Emergence and Development of M-Commerce - Essay Example

They argue that the availability and the advantage of being able to conduct all the business operations using mobile devices would have tremendous advantages over conventional e-commerce solutions in that users can now conduct their operations wherever they are (Searchmobilecomputing, 2006). However, industry gurus are of the view that such a development in the field would result into either of the two different possibilities listed below: So what does one mean by using mobile devices to conduct business.

In simple words, this essentially means that companies can use the mobile medium to broadcast information on their products and services thereby allowing them to reach millions of potential customers in the minimal cost. The idea is given more momentum by the explosive growth in the sales of mobile phones and devices. Add to that the fact that the number of users of devices other than conventional mobile phones such as palmtops and PDAs are virtually on the rise with every passing day. But, a fact that needs mention here is that such hand held devices have not been taken into consideration in the current framework.

In general, the ACCC (2005) has given the following definition to M-Commerce that has been described below: "Mobile commerce or 'm-commerce' is part of the shift of technology into mainstream business and everyday life.It is the use of handheld wireless devices such as mobile phones and palm pilots to communicate, interact and transact via high-speed connection to the internet."(ACCC, 2005) Take a look at the potential advantages M-Commerce has got to offer. One could book tickets for movies by simply using his mobile phone and typing in his/her credit card number.

Airline reservation would now be a simple affair and booking hotel rooms would not be a problem at all. Moreover, users can obtain news and other information by simply subscribing to such providers for a very small fee. Thus, mobile phone companies may also benefit in a large way by providing advertisement facilities to other businesses. But, as has been previously mentioned, these are simple mere possibilities at the moment and there are a large amount of technicalities that need to be worked out before these things become a reality (MobileInfo, 2006).

Popularity amongst users The mobile industry is optimistic that there would be tremendous acceptance among users and customers of this new technology and this is due to the fact that many of them have even conducted numerous studies in this direction that provides an insight into the acceptance rates of M-Commerce. As an example, the Ericsson group as part of a study has made several important observations. The study has revealed that people expect the new technology as part of M-Commerce to provide some new features that will prove to be enhancements over the existing ones.

In fact, the study has shown that the interest rate towards such technologies among the customer base is as much as over 80%. Therefore, the group has also come to point to the fact that treating M-Commerce as merely