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ABSTRACT

Advances in e-commerce have resulted in significant progress towards

strategies, requirements and developments of e-commerce applications.
However, nearly all e-commerce applications envisioned and developed so far
assume fixed are stationary users with wired infrastructure. A new e-
commerce applications that will be possible and significantly benefit from
emerging wireless and mobile networks is envisioned. To allow designers,
developers and researchers to strategize and create mobile commerce
applications, a four level integrated framework for mobile commerce is
proposed. Since there are potentially an unlimited number of mobile
commerce applications, several important classes of applications such as
mobile financial applications, mobile inventory management, proactive
service management, product location and search and wireless re-engineering
are attempted to be identified. It is discussed how to successfully define,
architect and implement the necessary hardware/software infrastructure in
support of mobile commerce. Also, to make mobile commerce applications a
reality, networking requirements is addressed, support from wireless carriers
is discussed, and some open research problems is presented.

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CHAPTER – 1
INTRODUCTION

Advances in e-commerce have resulted in progress towards strategies,

requirements and development of e-commerce application. Nearly all the e-
commerce applications envisioned so far assume fixed or stationary users with
wired infrastructure, such as a browser on PC connected to the internet using
phone lines on LAN.Many people do not use a PC outside the office, but keep
the mobile phone at their side all the times. Mobile commerce is perfect for
this group.M-commerce allows one to reach the consumer directly, not his fax
machine, his desk, his secretary or his mailbox, but ones consumer directly,
regardless of where he is.
M-commerce is “the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities
directly into the hands, anywhere, via wireless technology” and “putting a
retail outlet in the customer’s hands anywhere.” This can be done with just a
mobile phone, a PDA connected to a mobile phone or even a portable PC
connected to a mobile phone. M-commerce is also termed as wireless e-
commerce.
Internet based applications enabled globalizations and created
opportunities to interact worldwide. A trend can be observed towards the
adoption of electronic-commerce during the last decade (Sarkis and Sundarraj
2002). Currently, e-commerce applications have become an essential part of
organizations activities. Latest trends and technologies are being used in e-
commerce to increase organizational profitability and customer satisfaction.
M-Commerce is relatively a new concept in e-commerce which can be
described as follows (Tsalgatidou and Pitoura 2001):

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Running of e-commerce applications on mobile devices such as

mobile phones, personal data assistants, and laptops.

In contrast to e-commerce, M-Commerce ensures the internet

accessibility at anytime, anywhere on mobile devices (Stafford and Gillenson
2003). Due to the complex nature of M-Commerce, besides the mobile devices
other resources such as technological, human, financial and strategic resources
are required to adopt M-Commerce. However, organizations consider M-
Commerce a priority despite its resource intensive nature. Generally, it is
assumed that only large organizations with major resources can adopt M-
Commerce. This article highlights the significance of M-Commerce for
organizations to adopt M-Commerce solutions with collaborative resources of
other organizations.
M-commerce is a term that is used to refer to the growing practice of
conducting financial and promotional activities with the use of a wireless
handheld device. The Term m-commerce is short for mobile commerce, and
recognize that the transaction may be conducted using cell phones, personal
digital assistance and other hand held devices that have operate with internet
access. While still in its infancy, the concept of Mobil commerce has been
refined in recent years years and is beginning to become more popular.

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CHAPTER – 2
Content Of Seminar

2.1 Literature survey

In this section, we describe the relevant literature review conducted to
achieve the research goals. Literature review was carried out by focusing on
two concepts; firstly, Collaboration between organizations and secondly, M-
Commerce applications.
According to Steensma (1996), organization share resources to acquire
skills and technological competencies. The author suggests that a variety of
collaborative methods including licensing agreements, joint ventures, minority
investments, and equity acquisitions are used by firms to integrate their
resources. In addition, a relationship was modeled between various types of
inter-organizational collaboration, organizational learning capabilities and
technological competency development. This model suggests that “for a given
method of collaboration, the greater the technical complexity of the
technology, a higher level of learning is necessary to ensure optimizing
technological competency development”(Steensma 1996).
Nowadays, organizations are collaborating with each other through
carrying out transactions on the web, and this form of collaboration is known
as Collaborative Commerce (Chen 2000). Literature review in the area of
collaborative commerce suggests that it enables people, groups of individual
and organizations to work together with one another in order to accomplish
collaborative e-business task (Thuraisingham and Gupta 2002).
On the other hand, with the advancement of wireless devices, e-business that is
carried out over portable wireless devices is known as Mobile-Commerce
(Senn 2000). Customers tend to use M-Commerce applications to access

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information, purchase goods or to download games, songs and music.

Generally, B2C M-Commerce applications are divided into following five
main categories: (Senn 2000; Coursaris and Hassanein 2002; Wang et al.
2005) a) Information applications /Content Delivery; b)Transaction Based
Applications; c) Entertainment Applications; and d) Location Based
Applications; e) Telemetry Services.
In the past few years much work has been done in order to identify and
evaluate the issues involved in the designing, evaluation and adoption of M-
Commerce applications from the customer’s point of view (Coursaris and
Hassanein 2002; Wang, Song, Lei and Sheriff 2005). Researchers suggest that
effective collaboration among the organizations (for example content
providers, network operators and Mobile service providers) involved in M-
Commerce value network may resolve these issues. However, insufficient
work has been reported in order to investigate the effects of such inter-
organizational collaboration of customers and organizations. Therefore, the
proposed work focuses on the evaluation of effects of collaborative
organizational resources for M-Commerce applications. The collaboration of
organizational resources would enhance the management and effectiveness of
fast growing M-Commerce applications.
2.2 Background and motivation
Electronic commerce has attracted significant attention in the last few
years. Advances in e-commerce have resutled in significant progress towards
strategies, requirements and development of e-commerce applications. Nearly
all the applications envisioned and developed so far assume fixed or stationary
users with wired infrastructure, such as browser on a PC connected to the
Internet using phone lines or a Local Area Network. A new e-commerce
application such as “Wireless e-commerce” or “Mobile e-commerce” will
benefit one to reach the consumer directly, regardless of where he is.

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The emergence of M-commerce, a synonym for wireless e-commerce

allows one to do the same function that can be done over the internet. This can
be done by connecting a PDA to a mobile phone, or even a portable PC
connected to a mobile phone. Mobile Commerce is perfect for the group who
always keep a mobile phone by side all the times. A study from the wireless
data and computing service, a division of strategy analytics, reports that the
mobile commerce market may rise to $200 billion by 2004. The report predicts
that transactions via wireless devices will generate about $14 billion a year.
We are aware that consensus within business and industry of future
applications is still in its infancy. However, we are interested in examining
those future applications and technologies that will form the next frontier of
electronic commerce. To help future applications and to allow designers,
developers and researchers to strategize and create mobile commerce
applications, a four level integrated framework is proposed.

Fig1. Framework for M-Commerce

This framework has four levels: m-commerce applications, user
infrastructure, middleware and network infrastructure which simplifies the

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design and development. By following this framework a single entity is not

forced to do everything to build m-commerce systems, rather they can build on
the functionalities provided by others. The framework also provides a
developer and provider plane to address the different needs and roles of
application developers, content providers and service providers.

Fig2. Mobile Commerce Life Cycle

Content provider can build its service using applications from multiple
application developers and also can aggregate content from other content
providers and can supply the aggregated content to a network operator or
service provider. Service providers can also act as content aggregators, but are
unlikely to act as either an application or content provider due to their focus on
the network and service aspects of m-commerce. Wireless carriers can play a
very active and important role in the mobile commerce applications and
services due to the fact that mobile user is going through their network to
perform all mobile commerce transactions. Mobile user is likely to prefer a
common bill for voice, data and mobile commerce services.

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CHAPTER – 3

EMERGING MOBILE COMMERCE APPLICATIONS

There are potentially an unlimited number of mobile applications, we

attempt to identify several important classes of applications and provide
examples within each class.

3.1Mobile Financial Applications [MFA]

Mobile financial applications are likely to be one of the most important
components of m-commerce. They could involve a variety of applications
such as mobile banking and brokerage service, mobile money transfer, and
mobile payments as shown in the figure.

Fig3. Several Mobile Financial Services

One interesting mobile financial application is micro payment involving
small purchases such as vending and other items. A mobile device can
communicate with a vending machine using a local wireless network to
purchase desired items. Micro-payments can be implemented in a variety of
ways. One way is that the user could make a call to a certain number where
per minute charges equal the cost of the vending item. This approach ha been
used by SONERA, a finish wireless provider, in the famous Coke machine

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service. In effect it collects money from the users and credits it to the vending
providers.

3.2 Mobile Advertising

Mobile advertising is also a very important class of mobile commerce
applications. Using demographic information collected by wireless service
providers and information on the current location of mobile users, much
targeted advertising can be done. The advertising messages sent to the user can
be location-sensitive and can inform a user about various on-going specials
(shops, malls and restaurants) in surrounding areas as shown in figure.

Fig4. Possible scenario for Mobile advertising and shopping.

This type of advertising can be performed using Short Messaging

Service (SMS) or by using short paging messages to mobile users. The
messages can be sent to all users located in a certain area, a user-specific
message can be sent independent of the user’s current location. Since the
services need the current location information of a user, a third party may be
needed to provide location services. However this may require a sharing of
revenues between the network service provider and location service
provider.As more wireless bandwidth becomes available, content rich

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advertising involve audio, pictures and video clips can be produced for
individual users with specific needs, interests, and inclinations. It is also
possible that direct advertising to users may be performed without much
control from the wireless service providers.

3.3 Mobile Inventory Management (MIM)

This class of application involves location tracking of goods, services
and even people. The tracking of goods may help service providers in
determining the time of delivery to customer, thus improving customer service
and obtaining a competitive edge over other business. One very interesting
application is “rolling inventory”-which may involve multiple trucks carrying
a large amount of inventory while on move. Whenever a store needs certain
goods/items, it can locate a truck (preferably in nearby area) and just-in-time
delivery of goods can be performed. The rolling inventory and delivery
application can reduce the amount of inventory space and cost for both
vendors and stores and may reduce the time between when an order is placed
and the goods are delivered (shown in figure).

Fig5. Location Tracking of goods

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Location tracking of components can be broken into two components:

indoor and outdoor. Indoor tracking can be performed by a chipset (TX/RX)
And location information may be transmitted over a satellite or cellular/PCS
system to the component supplier where such information is needed.

3.4 Product Location and Search (PLS)

This class of application includes locating an item in a particular area or
location. This is concerned with finding an item with certain specifications and
whether it is available in a specified area or not. Potentially, there could be
multiple places where such an item or items of similar attributes are located.
Currently many people are going to several stores to find an item (certain
brand/size of TV, VCR or an automobile) and compare prices and features.
Using a mobile device and centralized/distributed database containing
information on products, a user should be able to find the exact location of the
store where a certain item is located. After that the user can buy online using a
browser on his/her mobile devise. In the case of multiple stores/vendors
carrying an item desired by a user, they could compete to get customer by real
time manipulation of prices or by offering instant discounts.
From the technological point of view, a mobile user can send a query
message to a centralized location , which in turn can interface several different
stores/dealers and decide if the item is available or not.

3.5 Proactive Service Management

This class of application is based on collecting pertinent information
about current or near future user needs and providing services to users
proactively. One such application may involve collecting information about
the aging components of an automobile (shown in figure).

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Fig6. Information transmission on aging automobile components to dealers

This would help reduce anxiety levels of owners and improve the
general conditions of automobiles on the road leading to the reduced number
of traffic jams, accidents and even fatalities. From the technological point of
view, automobiles can be equipped with smart sensors that keep track of how
much wear and tear a car component has gone through. This information can
then be transmitted using a radio/microwave/satellite system to a specified
service center or other location. Some implications of such applications are
privacy, security, reliability and cost of deployment.

3.6 Wireless Business Re-engineering

Many insurance business situations involve going to customer’s
premises, taking notes of a particular situation, going back to the office and
then taking suitable actions. This process takes a long time and is not very
efficient. To improve this business practice, a wireless re-engineering
application can be used which allows on-the-spot claim adjustment. In such a
scenario, a claim adjuster goes to the customers place, takes picture and stores
them in his/her mobile device for uploading to the companies database. Using
a small printer attached to the mobile device, he/she prints a claim check. This
entire process is performed in minutes as opposed to days.

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CHAPTER – 4
WIRELESS USER INTERFACE
AND MIDDLEWARE ISSUES

To make the application described previously a reality, several functional

components are necessary as highlighted in the first figure. Although it is able
to do some simple mobile commerce transactions using a simple hand-held
device, many sophisticated mobile commerce applications require other
capabilities. For example,
 Dynamic, adaptable and smart user interface that learns from and with
user,
 Ability to accept user input in many forms including voice,
 Ability to display rich and usable contents,
 Location awareness and ability to track users, products and devices,
 Multi network interfaces for increased and reliable wireless access,
 Basic security features to handle malicious code, support for
authenticating user, services and applications,
 Ability to work with and adapt to mobile commerce applications with
diverse requirements,
 Possible support for context awareness,
 ability to discover and download upgraded applications and software
proactively,
 An operating system that can manage resources to support many of the
functions.
Some of these features are already available in hand-held devices. Many
of these capabilities will increase the size and weight significantly, and thus,
potentially affect the usability and portability of these devices.

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4.1 Wireless and mobile middleware for mobile commerce

Traditionally, middleware unites different applications, tools, networks

and technologies; allowing user access via a common interface. Mobile
middleware can be defined as an enabling layer of software that is used by the
applications development to connect the m-commerce applications with
different networks and operating systems without introducing mobility
awareness in the applications.

Fig7. Mobile middleware for application and content adaptation

To allow for web content to be accessible from everywhere, from PCs

to TVs to palm devices to cellular phones, the World Wide Web consortium
(W3C) had developed several recommendations. These recommendations
include the Extensible Makeup Language (XML) for richer semantic
information, improved Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Extensible Style
Sheet Language (XSL) to further separate content from presentation, and a
Document Object Model (DOM) which defines a language independent
application programming interface that applications can use to access and
modify the structure, content and style of HTML and XML documents.

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CHAPTER – 5

WIRELESS NETWORKING INFRASTRUCTURE

In this section the wireless networking requirements for various mobile

commerce applications are being discussed. Mobile commerce applications
would present five general networking requirements: location management,
multicast support, network dependability, and support for Quality-Of-Service,
and the ability to roam across multiple wireless networks. To help network
designers and developers, we translate these five networking requirements into
more specific attributes as shown in the table.

Wireless infrastructure requirements for mobile commerce

Networking
Specific attributes
requirements
Multicast support 1. support for multicast in infrastructure
wireless networks
2. support for multicast in ad hoc wireless
networks(much more difficult due to dynamic
topology and other factors)
3. group connectivity under
mobility/failure
4. synchronization/ atomicity of
transactions from multiple users
Network dependability 1. impact and frequency of component
failure
2. fault-tolerant design
3. user access to multiple networks
4. levels of network availability

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Quality -of –service 1. bandwidth requirements delay and delay

variation tolerable loss characteristics
Roaming across1. handoff among multiple wireless
multiple networks networks
2. keeping track of users across networks

After identifying the various networking requirements and specific

attributes, a global and comprehensive wireless infrastructure for mobile
commerce applications is presented as shown in the figure. This infrastructure
also supports efficient location management, multicast and fault tolerance to
increase levels dependability.

Fig8. A global comprehensive wireless infrastructure for mobile commerce

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CHAPTER – 6
M-COMMERCE ISSUES
FOR
CARRIERS AND DEVELOPERS

Wireless carriers can play a very active and important role in the mobile
commerce applications and services due to the fact that a mobile user is going
through their network to perform all mobile transactions. Service providers
can also act as content aggregators but are likely to act as a clearing house for
content and application providers in advertising and distributing their products
to its customers.
Wireless carriers are also to face challenges involving how to price
mobile commerce services, and because several carriers are likely to be
involved in completing a mobile commerce transaction, another issue is hoe to
divide revenues among multiple carriers.
There are many important issues that need to be addressed before mobile
commerce applications can be widely deployed. These include the
development of new business models for charging wireless customers and for
revenue division among providers, maturity of application software,
middleware support, vendor support and user trust necessary for conducting
mobile transactions.
There are some important issues for developers of m-commerce
applications. These issues are presented in the table below.
Due to the potential values of many mobile commerce applications,
atomic transactions may be necessary. It is possible that the mobile
middleware may provide most of such functions and thus reducing the amount
of work needed to support atomic transactions.

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Some important issues for applications developers

Issues Comments
Network Band width and delay requirements (real-time vs.
processing and non-real time applications)
storage Mobile device capabilities
requirements Disconnected operation
Multicasting for group communications
Symmetric vs. asymmetric processing and storage
Application Use of any existing Software Development Kit
Development (SDK)
Simulation of environment where application will be
used
Maximum number of simultaneous users
The size of application code
Support for secure transactions
Support for fixed users
Compatibility and Independence from the underlying wireless access
interoperability technologies
Independence from the device functionalities
Interoperability with IP
Compatibility with Wireless Application Protocol
(WAP)
Desirable features Support for intermittent connectivity
Adaptive to the user and network environment
Support for “atomic” transactions
Easy upgradability
User specified features invocation
CHAPTER – 7
INTERESTING RESEARCH ISSUES

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IN MOBILE COMMERCE

There are many interesting research problems in mobile commerce.

Some of these are unique due to the limitations of mobile devices and wireless
networks and some are similar to research problems that are currently being
addressed by e-commerce research developers. The problems that are unique
to m-commerce are:
 Novel applications and services made possible due to the wireless
networks and mobile devices.
 Security and privacy problems that are unique to wireless networks and
mobile devices.
 Middleware issues that are unique due to device, network and protocol
limitations
 Role of different wireless networking standards
 Adoption factors of mobile devices that are significantly different in
different parts of the world
 Context and location awareness in unique to mobile commerce as many
of the applications are sensitive to the context and the location of a user.

The research problems that can be addressed by the existing e-commerce

research with some modifications and extensions are:
 Strategy of new service offering
 Role of m-commerce providers
 Trust building
 Adoption of new services

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CHAPTER – 8
APPLICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS

8.1 Classes of M-Commerce Applications

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8.2 Limitations of M-Commerce

8.2.1 Usability Problem

 Small size of mobile devices (screens, keyboards, etc)
 Limited storage capacity of devices
 Hard to browse sites
8.2.2 Technical Limitations
 Lack of a standardized security protocol
 Insufficient bandwidth
 3G licenses
 Transmission and power consumption limitations
 Poor reception in tunnels and certain buildings
 Multipath interference, weather, and terrain problems and distance-
limited connections
8.2.3 WAP Limitations
 Speed
 Cost
 Accessibility

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CHAPTER – 9
CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH

Mobile commerce is an interesting and challenging area of research and

development. It presents many issues that cover many disciplines and may best
be addressed by an active participation of computer and telecommunications
experts, social scientists, economists and business strategists. It introduced
several new classes of applications, reviewed networking requirements, and
discussed application development support. Since the area of mobile
commerce is very new and still emerging, several interesting research
problems that are currently being addressed or should be addressed by the
research and development community. It is believed that user trust will play a
crucial role in acceptance and widespread deployment of mobile commerce
applications.
M-Commerce is relatively a new concept which is being used by many
organizations. In contrast to e-commerce, M-Commerce ensures the internet
accessibility anytime, anywhere on mobile devices. Due to the complex nature
of M-Commerce, more resources such as technological, human, financial and
strategic resources are required to adopt M-Commerce. Therefore, the need for
collaborating organizational resources for M-Commerce applications arises.
Despite the more resource-demanding nature of M-Commerce, it will become
a priority for most organizations.

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CHAPTER – 10

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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[3] Chen , S. (2000). Global Leadership in C-Commerce. Computer
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[4] More E. and G. M. McGrath 2003. Organizational Collaboration in an
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[5] Senn, J. A. 2000. The Emergence of M-Commerce: Computer, 33(12).

[6] Tsalgatidou A. and E. Pitoura 2001. Business Models and Transactions

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[7] FCC e911. http: //www.fcc.gov/e911
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[9] www.google.com

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