Agent-Based Mobile Auctions: The Flea Market Scenario

With the proliferation of mobile devices, such as laptops, mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), and the fast mobile networks, mobile auctions seems to be the most compelling service that is going to revolutionize the mobile commerce landscape and make it dramatically more powerful and easier to use. Until now, mobile auctions are usually limited to be alert SMS messages sent via mobile phones to people participating in traditional Web-based auctions about their latest bids with inquires to bid higher or not. In this paper, we describe the process of auctioning goods and services using mobile devices in a flea-market like scenario. We elaborate on a prototypical process how these auctions methods, interaction requirements and other attributes can be incorporated in an agent based mobile auction.