M-Commerce - Technologies, Services, and Business Models

 

 

Sadeh's "M-Commerce: Technologies, Services and Business Models" is an outstanding introduction to this, the next step in the e-business revolution.
Sadeh's writing style is very simple to understand and follow and he does an outstanding job of relating the material to everyday life through good, real-life examples. He cites current m-commerce usage in Japan and Europe and relates how it could be used here at home. Among his prime examples are NTTDoComo's I-mode, Nordea's WAP as well as vendors such as Ericsson, Nokia, and AT&T. You also get a good grounding in the technology and history of the mobile industry as well as best practice business tips that industry innovators have used to gain their competitive advantage. Overall, this is a great look at the technologies behind m-commerce and the various types of services it can afford.
Here is the listing of topics Sadeh addresses:
1. The Buzz Behind M-Commerce: Proliferation of mobile devices, personalized and location-sensitive services, new usage scenarios, etc
2. The M-Commerce Value Chain: Business models, content providers, aggregators, software vendors, equipment vendors, network operators
3. The Transition to 3G: 2G technologies, 2.5G technologies, wireless architecture
4. The Mobile Internet: TCP/IP on wired and mobile Internet, WAP architecture, WAP protocols
5. Mobile Security and Payment: Cryptography, digital signature, certificate authorities, public and private key encryption
6. M-Commerce Services: Information services, directory services, banking and trading, e-tailing, e-ticketing, entertainment, business applications
7. Next-Gen M-Commerce: Personalized services, location-sensitive services, global positioning services
Overall, this book is extremely easy to read and more importantly, a good learning tool. This book was used as the text for an m-commerce course I took during the fall of 2002. Whether you are studying this subject independently or whether you are an instructor looking to use this book for your course, you cannot go wrong with Sadeh's "M-Commerce: Technologies, Services and Business Models."
Highly Recommended

Comment | Was this review helpful to you?

I don't write book recommendations too often but this truly is a must-read for those who want to understand mobile commerce.
The author provides a splendid overview of this fast moving area, covering both technology and business issues. This is the perfect book for managers like myself who've been hearing bits and pieces about m-commerce but lack a more comprehensive overview of what's out there today, what works and what doesn't and where this entire area is likely headed in the years to come.
The book is modular and well written with easy to understand sections on the underlying technologies (e.g. WAP, mobile security, 3G, LBS, etc.) and insightful discussions of key business issues (e.g. the changing role of mobile operators, profit sharing business models, the role of personalization and context awareness, mobile payments, etc.) The author also does a great job at pointing key usability and privacy issues. I strongly recommend this book.