Mobile Telecommunications at the Dawn of a New Era. How New Mobile Technologies Drive Innovative Business Models
14 Pages Posted: 6 Oct 2004
Date Written: September 2004
Abstract
The convergence between mobile communications and Internet applications has been claimed to cause the birth of a brand new era. In fact, in recent years, technological innovations, that led to the digital convergence, have made it possible to incorporate Information and Communication technologies into one single branch of products. After the decade of Personal Computers (1980s) and of Internet (1990s), a new decade has begun, which could as appropriately be labelled the decade of mobile computing and m-commerce (Urbaczewski, Valacich et al., 2003).
To give a detailed overview of the technological patterns of innovation within the mobile telecommunications (TLC) industry is beyond the intention of this chapter. Indeed, we intend to give an understanding of the competitive dynamics of the industry. Nevertheless, the technological innovations did play an important role in reshaping the competition among suppliers. Thus, we start our enquiry by giving an overview of the innovative categories of services, that are rendered available thanks to technological innovations in the mobile commerce. This would then lead to a deeper understanding of the required collaboration among suppliers, in order to provide the prospective customers with highly valuable offers.
According to these premises, only after having clarified what value mobility could add to the customers in the market, the chapter will focus on the supply side, in order to show the competitive challenges that suppliers face. The latter refers to problems such as creating value, and distributing it among the economic players in the competitive game.
Keywords: Mobile business, mobile telecommunications, business models, competition
JEL Classification: M20, L97
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation