Mobile Commerce

Abstract Wireless networks, cellular subscribers, and mobile equipment sales have soared over the past 5 years. Analysts agree that there will be more than a billion mobile phone users worldwide by the end of 2003, surpassing the number of Internet users and giving rise to optimistic forecasts about mobile commerce revenues in the billions of dollars by 2005. Mobile‐commerce, however, is not simply a wireless extension of e‐commerce on the Internet. This chapter defines m‐commerce and its unique mobile value proposition and presents a typology of leading mobile commerce applications. It discusses the technical foundations for deployment of mobile commerce worldwide including the migration from second‐ to third‐generation wireless networks, the roll out of more sophisticated and feature‐rich mobile devices, and the role of standards in supporting interoperability between wireless networks, mobile devices, and mobile commerce applications. This technical discussion provides the foundation for an analysis of the regional differences in adoption rates for mobile commerce and a detailed comparison of mobile commerce adoption drivers and barriers in Japan and the United States. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the key success factors for mobile commerce.