B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

344 B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce
12.2. The Wireless Internet Today
Let us take a look at the wireless Internet as it stands today.
12.2.1. Definition and growth
The phrase 'Mobile Internet' conjures up images of an individual with
the ability to get whatever information desired, wherever and whenever
needed and on virtually any device — tethered or untethered. The
reality is that we are not quite at that point yet. The extant wireless or
mobile Internet is in an evolutionary phase akin to the one the traditional
Web entered in the mid 1990s. At that time there were only a limited
number of online services that were available to users. A salient
difference between the wired (i.e., tethered) and unwired (i.e., untethered)
or mobile Web is that there is no longer serious doubt as to whether
select consumers and companies will want to use the Web to purchase
goods and services from their desk or while on the run. People want to
take their technology with them and thus the potential for the mobile
Internet has already gained a wide and growing acceptance.
Mobile e-commerce or m-commerce, as it is sometimes termed,
involves the use of mobile handheld devices, such as mobile phones,
personal digital assistants (PDAs) and two-way pagers to communicate,
interact and transact. The purpose of these handheld devices is to use
wireless technologies to provide convenient, personalized and locationbased
services to customers, employees, partners and ordinary people.
There is no doubt that the m-commerce market has the potential to
explode. Wireless subscribers have been projected to grow from
400 million in 1999 to over 1 billion in 2003. This means that in the
near future, approximately 1 in 6 people on earth will have access to a
cell phone. Wireless Internet subscribers have been projected to grow
from 6 million in 1999 to over 400 million in 2003. For most people,
the wireless Internet may be the only Internet that they use on a regular
basis. Global m-commerce is projected to have revenues of $200 billion
by 2004, with 130 million customers and 14 billion transactions annually.
Table 12.2 outlines commonly cited wireless Internet projections.
Since these projections were made at an initial stage, the technology
sector has imploded, particularly in the United States. However,