Mobile Commerce (m-commerce) has moved beyond the realm of `possibility` to reality with Europe leading the US in the uptake of a new technology.
And South Africa, with its rapidly growing cellphone user community, could soon follow suit, says Laurentius Human, chief technology officer at Prism Wireless, a division of JSE-listed Prism Holdings.
"The greatest stumbling block to the widespread uptake of m-commerce is not whether consumers will conduct transactions from their cellphone handset. It`s estimated that 60% of all under-25`s in Europe already make use of value-added data services on their cellphones. While this isn`t true transactive m-commerce yet, it`s clear that these youngsters are comfortable sending and receiving information on their mobile handsets.
"It`s a short step from here to utilising a mobile handset for transactions," he adds and points out that m-commerce transactive applications don`t require significant user interaction.
"M-commerce should not be confused with wireless web browsing and on-the-move entertainment. Few consumers will be prepared to pay R10 or more to watch a movie on their cellular handset, but they won`t mind spending a few cents to use the handset as a payment device, particularly if the process takes only a few seconds," he says.
Human points out that growing numbers of consumers already use their cellular handsets to communicate via SMS messaging rather than, or in addition to, making voice calls.
"They`re unlikely to balk at using their cellphone for transactions which utilise SMS-type messaging and require them to key in an amount, a PIN and one or two key strokes to confirm or reject the transaction," he maintains.
He also disagrees with the argument that the technology is not yet in place to facilitate m-commerce and that true m-commerce won`t be possible until the arrival of high-speed 3G networks.
"SMS-based m-Commerce is quite possible over current GSM networks. All that`s required is the development of more secure commercial applications - which are starting to come to the fore.
"Indeed Prism, with its roots in integrating payment in the physical world, and recent breakthroughs the company has made around secure transaction messaging platform development, is ideally position to deliver solutions which take m-commerce to the next level.
"A more difficult problem to overcome will be achieving widespread merchant acceptance of the cellphone as a payment device on par with cash, credit and debit cards and cheques.
"However, once acceptance among consumers and merchants reaches a certain level, there will be no holding back. M-commerce will lose its `m` tag, and become just ordinary, everyday commerce," Human concludes.
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