M-COMMERCE-----Making life faster and smooth.

Rohit was returning to Kolkata from Mumbai completing a tour. Suddenly, it struck in his mind that tomorrow is their first wedding anniversary and he has not got anything for his love. He was directly going to home and has not got enough time to buy anything. He then took out his mobile and browsed through the options and ordered a beautiful necklace to be delivered by tomorrow at his address.
-----End of scene 1.
Mayank was leaving for an important meeting some other day while he remembered that it’s the last day to pay the premium of the Life Insurance of this quarter including the penalty period. He cannot afford to cancel the meeting or rely on somebody else to pay the premium. He then took out his mobile and using it paid the premium while on the move.
-----End of scene 2.
Anu was returning from Singapore to kolkata and she wanted to attend her sister’s wedding the next day at Lucknow. She desperately wanted to book a ticket of the flight. She took out her mobile and simply booked the ticket.
-----End of scene 3.

This is a very small view of the power of M-Commerce or Mobile commerce that the India vis-à-vis the whole world is going to enjoy very soon. Now let me throw some light on the various aspects of M-Commerce.
What is M-Commerece?
M-Commerce or Mobile Commerce is any transaction, involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods and services, which is initiated and/or completed by using mobile access to computer-mediated networks with the help of an electronic device.
Fields of application :
Mobile purchase
Mobile banking
Mobile ticketing
Information services
Content purchase and delivery
Mobile brokerage
Auctions
---These are only a few applications to name……in fact you can imagine anything you like to add in this list,that is the power of M-Commerce,which is why it is sometimes rightly called U-Commerce or Ubiquitous commerce.
Mobile Purchase: Mobile purchase allows customer to shop online anytime, in any location using a mobile phone.Customers can browse order and pay using their mobile phone or any other mobile device.
It will be a safe transaction. The features of such transaction will be ----
Unique username/password
Flexible subscription period
External authentication option
Simple integration
Secure authentication of users
Cross service marketing
Simple opt-out for customers
Mobile Banking : Banks are also exploring the use of M-Commerce to allow their customer to transact also apart from checking the status of the accounts only.
Mobile Ticketing: The on the move booking of tickets will make the traveling much faster, flexible and hustle free. Tickets can be sent to mobile phones using a variety of technologies . Users are then able to use their tickets immediately by presenting their phones at the venue. Moreover, the tourism industry will flourish better than ever using this mantra of m-commerce.
Mobile Brokerage: Stock market services offered via mobile devices have also become more popular and are known as Mobile Brokerage. They allow the subscriber to react to market developments in a timely fashion and irrespective of their physical location.
Information services : A wide variety of information services can be delivered to mobile phone users in much the same way as it is delivered to PCs. These services include:
news services
stock data
sports results
financial records
traffic data and information
Particularly, more customized traffic information, based on users' travel patterns, will be multicast on a differentiated basis, instead of broadcasting the same news and data to all Users. This type of multicasting will be suited for more bandwidth-intensive mobile equipment.
Auctions : Over the past three years mobile reverse auction solutions have grown in popularity. Unlike traditional auctions, the reverse auction (or low-bid auction) bills the consumer's phone each time they place a bid.

Future of M-Commerce :
The m-commerce service at the very outset requires 3G or more mobile service,which is getting started in India in mid 2009.And there are more than 300 million existing mobile users in the market place.It is expected that the number is going to increase over 500 million by 2010.So,we can see how large and promising the market can be.More over this m-commerce can create employment. That is emerging entrepreneurs can include their products or concepts in the m-commerce chain,which will cause them to grow more and create employment in turn.
Conclusion :
M-Commerce is taking the world of commerce and economy to the next level,a much faster and flexible world of trade.But to make it all successful a perfect balance and synchronization between application developers, financial institution and mobile phone network is elemental.A very well supported infrustructure is also neede for its boom.Lastly,simplicity coupled with the idea of developing the trust with audiences is the key to proliferation of M-Commerce.