Part IX: Mobile Business

Part IX: Mobile Business

Learning Targets What is mobile business? What devices and device properties exist? How can we communicate with mobile equipment? Which are interesting mobile applications? 2

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Different Definitions... Mobile Business could be described as the utilization of mobile technologies to maintain, improve or extend existing business processes and relationships or to develop new business segments Kalakota; Ravi / Robinson, Marcia (2002): M-Business: The Race to Mobility, McGraw-Hill, New York 2002 Mobile Business includes all activities, processes and applications which are realized or supported by mobile technologies. Teichmann, Rene / Lehner, Franz (2002): Mobile Commerce - Strategien, Geschäftsmodell, Fallstudien, Springer, Berlin et al. 2002, pp. 3-28 4

What is mobile Business? Information is available anytime and anywhere. Networks can be generated on the fly (ad-hoc networks). No long planning is necessary. Applications can use information about the location of the person (show the nearest filling station). Mobile Business is done using mobile devices. 5

Mobile Devices 6

Property: Performance Today: - Mobile devices (class B) today have not the performance of a class C device (10 100 times slower) Future: - The performance will be improved significantly in the future 7

Property: Power Supply One of the most critical requirements in mobile business today Today: - Mobile devices can be connected to stationary power outlets. This can be done in hotels, conference rooms,... - Mobile devices can be used with a rechargeable battery. There is a problem however: Correlation between features and power consumption. Rechargeable batteries are not sufficient today. Future: - One of most problematic issues. It is most probably that this problem will remain. 8

Today: Property: Display - Mobile devices have a small display. Problem: A correlation between display size and device size. Future: - Near-eye displays Micro-displays with special optics for near-eye display (NED) operation. - Projection displays A small near-wall projector can be used to project the display on a nearby wall. This solution uses the same technology than current projectors. - Most problematic: brightness and power consumption - Flexible displays Flexible display technology has evolved very much in the last two years. An interesting development are paper-like displays which can be used to enable: Foldable displays: Display can be folded for transport. Users can unfold and use it. Rollable displays: A pen-like device rolled up around the device when not needed. The user can pull it out like old paper scroll. 9

Property: Data Input Today: - Data input on mobile devices is done with a small keyboard or a touchscreen. Both solutions are not very convenient. Future: - Speech Recognition The user enters data by talking to his device. A special software recognizes the speech and translates it into text. Problem: Research is quite old but the results are not that good right now. - Virtual Keyboard A virtual keyboard is projected on a table. The movement of the hands and fingers are recognized. - Hand Touch Typing A glove based system where electrical contacts are placed on a single glove worn by its user. Typing is done by touching two fingers together. 10

Property: Bandwidth Today: - Even compared to analog modem connections on a stationary PC, todays mobile device bandwidth is much slower. - Additionally, a mobile device is usually not permanently connected. Future: - With the start of UMTS and other new mobile network systems the bandwidth will evolve. 11

Mobile Devices Trends Mobile devices are becoming - Smaller - Faster Mobile devices offer more and more Services In the future, we will have one mobile device (of class B) that is small, fast and offers all kinds of services. 12

Mobile Communication: GSM GSM is a digital standard for mobile phones. GSM was developed by the Group Special Mobile formed under CEPT (European Conference of Posts and Telecommunications). It is used by more than 100 countries all over the world. Concurrent system: DCS, used in the U.S. and Japan. GSM works on the 900 MHZ frequency, although some GSM networks operate on 1800 MHZ or 1900 MHZ. In 1982, the Group Special Mobile started to develop the GSM standard. In 1987, 12 countries subscribed a Memorandum to build a GSM net in the next years. GSM was a success: In 1997, 200 different GSM networks existed in 107 countries. 13

Mobile Communication: GSM Network Architecture Consists of a number of senders, called base (transceiver) stations. The distance between a base station and the mobile phone should be minimized. Today, most networks place their base stations no more than 35 km away. The area of a base station is called cell. Two cells usually have an area where they overlap. This can lead to interferences. Usually, this problem is solved by giving neighbored stations different frequencies. 14

Mobile Communication: Bluetooth A universal standard to connect mobile devices Initiated by Ericsson in 1994 Based on radio communication First standard was defined in July 1999 by Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) Members of SIG: Ericsson, Toshiba, IBM, Intel, Nokia, Microsoft, Motorola,... First Bluetooth enabled devices were available in 2000 Data rate of up to 1 MBit/s Connection distance between 10 and 100 meters Transmitting power 1-100 mw (GSM up to 2 W). Bluetooth microchip prices fell from $25 in 2000 to less than $5 now 15

Bluetooth Network Up to 8 devices can be connected to form a so called piconet. A Bluetooth piconet has always one master (and then up to 7 clients). Communication is only possible between master and slave (not between two slaves). Pico-nets can overlap (a slave in one pico network is a master in another). This is called Scatternet. 16

17 Bluetooth Profiles

ARAL Filling Station Finder Interesting Mobile Business Applications - Find the nearest ARAL filling station using your WAP enabled mobile device - Input a location or a zip code Dial a coke - Dial-a-Coke is a service offered by Coca-Cola and Marconi - It is mainly available in Australia. - Marconi has built 65000 machines (Jan. 2003), 45000 in Australia, 20000 in the U.S. Adapt Internet Web Sites to mobile devices 18