Tutorial:
Current projections suggest that, within a few years, there
will be well over a billion mobile phone users worldwide and that the majority
of mobile phones will be connected to the Internet. The explosion in mobile
phone and PDA ownership along with the growing popularity of WLAN technologies
and the deployment of 2.5G and 3G networks is leading to an explosion of new
e-Commerce applications and services generally referred to as Mobile Commerce -
or simply "m-Commerce". m-Commerce is also
about new usage scenarios and technologies that overcome the limitations of
mobile devices to support users in the context of a broad range of time
critical activities.
The objective of this half-day tutorial is to introduce
participants to the technologies, applications, services and business models
associated with m-Commerce as well as provide a brief overview of future trends
and ongoing research in this new and fast growing area.
This course is based on teaching material used by the
instructor in the eCommerce Master’s Program at
Carnegie Mellon University and also on the instructor’s recently published
book, “m-Commerce: Technologies, Services and Business Models” (Wiley, April
2002).
Specifically, the tutorial will cover the following:
Part I: The m-Commerce
Revolution
Here we will review the driving forces behind m-Commerce and
introduce examples of successful m-commerce services (e.g. NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode portal, MeritaNordBanken’s Solo mobile banking services, Webraska’s location-sensitive applications, etc.). We will
further examine how m-Commerce differs from “traditional” e-Commerce, looking
at technologies, usage scenarios, security and privacy issues as well as
business models.
Part II: Underlying
Technologies and Standards of m-Commerce
This part of the tutorial starts with a brief overview of
mobile communication technologies, with a particular emphasis on 2.5G, 3G and
WLAN technologies and related security and business issues. We follow with a
more detailed discussion of mobile internet technologies and the impact of
standards and initiatives such as WAP, i-mode, OSA,
Web Services, etc.
Part III: A Closer
Look at m-Commerce Services and Business Models
Here we provide short overviews of technologies, services
and business models, using a number of examples from industry. We begin with a
review of early m-commerce services such as SMS and follow with a discussion of
a number of emerging services. This includes an overview of mobile banking
services, mobile ticketing, mobile payment, including
a discussion of emerging standards such as those developed by MeT, the Mobey Forum, and the
Mobile Payment Forum. We examine location-sensitive applications and services
and discuss ongoing efforts to develop increasingly personalized and context-aware
services. We also look at mobile retail services and mobile entertainment
services and finish with a discussion of wireless business applications and
services.
Part IV: Looking
Farther Into the Future
The tutorial concludes with an overview of key research
challenges, looking at emerging technologies and concepts such as agents, the
Semantic Web and ubiquitous computing. In the process, we attempt to
extrapolate where we will be 5 to 10 years down the road.
The tutorial is intended for a broad audience of managers,
developers and researchers interested in gaining a better understanding of
mobile commerce. It introduces participants to the technologies, business
models and emerging services of m-commerce, while also providing an overview of
key research issues.
Norman Sadeh is an Associate
Professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), where he is affiliated with the