Exercise 15 - M-commerce: Innovation and mobile devices

1. What is meant by a location based service? Explain using the Web application found on a late model mobile device.
Location Based Services (LBS) are information and entertain service, accessible with mobile devices through a mobuile network and utilising the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device (Wikipedia, 2010).

Location based services such as google maps, google earth etc can be found on smart mobile like IPhone and Andriod Operating System phones such as HTC. These applications utilise mobile phone tower and GPS coordinate of the phone to selectively display ATM locations, restaurants etc on a map.

2. Describe the purpose of the Open Mobile Alliance Initiative?
The OMA or Open Mobile Alliance is a standards body which develops open standards for the mobile phone industry. OMA was created in June 2002 by nearly 200 companies representing the world's leading mobile operators, device and network suppliers, information technology companies and content providers (Wikipedia, 2010). The purpose of the Open Mobile Alliance is to grow the market for the entire mobile industry by removing barriers to interoperability, supporting a seamless and easy to use mobile experience for users and a market environment that encourages competition through innovation and differentiation (OMA, 2010).
Most significantly, the Open Mobile Alliance is designed to be the center of all mobile application standardization work, enabling the creation of mobile services designed to meet the needs of the end-user. To grow the mobile market, the companies supporting the Open Mobile Alliance will work towards stimulating the fast and wide adoption of a variety of new, enhanced mobile information, communication and entertainment services. The implementation of OMA specifications results in benefits to the end-users, providing easy to use mobile services that are interoperable across countries, operators and mobile terminals (OMA, 2010).

Basically it is very similar to the WWW or World Wide Web consortium in that it has a body that introduces standards and control.

3. What are the main components of a mobile web services framework?
The way we communicate has been rapidly evolving. Over the last 2 decades we have seen the world wide web become more integral in our daily lives and how we communicate. But probably the most significant breakthrough has been the mobile and being able to communicate almost anywhere all over the globe without being restricted by physical wires.

According to El-Masri et al (2005) mobile web services framework to be successful requires the adoption of existing web service standards, internet protocols and wireless standards. Web services are made up of essentially four components:

• XML or Extensible Markup Language
• SOAP or Simple Object Access Protocol
• WSDL or Web Services Description Language
• UDDI or Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration
  

The unique other components needed for a mobile web services framework include:

• WAP or Wireless Application Protocol
  
• WML or Wireless Markup Language
  

WAP and WML are the other essential standards for mobile web services which are related to mobile technology. WAP is the open standard specification that enables mobile users to easily access and interact with information and services from their wireless devices. The main purpose of WML is to provide content and user interface for specific wireless devices that have small displays, limited user-input capabilities, a restricted bandwidth connection, limited memory resources, limited browsing capabilities and limited computational resources (El-Masri, 2005).

Working together, these technologies form the framework and infrastructure for mobile web services technology. Mobile web services are about the convergence between mobile and Web applications. Such convergence includes data communication and information exchange between applications running on mobile platforms and on the Web (El-Masri, 2005).

4. Visit an airline website and search for information on WAP or SMS or 3G mobile application access to booking airline services. The same services exist in banking. How do both industries compare?
Well as i dont really have an IPhone i thought i would just download an emulator addon for Firefox so that i could view the contents of the mobile site for VirginBlue and INGDirect.

Virgin Blue
The services offered by virgin blue are below on their mobile site



























ING Direct
The services offered on the INGDirect mobile banking site



























Both the airline and banking industries have started to use extensively this new channel for sales and support in mobiles. This adds a new level of convience for customers as they can undergo certain tasks on the move not having to call, be near a computer, or at a branch. The airline industry as a whole seems to be leading the use of newer technologies like mobile commerce, with the bank sector seemingly not as quick on the update, and so you can see with the number of services offered on each of the websites.