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Ovum analysts believe that by 2005 there will be over 500 million m-commerce users in the world and that will generate a tırnover exceding 200 billion US $. The sector contains various actors from mobile operators to equipment and infrastructure suppliers, content providers and online retailers.
Mobile operators value m-commerce much. Because through m-commerce the network created by the oeartors can be benefited in the maximum way. Moreover the secure communication provided by the mobile networks may be an other reason for consumer preference.
SIM card that provides secure wireless data transfer and enable mobile payment through e-signature applications, is the most important compenent of the m-commerce. The technological developments in the SIM toolkit sets forth the essential principles as to m-commerce and enbales operators to offer mobile banking services through their networks.
One of the best feartures with SIM card is that the SIM card stores information about the user and can be held seperately form the mobile phone. The future of m-commerce will quite much depend on whether the industry could persuade consumers on the safety of the applications.
Consumer, Operator and Others
Together with the growth in the mobile technologies market, mobile Operators have come across with the new actors that are eager to get their share. Operators are well aware of the fact that in order to preserve and develop their client portfolio they need to offer the most up to date services. Besides the content and service providers also realise that mobile Operators have a very dominant influence owing to their proximity to consumers. Therefore the new comers of the market have no chance to treat Operators as rivals but they better seek co-operation with them. Globally, there is a increasing co-operation between the Operators and the service and content providers.
SIM cards enable the aforesaid co-operation in a simple and inexpensive way. SIM Card has a central role regarding the safety of the payments and the copyright protection of the content loaded on the mobile phone. SIM card can be designed to to provide access to the content within the limits drawn by the content provider.
Smart Cards, tegether with PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) enable the production and encryption of the electronical signatures which are the essential compenents of a secure e-commerce. PIN (Personal Identification Number) code which is used in SIM cards and credit cards with an electronical chip is also an other tool for increasing the security level.
Mobile payment and prepaid services
The manin concern of the operators is to preserve their client portfolio and establish profiatble and long term relations with their clients. Such concern is more related with prepaid users which switch operators more easily. Many operators include m-commerce services particular for prepiad users based on smart card technlogy and through this they aim to increase the network usage and establish close links with the clients.
Recharging accounts from anywhere, anytime
A service enabling prepaid users to recharge their accounts by using the mobile phones may be a good application in the prepaid mobile market.Such service which avoids difficult manuel methods could be realised safely by components like PIN code, e-signature, encryption/decryption and hardware based security modules.
For instance, Orange Dominicana and Banco Popular recently launched a mobile banking service in the Dominican Republic, which takes the prepaid reload application to a higher level. The application provides a fully secure environment in which the customer can access a comprehensive range of financial services such as paymet of several bills and bank transfers. Since the application is based on STK technology, the operator can always add new services without interruption.
Mobile banking
Last year, Gemplus (Paris Euronext: Euroclear 5768 and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card solutions, announced the launch of the world's most secure mobile payment and banking service, mobile banxafe, developed in conjunction with Banksys, Belgium's leading expert in secure payment systems, and deployed by Mobistar, one of Belgian's leading mobile network operators. End-users are now able to reload their prepaid account with their mobile phone in a totally secure way. By harnessing the inherent security of the SIM and the SMS channel, operators are best placed to offer their customers with prepaid mobile services (mobile banking and m-commerce) as a first step towards deploying macro-payment solutions.
Retaining ARPU, a typical application in the prepaid market would allow customers to top up and pay for more airtime securely, from their handset, via a user-friendly menu.
It is proven that business cases and strong partnerships will make a success of mobile commerce.
Source: Mobile Commerce World
Links
http://www.business.com/directory/internet_and_online/ecommerce/mobile_commerce_m- commerce/
http://www.ecommercetimes.com
http://www.serverworldmagazine.com/monthly/2001/10/customercare.shtml
http://www.mastercard.com.tr
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