Podcast Transcript
Mobile Commerce:
Episode 1: Where Are We Now?
Gabriel Brown, chief analyst, Unstrung
Insider — London: The marriage of
mobility and the Internet promises
to redefine the way people view
onnectivity and communicate with one
another forever.
As mobile devices become intelligent
minicomputers, consumers will have the
power of the Internet available at their
fingertips anywhere, anytime, dramati-
cally reshaping the way they manage
their everyday lives. Nowhere more
clearly is this playing out than in mobile
commerce, giving our highly mobilized
society the ability to pay bills and pur-
chase goods and services on the go.
Juniper Research expects the value of
mobile commerce applications and
infrastructure to rise substantially, from
just $78 million in 2007 to $11.5 billion
in 2011. Moreover, the research firm pre-
dicts that in four years about 52 million
people will use mobiles as contactless
payment devices.
Christopher Billich, Head of Develop-
ment for Infinita — Tokyo: Well, first
off, I think there’s a differentiation to be
made, because if we say “mobile com-
merce,” it’s actually kind of two things
lumped into one. One is mobile com-
merce as in shopping via your mobile
phone’s browser; basically things like
using amazon.com on your phone; you
know, Japanese versions of amazon.
com, things like that. That’s the kind of
mobile commerce side of things. And
then there’s the mobile payment side of
things, which means the phone is the
actual payment device, whether that’s
swiping it at a contactless reader at the
store or whether that’s kind of touching it
against your PC that has a reader to pay
something you purchased via your PC.
Gabriel Brown: Back in 2001, the hype
surrounding mobile commerce reached
a fever pitch. Visions of customers using
their phones for transactions ranging
from buying flowers to paying their bills
circulated widely. Only Japan’s dominant
Mobile
Commerce
Driving Change in Mobile Backhaul
operator, NTT DoCoMo, took the lead to late to end users better than anyone else
push services such as public transporta- is paramount.
tion payments via the mobile phone.
John Gauntt, senior analyst, eMarketer:
Fast forward to today, where the market On a typical day, Shinjuku Station in cen-
is seeing a surge of activity as operators, tral Tokyo has two million people passing
startups, retailers and financial institu- through it. JR East, which is running the
tions rise up to help consumers spend station, is finding that well over 20% of
with their mobile devices. the tickets that are being sold there are
being sold through electronic means, as
Helena Wong, student — New York: I
opposed to going through a physical cash
started using my mobile phone to pay all
station and pulling out a ticket and then
bills when I had my iPhone.
using it.
Richard Robinson, graduate student/
Brian Richardson, CEO — WIZZIT:
consultant — New York: An iPhone is
About 30 million people do have a cell
just one step in the kind of merging the
phone; about 11 million people have got
Internet and the mobile society together,
a bank account. So the option is to utilize
in getting kind of the conveniences you
technology. The challenge we had was
have on the Internet.
to have technology that worked on the
Marco Koeder, executive director at lowest common denominator. They could
Cyber Media K.K. — Tokyo: So Amazon work on any phone, any SIM card and
introduced a really cool service. What across all of the networks.
it could do with your mobile phone—
Four Wizzit customers:
there’s a small application you can down-
load to your mobile phone, and every “My customers pay me through Wizzit.”
mobile phone has a camera built in. So
“I use Wizzit it send money home.”
what this application does, it scans the
barcode on the back of the book and then “I use Wizzit to buy electricity.”
automatically adds it to your Amazon
“I use Wizzit to pay household bills.”
wish list on Amazon mobile.
Gabriel Brown: In South Africa, Wiz-
Gabriel Brown: The next generation of
zit operates as a virtual bank, enabling
wireless technology is enabling a truly
payment and money transfer, while in
mobile Internet experience. Networks
the U.S., Sprint enables its customers to
around the world have largely migrated
search more than seven million different
to third-generation technology to en-
products from 30 online retailers and
able a more computerlike experience on
make payment via mobile device.
handheld devices. And mobile phones
themselves are becoming smarter, more Over the next several months, 12 mobile
sophisticated, with better processing operators will run trials of contactless
power and inbuilt multimedia features. mobile payment services in Australia,
France, Ireland, Korea, Malaysia, Nor-
Operators need to plan now for the even-
way, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan,
tual onslaught of network transaction
Turkey and the U.S. as a precursor to
volume and end user demand for timely,
commercial launches. The trials form
accurate and secure transactions. That
part of the GSM Association’s pay-
translates into an ever-increasing strain
by-mobile initiative, which is designed
on network backhaul and creates an
to provide a single global approach to
urgency to add more intelligent IP-based
enabling contactless payments using a
elements to the network. Partnering with
mobile phone. Consumers will be able to
companies that understand the mobile
use their handsets to quickly, easily and
network, know the applications and re-
 Mobile
Commerce
Driving Change in Mobile Backhaul

securely pay for goods and services in Justin Oberman, graduate of the New Professor Adam Greenfield, New York
shops, restaurants and train stations. School, founder of Mopocket.com — University — New York: What I need is a
New York: But I was also part of the robust, reliable infrastructure for every-
Joshua Klein, mobile technologist —
New York City mobile trial with Citibank, day life.
New York: I check my bank balances,
Cingular, which is now AT&T, and Nokia,
make PayPal transactions, buy things Gabriel Brown: Beyond the handset,
and every moment of that was just an
on e-commerce sites, all the normal networks must support not only the
amazing experience. I didn’t want to give
things that I do online, except that I can speed and reliability necessary to retain
up my phone, and there’s just no experi-
do them when I’m on the train or on customers, but compel them to embrace
ence like that in the world. It was just
the subway or on the bus or whatever. mobile commerce as a unique value-
fabulous.
M-commerce is definitely improving my added service only mobile operators
life right now. It’s damn convenient to be Gabriel Brown: So how do we get there? can provide.
able to do all my banking on the phone,
As mobile commerce unfolds, opera- In Part 2 of this series, we’ll continue
to check accounts, buy things; all the
tors must ensure their customers aren’t to uncover some of the tangible and
kinds of things that I would like to, you
turned off by lack of network quality and intangible benefits of mobile commerce,
know, that I missed before we were able
reliability. Money may make the world go and we’ll study some of the technical
to do this online in the first place.
’round, but for mobile operators, it’s not challenges mobile operators face as they
Marco Koeder: I use it to check into train going anywhere unless customers view seek to make the mobile wallet as
stations. I also use it when I go to the their mobile devices as integral to their comfortable as speaking on the phone.
convenience stores at the train stations. purchasing decisions.
Sometimes I buy something to drink or a
Helen Keegan, founder of Beep Market-
small snack, and it’s really unconvenient:
ing — London: Speed is a concern, be-
you pull out your wallet and get all the
cause we’re used to fast stuff, we’re used
small coins. So my money is right now on
to broadband, and the services on mobile
my mobile phone.
are advertised as broadband on your
Ben Godfrey, CTO, MyMart — London: mobile. But the reality is that it’s not.
One of the really interesting things you It’s more equivalent to dialup on your
find in Japan is the integration between mobile, and that’s a problem in terms of
mobile phones and contactless payment marketing and expectations, managing
systems, kind of like Oyster or the new customer expectations.
Visa payWave system. People pay for
Phillip Maurer, technical architect,
just about everything of a low value with
Metro International — London: Should
their mobile phones simply by swiping
a transaction fail with my mobile device,
it across the center in either a shop or a
I will try it a second time, but that would
kiosk in a shabria. And that’s a really in-
be the upper limit. If it fails the second
teresting application. I’d like to see more
time, that would be the last time that I’ll
of that happening here.
try that particular service.

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