Table
of Contents
Limitation
of Mobile Commerce. 4
The
Younger generation and Mobile Commerce. 5
Conclusion. 6
Bibliography:8
Mobile commerce and consumer behaviour:
Mobile
commerce is a very promising field with a strategic demand and technological
uncertainties. The successful demand of mobile commerce would solely rely
on the consumer behaviour, outlining the adequacy of the technology followed
by the individual attitude.
In
this essay I will discuss the issues of mobile commerce emphasizing only
on consumer buyer behaviour. This would let me touch on consumerism and
attitude towards this product. Indeed that would mean explaining a bit
about the market behaviour and consumer attitude in particular.
The
essay then would touch on the advantages and disadvantages of mobile commerce
based on the research that is done. Moreover, this would be supported by
an opinion based on my personal research and not a matter of fact based
on neither the New
Zealand
market nor any particular market.
The
extensive research done and the gathering of data for the essay were huge
which indicated the extensive previous researches that were done on mobile
commerce. This new market or niche is widely growing and still expanding
due to the spread of mobile phones and wireless appliances. This was one
of the difficulties encountered when selecting the right issues that are
relevant to the essay.
The
second difficulty was the measure of success of this product and the way
consumers had to react towards it. There was no measure of liable fact
of the future of Mobile Commerce and there was no evidence that the consumers’
behaviour would still be in favour of such product. The future would have
to include the target market by segregating them into a demographic sense,
it would either implant it into the young generation and let it go on while
they are aging or get it to sustain to their behaviour and make it always
appealing.
The
conclusion at the end of the essay would only shed the light of the whole
essay. The future is always what we make and how products in general are
presented to the consumers. The key issue that was identified was the young
generation and the infiltration of a future product. There only would be
predictions and those predictions would only be based on facts of the past
and the present.
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The Birth of Mobile
Commerce
We
will have to keep in mind that the increased use of the Personal Digital
Assistants like Palmtops and Palm Pilots had provided the consumers carrying
out transactions from mobile platform that had created a new term used
nowadays known as “Mobile Commerce”.(Chakraborty
and Chen, N/A)
Mobile
commerce is a very wide and a familiar topic. Through statistics it shows
that mobile phones have been selling rapidly over the years. In 2001, 412,322.5
mobile phones were sold and in 2002, 425,115.7 mobile phones were sold
world wide. In 2003, 475,074.0 mobile phones were sold world wide and finally
it is predicted that in 2004, 501,795.2 mobile phones would be sold world
wide.(DataQuest
2003)
This
shows that part of mobile commerce would depend on the sales of mobile
phones. The reason why these phones are selling so rapidly would also depend
on the consumers’ behaviour and attitude towards the product. Assuming
that the mobile business and commerce are going to sustain the future then
they would have to be more appealing to the consumer. To set an acid test
to the topic assuming that text messaging on mobile phones is increasing
the sales of mobile phones then this would be the beginning of our research.
The majority of the text messaging is done through a new text message language
called “Text Format” known to the young generation. This is felt widely
through the ads on the television of New
Zealand.
In order to attract the younger generation the ads simply makes mobile
text messaging more easily by dropping the vowels and simply adding a different
off the scale fashion to make it more “Appealing”.
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“Cool”
as behaviour
Translating
the word appealing in the consumers’ context would be “Cool”.
This word now is becoming the trend in the new generation. The word “Cool”
is considered a very serious word to consider in mobile commerce. If we
were to type the word “Cool” in Google search
we would end up with a 42,800,000 entries or result. (Grossman
September 2003)
Mobile
commerce is now moving towards the young generation to lock them into their
market. The mobile industry is now considering tilting its strategy to
attract younger generations to survive the industry. This is pushing a
lot of industries towards that kind of thinking and mobile commerce is
leading the way. In order to get that kind of consumer the mobile industry
is moving towards “Cool” the precious natural resource that would be the
invisible, impalpable substance that would change the mobile commerce business
to a valuable business. It also may make it the fashion of the century.
“Cool” might be a source to predict the future. The word appealing had
changed its context by all means and had a different implication in the
market.(Grossman
September 2003)
The
question now is what does the consumer want? Is it just that the product
is “Cool” it can be sellable or is it what also mobile commerce can do
to our consumer. There are a lot of questions on how to get Mobile Commerce
of the ground and get it running. The main market might start by segregating
the age group targeted and that might lead the way to Mobile Commerce.
According to Wood the market of 2003 would be by “device diversity” as
mobile manufacturers launch a wide range of handsets with a lot of features,
such as games, music and video. This would attract the consumers and make
mobile commerce the leading of the industry. Still the question is which
consumers we are talking about. (DataQuest
2003)
The
second aspect is the “alpha consumer” that was invented by Zendl
and her company that leads the way in identifying the products that appeal
to the consumers and mould to their needs. The mobile commerce is changing
rapidly due to consumers’ behaviour and the way they are reacting towards
mobile commerce. The change in options of the product would be based on
buyers’ behaviour and the way they expect of the product itself.(Grossman
September 2003)
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Limitation
of Mobile
Commerce
The
usability of the product would depend on its limitations. This would determine
the consumers’ behaviour towards this limitation. The question that persists
is what the consumer would want from the product. The limitations of Mobile
Commerce would then be crucial to determine its life long in the market.
Consumers would always find little gadgets handy and if this product would
be considered a node connected to a computer, printer and a scanner then
that might cover up the multi tasking aspect of it.(Chakraborty
and Chen, N/A)
Limitations
are not just linked to what the product might or might not achieve but,
moreover the products health aspects for the consumers. For the past one
year there has been a debate about the mobile health hazards that could
not be ruled out by neither the researchers in Europe
nor the researchers in North
America.
This kind of discovery would also impact on the behaviour of the consumers’
attitude towards the product. The health issue had become more significant
due to the internet and the information Technologies ways of reaching the
public. This limitation had to be overcome by the gadget that would promote
the safety features of the Mobile Commerce with its “Cool” look in order
to survive the market saturation life span. (Ho
2002)
In
order to overcome the physical limitations of the mobile commerce that
is currently available, the industry is trying to give a “Cool” look to
mobile commerce. This is done through promotion via movies and documentaries,
and a lot through the trend and advertisements. It takes only a teen singer
to promote a pair of shades or a T-shirt with an anonymous logo that would
become so valuable the next day. Regardless of the feature the market is
always based on popularity and the trend of that age. This is the way mobile
commerce is diverting towards the needs of the generation that is using
it. From previous data mobile commerce had seen the aging population of
the Harley Davidson and the implication of dyeing in the future of the
customers that are aging and withering away. Therefore in order to maintain
the market they need to evolve according to the needs of the consumers.
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The
Younger generation and Mobile Commerce
Mobile
Commerce is now targeting the younger generation due to its adaptability
to the new ongoing products. The psyche of the new generation would always
have the impact of the future. If it were destined to have the world linked
to a Pilot Palm top then it is the younger generation that would have the
main root to support the future industry of the Mobile Commerce.
The
rise of the Mobile Commerce among the young generation was phenomenal.
No one had anticipated that the industry would be fuelled by the children.
It’s been found that half of the 7-16 year olds have a mobile phone. This
indicates that if half of them have mobile phones then the message of Mobile
Commerce is half way into the future.
According
to Vodafone half of those children prefer text messaging rather than performing
any other sort of oral communication. Moreover, statistics also tells us
that more than half of that age group requests a mobile phone for a Christmas
present than any other present. (Nicholas
and Chivhanga, Jan 2002)
Therefore,
Mobile Commerce is the future of the commerce based plans that are going
to use such a platform. As explained earlier this technology was meant
for the executives and business men that assumingly had run the day to
day business. They were wrong to ignore this phenomenon thinking that it
was the trend of the age and a fashion that would wither away. It seemed
like the niche for this market had accidentally targeted the young generation
due to adaptability and the new generations’ behaviour. Moreover, it seems
that the younger generation didn’t want to be marginalised and had the
opportunity to always be connected to Information Technology and had the
factor to adapt to Information and Communication Technology. (Nicholas
and Chivhanga, Jan 2002)
Since
then it had grown in that sense and made the older generation seem lagging
the capability in adapting to the very latest technology. The elder generation
would always be a step behind due to the lack of enthusiasm of learning
of new products and that might be their attitude and behaviour. Nevertheless,
this same generation with its attitude would still grow up with the mobile
commerce culture and that would be the target of the industry gradually.
What would happen when a new platform is introduced this would be in the
hands of the young generation. The mobile commerce had already built its
culture and all it had to do was to grow as it ages with the new generation. (Nicholas
and Chivhanga, Jan 2002)
The
other aspect of Mobile Commerce is how far is it going to go? Although
the young generation had had its culture within mobile commerce the implication
after all is the movement of data through that big web among that generation.
The aspect of serious business that is carried out by this mobile commerce
then would have to start improving to suite this growing generation. There
will be a lot of issues about the safety of using the mobile phone and
having it around us would have to be clarified(Ho
2002).
There is the security issue of the mobile commerce.
Since
this new device is going to be familiar around the children it would also
have its features too familiar to its comfort to that generation. The attitude
would always be the same, how to beat the machine. This is the new machine
that needs to be hacked into. And another it seems like we as human beings
have a very unique phenomena in developing an addiction. This is a very
serious issue that would be targeted by Mobile Commerce. The more and younger
generations use the mobile commerce through their mobile phones the more
people get obsessed and addicted to such technology. This is one way in
locking in that generation to the habit of using their phones and ultimately
Mobile Commerce.(Nicholas
and Chivhanga Jan 2002)
The
future of mobile commerce would always be predicted by the consumers’ behaviour,
in the sense of any product. If it ever ran out of fashion then it would
have to keep on developing new features and lock on consumers even more.
On the other hand if it were growing as the second Internet then it would
have to address a lot of security issues and stability. If a product were
to launch on the bases of fashion it would always end up in the disposal
can unless it is promoted into the real business world.
“For
teenagers the mobile has become an important and natural part of everyday
life”(Nicholas
and Chivhanga Jan 2002).
This
shows how the future generation is going to value mobile commerce, since
a lot of teenagers are attached to the platform of Mobile Commerce. The
trend of this in future is going to fall to even a younger generation.
It all will have different reasons but would have a different attitude
towards the industry. Seeing this vanishing so soon is impossible for the
time being, but security issues would have to increase in order to keep
this generation dedicated to that trend. If those are the teenagers of
today they might grow up and be the businessmen of tomorrow, this would
carry on the same attitude towards the Mobile Commerce industry to the
future tilted maybe with a few different features. (Nicholas
and Chivhanga Jan 2002)
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Conclusion
To
conclude the essay we come to the main point which is the attitude of the
Consumer and Buyer Behaviour. There is an alpha consumer as known to marketers
and it seems like it is the younger generation. They might be labelled
as the “Cool” kids with gadgets but that is the generation that is going
to spread the word. If Mobile Commerce is the new edge and the centre is
the new “Cool” then the old “unCool” would one
day be Cool and Mobile commerce would one day be adapted by a new generation
and then thrown away by another(Grossman
September 2003).
This would lead the Mobile Commerce culture to a very long future, by raising
up a whole generation with the equipment of Mobile Commerce the only thing
that would be left is the implementation of the new tools. Mobile Commerce
might have started off as a lifestyle due to a trend but would most probably
end up as serious as a stable business in the future world.
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Bibliography:
Grossman, L. (September 2003).
What's
Next: The Quest for Cool.Time
Magazine.
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Simon Yahya NZ 2003