We are living in the hyper connectivity era. Many people are on-line one way or the other either via Internet, Intranet, 2 G, 3 G, or WiFi. One of the most used connected devices of all time is the mobile phone.
According to GS1,"there are over 3 billion mobile phones worldwide. This means that 40% of the world's population carries a mobile phone, far more than use a computer or have access to the internet. In many developed countries, mobile phone penetration is above 90% and developing countries are catching up fast "(Mobile Commerce: opportunities and challenges, February 2008 Edition). Curacao is no exception to the rule. Her penetration percentage is among the highest of all time especially in Curacao (145%). M-Commerce (mobile commerce) will most probably be one of the next "big hype" after Internet.
"The buying and selling of goods and services through wireless handheld devices such as mobile telephones and personal digital assistants is called M-Commerce" (www.askjeeves.com). Imagine buying your movie ticket in advance without reaching The Movies via your cellular phone and without having to stand in line. Once you reach The Movies, your 2D bar code on your cellular phone is being read by an universal touch screen reader at The Movies. Imagine earning Fun Miles points without ever has to show your Fun Miles card again. Imagine performing any payment transaction at any store without ever has to pull a bank card from your wallet or even us cash.
M-Commerce is an upcoming trend in the hyper connectivity era. Our island is constantly on the cutting edge of technology due to mainly the high expectation level by the technology driven mentality of our people. The broadband evolution has forced us to migrate in a "new generation" of information technology via our mobile phones.
Our lives have been changed by the usage of mobile phones. Why this change? People have become more aware of their ability to be accessible anywhere at any time. This awareness presents more opportunities for the individual to be available at anytime and anywhere, without being restricted by the boundaries of a house or business. On one hand, it's a change in personal freedom. Our mobile phones give us the liberty to be who we want at any given time. Many people consider mobile phones as extensions of themselves. This is shown by the wide variety of mobile phones available and the myriad ways of transforming each phone into a personal device.
These days it's more likely that you will forget your house or car keys, but not your mobile phone when you leave home or your car in the morning. As technology advances, mobile phones are able to be used to extend the reach of the person. As individuals, we expect to be able to do things whenever we want to and mobile phones are core devices enabling these expectations to be fulfilled. This means that there is a fundamental shift in our perception of space and time-of what is possible where and when.
GS1 explains it this way:"On the other hand, mobile phones are connecting people more than ever before and becoming new glue holding together social interactions and relationships. A mobile phone makes us available to others, be they businesses or individuals, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is an enormous break with the past, when we needed to know where a person was in order to contact them. It gives us enormous opportunities for businesses to really connect with and understand consumers and for consumers to have more meaningful relationships with businesses" (Mobile Commerce: opportunities and challenges, A GS1 Mobile Com White Paper, February 2008 Edition).
Mobile phones are crucial in our daily lives. Living one day without your mobile phone is living like back in the ice age. Mobile phone has become a "must" in the lives of most people in both developed and less developed countries.
"However, the situation is changing. Mobile phone manufacturers have developed mobile devices that can serve many functions beyond voice communication such as taking photos and listening to music.Mobile network operators are offering services that give greater value to subscribers, such as portable email for business users. Mobile phones are now equipped with cameras with the potential to turn them into portable bar code scanners. Handset manufacturers are developing RFID chips that can turn mobile phones into mobile wallets able to carry and exchange electronic money securely and engage in other transactions with RFID readers in the physical world. The combination of more powerful mobile devices, more innovative mobile operators and change in the mobile network infrastructure (such as 3G networks able to carry large amounts of data at highspeed as broadband connections do for computers) is setting the stage for an enormous change in a already fast-moving sector. Mobile devices are fast becoming the place where numerous technologies meet and create applications that are useful for both consumers and businesses across the globe. The mobile phone of the future is a device that enables users to communicate, connect, transact and innovate."(Mobile Commerce: opportunities and challenges. A GS1 Mobile Com White Paper, February 2008 Edition).
In our markets, mobile phones with various characteristics are becoming available:
Transactional
Connective
Intelligent
Communicational
There are many that revolve around making life easier and richer for consumers and deepening the relationship between consumers and businesses, so that consumers feel they have more say in what they consume.
Some examples of the business-to-consumer applications of the purchase cycle are:
a. Advertising and promotion;
b. Store location;
c. Self-Scanning;
d. Payment;
e. Ticketing;
f . Loyalty Cards;
Throughout the 1990s the introduction of the internet and ecommerce reshaped the way that businesses do business and the way that consumers interact with businesses. Businesses took the opportunity to automate many processes that before would have been handled manually, from ordering to customer service. One clear example is the way that spending on advertising has begun to shift from traditional off-line media to online and digital media as advertisers have seen an opportunity to better connect with their target audience.
Like any emerging market, there are many propositions about how to use this technology. Some organizations adopt an aggressive policy and want to get something moving as fast as possible whilst others adopt a wait-and-see approach. As a result, proprietary solutions are developed that make integration with existing systems or by multiple partners complex and costly. At the same time, multiple solutions create a complex landscape for businesses and consumers alike - making it difficult to choose which solution to use. The mobile phone can be the tool that connects the physical and virtual world. At the base of this vision is the ability to identify objects uniquely.
What is special about mobile phones is the fact that they have massive adoption globally. "Many more people have access to a mobile phone that to a computers and this means that M-Commerce has the opportunity to connect not just big businesses but also small business and consumers on a massive scale. In this sense, mobile phones have the potential to bridge the digital divide and allow organizations and individuals to reach out to one another more easily than ever before" (Mobile Commerce: opportunities and challenges, A GS1 Mobile Com White Paper, February 2008 Edition). In other words, we're moving into a world where digital goods are becoming as important as physical goods. Thru the internet, value is created not just by goods themselves but by the exchanges of those goods. Organizations that can facilitate that exchange (for example by creating communities of users with similar interests) have a significant competitive advantage in this networked world.
"Mobile commerce is an emerging market. As with any emerging market there are significant opportunities and significant 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 the 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" (Mobile Commerce: opportunities and challenges, A GS1 Mobile Com White Paper, February 2008 Edition).
Problem statement
What will be the impact of the introduction of Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce) in our community?
Sub problem statements:
What is M-Commerce?
Which markets will be accessed?
Which target groups will benefit from M-Commerce?
What new markets will emerge because of M-Commerce?
Which opportunities and threats could present for M-Commerce services and possible applications?
Which impact will the value chain experience due to possible introduction of M-Commerce?
Approach
Both the desk research (literature study, magazines, books, and websites) as field research methodology (questionnaire, interviews) will be used to complete this research.
Problem statement
What will be the impact of the introduction of Mobile Commerce in our community?
Sub problems
Which target groups will benefit from M-COMMERCE? To answer this sub question a desk research will be conducted with some stake holders (three different business branches, one company each) via interviews. The basic readings that will be studied are books, telecommunication magazines, journals, and internet will be consulted. The basic readings that will be studied are:
Mobile commerce: technology, theory, and applications, Brian Ernest Mennecke, Troy J. Strader
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Volume 30, No.4
Mobile Commerce: Opportunities and Challenges, A GS1 Mobile Com White Paper, February 2008 Edition
M-Commerce: Technologies,Services,and Business Models, Norman N Sadeh, 2002
Mobile Commerce, Jingjun Xu, 2009
Techniques and Applications for Mobile Commerce: Proceedings of Tamoco, Cherif Branki, 2008
What new markets will emerge because of M-COMMERCE? Interviews will be conducted with key/experts and the ones involved in the implementation process. The key/experts are:
Mr. Michael Gaari, Network Engineer Expert United Telecommunication Services (UTS); Mr. Gaari has been chosen because he is the main authority recognize internationally for his vast knowledge on complex telecommunication networks. Seamlessly networking of systems (of Telecom Providers, Banks, Shops, Service Providers, etc, etc…) will be the main basic chassis on which all the crucial data thru telecommunication will be converged. Imagine a communication network that has to carry the data in a safe manner (without possibility of influence of hackers) and process every single transaction with a minor percentage of faults in a fraction of second. Questions that will be asked to Mr. Gaari are:
What does the basic network looks like?;
What type of data capacity are dealing with?;
What are the possible scenario's present?;
How fast will such a network be?;
What is the core of such a network?;
Mr. Philip Vosselmans, Chief Software Engineer Fleetplanner (Belgium); Mr. Vosselmans has been chosen because since 2001 he has been deploying the software part of the service in the Netherlands and Belgium on different levels. Questions that will have to be answered by Mr. Vosselmans are:
What is the speed of such a transaction?;
How can both the consumer and the business be guarantee that their need are met?;
Will there be an electronic ticket available?;
How does the advertising and promotion part for the M-Commerce differ from the traditional way?
The basic readings that will be studied are (mostly magazines, because magazines dealt with segmentation of business-to-consumer application of the relative new topic in introduction phase):
Outlook Money, 13 August 2008, Vol. 7, No. 16 - 53 pages
Outlook Business, 26 July 2008, Vol. 3, No. 15 - 67 pages
Billboard Oct 27, 2007, Vol. 119, No. 43 - 84 pages
Outlook Money Jul 30, 2008, Vol. 7, No. 15 - 94 pages
Outlook Business - 18 May 2008, Vol. 3, No. 11 - 63 pages
Which opportunities could present for M-COMMERCE services and possible applications for Curacao? To answer this sub question a desk research will be conducted. The basic readings that will be studied are telecommunication magazines, journals, and internet will be consulted. Also interviews will be conducted with key/experts and the ones involved in the possible implementation process.
Which impact will the value chain experience? To answer this sub question a desk research will be conducted. The basic readings that will be studied are telecommunication magazines, journals, and internet will be consulted. Also interviews will be conducted with key/experts and the ones involved in the possible implementation process. Corporate Strategists of United Telecommunication Services together with Service Market Developers will be interviewed. The basic readings that will be studied are:
Electronic Commerce, Bhasker, 2009
M-commerce: global experiences and perspectives, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Morten Rask, Ruby Roy Dholakia, 2006
Strategies for e-business: creating value through electronic and mobile commerce, Tawfik Jelassi, Albrecht Enders, 2008
Outlook Profit Jun 14-27, 2008, Vol. 1, No. 9 - 75 pages
Billboard 15 Oct 2005, Vol. 117, No. 42 - 72 pages
CIO - 15 Jan 2007,Vol. 10, No. 6 - 118 pages
Research Design
The research study on what will be the impact of the introduction of M-Commerce in our community is a combination of explanatory and descriptive way. The target population is a group of business of different branches (8 different once). Data will be obtained via through a survey for each individual branch of business. An administered questionnaire will be used with structured questions, with both open and close questions. Desk research will also be conducted to get information and more insight regarding this topic.
Also another target population of 100 consumers (mobile phone user) will also be part of the research study. Which data will be obtained also through a survey where a questionnaire will be used with structured questions.
Content
The structure of this study will be as follow:
Introduction
General Introduction
Problem Statement & Sub Problems
Research Methodology
Content Thesis
Communication Technology
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Wireless Application Protocol
2.3 Bluetooth Technology
2.4 Second Generation Network
2.5 GPRS Technology
2.6 Third Generation Network
2.7 Conclusion
The business-to-consumer applications
3.1 Introduction;
3.2 Needs and Wants of Consumers;
3.3 Research and Analysis;
3.4 Advertising and promotion;
3.5 Self-Scanning;
Payment;
3.7 Ticketing;
Loyalty Cards
3.9 Conclusion
M-Commerce Development and Opportunities
4.1 Introduction
4.2 SWOT analysis
4.3 Target groups
4.4 Emerging of New Markets
4.5 Opportunities for M-Commerce services and applications
4.6 Impact on the Value Chain
4.7 Conclusion
5 Conclusion and Recommendations
Reference list
Appendixes
List of tables
