Mobile Computing

Introduction

Whilst Scandinavia is leading the world in the penetration of mobile phones the UK is rapidly catching up since the introduction of pre-paid mobiles which currently account for 80% of new sales. Within the UK there are 4 major network operators: BT Cellnet, One2One, Orange and Vodaphone and the number of subscribers has now reached 24m (December 1999). As a whole, it is believed that Europe is ahead of the USA thanks to the standardisation on GSM digital mobiles. Nether-the-less, in this highly capital intensive business size is everything, and global players are beginning to form. Deutsche Telekom purchased One2One, Vodafone purchased the US AirTouch for £38bn, and Mannesmann bought Orange for £20bn. Now Vodafone AirTouch is in a hostile £80bn takeover of Mannesmann which would necessitate the spin-off of Orange.

Impressive though these figures are, we are just at the start of the mobile revolution as use shifts from voice calls to data calls and soon data and voice will be mixed in the same transaction. Analysts predict that between 2002 and 2005 consumers and business will purchase 600m internet enabled mobile phones. Durlacher has predicted that the European m-commerce market (that's mobile e-commerce including value added services) will be worth Ecu 2bn (£14.5bn) by 2003 from just Ecu 323m (£200m) now. Already there is a shift to acquiring new customers for potential m-commerce revenue rather than current voice revenue. This could bring voice call down to less than BT's fixed line charges unless BT also gives us (near) free calls in return for purchasing other services like video-on-demand.

Besides the mobile phone, many other devices are being enabled for communications. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) have become very popular consumer items with many users using them to support their work and most recently the worlds first internet enabled washing machine has been put on sale. All these devices will pave the way for applications that provide added value to the utility of plain voice calls. Short Message Text services are already common place. With the recent launch of WAP enabled mobile phones it is now only a matter of days before web based applications are made available to the mobile community. For the future, UMTS phones are being prototyped which will provide high speed data transmission opening the way to more demanding applications including video.

Financial service providers will need to embrace and adapt to the mobile mediums. It will change the way they communicate to their prospects and customers, how they respond to purchase requests, and how they service enquires and claims. In essence, it will be a far more interactive and dynamic world, where the concept of any time, any way, and any how comes to fruition.

Mobiles Usurp Umbrellas

The British habit of leaving their umbrella on the bus and train has now been over taken by leaving their mobile phone.

At current rates, London Transport estimates that in 1999 over 13,000 mobiles will be handed in. That compares to just 11,000 umbrellas. Over 4,000 of this year's phones have yet to be claimed and most of these never will, their owners instead claiming on their insurance.

At least mobiles are small and easy to store. Other items left behind on LT include a live horse, a coffin (was it empty?), a skeleton, two urns of ashes, and a box of 4 dead snakes. Are any of these yours?

Financial Times, 27 September 1999

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External Resources

Taylor, Paul, 1999, Mobilising for m-commerce, Financial Times, 13 December 1999.
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