Research Paper Topic

Mobile Commerce: Prospects and future in India.

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews the literature on Mobile Commerce prospects and future in India. Today everybody wants to access anything very fast and with less cost. Mobile commerce is an attractive approach to get everything very fast. It will enable the user to get easy access of the internet services on mobile phone. It will change the way of business is conducted in many industries, especially in information technology, telecommunications, and financial services. In this paper the importance of the mobile commerce is argued because m-commerce is replacement of the internet over the personal computer or TV into more reliable, anytime, anywhere, and anyplace context. We are attempt to deep research on the context on mobile commerce in India, mobile application, implementation issues. This paper also explain the basic issue of mobile commerce to help the manager especially for those without IT background, to understand the impact of m-commerce on current business in future. Finally we will look for impact of m-commerce current and future prospects in India.

Introduction

Nowadays communication-centric and computing-centric devices are becoming a single intelligent wireless device. Peoples around the world are making use increasingly of electronic communications facilities in their daily lives. This mostly involves interactions between parties who have never formerly met. Consequently, communications networks of all kinds are being exploited in new path to conduct business, to facilitate remote working and to create other "virtual" shared environments. Mobile is becoming the dominant means for accessing communications primarily because deploying mobile network is not only more cost-efficient but also mobile provides greater flexibility and convenience to its ubscribers than landline telephone. (Sanjay, 2007) Mobile Commerce is the subset of e-commerce, which includes all ecommerce transactions, carried out using a mobile (hand held) device. (Sharma, 2009) The booming popularity has forced the corporate world to develop a new commerce platform that can reach to masses. M-commerce has attracted massive traffic because of its unique characteristics. The user can change the service of any financial institute or banks if gets better product and service or user is unsatisfied with the service of the subscribing company. Mobile has played a giant role in communication technology through its versatility and superiority. The ubiquity and easy usage has further made it extremely popular across the globe. It has already surpassed the fixed phone in the world. Software platform is essential for operating any mobile and this tool has revolutionized the communication world because of its functioning as a small computer. (Kumar, 2009) Despite of massive popularity of m-commerce, it is yet in the primitive stage and can be further expand in to all the fields, which affect the human life. Also, Lack of trust is a remarkable factor influencing the uptake of m-commerce. Trust is significant during situations that are perceived to be risky, and Mobile commerce exposes consumers to new vulnerabilities and risks.

Literature review: Mobile Commerce: Prospects and future in

India. According to the Gartner Group, consumer to business e-commerce will soon come from smart phones using mobile commerce technology. Many researchers suggested that next phase of electronic business growth will be in wireless and M-commerce (Ngai and Gunasekaran, 2007, Smith, 2006, OConnell, 2005, Matthew, et al, 2004, Urbaczewskj, et al, 2003). To better understand the potential Effects of m-commerce on businesses, a quick review of definition and background information about it ould be beneficial. In general M-commerce is a natural successor to electronic commerce. (Au, 2007& Mahil, 2008) Ting (2004) believes that with the rapid proliferation of mobile devices, including handheld computers, mobile phones and PDAs1, mobile commerce is widely considered to be a driving force for next-generation electronic commerce. M-commerce should not be viewed as e-commerce with limitations, but rather as a unique form of ecommerce with its own unique benefits. (Scornavacca et, al., 2006) Additionally, mcommerce is not a substitute for Personal computers. Rather; it is a new and a much more powerful way to communicate with customers. Time sensitivity, Intimacy, location awareness and ubiquity are key concepts that make m-commerce so different from traditional electronic commerce. (Paavilainen, 2002) The other difference between m-commerce and e-commerce is the opportunity to connect information with objects in a more direct way than has been possible until now. (Mobile Commerce, 2008) There is apparently no standard definition of the term Mobile commerce. According to Lyytinen(2001), M-commerce, a subset of electronic commerce that involves the use of mobile computing devices in carrying out different types of economic transactions (marketing, buying and selling products and services) or enabling them to take place over space and time. The mobile commerce includes use of such technologies as Bluetooth applications, SMS2 services over a number of carriers (IS953, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), 3G4, W-CDMA5 and CDMA6), and the integration of low-level digital carriers to IP based services through

Wireless Application Protocol or Compact HTML7 like the Japanese I-Mode service. This integration is one of the fastest fastest growing markets of E-business and it will involve the evelopment and design of a host of new applications, services, business models and technological solutions. On the other hand, Malladi et al. (2002) claimed that mobile wireless technologies including of 2 aspects (1) computing and (2) mobility. They believe that mobile computing represents users continuous access to network resources without limitation of location and time. Wireless means that transmission of any form of data such as video text, picture, or voice- is conducted through infrared waves, microwaves or radio waves rather than using wires (Dubendorf, 2003). Therefore, mobile wireless technologies is defined as any wireless technology that uses radio frequency spectrum in any band to facilitate transmission of video, voice, text data, or multimedia services to mobile devices with freedom of location and time limitation. The freedom of location and time is related to the concept of anywhere and anytime access that represents the two main characteristics of mobile wireless technologies: reach ability and mobility. (Camponovo and Pigneur, 2003; Turban, et al. 2002; NgKruelle et al., 2002 and BenMoussa, 2005).

Perspective of Mobile Value- Added Service (MVAS) in India:

Mobile phones have deeply transformed the telecommunication industry and they have been proclaimed to be the new service frontier. Mobile value-added services (MVAS) are those services that offer differentiation and the ability for mobile operators to harge a premium price. Generally, Value Added Service (VAS) in telecommunication industry refers to non-core services, the core or basic services being standard voice calls and fax transmission including bearer services. The value added services are characterized as under: Stands alone in terms of profitability and also stimulates incremental demand for core or basic services not a form of core or basic service but adds value in total service offering. Can be add-on to core or basic service and as such can be sold at premium price. Can sometimes be

provided as stand alone. May provide operational synergy with core or basic services. (IAMAI, 2008) All the value added services address some need of the end consumer whether it is monetary, convenience or psychological. Based on the need fulfillment of the end user, we have grouped Mobile value added services into seven phases respectively. Although, there are many services that could be called "valueadded". But for better understand, we show briefly a few of these services below.

Graph 1: complexity of mobile value added services

SMS: stands for short message service. Its also mostly referred to as text messaging or sending text messages. The service allows for short text messages to be sent from one cell phone to another cell phone and recently from the Web to another cell phone. Indians use this service for all sorts of reasons from checking on flight status to enquiring about exam results to receiving jokes. (sinha, 2009) Its effective for getting the message out to potential customers or retaining existing ones. SMS is a powerful medium for getting in touch with people without soliciting a backlash as seen on

phone calls. The graph below shows the number of SMS Usage in India - Gender Difference

It can be deciphered from the graph 2 that the Males are generally more active users of SMS value added services compared to their counterparts. While males are more interested in getting sports; stocks/finance/business and love tips, on the other hand females are interested in spiritual and astrology.

1. Information service: Mobile information services are considered

value-added because they depict many of the characteristics such as: Can be offered at a premium price Does not cannibalize existing services Can provide synergy with basic service. Provides differentiation (Singh, 2009)

2. Ringtones, Wallpaper and Graphic Download: Indian Mobile

Network Operators(MNOs) are partnering with content providers to deliver information services on the go and downloadable services like ringtones, graphics, and wallpapers. The market size in India of basic value added services like wall papers and ring tones was around US $155 million in 2005. (kakani & Jackson, 2007).

3. Contest participation: Another popular service in Mobile VAS is

Contest participation. For example, 30% of Urban Indians have participated in a SMS contest with Males being the more participative gender. (Vitalanalyticss, 2009) 59.5% of Females have participated in 1 to 3 SMS contests and though this is higher than their male counterparts (only 49%), in frequency of Participation males outshine. Around 25% of male and 19% of Female have participated in 4 to 5 SMS contests. This is as per mobile users in April 2009.

Graph 4: shows the number of India mobile telephony subscriber base from 2004

to 2010

Data sources: (IAMAI, 2008; Telecom regulatory authority of India, 2010 & Afshar, et al, 2010)

4. Categories of Mobile Commerce Applications

Most of people have access to a mobile phone that to a computers and this means that Mobile commerce has the opportunity to connect not just big businesses but also medium and small business, consumers and suppliers on a vast scale. In this sense, mobile phones have the potential to bridge the digital divide and allow organizations and individuals to reach out to one another more easily than ever before. (Mobile Commerce, 2008) In last few years, M-commerce has gained increasing acceptance amongst various sections society. The reasons for its growth can be traced back to technological and demographical developments that have influenced many aspects of the socio-cultural behavior in todays world. Mobile phone and services have registered impressive growth in preceding years and M-commerce is slowly but surely showing signs of a healthy growth. (Hu, 2005; Gordon & Gebauer, 2001 and Sadeh, 2002) The major mobile commerce applications are briefly showed along with details of each in below Diagram.

Major mobile commerce application in India

Telecom subscriber market share

4.1 Commerce:
Commerce refers to the buying and selling of products and services between individuals and organizations, usually on a scale large enough to require transportation from place to place or across city, state, or national boundaries. It is boosted by the convenience and ubiquity conveyed by mobile commerce technology. (Hu, 2005) There are many examples displaying how m-commerce is useful for commerce. For instance, mobile users can check their bank account balance without needing to go to a bank or consumers can buy products from a vending machine and book a ticket by using theirmobile phones.

4.2 Education:
Similar to other wired technologies, mobile wireless technologies have first been used in industry sectors such as business. The

movement of mobile wireless technologies in education is a recent trend, and it is now becoming the hottest technology in higher education (Levine, 2002; McGhee & Kozma, 2001; McKenzie, 2005).

4.3 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP):

In the coming mobile commerce era, users will want to be able to have access to the right resources and work as efficiently as possible whether they are traveling, seeing a customer or working at other remote locations with their ERP systems (Siau et al., 2001). Many ERP vendors are currently researching for means to provide mobility to ERP users. They attempt to connect employees to their work more effectively than ever before by enabling mobile phones and other wireless devices to become a new kind of tool to seamlessly exchange information, automate data entry and perform a range of transactions anytime, anywhere (Siau and Shen, 2003).

4.4 Entertainment:
According to Leavitt (2003) Entertainment has always played a crucial role in Internet applications and is probably the most popular application for the younger generation. Mcommerce makes it possible to download picture, game, music and video files at anywhere, anyplace and anytime, and it also makes on-line games and gambling much easier to access and play. It is projected that by 2005, 80 percent of all mobile users in the United States and Western Europe will play mobile games at least occasionally.

4.5 Health Care:

In most of societies the cost of health care is very high and mcommerce can help to reduce it. By using the technology of mobile commerce, nurses and physicians can remotely access and update patient records immediately, a function which has often incurred a considerable delay in the past. This reduces administrative overheads, enhances overall service quality, and improves efficiency and productivity. Mobile technologies like Laptops, Tablet PCs or PDAs can be of great value in hospitals and healthcare facilities by allowing better access to critical information e.g. patient status, staff and patient location and facilities availability (Banitsas, 2002; Larkin 2001; Chau et al. 2004; Rowley 2005 and Varshney 2004). Healthcare facilities that choose to adopt such technologies may be

able to not only perform better but ultimately provide more efficient and better quality of care for patients (Bahlman et al. 2005).

4.6 Travel and Ticketing:

Travel expenses can be costly for a business. Mobile commerce could help reduce operational costs by providing mobile travel management services to business travelers. It can be used to provide assistance to customers by using the mobile channels to locate a desired hotel nearby, purchase tickets, make ransportation arrangements, and so on. It also extends the reach of relationshiporiented companies beyond their current channels and helps the mobile users to identify, attract, serve, and retain valuable customers. (Hu, 2005)

4.7 Traffic:
Traffic is the movement of vehicles or pedestrians through an area or along a route. The passengers in the vehicles and the pedestrians are all mobile objects, ideal clients of mobile commerce. Also, traffic control is usually a major headache for many metropolitan areas. Using the technology of mobile commerce can easily improve the flow of traffic in many ways. For example, a mobile handheld device can have the capabilities of a GPS1, such as determining the drivers exact position, giving directions, and advising on the current status of traffic in the area. A traffic control center could also monitor and control the traffic according to the signals sent from mobile devices in the vehicles.

Problem Statements:

There are some problems:

1). Cost of the supported mobile phone: The cost of the mobile commerce supported mobile phone is too high, so it is the problem for future of mobile commerce in India. 2). Network problem in rural area: 3). Security problem on web. 4). Illiteracy of users in India.

Hypothesis:
1)

Mobile commerce supported phone should be low cost.

2) Proper training for using the mobile commerce. 3) Provide the proper network facility in rural area. 4) Provide the information about the security on web. 5) Provide the user friendly e-commerce websites.

Conclusion
While e-commerce continues to see phenomenal growth in India, mobile commerce is still in its infancy. But, both the business world and the telecommunications industry are starting to see mcommerce as a major focus for the future. Indian Private and Public sections in telecommunications industry are competing hard to capture more and more mobile market share. As wireless network grows, it is expected that emerging wireless and mobile networks will create new trade models for mobile operators and provide new avenues for growth in m-commerce, offer new applications to consumers and business in India.

REFERENCES: [1] Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi 1,Khalil Md Nor 2,Ali Akbar Hozhabri3,Seyed
Mohammad Sadeq Khaksar4: FROM MOBILE TO MOBILE COMMERCE: AN OVERVIEW IN
THE INDIAN PERSPECTIVE

[2]

Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi, Seyed Mohammad Sadeq Khaksar, Morteza Jamali Paghaleh, Prof. Dr. Bairagi Kachardas Pitamber: The Application of

Electronic Commerce among Small and Medium Enterprises: from Business Processes View.

[3]

E.W.T. Ngai, A. Gunasekaran : A review for mobile commerce research and applications.