What is m-commerce?

M-commerce (mobile commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services
through wireless technology-i.e., handheld devices such as cellular telephones and
personal digital assistants (PDAs). Japan is seen as a global leader in m-commerce.
As content delivery over wireless devices becomes faster, more secure, and scalable,
some believe that m-commerce will surpass wireline e-commerce as the
method of choice for digital commerce transactions. This may well be true for the
Asia-Pacific where there are more mobile phone users than there are Internet users.
Industries affected by m-commerce include:
● Financial services, including mobile banking (when customers use their
handheld devices to access their accounts and pay their bills), as well as brokerage
services (in which stock quotes can be displayed and trading conducted
from the same handheld device);
● Telecommunications, in which service changes, bill payment and account
reviews can all be conducted from the same handheld device;
● Service/retail, as consumers are given the ability to place and pay for orders
on-the-fly; and
● Information services, which include the delivery of entertainment, financial
news, sports figures and traffic updates to a single mobile device.17
Forrester Research predicts US$3.4 billion sales closed using PDA and cell phones
by 2005