Companies in the mobile commerce market need to move quickly to
provide mobile payment capabilities that will allow them to
capitalise on increasing consumer interest, industry experts have
warned.
The advice follows the publication of a survey of 5,600 mobile
users which revealed that 46% of European respondents are willing
to use their phones to pay for small cash transactions - so called
micropayments.
The survey team said they were surprised by the results of the
Mobinet study, a biannual look at global mobile phone usage
conducted by consultancy AT Kearney and Cambridge University's
Business School, because the technology for m-payment transactions
is not yet widely known or readily available.
However, consumer tastes in the mobile space are notoriously
fragile and companies need to move now to take advantage, said Paul
Collins, principal at AT Kearney and leader of the study.
"It is imperative that the community of mobile phone makers,
carriers, content providers and financial services companies rally
quickly to provide mobile cash capabilities before consumer
interest wanes," he said.
Previous Mobinet surveys have indicated that a large percentage of
users intended to access the Net using their mobiles, but these
numbers have fallen because there have not been enough reasons to
do so, Collins said.
"Mobile cash could suffer the same fate if consumers are not soon
given compelling reasons to use it," he warned.
Despite these fears, there are signs that the m-payments market is
beginning to gain momentum.
Vodafone, the UK's leading mobile operator, launched an m-payments
platform in February and recently announced its intention to open
up the technology to rival operators in a bid to define
standards.
Content providers are also getting in on the act. News Omnimedia,
the mobile division of media giant News Corporation, is trialling
its m-payment systems on the Times Online Web site and plans to
licence the platform to other online publishers.
Chong Choi, MBA programme director at the University of Cambridge,
said the Mobinet studies show companies what they can realistically
expect from m-commerce.
"Contrary to early expectations, m-commerce is not an extension of
e-commerce characterised by large volumes of Internet purchases
using Internet-enabled phones," he said. "It is becoming
increasingly clear that m-commerce is more about multimedia
messages and using the mobile phone to make payments."
daniel.thomas@rbi.co.uk