Welcome to Mobile and Wireless

Overview

The mobile and wireless industry is entering an exciting time. Demand for mobile technology is growing at a tremendous rate. Corporations are deploying mobile applications that provide substantial business benefits, and consumers are readily adopting mobile data applications. Exciting new mobile devices are constantly being introduced, and wireless networks are providing access to data from almost anywhere. In short, mobile and wireless technology has matured to the point where it is ready for wide-scale adoption.

Actually, mobile applications have been successfully deployed for many years, but these have been largely the effort of early adopters, who have gained a clear competitive advantage by implementing a mobile solution. Wide-scale deployment of mobile and wireless applications is just starting to take place. Corporations are just beginning to realize the benefits that mobility provides. Oddly enough, many of the advancements are taking place in the enterprise market, contrary to early industry hype, which was largely focused on consumers. There are both business and technical reasons why this is taking place.

Return on investment (ROI) has become an important figure for determining whether to implement a mobile solution. It is pretty simple really. If a company can foresee a reasonable return on its investment, it can justify building the application. If it cannot, then the application will have to wait. It is much easier to determine the ROI for internal business applications than it is for consumer applications, so they get implemented first. On the technical side, corporations have much more control over the technology being used, so they can build applications that require specific hardware, software, or network connectivity. This allows them to deploy a variety of application types that can run in either online or offline modes. There is no such control over the consumer market, often limiting the type of applications that can be deployed.

Before we get into the technical aspects of building mobile applications and discussing the various application architectures, we are going to look at some of the business issues surrounding the mobile industry. This chapter provides information on mobile and wireless from a less technical perspective. It focuses on the issues around implementing a mobile solution, including the business benefits and expected challenges, as well as the main

Definition of Mobile and Wireless

The definition of mobile and wireless varies from person to person and organization to organization. In many cases, the terms mobile and wireless are used interchangeably, even though they are two different things. Let's start with the term mobile. Mobile is the ability to be on the move. A mobile device is anything that can be used on the move, ranging from laptops to mobile phones. As long as location is not fixed, it is considered mobile. Areas that are not included in our definition of mobile include remote offices, home offices, or home appliances. While these are definitely remote, they are not considered mobile.

Wireless refers to the transmission of voice and data over radio waves. It allows workers to communicate with enterprise data without requiring a physical connection to the network. Wireless devices include anything that uses a wireless network to either send or receive data. The wireless network itself can be accessed from mobile workers, as well as in fixed locations. depicts the relationship between mobile and wireless. As you can see, in most cases, wireless is a subset of mobile; but in many cases, an application can be mobile without being wireless.

Figure 1.1: Relationship between mobile and wireless.

For an application to be considered mobile or wireless, it must be tailored to the characteristics of the device that it runs on. Limited resources, low network bandwidth, and intermittent connectivity all factor into the proper design of these applications.

Wireless applications that are not mobile use fixed wireless networks. These are wireless networks that provide network access in a fixed environment. An example is a wireless local area network (WLAN) that is used to give desktops network access. Many businesses as well as home users are installing WLAN technology to avoid having to install network cables throughout their buildings. Another example is network access via satellites in remote locations where there are no other connectivity options.

On the other side, we have mobile applications that are not wireless. There are many examples where this is the case. Any application that can be used on the move and that does not have wireless connectivity fits into this category. This includes many laptop and personal digital assistant (PDA) applications. Until only a few years ago, it was actually rare to have wireless data access for mobile devices. For these mobile applications, data is often synchronized using a fixed connection and stored on the device for use at a later time. It is worthwhile to note that even though these applications do not require wireless connectivity, they can often benefit from it when it is available. A sizeable portion of this book is dedicated to looking at these types of applications, which are referred to as smart client applications.

Now that we have defined mobile and wireless, it is time to look at some of the areas in which mobile applications are being deployed. Similar to the terms mobile and wireless, there is often confusion around the terms m-commerce and m-business.

m-Commerce

Mobile commerce, or m-commerce, refers to the purchase of products or services from a mobile terminal. Most of the early hype surrounding wireless technology was related to m-commerce. Companies envisioned consumers everywhere using mobile devices to purchase products. With the success of e-commerce for many types of purchases, it just made sense that m-commerce would be at least as successful. At the time, new wireless Internet technology was just coming to market, bringing with it enormous expectations. How could m-commerce not succeed? It is essentially the same as e-commerce without the constraints of a wired connection.

To meet these wild expectations, wireless operators paid billions of dollars for wireless spectrum licenses so they could upgrade their networks to meet the upcoming demand. For example, in Britain, the auctions for wireless spectrum raised $35 billion (U.S.). This equates to several hundred dollars from each person in the country. Other countries followed suit, selling their wireless spectrum for billions of dollars as well. But there is one problem: The wireless operators cannot cover these costs based on current revenue, and voice and wireless Internet access do not even come close to compensating for the expenditures. The idea was that m-commerce would help grow revenue for wireless carriers as well as the service providers. Unfortunately, as of early 2003, this has not yet come to fruition, and many operators are in serious financial trouble. The idea of making purchases from a constrained device is not that attractive when there are so many other avenues available to make the same transaction. Making the purchase at a physical store location, or even on a desktop Web browser is much more productive and enjoyable than using a wireless device, especially when the device is a mobile phone.

m-Commerce is best suited where the consumer has a sense of urgency, when they are required to have their goods or services immediately for upcoming functions and events. For product purchases, the sense of urgency is overcome by the fact that the consumer will still have to wait for the product to be delivered. In the near future, this limits m-commerce to products and services that can be obtained instantly, such as movie tickets or information services. We are still far from the time when consumers will be using their mobile devices to purchase appliances or to apply for a mortgage. Thankfully, there are some m-commerce offerings that show potential. The following solutions should help to drive the m-commerce market in the coming years:

• Digital purchases. The most suitable purchase for a mobile user is for a product that can be downloaded and used immediately. The two biggest markets for digital applications are ringtones and games. Many carriers allow users to download new ringtones for their devices for a nominal fee. This provides users with a way to personalize their device. Another surefire success is mobile and wireless games. The advances made in mobile devices make them great vehicles for game playing.

• Mobile banking. There are two benefits to mobile banking that a wireless device can provide. The first is providing access to personal bank accounts to view account history and execute transactions. This is an extension to Internet banking that has been very successful. The second is using a mobile device for payments, essentially acting as digital cash. A great deal of interest has been expressed about this area, so expect it to become a reality in the near future.

• Information services. Although mobility has many advantages, mobile users often feel out of touch with their daily routines. Information services help address this by providing information that the user is accustomed to having, such as stock quotes, weather information, and sport scores. With the mobile messaging technology growing in popularity, many forms of information can actually be pushed to the user in the form of an alert or notification.

• Location-based services. The ability for merchants to capture and react to a user's current location and requirements can be a powerful tool for selling services. Location-based services allow consumers to find the precise information they need at the exact time they want to use it. This will be an important enabler for m-commerce solutions, although privacy concerns will have to be addressed before location services are widely utilized.

• Mobile shopping. Most forms of shopping are not going to be popular from mobile devices anytime soon. It is impractical to surf for items using constrained devices, making other methods of shopping much more productive and enjoyable. At the same time, there are some forms of purchases that lend themselves well to m-commerce. For example, having the ability to purchase movie tickets for a show playing the same evening can quite valuable. Mobile devices can also be used for comparison-shopping. Before making a purchase, a shopper in a retail store may want to first see what the current price of a product is from an Internet vendor to ensure they are getting a good price.

• Mobile advertising. As mobile users start to take advantage of m-commerce solutions, mobile advertising is sure to follow. The mobile operator has access to several types of information that is attractive to advertisers, such as where users are located and what they use their mobile phone for. With this type of information, advertisers can send out personalized messages. The biggest obstacle to mobile advertising is customer backlash. If users start to get unsolicited messages and advertisements on their devices, they are likely to switch service providers, or worse, stop using their device. For this reason, in the near future, we will most likely only see requested advertisements, such as the nearest gas station or restaurant.

The lack of m-commerce acceptance can be blamed on both technical and business issues. On the technical side, the devices and networks do not have compelling features for consumers to use them for purchases. The interface on most phones is inadequate for any real data entry, and the wireless networks only recently have the capacity for the content that is associated with making a purchase. Grayscale images do not do a great job of selling a product. There are also security concerns that need to be addressed. Consumers are not convinced that e-commerce is secure, so confidence in m-commerce security still has a long way to go. On the business side, there are two major issues. The first is the lack of compelling applications. There are no killer m-commerce applications that are driving adoption. The second revolves around billing. The wireless industry has to address billing and pricing policies between the consumer and the company providing the service. Most consumers are not looking to establish billing relationships with every service provider they do business with. All of the billing has to be managed through a central source (most likely the wireless carrier) for adoption of new services to increase.

m-Commerce will eventually succeed. It is just taking longer than most people expected. Devices are steadily improving in both performance and usability, and wireless networks now offer communication speeds surpassing traditional desktop modems. At the same time, wireless operators continue to offer new products and services that are suitable for mobile users. Finally, as mobile devices start to be used as digital wallets, a new form of m-commerce will emerge. Devices have the potential to replace credit cards as the primary means of making purchases. So rather than using the wireless Internet to purchase a product that will be delivered at some point in the future, it can be used to pay for a product at a physical store location, just as you would currently use cash or debit cards.

m-Business

m-Business relates to e-business as m-commerce relates to e-commerce. Typically, m-business solutions are used by corporations to provide secure mobile access to enterprise data from any location. They allow employees to be more effective at their jobs. By having critical data at their fingertips, employees can respond more quickly to inquiries, remove inefficiencies brought about by manual data entry and retrieval, and make decisions based on current information. Most of the current demand for mobile and wireless technology surrounds the m-business market.

While consumers continue to purchase inexpensive mobile phones, business users are adopting high-end PDAs and laptops to conduct business. They require devices that have adequate power and functionality for advanced business applications. When wireless data access is required, business users are not deterred by the associated costs because they obtain justifiable benefits from implementing m-business applications. Corporations are able to readily see the benefits in terms of return on investment and employee productivity. In contrast to the hype around m-commerce, there is true growth and opportunity for revenue around m-business.

m-Business solutions are being deployed in several industries, using a wide variety of mobile and wireless technology ranging from public wireless networks to local area wireless networks. Devices range from mobile phones to PDAs to ruggedized tablets. The users of these applications include mobile business users, sales agents, and field service workers. Some of the leading m-business solutions being deployed today include:

• Mobile office. Mobile office solutions integrate with enterprise groupware systems, such as Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes, to provide timely access to enterprise information such as email, calendars, task lists, and address books. Access to these applications has become a core requirement for many mobile professionals. (This is not to be confused with Microsoft Office productivity tools such as Word and Excel.)

• Field sales. Current information is one of the most important assets for a sales force to have. The difference between making a sale or not often depends on having immediate access to information while you are still meeting with the customer. The best way to ensure the sales staff has this information is to deploy a mobile Sales Force Automation (SFA) application.

• Field service. The nature of field service makes it an ideal candidate for mobile solutions. Service workers can improve their efficiency by having job-related information on hand, such as customer service history, inventory information, technical specifications, and data on repair procedures. In addition, information on customer issues and schedule changes can be sent to technicians while they are traveling.

• Transportation and logistics. Providing delivery drivers with a mobile solution allows transportation and logistics businesses to have up-to-the minute information on deliveries, completed checkpoints, package statuses, and vehicle locations. In addition, delivery drivers can receive wireless dispatches and respond instantly, improving productivity and increasing customer satisfaction.

The applications just listed are only a sample of the numerous m-business solutions being developed and deployed today. There are literally hundreds of other mobile line-of-business solutions being used to help corporations become more successful. Mobile business applications are now starting to move beyond the early adopter stage to become a core component of a successful enterprise solution.