Mobile Commerce: Jockeying to Create Value?

What Is Mobile Commerce?
 
Mobile commerce (mCommerce), also referred to as Mobile Money, is an umbrella term for a broad set of technologies and functionalities that are enabled through the mobile phone and have the potential to revolutionize digital commerce and banking, retailing, and personal finance. The applications are wide ranging and run the gamut from low to high value, but fundamentally most focus on the mobile device as the centerpiece for four categories of activity:
 

• Mobile wallet and personal identity
  • e.g. transit pass, key replacement, retail payment
• Personal finance integration
  • e.g. budgeting, warranty refund/rebate, mobile bill payment
• Peer-to-peer transactions
  • e.g. money transfer, remittance, coupon sharing
• Retail improvements
  • e.g. mobile coupon, loyalty program, immediate customer profile

 
These categories underscore the potential for tremendous value creation in a mCommerce marketplace, but they also illuminate the challenges. From a business perspective, there are strategic questions about partnerships, how to capture new value and allocate rewards, and roles within the value chain. From a technology perspective, the ability to perform even a subset of the functions listed above via a mobile device requires varying combinations of a diverse set of technologies and enablers.
 
At the same time, this range of applications puts mCommerce in direct competition with a number of existing and convenient alternatives, including cash, credit/debit cards, physical coupons and banking services, to name just a few. It is not yet clear that mCommerce applications will be compelling enough to cause a critical mass of consumers and merchants to give up these alternatives, at least in developed economies.

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