Success factors for mobile commerce ^^

Mobile commerce is an emerging market. Therefore, there are significant opportunities and risks. The temptation at this stage is for key players to impose their own rules based on their own business models.

Although this can be beneficial for a few in short-term and in some markets may be the only way to start doing mobile commerce, in the long-term this will have a negative impact on business because lack of interoperability and higher operating costs will create barriers to growth and adoption. However a dynamic market needs an environment that favours innovation and diversity of stakeholders.

This section defines four success factors which are key to making mass mobile commerce happen across the world:

1. Innovative business model. Companies that want to take advantage of the opportunities presented by this new technology will have to understand how this technology fits with existing business models.

Retailers and manufacturers have to consider that they have the opportunity to become providers of services as well as providers of products.

Mobile Network Operators need to consider how mobile commerce can be integrated with existing tools for revenue generation such as SMS and MMS as well as the huge potential to drive data traffic.

Mobile Phone Manufacturers need to consider how to provide mobile devices that suit the needs of the market but also drive the market in new directions.

Solution Providers need to understand how to collaborate with different players.

2. Consumer adoption. Mobile phones are already starting to become a basic device available to everyone anytime, anywhere.

For mass adoption of this technology to take place quickly, consumers must:

Be able to access services as easily as possible
Be convinced that the services are useful and make a difference in their lives
Be confident about the costs of these services
Be confident about the source and reliability of the information delivered
Be confident about respect of privacy and personal information
Be confident that security measures protecting their devices are effective.


For consumers to adopt any of these new services on their mobile phones confidently, they need to be able to use these services whatever kind of mobile phone they buy, whatever kind of subscription contract they have signed and whatever mobile network operator they have choosen.

For service providers, this means that choices need to be made to support interoperability and openness, rather than to develop and use private model. Business model need to be developed to make sure this is possible.

Once there is global, interoperable platform available, service providers will be able to focus their resources on creating and launching new services or on transferring existing services to mobile devices, all based on system that is trusted by consumers.

3. Technology availability. Without certain technology mobile commerce is impossible. The full potential of the mobile phone as an ubiquitous object is only released when local interaction technologies are embedded, such as the combination of camera and image recognition software and ways of exchanging and communicating wireless information with products, point-of-sale and other devices. The integration of the secure element, such as a tamperproof chip card, inside the mobile phone will provide security and trust for handling valuable data.
Support for high quality display of the information to the users, supporting state of art internet technologies are required to provide a satisfying and consistent user experience.


4. Interoperable system. Interoperable systems are essential to mass adoption of mobile commerce. Through proprietary systems may function well in limited situations, they are a barrier to any large-scale implementation.