unit5-TextB-Mobile Commerce

Text B原文：

Mobile Commerce

1 Mobile commerce, also known as M-commerce or m-commerce, is the ability to conduct commerce using a mobile device, such as a mobile phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)， a smartphone, or other emerging mobile equipment such as dashtop mobile devices. Mobile commerce has been defined as follows:

2 “Mobile commerce is any transaction ,involving the transfer of ownerships or rights to use good and services, which is initiated and/or completed by using mobile access to computer-mediated networks with the help of an electronic device.

3

According to comScore, up to Novermber 2011 there

were 38 percent of smartphone owners having used their phones to make a purchase at least once.

4 In order to exploit the potential mobile commerce

market, mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, and Qualcomm are working with carriers such as AT&T Wireless and Sprint to develop WAP-enabled smartphones. Smartphones offer fax,

e-mail, and phone capabilities.

5 Since the launch of the iPhone, mobile commerce has

moved away from SMS systems and into actual applications. SMS has significant security vulnerabilities and congestion problems, even though it is widely available and accessible. In addition, improvements in the capabilities of modern mobile devices make it prudent to place more of the resource burden on the mobile device.

6 More recently, brick and mortar business owners, and

big-box retailers in particular, have made an effort to take advantage of mobile commerce by utilizing a number of mobile capabilities such as location-based services, barcode scanning, and push notifications to improve the customer experience of shopping in physical stores. By creating what is referred to as a 'bricks & clicks' environment, physical retailers can allow customers to access the common benefits of shopping online (such as product reviews, information, and coupons) while still shopping in the physical store. This is seen as a bridge between the gap created by e-commerce and in-store shopping, and is being utilized by physical retailers as a way to compete with the lower prices typically seen through online retailers.

Products and services available ? Mobile Banking

7 Banks and other financial institutions use mobile

commerce to allow their customers to access account information and make transactions, such as purchasing stocks, remitting money. This service is often referred to as mobile banking, or m-banking.

? Mobile ticketing

8 Tickets can be sent to mobile phones using a variety of

technologies. Users are then able to use their tickets immediately, by presenting their phones at the venue.

9 Tickets can be booked and cancelled on the mobile device with the help of simple application downloads, or by accessing the WAP portals of various travel agents or direct service providers.

? Mobile vouchers, coupons and loyalty cards

10 Mobile ticketing technology can also be used for the

distribution of vouchers, coupons, and loyalty cards. These items are represented by a virtual token that is sent to the mobile phone. A customer presenting a mobile phone with one of these tokens at the point of sale receives the same benefits as if they had the traditional token. Stores may send coupons to customers using location-based

services to determine when the customer is nearby.

? Content purchase and delivery

11 Currently, mobile content purchase and delivery mainly

consist of the sale of ring-tones, wallpapers, and games for mobile phones. The convergence of mobile phones, portable audio players, and video players into a single device is increasing the purchase and delivery of full-length music tracks and video. The download speeds available with 4G networks make it possible to buy a movie on a mobile device in a couple of seconds.

? Location-based services

12 The location of the mobile phone user is an important

piece of information used during mobile commerce or m-commerce transactions. Knowing the location of the user allows for location-based services such as:

? Local discount offers ? Local weather

? Tracking and monitoring of people

? Information services

13 A wide variety of information services can be

delivered to mobile phone users in much the same way as it is delivered