Slide 15.1: Mobile commerce

Mobile Commerce

Mobile commerce is defined as

the exchange or buying and selling of commodities, services, or information on the Internet through the use of mobile handheld devices such as smart or Internet-enabled cellular phones or PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants).

According to independent research findings, mobile commerce will soon be a dominant force in business and society:

Juniper Research has published a new report forecasting that the global mobile commerce market will be an $88 billion industry by 2009.

ARC Group estimates that by 2007 approximately 546 million users will spend close to $40 billion on mobile commerce.

In 2004, Telecom Trends International said there would be 95 million global mobile-commerce users by the end of that year, and these will balloon to 1.7 billion users by 2008.

By 2009, PC shipments are expected to reach 273 million annually with a value of $245 billion, the market researcher said. The aggregate PC installation is substantial, but even more mobile handheld devices are in use. The Data Analysis Group projects that by 2006, 650 million smartphones will be in use worldwide.

While the market for smartphones is still small, it will grow fast as new features are added, making them more useful for mobile commerce. By 2006, standard features will include music players, downloadable games, and microbrowsers. In effect, smartphones will become pocket computers.