Mobile Commerce & its impact on you personally and on modern business

_________________________________________________________________

Mobile Commerce & its impact on you personally and on modern business

Well I better start this with an explanation of what mobile or m-commerce actually is. Essentially m-commerce is the process of buying and selling goods and services through the use of handheld wireless devices. The most traditional devices capable of m-commerce are our mobile phones and other personal mobile digital devices. However newer devices are continuously being introduced that can perform these functions as well. For example, e-readers such as the Kindle allow users to shop for new reading material anywhere directly from their device.

For me personally, I’d use my phone more for emails and Google search, and then make the purchase on my laptop. Maybe it’s because I’m more confident with the security on my laptop, but it is essentially a mobile device anyway. We hear talk now of a mobile wallet, this is a digital avatar of your real world wallet on your mobile phone. It can hold your cash, your bank account, your credit card, your loyalty cards, your coupons, your pre-paid items, and lets you conduct financial transactions in-store, online and over mobile channels as you purchase goods and services. I haven’t made up my mind yet if this is exciting or scary? This one device has so much power and contains so much information on us!

The New York Times reports that owners of BlackBerry or iPhone mobile devices will in fact be able to purchase their Starbucks products though downloading a free Starbucks Card application and holding their phones in front of scanners at the retailer’s registers. The money is electronically subtracted from customer’s Starbucks accounts, which they can load with credit cards or PayPal funds via there iPhone.

By 2015, over 36% of all US consumers are expected to be using the mobile internet. Worldwide, mobile phones are forecast to overtake personal computers as the most common web access device within the next three years, and in many developing nations, such as Egypt and India, this shift has already occurred, with up to 70% of the online population exclusively using phones to access the internet.

For businesses to remain competitive, they must understand the strengths and limitations of emerging mobile technology and the context in which each is used. They may also look and see how other enterprises have begun to leverage them. As e-commerce moves away from a singular website experience to the modern landscape of mobile devices, apps and social networks, executives will also need to focus the service-oriented technology that is rapidly becoming essential to keeping up with the pace of change.

_________________________________________________________________________________