If you think m-commerce is one part reality to four parts hype,
take a look about you next time you are on a train or a busy high
street. Mobile devices are everywhere, writes Ross Bentley
The beauty of m-commerce, as the Communications Management
Association's Graham Marriner points out, is that it offers
businesses the opportunity to target customers on a one-to-one
basis - gold dust in these consumer-centric times. The trick now
for mobile operators and service providers is to identify the
killer applications that will open new revenue streams for UK
business.
Of course, before the huge revenues that many IT watchers are
predicting can start to flow in, there is the small matter of
getting the basics right. Sexy concepts are all well and good; but
the world is full of erstwhile dotcom chief executive officers who
will tell you that they need to be built on foundations of strong
business models, workable standards and robust applications.
Anyone operating in the mobile space that thinks creating
m-commerce applications is a quick and dirty matter of migrating
their Web-based applications is mistaken. The mobile client and the
PC are very different beasts and care must be taken when migrating
business into the mobile channel. The current generation of mobile
phones and devices offer neither adequate functionality, nor a
positive user experience. Despite the enormous amounts of money
thrown at licences, the third-generation mobile operators are so
far proving backward in coming forward with services.
There is also the question of security. As if safeguarding the
security of your network wasn't hard enough five years ago, now it
extends out around the globe, as the corporate road warriors daily
sally forth.
If it all sounds like an uphill struggle, take heart: you need look
no further than the Nordic countries for proof that there's money
to be made from m-commerce, as Alison Classe points out
Computer Weekly's m-commerce special report has been written on a
need-to-know basis. You'll find all the facts and tips you could
need to forge into the m-commerce arena.