Latest Trends in Mobile Business

Since the 1990s, a surge in the popularity and usage of e-commerce has led to the recent emergence of conducting business transactions using handheld mobile devices connected by wireless networks (Andrew, Valacich, & Jessup, 2003). Known as mobile commerce, m-commerce allows for anytime and anywhere commercial transactions. M-commerce is an upcoming technology whereby commercial transactions are made through handheld devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDA), which are connected by wireless networks. The ability to conduct business anytime and anywhere through mobile commerce will remove the space and time constraints on an individual for conducting business. Different kinds of services have since emerged for conducting m-commerce, such as location-based services (LBS) (e.g., mobile advertising), pervasive computing, and mobile gaming. These services allow for conducting not only commerce but also business activities using mobile devices. Mobile business (mbusiness) allows for mainly two kinds of services, namely, push-based and pull-based. Push-based services are initiated by the vendor while pull-based services are initiated by the customer. We will discuss these services in m-business together with their advantages and disadvantages.