Developments in the m-commerce value chain: Adding value with location based services

As the phenomenal growth of the internet and mobile devices has continued unabated, the inevitable convergence of these two streams of technologies has occurred, promising a plethora of mobile data services to the handset user. The use of mobile telecommunications devices for commercial transactions, coined mobile (m-)commerce, began in the late 1990s. One potential area of development in the m-commerce value chain is in location-based services (LBS). Using a range of network- and handset-based positioning techniques, operators will be able to offer entirely new services and improvements on current ones. Popular examples cited include emergency caller location, people or asset tracking, navigation, location-based information or geographically sensitive billing. The purpose of this article is to examine some of the background to the m-commerce value chain and one area of current development - the technologies, applications and strategic issues associated with the commercialisation of LBS. The article concludes with some predictions on the role of LBS in m-commerce.