I got a chance to interact with a gentleman based in Geneva. We talked about mobile commerce and other services on a global scale.
Currently, I can think of three mobile services that generally work globally across different countries and different mobile networks: IDD calls, International SMS and International MMS.
But aside from these, there aren’t any other mobile services I know of that can be used on a global scale.
Here are some thoughts I shared with him:
- The Philippines is a good test bed for trying out global mobile applications.
- With the 80 Million Filipinos in the Philippines continuously interacting with the Philippine diaspora of 8 million all around the world, we make for a good “guinea pig” for trying out global mobile services.
- The Philippines will be a producer of global mobile applications, not just a consumer of global mobile applications.
- In fact, the Philippines has garnered at least three GSM Association Awards — Smart’s Smart Money and eLoad, Globe’s G-Cash.
- Filipinos all around the world are just waiting for global services that truly can service the needs of the global Filipino, no matter where they are.
- And when the mobile service has successfully worked for the Global Filipino, you could say that it will work all around the world.
What do you think? Agree? Disagree? One half? One fourth?
So, what kind of mobile service will be useful on a global scale?
For one, a global m-commerce service. Sounds like a Mastercard or Visa in your cellphone.
Is this the future of mobile commerce?
ka edong
dreaming wide open
3 comments
> For one, a global m-commerce service. Sounds like
> a Mastercard or Visa in your cellphone.
I definitely agree but my only reservations is that in a place where telecom infrastructure is poor and that the delivery of SMS/GPRS-based instructions is not guaranteed to be delivered on time (if delivered at all), I would rather trust legacy card management systems which communicate through wired connection.
How about money rimittance via e-load ?
is it already available ?
I think one of the aspects of international m-commerce (or any form of e-commerce that involves mobile phones for that matter) that the Philippines has to get involved in is mobile downloads (ringtones, logos, wallpapers, etc.). While we have our own versions of online downloads via premium SMS to our local networks, the Philippines is still not among the list of countries where downloading seling and/or sharing of content is prevalent, such as most countries in Western Europe and North America.