Elaborating the 3G Services

I get the feeling sometimes that 3G is more of a global buzzword amongst people around with only a shallow understanding of the services it enables. Sure, everyone is aware of the High Speed Data Access on mobile devices, but what does it do beyond that? Here are a few thoughts on services and features that 3G enables/would enable in times to come:

1. Large “Enterprise” Apps: The SAP and Oracle ERP systems run on broadband and even then are notoriously heavy on system resources and usage. 3G with its enhanced data bandwidth and higher speeds of data would be a huge enabler in terms of running these large “enterprise” applications on the mobile “on the go”. Enterprise adoption for running business and systems would thus be the biggest contributor for 3G revenues.
2. Video Streaming: This will be the most “visible” benefit of the high data speeds in 3G across a diverse set of usages
a. Video Conferencing: We have seen this (remember the Deepika Padukone BSNL ad)
b. Video Streaming/Mobile TV: TV content on the move through air on the mobile
c. Social Networking: While access to Facebook and other SNS sites is possible on 2G, video sharing is yet to catch on. Videos On Facebook and YouTube consumption will see a big fillip thanks to the data speeds of 3G
d. Mobile Surveillance: An application which has both enterprise and domestic use, video feeds of users house or work place will be enabled by 3G

3. Live Gaming: Rich media transferred through over the Internet providing a console like Gaming experience would be another domain that would benefit from high data speeds

4. Cloud Streaming: Music, Video Clippings, or Streaming Games are possibly the first phase of Cloud based services. Going beyond, the focus would shift to the Cloud wholly. The kind of stuff being spoken of here is Part OS in the cloud, Remote Software, Remote Applications. The user device would simply have to log into the cloud and choose the end service and the enablers will dynamically support the end service. Thus a lot of storage on the device (such as mobile phones), will shift to the cloud which will come into service only when required by the user. The high data speeds will support the dynamic transfer of data and services through the air.

5. Location Based Services: While most Location Based services will normally be supported on 2G networks, there may be high end applications such as LAYAR which will require speedy and dynamic link up with the central servers to feed location data to the consumers

6. m-Commerce, m-Health, m-Payments and m-Banking: All and most of these are supported by 2G services, but enhanced data and security layers for payments, banking and commerce could be facilitated by 3G. Similarly Remote Health monitoring (in absence of broadband connectivity) can be another major service enabled by 3G (remember the Deepika Padukone BSNL ad again)

MasterCard gives m-commerce a fillip

Mastercard is introducing a Mobile Payments Gateway that delivers end-to-end mobile payment solutions. This is a milestone feat for m-Commerce. It will be much easier to send and receive money through the mobile device than it’s occurs currently and it will boost initiatives due to technologies like these. Anyone within the payment cycle can build quick and cost-effective customized mobile solutions which all will serve to offer a convenient and secure -mobile- payment process.

Mobile Payments/M-Commerce are heralded as the next growth frontier for Mobiles. M-PESA in Kenya has set examples enabling people to have their first banking accounts on their handheld phones. Juniper estimates the opportunity at $860 billion generated made by close to 450 million consumers with 285 billion transactions by 2013. Money Transfer is expected to generate more than $200 billion in 2013. The ticketing segment will be driven by consumer usage on rail, air and bus networks as well as sports and entertainment events This will represent over 40% of the global transaction value by 2013. In 2008, only 67 million mobile phone users accessed mBanking services, whereas in 2013 the figure could reach one billion.

Last year, <a href="“>VISA had demonstrated a NFC led mobile point of sale payment in a pilot at Malaysia spearheaded by Maxis, Nokia, Maybank under the aegis of VISA.

“The Mobile Payments Gateway will help to make mobile payments a way of life for mobile phone users around the world,” said Joshua Peirez, group executive of Innovative Platforms for MasterCard Worldwide. “Through our global, integrated payment network we are efficiently connecting financial institutions, merchants and consumers together to mobilize MasterCard payment solutions in a way that truly reflects today’s on-the-go lifestyles.”

Vivo, the largest mobile operator in Brazil along with Itaú Unibanco and Redecard will be the first ones to partner up with the gateway. Mastercard will introduce its Mobile payments solutions in select markets around the world. Adoption, usage and diffusion are important for a further development of Mobile Commerce and Marketing.

A quick Stat showing the obvious acceptance of Mobile payments as a technology to be higher within the younger agen individuals in US. The obvious inference is to catch the customers young. The Mobile payments technology has to be pivoted around the young adults. It would be interesting to see the acceptability of M-payments across the SEC categorizations.

M-Commerce & E-Commerce: Trends and Developments

Trends and developments taking place in the worldwide m-commerce and c-commerce sectors (www.researchandmarkets.com)

- By 2012 it is expected that more than 1 trillion will be spent online by B2C consumers. B2B spending will exceed this considerably.

- E-payment solutions are an important part of e-commerce transactions; however security issues continue to tarnish the industry.

- Asia Pacific leads the world in terms of using mobile phones for m-payments, accounting for around 85% of customers worldwide.

- BuddeComm estimates revenue from mobile content and services (excluding SMS), accounts for around 7-10% of total mobile revenues worldwide. SMS remains popular and accounts for a further 10% of total mobile data revenues..

- Online advertising growth is set to continue for the next few years, but will slow slightly in the wake of the US financial crisis. It is expected that online advertising will eventually account for around 20% of all advertising spend in some markets.

- Search services are central to almost everything that users do online, and this places leading search companies such as Google and Yahoo at an advantage. In the emerging Chinese market, Baidu and Alibaba also have a good foothold.

- Google is still the most popular website property worldwide; however individual countries and regions show unique differences with many local sites remaining popular. Other web properties proving popular across multiple markets include Yahoo, Microsoft and Wikipedia sites, Apple Inc, eBay and Amazon.