Mobile commerce: what it is and what it could be

claimed that m-commerce had arrived, and would shortly provide unprecedented commercial functionality to the masses [2, 5]. Cell phone users were expected to be routinely accessing data online [5], and speedy third-generation cellular standards would soon solve associated bandwidth difficulties [2]. It hasn’t quite worked out that way—it sometimes takes the passage of a few years to see how rationality and market economics can skewer technological predictions [4]. Now, with hindsight, we can review what we once thought m-commerce might be, and consider its present and future. M-commerce is not always, strictly speaking, classical e-commerce. The idea of e-commerce is widely understood and there is also a certain agreement on what m-commerce is at a basic level, since the “m” in the name is self-evident. Both modalities are computer-assisted and network-enabled, so what are the differences? While each of the two shares aspects of the other, each also possesses unique characteristics that tend to define its state and functionality.