Tremendous advancements in the information technology and mobile applications, the number of customers for these technologies has also increased. Mobile commerce or M commerce has become a common term today, which is virtually branded as the method of literally having the retail store in the pocket. With help of the smart phones and wireless technology, customers can enjoy buying their favorite things with their mobiles from any location. Apart from purchase, it is also used for paying bills, money transactions and mobile advertising. With the booming growth in the smartphones industry, the M commerce market is expecting to witness exponential growth in the next few years to come. New investments and path breaking technological advancements are expected to encourage revenue channels in the next few years to come.

Scope of Research – Segmentation

Before understanding the market trends and challenges, researchers segment the global mobile commerce market on the basis of the types of transactions, payment modes, the types of users, and lastly, the geographic regions of the global marketplace. Following are the details of the sub-segmentation in the M commerce market:

• Transactions: M billing, M retailing, M booking, M ticketing and other mobile services
• Users: Feature phone users and smartphone users
• Payment: Direct carrier billing, near field communication, wireless app protocol and SMS
• Geography: EU, APAC, LA, MEA, and Europe

Drivers and Future Prospects

There is a significant rise in the number of mobile users across the world. This rise is also driven by advancing technologies and growing penetration of coverage networks are encouraging the customers from around the world to invest into smartphones. Growing investments in BYOD and internet enabled devices, smartphones and tablets are also driving growth in the mobile commerce market. Mobile commerce is also considered as one of the most convenient and safe ways to money transactions, which is generating awareness as well as interest of the customers in this industry. Strong broadband connectivity, evolving technology and growth in smartphone market are expected to be the strongest drivers for the global market.

However, factors like strong networking and application infrastructure, hindrances in the flow of information and rising competition are considered to be major restrains for the industry. Nonetheless, the M Commerce Market is poised to witness impressive growth during the forecasting frame of the next four to five years. According to the reports, the industry is expected to maintain a CAGR of over 32% from 2014, to reach $467.35 billion by the end of 2019. As of 2014, the mobile commerce market is worth $116.12 billion in 2014. During the forecasting period, North America is expected to dominate the global market. Innovative applications, technological advancements, and strategic investments are anticipated to create better business opportunities in the industry.