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Unit 9: Mobile Commerce

local weather Notes
people tracking and monitoring

Information Services

A wide variety of information services can be delivered to mobile phone users in much the same
way as it is delivered to PCs. These services include:

news services
stock data
sports results

financial records
traffic data and information
Particularly, more customized traffic information, based on users’ travel patterns, will be
multicast on a differentiated basis, instead of broadcasting the same news and data to all Users.
This type of multicasting will be suited for more bandwidth-intensive mobile equipment.

Mobile Banking

Banks and other financial institutions are exploring the use of mobile commerce to allow their
customers to not only access account information, but also make transactions, e.g. purchasing
stocks, remitting money, via mobile phones and other mobile equipment. This service is often
referred to as Mobile Banking or M-Banking. More negative issues like ID theft, phishing and
pharming are lurking when it comes to mobile banking, particularly done on the mobile web.
Net security technology free from redundancy and paradigm shifts away from mobile web-
based banking will be an optimal solution to mobile banking in the near future.

Mobile Brokerage

Stock market services offered via mobile devices have also become more popular and are
known as Mobile Brokerage. They allow the subscriber to react to market developments in a
timely fashion and irrespective of their physical location.

Auctions

Over the past three years, mobile reverse action solutions have grown in popularity. Unlike
traditional auctions, the reverse auction (or low-bid auction) bills the consumer’s phone each
time they place a bid. Many mobile PSMS commerce solutions rely on a one-time purchase or
one-time subscription; however, reverse auctions are high return applications as they allow the
consumer to transact over a long period of time.

Mobile Purchase

Mobile purchase allows customers to shop online at any time in any location. Customers can
browse and order products while using a cheap, secure payment method. Instead of using paper
catalogues, retailers can send customers a list of products that the customer would be interested
in, directly to their mobile device or consumers can visit a mobile version of a retailer’s e-
commerce site. Additionally, retailers will also be able to track customers at all times and notify
them of discounts at local stores that the customer would be interested in.

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