RE: UKNM: Re: Mobile Commerce

[Gary Pharo]

IMHO, the main barriers to successful m-commerce are:


1. Low penetration of enabled devices.

2. Confusing and difficult to operate handsets (with the operators making

life even more difficult by trying to set up a closed network).

3. Speed.

4. Security.

5. The lack of available information, in an easy to read format - hence

point 1.

6. The cost (around 5p per minute).

7. The lack of available handsets.


Now this all seems rather reminiscent of the barriers to entry that stopped

people getting online (in the UK at least), 3 or 4 years ago.


In it's current format, WAP has little to offer, and is relatively

expensive. However, as the operating system moves to GPRS then UMTS - and

things like graphics, video and the colourful things that brighten our lives

become available at a decent speed - the take up should increase (again, not

unlike faster modems and Freeserve did for the industry as a whole).


And as a general comment, I can't believe that at least one of the leading

players (be that Vodafone or whoever) aren't looking to capitalise on their

ability to simply and efficiently bill the end user from micro-payments up.

Now that would be interesting huh - no need for a credit card, or any other

information - I just key in my phone number (or it gets recorded

automatically by some form of a cookie) and the charge appears on my phone

bill at the end of the month!! (and before you start.... you know that I am

not technically gifted enough to qualify this - but one thing I believe is

that there is a way)


Vodafone the new World Bank ?


Cheers

Gary


Gary Pharo

UK Sales Manager

www.commtouch.com

gary [dot] pharocommtouch [dot] com

The Worldwide Leader in Integrated Email and Messaging Outsourcing Services


> -----Original Message-----

>

From: ownerchinwag [dot] com [ownerchinwag [dot] com]On">mailto:ownerchinwag [dot] com]On Behalf Of Anthony

> Sent: 16 August 2000 01:25

>

To: uk-netmarketingmail [dot] chinwag [dot] com

> Subject: UKNM: Re: Mobile Commerce

>

>

> Dear all,

>

> It's really fascinating to see so many different feedback and comments to

> the topic "Mobile Commerce".  However, I find some contradicting views

> within this forum and with other forums I visit.

>

> Is WAP based on WML (simplied from XML) ?

> Is i-Mode based on packets, so it's "always on" and hence cheaper ?

> is i-Mode based on cHTML ?

> How will Bluetooth help with the bandwidth problem ?

> How would the telco consortium leverage their i-Mode technical

> and marketing

> expertise in Europe ?

> Will there really be a merged version of WAP and i-Mode by the two camps

> without wasting loads of time and resources in Europe ?

> Will the US be different from Europe like anything else ?

>

> I know M-Commerce will definitely take off because Wireless has so much

> potential benefits to offer (technically and commercially).  Can anyone

> enlighten me as to what will really be needed for a successful take-off ?

> Let's take a real-life scenario such as Mobile Banking which is

> very hot in

> Europe at the moment.

>

> Regards,

>

> Anthony



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