B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

Wireless Technologies 345
Table 12.2. U.S. wireless internet access device projections (in millions)
Device
High-end smartphones
Low-end smartphones
Net-capable PDAs
Alpha-numeric pagers
E-books
1999
0.3
0.8
5.2
2.4
0.0
2000
0.8
5.3
6.9
3.5
0.6
2001
1.6
27.7
8.6
4.7
1.3
2002
2.4
57.5
10.3
5.9
2.1
2003
technological progress has continued and will continue to be inexorable.
When economic fortunes change for the better, people will still want to
take their technology with them. This bodes well for wireless.
12.2.2. Mobile benefits
It is conceivable that m-commerce will expand across several industries
initially: transportation and travel — automotive and air travel; financial
services — retail banking, brokering and the use of mobile 'wallets';
media and entertainment — newspapers, music, video and gaming.
Mobile offerings will undoubtedly evolve with technology and as dictated
by the desires of early adopters.
For example, in 1999, one could get news through personal instant
messaging (PIM) and short message services (SMS). In 2000, this
evolved to what might be termed communication enhancements: e-mail,
instant messaging (IM), wireless application protocol (WAP) alerts and
the provision of directories wirelessly. At present, the floodgates have
been opened to the point that the provision of easy and secure transactions
that include single-click procurement of goods, event and locationspecific
applications, trading, reservations and the ability to participate
in auctions are possible. With enhanced bandwidth and the advent of
applications with built-in artificial intelligence to the mobile space in
2003 and beyond, the mobile Internet will evolve to the provision of
3.5
75.9
12.0
7.7
3.0