Endnotes

¹ To simplify usage, the term "e-commerce" is employed for electronic commerce transactions carried out via fixed, wired terminals, and the term "m-commerce" is for electronic commerce transactions carried out via mobile, wireless terminals. In the larger sense, both are variations of electronic transactions, but using the prefix "e" for fixed/wired and "m" for mobile makes it easier to contrast these two types of electronic transactions.

² See http://www.gwcom.com/html/news0303.htm.

³ The examples in the foregoing paragraph are of using mobile phones as aids for regular commerce. The step to m-commerce, however, is a short one, when reliable and easy-to-use data-ready phones become widely available.

⁴ Leapfrogging effects of developing countries adopting the latest mobile technologies are going to taper off, as the developing countries accumulate sizable segments of mobile users. With 3G, and especially with 4G, only the poorest and most backward developing nations are apt to engage in leapfrogging. In other developing nations, the "mixed generation" pattern of the affluent economies will begin to take hold.

⁵ A variety of standards can be found even in a continent. For example, at the end of the first quarter of 2001, Latin America had 32 million TDMA subscribers, 15.9 million users had CDMA handsets, and 4.9 million had GSM handsets (Petrazzini & Hilbert, 2001).

⁶ The standards mentioned here are from the recent IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications-2000) recommendation.

⁷ PC penetration in South Korea is about 50%, similar to levels in the United States (Luna, 2002).

⁸ 1X (or CDMA2000 1X) is the name that identifies the 3G technology that upgrades CDMA networks and wireless devices to 3G features and services.

⁹ BREW platform, designed by QUALCOMM, is a thin application execution environment providing an open, standard platform for wireless devices. Carriers' BREW-based services enable wireless users to customize their handsets by downloading applications over the air from a carrier's application download server.