Case D
M-COMMERCE

Q1. What is the 8-second rule and why is it important to m-commerce technology?
The 8-second rule is an old way of measuring the adequate response time of a webserver through different bandwidth connections, the average web user will wait about eight seconds for a page to download, but that current average download time across backbone connection on most web sites is almost ten seconds. If the load time of a webpage is more than 8 seconds, users will have no patience to wait it and they will close this website.

For the aspect of its importance:
Firstly, the 8-seond rule is prerequisite for m-commerce technology. The mobile phones and other handheld devices provide the high speed internet connectivity, which provides the basis of the M-commerce. Once you have high speed internet connectivity on your mobile phones, you can shop, sell, pay or trade online anytime and anywhere in the world.
Secondly, speed is very much an issue when using your mobile, because you often tend to be impatient in the first place, when the mobile is so slow to connect to the internet.
Thirdly, Consumers become nervous when an electronic financial transaction takes too long, or when they have to re-enter their information to make it happen.

Q2. Why might it be useful to m-commerce providers to have records of their users’ purchase histories?
By engaging a mobile commerce, mobile providers not only allow the customers to go to more sophisticated behaviors, but also do have the distinct possibility of lowering churn rates and keeping their customers longer. When get in a longer term, the m-commerce providers should have visibility into consumer habits that enable them to new products and services that are more tailored to what the consumers really desire. So the m-commerce providers obtain the information about the customers` habits through the records of customers` purchase histories. For example, if people get a situation where they have just seen a unfamiliar brand, the mobile can give people advice through the record of the customers` purchase histories. This is one approach to conduct the Customer Relationship Management.

Q3. What is the biggest concern most cell phone users have about using m-commerce services? What are some other concerns?
Speed is the most concerned because mobile devices are marketed as having "broadband internet capabilities", but the reality is that the internet speeds of current phones are closer to a dial-up connection than they are to a cable or DSL modern. The customers can't often intend to be patient. If the mobile devices can not provide services fast, they will choose other devices which can provide services with speed.
Transaction fail is also concerned, the customers don't accept several times of transaction fail, if that happen, the customers won't use this particular service.
Another concern is about standardization, the users don't want to deal with three or four applications running on their phones and worry about wheather the stores have the appropriate reader for these applications.
The cell phone users also concern about the security and reliability. the users want to know the transaction went through and the personal data is secure. The cell phone users want to get data wherever they go, but in the train the 3G doesn't work. The m-commerce providers should make the data reliable across the countries as users are moving. The more reliable the network is, the more it will stimulate the mobile commerce as people move forward and become comfortable with these transactions.

Q4. Why are technology advances such as pseudowires and MPLS technology important to increasing backhaul capacity? Try to research these technologies using outside sources. Since the development of the mobile-commerce, there is more and more data need to be transferred and transported from the devices to the backbone. All the new technologies such as pseudowires and MPLS are required by the increasing demands and they are applied to provide a better backhaul capacity, comprising a faster speed, a higher security, and a stronger reliability. A pseudowire is an emulation of a point-to-point connection over a packet-switching network (PSN). The pseudowire emulates the operation of a "transparent wire" carrying the service, including the voice data or multimedia files, while the PSN may be Multi-protocol label switching (MPLS). MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) is a mechanism in high-performance telecommunications networks that directs data from one network node to the next based on short path labels. With the help of pseudowires, MPLS has a better performance. Compared with the traditional technologies, it shortens the network addresses, which leads an easy and clear lookups in a routing table, and it benefits both the network providers as well as the consumers by shortening the time of sending and delivering, enhancing the transmission speed. Besides, another key characteristic of MPLS is that all the data packets could be set the priorities to deliver, since the use of label switching.
In conclusion, the technology advances are important to increasing backhaul capacity since they can reduce the latency, increase the data volume, as well as enhance the understanding of the priority.

Q5. How would the widespread use of m-commerce technologies affect your life? According to me, the biggest influence brought by the use of m-commerce technologies is changing my shopping and consuming behaviors. There have already been several applications related to m-commerce in my cell phone, including the clients, such as eBay and SNCF voyages, and the code scanner, such as pic2shop. I regard all these applications not only the tools to know the markets and to compare the prices, but also an easy approach to consume. Compared the traditional way, m-commerce technologies has made consuming much easier and more time saving. Now, I enjoy the fact that I can buy most things everywhere, as long as I have a cell phone and it is connected to the networks. Besides changing my consuming habits, the widespread of m-commerce technologies has also helped advance the quality of networks. As one key factor of the m-commerce, better wireless networks are getting improved aiming at providing the increasingly many transmissions of data. M-commerce technologies has made great contribution to 3G or 3G+ networks, which enhance the reception as well as give me a better experience of surfing the internet through my cell phone.