Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola, the three giants of cellular phones, this week joined forces to create a standard for delivering secure transactions on mobile handsets by 2001. The move is designed to fuel the rise of mobile commerce, such as banking or buying train tickets with a cellphone – a process the three companies say is being stifled by fragmented technologies.
Consultants McKinsey & Company predict m- commerce will be worth between $9-billion and $16-billion by 2002. The number of cellphone users globally is expected to exceed one billion by 2004.
Once m-commerce becomes popular, it is likely that financial institutions will begin loyalty programmes similar to those offered for credit cards.
The standard being developed will be open and based on the wireless application protocol (WAP). Wireless identification module and mobile public key infrastructure technologies will provide the security functions while connectivity will be based on Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth can be fired from a cellphone, much like an infrared beam, to handle nearby transactions such as paying for a parking meter.
None of the companies would say what operating system would be used for cellphones. However, they are working with Psion in a software consortium known as Symbian to adapt Psion’s operating system, Epoc, into a platform for handheld Internet computers and cellphones.
The Financial Times offers a free Web-mail. What’s new, you say. Well, astonishingly, they don’t mind how much mail you have. In fact, they promise you unlimited e-mail storage space. One suspects there might be limits, but there’s only one way to find out – push them.
Unscrupulous persons like myself might think attaching files to e-mails stored on their server might be an ideal way of storing files without suffering the intrusiveness of online file storage systems such as xfile.com. And of course, having “ft” in your e-mail address does suggest you are an exceptionally well- informed individual. www.ft.com
The Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers (Nisat) began in 1977 when four Norwegian organisations banded together to try to block the spread of small arms to those areas most likely to produce violence and bloodshed. Besides publishing reports and books online, Nisat is also creating a database detailing the small arms trade, regulation and policy. www.nisat.org
They think it’s all over. It is now(ish). It seems that the odd bad vibration that has been sent Bill Gates’s way has had an alarming effect on the Net businesses of hugelyovervalued.com and yesbutyou- boughtitandwe’relaughing.net. Epinions.com provides commentary on the whole Internet bubble.
Everyone from Federal Reserve chairAlan Greenspan to stockbrokers on when the big pop will happen, plus the exclusive “why this is not a bubble, part 2”. epinions. com/srvc-Financial-internetbubble
Bubble monitor
This is the definitive geek bubble page. The Internet Bubble Monitor is maintained by Arnold King. Here find a daily update on some of the more ridiculous methods used to “prop” up the market. There is genuine, informed economic insight here, and a few gags.
King has a lot of Net-savvy friends, plus a sense of humour: “The Internet stocks staged a powerful rally this afternoon, which suggests strong upward momentum tomorrow morning.
“Some analysts attributed the rally to investors who were ‘buying on the dip’. Or maybe they said it was dips that were buying. Whatever.'” www.home.us.net/~arnoldsk/ bubble.html