Introduction to Mobile Value Services, Mobile Business and Mobile Cloud Minitrack

Abstract

This joint minitrack on Mobile Value Services, Mobile Business and Mobile Cloud is focused on key aspects of the applications of mobile technology and services which can be developed using mobile technology as the platform. The future of mobile telephony is expected to rely on mobile services and the use of mobile services will be an integral part of the revenues that were expected to be generated by third generation mobile telephony. The adoption of new mobile services contradicts this proposition as it has been much slower than expected. Several reasons have been suggested for the slow uptake of mobile services, ranging from cultural differences to the business models of the actors, lacking innovation capabilities of content and service providers, and national mobile network operator strategies. If we look at some of the scenarios offered in the multitude of commercial market studies carried out each year there is now said to be an evolution of mobile telephony from voice and text communication to the use of value added services. This change is notable in three ways, which have precedents in the history of communication and media technology: (i) it changes the nature of mobile telephony; (ii) it is a challenge to the continuity of mobile telephony, making it a financially risky step to take; and (iii) we cannot yet say how and for what purposes the services will be used in the future. An estimate for mobile phones is that we will reach 6 billion by 2012 which makes this technology one of the most distributed and adopted in the history of mankind. Mobile value services are services which are designed as functional adaptations to the user context in such a way that they make user actions and activities more effective and/or more productive and/or working with less cost and/or possible to carry out with less use of resources and/or able to simplify user routines in such a way that all the previous effects will be realized. The mobile value services designs (methods and models) aim at services which will expand the limits of the possible in the structure of everyday life, which will contribute to making them everyday routines for the general population, i.e. services which will be used continually and as part of regular activities. Critical points for developing a good mobile service include ease of use, usability, service discovery, and access to services over networks and channels, personalization and context awareness in services, and interoperability of services. This joint minitrack hosts nine papers covering different aspects of services, business and technology. Mobile business, key aspects of mobile commerce such as business models, impacts of mobile information systems and regulatory issues are discussed by the three papers in the field of mobile business accepted in this minitrack. The design and adoption of mobile services, the existing enterprise applications that are available, behavioural aspects of the users and gaming as a service solution are dealt within the remaining six research articles in this minitrack. The issues at the core of this minitrack are to develop value-added content, business models and technologies, which can create key mobile features and serve as drivers for a growing market demand. It also explores the possibilities of mobile cloud platforms. Together, these nine papers present a thorough snapshot of emerging issues relevant to the field. 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences