Cooperation models for mobile television in Europe

This article examines the emerging cooperation models between the various stakeholders piloting mobile broadcasting in Europe. It adopts a generic business model design framework to systematically compare recent trials of mobile broadcasting technologies. The article illustrates the cross-impact of cooperation agreements between the various stakeholders on their technological, service-related and financial design choices, and provides insights on a number of business models issues in the upcoming commercialization phase of mobile digital TV broadcasting in Europe.     

Should mobile Internet be an extension to the fixed web? Fixed-mobile reinforcement as mediator between context of use and future use

As the fixed and mobile Internet are converging, the question emerges whether consumers expect mobile Internet services to replicate services they know from the fixed Internet. Literature on reinforcement and displacement suggests that the use of new media depends on whether users are inclined to replace or reinforce their existing media use on a new device. This paper analyzes whether the importance that users attribute to using similar services on their mobile phone as on the fixed Internet can explain the intention to adopt mobile services. Specifically, we investigate if such fixed-mobile reinforcement could mediate the impact of personal innovativeness and several dimensions of context. We compare basic Internet services, entertainment services and transaction services. We find that especially the intention to adopt basic Internet services largely depends on the importance of using similar services in the mobile domain as on the fixed Internet. Several context-of-use predictors are partially or even fully mediated by fixed-mobile reinforcement. The results convey a positive message to operators that are betting on converged multimedia services that can be accessed from any device and from any fixed or mobile network.     

移动增值业务新发展刍议

国内电信业务运营收入陷入了一定的增长瓶颈,而移动增值业务的新发展则是突破瓶颈的关键点之一.电信运营商通过参考互联网企业百花齐放的业务创新点和通过用户培养迅速发展壮大业务并获得丰厚的回报,进一步秉承作为国家基础设施服务供应商持续服务普通大众和贡献社会的基本责任.移动增值业务通过在现有运营业务基础上发展新的模式,在短信、彩信、彩铃以及其他业务或平台上积极发展广告业务进行新的尝试,电信运营商将在新阶段获得跨越发展的新动能.     

The interactive mobile social media advertising: An imminent approach to advertise tourism products and services?

Marketing tourism products traditionally were confined to conventional advertising tools. With the enhancement of mobile technologies and the emergence of social networking sites, a new platform of advertising has emerged. Mobile social media advertising refers to the use of social networking sites on mobile devices to advertise tourism products and services. However, many tourism organizations are skeptical, particularly if tourists are ready to accept this new form of advertising. Therefore, this study proposes an integrated framework that consists of Mobile Technology Acceptance Model, personal factors (i.e., mobile self-efficacy and technology self-efficacy), and Interactivity Theory to understand consumers’ intention to adopt mobile social media advertising in receiving tourism-related advertisements. 459 valid data were analyzed by the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling technique. Surprisingly, most structural paths are consistent with past literatures except for the relationship between personal factors and intention. This study has valuable contributions to academicians, practitioners, and society.     

Analyzing competitive and collaborative differences among mobile ecosystems using abstracted strategy networks

During the last 5 years, we have witnessed extraordinary development in the mobile market. Apple’s launch of the iOS platform and associated App Store marketplace turned the market around, and Apple became the leading company in the business. This development caused existing players, such as Nokia, to renew their business and attracted new players, such as Google and Microsoft, to enter the market and introduce their own mobile platforms. To understand this development, we suggest that a generic abstracted model of the ecosystem around mobile platforms should be developed describing how the actors, including users, individual app developers, companies, and digital services, are connected and interact. In this work, we propose that competition and collaboration in this kind of abstracted ecosystem can be modeled and analyzed using network analysis. In our research, we derived weighted competition and collaboration networks for each mobile platform from an expert survey, and by calculating companies’ degree centrality in their networks at different times we were able to illustrate how companies’ strategies to build and maintain an ecosystem differ and develop over time. We believe that this kind of analysis is useful both for companies that build ecosystems and also for companies that plan to do business in them. The former can use it to compare their strategy with existing competitors and also evaluate emerging new ecosystems and the latter to compare and choose between possible ecosystems with which to do business.     

英国如何衡量移动通信领域的有效竞争

英国通信管制机构对移动通信市场有效竞争的考察主要涉及到4个指标，即用户反应、用户行为、市场结构和业务提供者的行为。随着移动市场新业务、新技术的出现和发展，可能会出现新的考核指标，如移动数据的考核可能会单独进行。     

Context-aware platform for mobile data management

Interaction design is a major issue for mobile information systems in terms of not only the choice of input/output channels and presentation of information, but also the application of context-awareness. To support experimentation with these factors, we have developed platforms to support the rapid prototyping of multi-channel, multi-modal, context-aware applications. The Java-based platform presented here is based on an integration of a cross-media link server and an object-oriented framework for advanced content publishing, along with a Client Controller and Context Engine. We also describe how this platform was used to develop a mobile tourist information system for an international arts festival where interaction was based on a combination of interactive paper and speech output. Moira C. Norrie is a Professor at ETH Zurich where she is head of the Institute for Information Systems and leads the Global Information Systems research group. Her research interests include object-oriented models and systems for data management, web engineering, mobile and personal information systems and interactive paper as a medium for integrating printed and digital information. Beat Signer is a Post-Doctoral researcher in the Global Information Systems research group at ETH Zurich. He received a Ph.D. from ETH Zurich in 2005 for his work investigating fundamental concepts for interactive paper and cross-media information management. His research interests include interactive paper, cross-media information management, object-oriented technologies and software engineering. Michael Grossniklaus is a research assistant in the Global Information Systems research group at ETH Zurich. He received a Diploma (M.Sc.) in Computer Science from ETH Zurich in 2001 and is currently completing his Ph.D. His main research interest is empowering information systems for context-aware data management and delivery in the domain of web engineering and mobile computing. Rudi Belotti was a research assistant in the Global Information Systems research group at ETH Zurich from 2004–2006. He received a Diploma (M.Sc.) in Computer Science from ETH Zurich in 2004. In his research, he developed a general model and engine for the management of context information in mobile information systems. He is currently working for an e-business services company in Ticino, Switzerland. Corsin Decurtins is a research assistant in the Global Information Systems research group at ETH Zurich. He received a Diploma (M.Sc.) in Computer Science from ETH Zurich in 2002. His research focusses on model-based approaches and infrastructure for ubiquitous and mobile information environments. In addition to his Ph.D. Corsin also works part-time as a senior software engineer at the software company Netcetera. Nadir Weibel is a research assistant in the Global Information Systems research group at ETH Zurich. He received a Diploma (M.Sc.) in Computer Science from ETH Zurich in 2003 and is currently working on his Ph.D. His research is in the area of interactive paper, particularly on the authoring and publishing infrastructure for interactive documents as well as issues of human computer interaction and mobile environments.     

Context-aware systems — a primer for user-centred services

Convergence in the telecommunications industry provides an excellent platform and opportunity for new context-aware services. Context awareness, i.e. being able to harvest environmental information and use it to meet or anticipate user needs, is a key enabler for personalised applications and services that will be attractive to users in the future. This paper explores relevant research studies that have been undertaken, and proposes a new architecture for realisation of a context-aware system.     

When lifestyle becomes behavior: A closer look at the situational context of mobile communication

The web is going mobile, and the scope of mobile communication is widening tremendously, thus paving the way for a wide array of new forms of mobile device use. However, not every user is necessarily all the time taking advantage of the expanded affordances of mobile devices. Texting and phoning are still the predominant services in mobile communication. Previous research has argued that different styles of mobile communication are related to different user lifestyles. Thus, a remapping and matching of the landscape of mobile communication in relation to user lifestyles seems necessary. In this paper, we take one step back and first consider the instances in which lifestyles become behavior; i.e. actual usage situations of mobile communication. We outline three empirically deduced types of mobile communication usage situations, as well as three types of mobile web usage situations, to shed light on the instant at which lifestyle becomes behavior; i.e. at which specific usage situations of mobile communication actually occur.     

移动通信业务套餐设计原则探讨

针对当前移动通信行业业务套餐设计中存在的问题(如缺乏充分市场细分、没有突出品牌概念、停滞于恶性竞争状态、影响企业整体形象)。以广东移动通信市场为例进行了分析，提出了遵循双赢、有效区隔、协调平衡和注重品牌等4个基本原则。     

Analysis of users and non-users of smartphone applications

Purpose

Smartphones facilitate the potential adoption of new mobile applications. The purpose of this research is to study users and non-users of three selected mobile applications, and find out what really drives the intention to use these applications across users and non-users.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors measured actual usage of mobile applications in a panel study of 579 Finnish smartphone users, using in-device measurements as an objective way to identify users and non-users. A web-based survey was used in collecting data to test an extended TAM model in explaining intention to use.

Findings

Perceived technological barriers negatively affect behavioural control, reflecting people’s assessment of themselves being capable of using the services without trouble. Behavioural control is directly linked to perceived usefulness (except for games) and perceived enjoyment, as hypothesized. Perceived enjoyment and usefulness were generically found to explain intention to use applications for both users and for non-users.

Research limitations/implications

With regards to the impact of social norms, the study finds that further research needs to be done in exploring its impact more thoroughly. The dataset of the research, consisting purely of male-dominated, young smartphone users, make the generalization of results difficult.

Practical implications

There are differences regarding what drives the usage of different kinds of mobile applications. In this study, map applications and mobile Internet, are driven by more utilitarian motivations, whereas games are more hedonic. It is also clear that not everybody are using applications facilitated by smartphones, and therefore the presented approach of studying users and non-users separately provides a new approach to analyze adoption on a practical level.

Originality/value

This research proves that models like TAM should not treat mobile services as a generic concept, but instead to specifically address individual mobile services. The research also demonstrates the unique value of combining objective usage measurements (reflecting actual behaviour) with traditional survey data in more comprehensively modelling service adoption.     

AAA: a survey and a policy-based architecture and framework

The commercialization of the Internet has led to a large variety of business models based on Internet technology. Therefore, the demand for standardized and efficient solutions in support of reliable, secure, open, and flexible remote and mobile service accesses has increased. Existing authentication, authorization, and accounting systems still consider dedicated cases, but lack a generic approach. More general AAA services can be built by extending existing mechanisms and protocols for access scenarios other than dialup or PPP connections. While this work is performed mainly by the IETF AAA Working Group, another approach proposed by the IRTF AAAArch Research Group is termed AAA Architecture. This article surveys the state of the art in AAA and develops a new generic policy-based approach, A/sup x/, for AAA services and beyond, considering flexible levels of various services in an Internet service model, ranging from connectivity to content services.     

Access to premium content on mobile television platforms: The case of mobile sports

As broadcasting sports content has proved to be a popular strategy for driving the growth of the digital premium content marketplace in the past, mobile service operators aim to enter the sports rights market. However, as the markets for live sports broadcasting are still dominated by established broadcasters, mobile network operators are facing significant barriers to access premium content creating bottlenecks in the construction of business models. Therefore, content regulation is seen as essential for the development of mobile television platforms. This article aims to stress the strategic importance of content in the development of sustainable business models for mobile broadcasting services and will discuss the implications of bundling strategies and regulations for the viability of these emerging platforms.     

移动互联网——构筑未来信息社会生活新时尚

移动互联网创造了全新的商业运作模式,其业务的优势在于个性化、实用化和灵活性。根据提供方式和信息内容,移动互联业务可细分为移动公众信息类、移动个人信息类、移动电子商务类、移动娱乐服务类、移动企业虚拟专网类和移动运营模式类;根据应用场合和社会功能还可分为社交型、效率型和情景型。而客户可分为企业用户和个人用户,还可根据其消费特性继续细分。在技术解决方案方面,WAP和GPRS已受到市场的普遍欢迎。     

Effect of dormant registration on performance of mobility management based on IP paging in wireless data networks

Unlike traditional cellular networks, which provide mainly voice services, there is, at present, no method that enables the effective management of terminal mobility for both active and idle mobile terminals in data networks. Although IP paging has been introduced to reduce power consumption of dormant mobile terminals, there is no concern to design an effective IP paging method for real wireless environments. Therefore, we propose a new dormant registration based IP paging method and analyze the effect of the dormant registration threshold used in IP paging on the performance of mobility management. Moreover, we demonstrate the importance of selecting an appropriate value for the dormant registration threshold.     

Mobile services put in context: A Q-sort analysis

Purpose

Objective of this paper to evaluate mobile services on a limited set of characteristics, e.g. usage context, the Innovativeness of the service, efforts required of users for using the service, the usefulness of the service and the likelihood with which it will be used, in order to show that distinction between services is highly relevant for adoption and acceptance research.

Design/method/approach

In this research the mobile services are object of study and therefore an exploratory approach making use of Q-sort methodology is used.

Findings

The characteristics of the 48 services under study play an important role when judged on the five dimensions. Advanced services, explicitly exploiting the mobile nature of the services like navigation and localization, embedded in all kind of task and process related activities, stood out as the most innovative services, however these are the least likely to be used because they are expected to fit day-to-day routines and usage context the least. Easy to use services and services that fit most contexts are most likely to be used.

Practical implications

Designers of mobile services and applications have to be aware of the subtle interplay between usage context, the service or application to be designed, the ease of use. Only when all these factors are taken into account the services may have value to users.

Original value

This is one of the very few studies focused on mobile services, instead of user perception and behavior. In most research on mobile service adoption and acceptance the characteristics of services are threatened as a black box. This paper shows how relevant it is to look into characteristics of mobile services themselves.     

Social acceptance of location-based mobile government services for emergency management

Location-based services deployed by governments can be used to assist people manage emergencies via their mobile handsets. Research delineating the acceptance of public services in the domain of emergency management has been scantly investigated in information systems. The main aim of this study is to assess the viability of location-based mobile emergency services by: (i) exploring the issues related to location-based services and their nationwide utilisation for emergency management; (ii) investigating the attitudinal and behavioural implications of the services; and (iii) examining the social acceptance or rejection of the services and identify the determinants of this acceptance or rejection. The results reveal that both attitude and perceived usefulness demonstrate a good prediction power of behavioural intention. Although perceived ease of use was found not to be a predictor of attitude, the results affirm its influence on perceived usefulness. The results also demonstrate the role of trust as the most influential determinant of individual perception of the usefulness of the services. Further, the results indicate that only the collection of personal location information, as a perceived privacy concern, had a significant negative impact on trust. Implications and future research are also discussed.