more than 50% market share globally.
• The Symbian Foundation constituted by over 40 major mobile manufacturing
companies including Nokia, Sony, etc. maintains the open source Symbian
platform.
• 3. Windows mobile:
• This is the mobile operating system developed by Microsoft Inc., and is based
on Win32 API.
• Its features include multi-tasking GUI, .NET compatibility, stylus/touch screen
interfaces and are widely used for smartphone and pocket PC application
developments.
• 4. Android:
• Android platform is supported by over 34 major software and telecom
companies, such as Google, HTC, Motorola and TMobile.
• It is an open operating system for cell phones and smartbooks based on Linux.
Android apps are mostly written in Java and Android specific Java SDK is
required.
• 5. BREW:
• Binary Runtime Environment for Windows (BREW) is a platform for
mobile application development which allows easy transportation of
applications among BREW supported devices.
• It is primarily developed in C/C++ and is widely used for gaming and
data exchange applications.
• Though BREW SDK (Software Development Kit) is freely available,
successful implementation of BREW applications require digital
signatures issued and approved by mobile content providers.
• 6. Apple iOS:
• This is the software platform developed by Apple Inc., and is supported by Apple
iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It is developed using Objective C (based on C
programming language) and is used in mobile applications, such as Maps, YouTube,
iTunes, iBooks, contacts, notes, calendar, etc. All the Apple App Store applications are
on this platform and number of such applications exceeded 1,000,000 in 2012.
• 7. BlackBerry:
• This is the software platform developed by smartphone manufacturing giant RIM
(Research In Motion) that produces BlackBerry devices. It supports push e-mail, text
messaging, internet fax, web browsing, full QWERTY keyboard and multi-touch screen
interface. All the BlackBerry mobile applications are based on this platform and also
utilizes BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) and BMDS (BlackBerry Mobile Data
System).