The future is mobile e-commerce

by a staff reporter

The mobile communications industry will top 800 billion dollars in the next few years. This was stated by Malcolm H. Ross, moderator of the iAnytimeAnywhere e-mobile 2004 summit held last weekend in Gozo, and a world renowned authority in the global telecommunications sector.
Making an analogy between Mr Benz’s invention of the horseless carriage and the new wireless technology, Mr Ross explained that the 1886 invention brought much more than a reduction in horse manure on the streets. It brought mobility, which in turn created suburbs, paved roads, oil and chemical industries, vacations, hotels and motels, and has gone on to become indisputedly the world’s largest industry. The wireless e-mobile industry has the same potential to bring radical changes to the way people live.
The e-mobile 2004 Summit brought together a gathering of the world’s most respected business and technical people from the telecommunications and Internet fields, who met specifically to discuss the outlook for this emerging trillion dollar hybrid market.
The wireless industry presents an area of huge opportunity that is so far untapped. However most present day mobile operators are in no position to take advantage of it. While they are prepared to pay thousands of dollars to buy customers, as for example, when Vodaphone recently paid $7,800 per customer to buy out Mannesmann, they continue to lose 50 per cent of their customers every 18 months.
A few players, like Vodaphone, Virgin Mobile, Sony, Panasonic, Deutsche Bank and Citibank have proven they have vision and understand the transformation process necessary, however most operators are still too focused on technology to be able to identify user value instinct.
This leaves a wide and profitable window wide open for service providers outside the telecom industry. A similar situation exists within the travel industry, where, for example, BA sells 10 per cent of its own seat capacity, while American Express sells 12 per cent of BA’s seats. This means that not only does Amex know more about BA’s customers, but they also sell seats for other airlines, know about hotels and other spending habits of the customer.
There will be a similar fragmentation of the e-mobile industry, where service provision outside the telecom industry will become very profitable. The difference is all about understanding customer value; operators tend to focus purely on technology and income. It emerged clearly during the weekend that those players in the communications field with vision to develop the e-mobile commerce sector into a value-driven industry are the ones that will benefit most from the evolution of the future.