Further Quests For Value-added Products & Services In Mobile Commerce

The introduction and the development of m-commerce will be a major challenge, as the cost of 3G licenses in several EU countries appears already in the initial stages to be out of proportion. And it seems clear that without real substance in m-commerce products and services the investments in the new mobile technology may still fail. Yet, not much is known about what actually will be the m-commerce products and services. Here we will propose to build them around value-added product and service modules, some of which are going to be completely new as we can take advantage of the new mobile technology. We will argue that value-added products and services can (should) be built around smart/intelligent technologies, which would be part of the products and/or services themselves or form support systems for (i) the users, (ii) the producers and (iii) the management of m-commerce products and services. Some of the needed technologies are already available, and we can readily implement them for the coming prototypes of the new 3G-based systems. Index: mobile commerce, value-added products & services, intelligent information technologies 1. M-COMMERCE Although m-commerce is an emerging field in its early stages there are a number of ideas of what is going to constitute the key success factors for the actors in the global m-commerce arena (the material for these factors have been collected from [Durlacher Research, BroadVision, Vignette, Nokia and TechNews]). The key success factors include: 1. Customer ownership. Subscriber data may be key to the m-commerce market, which is shown by the recent boom in operator takeovers in the mobile industry. The user’s personal data and preferences are the key if we want to find ways to add value to the user’s experience. Nevertheless, questions can be raised if customer ownership is any better than a quickly shifting mirage as customers may change product and service providers very easily and without giving any notice. 2. Personalization. This is a key feature, which can be achieved by creating services that customise the end-user experience for the individual subscriber. It can be further enhanced if we add intelligent personalization platforms, which will optimise the interaction path for individual subscribers. 3. Localization. Location sensitive information is a key to m-commerce as it provides an easy access to relevant data sources at the locations where they are needed. The key target group will be travelling subscribers, which have diversified needs of high-quality information. 4. Ubiquity. This means that service is available at any time, anywhere. There are time-critical applications, which offer the ability to receive information and perform transactions from any location.