Ericsson to Launch New Unit To Build Mobile Commerce
By ALMAR LATOUR
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
STOCKHOLM -- Betting that the Internet and electronic commerce will play a major role in the future of wireless phones, telecommunications-equipment maker Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson Wednesday is launching its mobile e-commerce unit.
The new unit, which will have 500 consultants world-wide, will offer tailor-made business models, technology, software and hardware for m-commerce, or mobile commerce. The unit would help create everything from wireless portals to advanced mobile payment systems.
"We want to become the IBM of m-commerce," says Christian Testman, director of the new Ericsson unit. "We believe m-commerce will reach the lives of most mobile-phone users in the coming decade."
Wireless phones are increasingly becoming information centers and wallets for consumers across the globe: Most of the mobile phones produced in the U.S. and Europe this year are equipped with basic technology to allow e-commerce, while in Scandinavia, the first m-commerce services are up and running. Soon, Norwegians will be able to pay their grocery bills by phone.
"We believe that by 2002, more than 10% of all e-commerce will be conducted through mobile handsets," says Knut Oppegaard, the director of mobile products for Telenor ASA. "There is an enormous potential for m-commerce, particularly for small transactions."
But despite the noise about m-commerce from operators and telecommunications-equipment makers, there is still uncertainty about the potential of performing business transactions via mobile phones, and projections for the potential m-commerce greatly vary.
Ericsson's m-commerce unit hopes to spur development of mobile portals such as Telenor's, but also will try to pioneer new wireless technologies such as the so-called GPRS, or packet-switched data transfer system, which allows mobile phones to stay connected to the Internet around the clock and removes the need to log on and off. GPRS also moves information more quickly than any existing mobile technology.
Ericsson's new unit will draw from both its business-consulting and radio-systems divisions. Says Mr. Testman: "Mobile technology to transfer a purchase request, fixed lines to get to the billing center -- it's complex, and clients will need our expertise."
Write to Almar Latour at Almar.Latour@wsj.com
"Soon, Norwegians will be able to pay their grocery bills by phone."
Lutefisk and pickled herring by PHONE! Now we're talkin'.
Tussen tak!
Rusty Johnson
President
Midwest Norwegian-American Bachelor Farmer Preservation Guild |
