The mobile industry is loaded with future expectations and hopes that the emerging technologies will bring new dimensions into existing services. Application developers are looking forward to enhanced terminals with more data processing power and built-in security features. Mobile operators upgrade their networks in order to offer value added services to the customers. This way, everybody in the mobile Internet value chain is affected by the new technology.
Archive for the ‘Introduction to mobile Internet’ Category
The mobile industry is characterized by a fast innovation cycle
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009Business model and revenue sources
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009The business models of mobile commerce providers have different success factors than the companies operating in the fixed Internet environment. Typically, mobile commerce is characterized by value added services and multi-channel strategies combining several medias together. The provider of mobile commerce has to use fixed Internet, TV, radio and print media in order to overcome the limitations in screen size and character input methods. Therefore, some of the early movers are going to be entertainment companies and other content providers which have multiple channels for information provisioning. Therefore, the mobile terminal can be used as a time critical and location independent tool for making a transaction. Because it is personal device, a mobile phone or a PDA is an ideal instrument for payments and other transactions.
Difference between the fixed and the mobile Internet: Form factory
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009Fixed Internet is used primarily for email, entertainment and getting information about a particular point of interest. Typically, the user has a screen of 17 inches and a network connection providing data with a speed ranging from 56 Kbit/s to several megabits. The computer is likely to have more processing power than needed in order to use the services available in the Internet. In addition, most of the information can be saved on a hard disk to be used later, while offline. The user has two devices in order to give commands to the computer; a keyboard and a mouse. Reading news and communicating with friends is easy with the equipment described above. (more…)
Evolution in consumer behavior
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009Consumers have the power to determine successful applications and terminal concepts. Therefore, their expectations have to be examined and nurtured. However, some of the applications and service models existing today are so unique that it was impossible to forecast consumer demand for them. Short messaging is one of the surprising bandwagons, bringing additional revenue to mobile operators and application developers. Who could have expected that messages typed with a very slow, 12-key keyboard would have such a success among mobile phone users? In Finland, the revenue from short messages already exceeds the revenue generated from television advertising, not to mention banner advertising on the Internet. Imagine the same thing happening in the USA, Germany or some other country with a large population.
Evolution in mobile terminals
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009The development of mobile terminals is partly dependent on the evolution of the networks. Therefore, companies aware of new network features are better able to understand the market situation. Given that, the initial bandwidth is substantially lower than previously expected, and advanced features, like videotelephony and mobile movie provisioning are likely to be introduced in 2004 at the earliest. However, bandwidth is not the only feature that narrows down potential applications. Network-based location services are also dependent on the equipment installed by the mobile operator. Some location technologies provide location of a handset with precision of 100 meters while others rely on cell-based location ranging from 150 meters to several kilometers in accuracy. Location technologies are especially important with the evolution of car navigation systems which use network and satellite-dependent positioning. Mobile terminals inside the car are able to use both technologies in order to provide driving directions and information on special points of interest.
Evolution in mobile networks
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009Mobile evolution is one of the most important issues in understanding the customer behavior and business requirements of mobile commerce. Regardless of position in the mobile commerce value chain, all the companies participating in service provisioning should closely follow the progress of enabling technologies and solutions. This way, strategic decisions can be based on future trends rather than today’s technology. By studying correct timing, companies can also avoid too early or too late market entry which causes additional costs and anxiety among investors.
Mobile networks in America - cdmaOne, IS-95B, 1XRTT and cdma2000 (3XRTT)
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009While GSM and TDMA operators around the world are going to deploy the technology defined earlier (GPRS - EDGE - WCDMA), CDMA operators are likely to choose another path. This is a consequence of different technology used in CDMA and its natural migration path towards high speed mobile networks capable of transferring packet-switched data. Most CDMA operators come from North America, but there are also countries using this technology in Asia. Globally, CDMA technology is substantially smaller than GSM in terms of subscriber base and a number of supporting operators. Geographically, however, it is important in the United States.
Wideband CDMA (WCDMA)
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009Wideband CDMA, being a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System , is a third generation mobile network capable of transferring multimedia between terminals. Implementation cost for a mobile operator is high because the network has to be redesigned and new equipment is needed at the base stations. Additionally, consumers require new mobile terminals in order to access WCDMA services.
Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution (EDGE)
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009EDGE is another packet-switched evolution of the existing GSM networks. It boosts the bandwidth of GPRS networks up to 384 Kbit/s. This speed is achieved by using all eight 48 Kbit/s timeslots available in the network. Realistically, however, the speed mobile operators are able to offer to customers is likely to be around 40 Kbit/s upstream and 100 Kbit/s downstream. Even though EDGE depends on GPRS equipment to provide service, mobile operators may choose an option to update the existing GSM networks directly to EDGE. This way, the operator would have to wait a while. (more…)
