Business Agility: Strategies for Gaining Competitive Advantage through Mobile Business Solutions

may be a networking equipment provider such as CISCO. The

middleware/gateway provider may be a wireless middleware ven-

dor such as Brience. The content aggregator may be a wireless ven-

dor such as InfoSpace. The application provider may be a wireless

application service provider such as JP Mobile. Finally, the device

manufacturer may be a handset manufacturer such as Ericsson.

In this example, the enterprise customer might access a WAP-

enabled Internet site via InfoSpace, his or her e-mail on Microsoft

Exchange (enabled for wireless access by JP Mobile), and an enterprise

application on the intranet via wireless middleware from Brience.

The major components of the value chain include the networking

components (both the networks themselves and the operators of those

networks), the communications software components (including

infrastructure software such as wireless middleware and gateways),

content and application services, and the end user devices.

If we add the physical location component to the equation, that is

to say the physical point of access to the applications and services, the

value chain changes. This category could be included within the appli-

cation provider section of the value chain or perhaps within a new cat-

egory labeled access provider.

Players within this application provider or access provider cate-

gory could be the physical access providers, such as airlines and

hotels, together with the located-based services companies who pro-

vide the location information for end users, target destinations, or

assets that need to be tracked.

Value Chain for Consumer Wireless Data

Figure 2–8 shows a simplified mobile business value chain for the

consumer.

The main difference between the consumer-focused value chain for

M-Business when compared to the enterprise-focused value chain is

that the consumer value chain focuses more on external retailers and

Chapter 2 • The M-Business Evolution >> 55

Figure 2–8 M-Business Value Chain for the Consumer.

Network

Operators

Network

Infrastructure

Providers

Retailers

Content

Providers/

Aggregators

Application

Providers

Device

Manufacturers

End

Users

content providers. It has less to do with the internal wireless middle-

ware and enterprise applications that characterize the enterprise space.

The value chain becomes more complex as network operators

work with any array of retailers, financial institutions, content

providers, and advertisers to assemble their wireless data portals for

the consumer population.

Key Wireless Companies

Some of the key players who are shaping the mobile economy include

the device manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, wireless carriers,

wireless service providers, telematics providers, and wireless software

companies. Table 2–3 shows a sample listing of some of these players.

Since the market is moving so quickly and smaller players often

merge, are acquired, or go out of business, this table simply shows

some of the current players in the space at the time of this writing. It

is certainly not to be considered an exhaustive list.

Publicly-Traded Wireless Vendors

Companies in the wireless sector have enjoyed the same roller-coaster

ride in terms of their stock price as the rest of the technology indus-

try. Some of the major players are worth studying. By doing so, we

may better understand the market dynamics and the interdependen-

cies that the various players have on one another in the value chain.

A downturn in economic outlook for the wireless carriers has a

ripple effect for the telecom equipment manufacturers and the hand-

set manufacturers. This filters down along all aspects of the value

chain. The drivers of the market can be considered the telecommuni-

cations providers—both wireline and wireless. The telecom equip-

ment manufacturers follow after them, with the software companies

focused on carrier-specific wireless applications and the wireless appli-

cation service providers close behind.

M-Business magazine’s M-Business 50 Stock Index presents a

good sampling of the major players within the mobile economy. It

tracks 50 public companies, ranging from the global telecom giants to

mobile startups. Table 2–4 presents an alphabetical listing of these

players together with their respective stock symbols.

56 >> Business Agility

Table 2–3 Key Wireless Companies in the Wireless Internet Value Chain

(continued)

Wireless Carriers

North America

>> AT&T Wireless

>> Cingular Wireless

>> Nextel

>> Qwest Wireless

>> Sprint PCS

>> Verizon

>> VoiceStream

Japan

>> KDDI

>> NTT DoCoMo

Europe

>> BT Genie

>> NetCom

>> Orange

>> Telia

>> TIM

>> T-Mobil

>> Virgin Mobile

Asia/Pacific

>> KT FreeTel

>> LG Telecom

>> KTM.com

>> China Mobile

>> China Unicom

Wireless

Middleware/

Gateways

Gateways

>> Ericsson

>> IBM

>> Microsoft

>> Nokia

>> Openwave

Middleware

>> @Hand

>> 2Roam

>> 724 Solutions

>> Aether

>> Brience

>> Cyneta Networks

>> Everypath

>> IBM

>> iConverse

>> JP Mobile

>> InfoWave

>> Microsoft

>> Oracle

Device

Manufacturers

>> Compaq

>> Ericsson

>> Handspring

>> Kyocera

>> Mitsubishi

>> Motorola

>> NEC

>> Neopoint

>> Nokia

>> Palm

>> RIM

>> Sony

>> Symbol

Table 2–3 (continued)

Wireless

Application

Service Providers

>> 2Roam

>> Aether

>> Air2Web

>> Everypath

>> JP Mobile

>> Seven

Wireless Equipment

Manufacturers

>> American Tower

>> Cisco

>> InnerWireless

>> Lucent

>> NEC

>> Nortel Networks

>> Red-M

>> Siemens

Operating System

& Browser

Manufacturers

>> Microsoft

>> Openwave

>> Palm

>> Symbian

Wireless

Applications

Security

>> Baltimore

>> Diversinet

>> Entrust

>> VeriSign

Telematics

>> ATX Technologies

>> OnStar

UM/UC

>> Openwave

>> Webley

Voice

>> Informio

>> Nuance

>> SpeechWorks

Wireless

Applications

M-Commerce

>> 724 Solutions

>> Aether

>> Brokat

>> More Magic

>> Qpass

>> Trintech

Portals

>> AvantGo

>> Handango

>> InfoSpace

>> Openwave

>> Oracle

>> Palm.net

>> Sirenic

Location-Based

>> Cell-Loc

>> Openwave

>> SignalSoft

Wireless

Applications

CRM

>> E.piphany

>> eWare

>> PeopleSoft

>> Siebel

FFA

>> @Hand

>> Antenna Software

>> FieldCentrix

>> Siebel

SFA

>> Pivotal

>> SalesForce.com

>> Siebel

Alerts/Messaging/

Monitoring

>> CellExchange

>> Envoy Worldwide

>> Notifact