Long term Evolution (LTE)

The fourth generation mobile phones and tablets have capabilities of 3G, GSM and VoIP (Voice Over IP). This VoIP capability will help companies to slash their phone charges to a great extent. Business applications on such mobile devices will ensure that the application can be run simultaneously while speaking to a client/peer.

Smartphone applications

Third-party software vendors will increasingly make enterprise applications available for smartphones, including inventory management, electronic medical records management, warehousing, distribution and even architectural and building inspection data.

Security

As different types of mobile devices are introduced, corporate IT departments will find it increasingly challenging to identify and authenticate individual end users. As such, expect to see a combination of improvements in both Virtual Private Network (VPN) software and hardware-based VPNs to support multiple device types.

2010 and 2011 saw tremendous growth in the demand for mobile devices and applications. So what is it for 2012?

Business Applications

Enterprises and its employees are increasingly becoming dependent on their mobile devices to save time and multitask. With mobility penetrating all departments of an organization, app development for business’ is going to expand further and grow in 2012. Wise choice of the platform and specific business app is going to drive the growth for application developers.

Cloud and Mobility

Cloud computing can make a significant difference for mobile users as their devices offer continually improving functionality. The partnership between very powerful mobile devices and even-more-powerful cloud platforms creates the sort of opportunity that stretches the mind for application developers, and introduces new opportunities for applications that didn’t even occur to people in the desktop PC world.

Mobile Payment Apps

Payment preferences of the consumers are shifting from just online to mobile payments. Mobile Wallet services are likely to replace credit/debit cards and net banking. Organizations other than financial institutions will also invest in custom made payment applications.

Location Based Apps

The traction to develop location based applications is on the raise with all the mobile devices being able to support GPS. This is beneficial for mobile advertisers, mobile markets to offer targeted, location based content for its consumers.

End Consumers: An end consumer expects personalized service, minimal learning, good level of security and privacy of the data shared, interoperability between various networks, devices and the financial institutions, minimal cost of usage.

Merchant: Merchants expect quick transaction time of the application, minimal cost in using the solution/application, easy integration into the existing system, high level of security, certain degree of customization, real time status of the payment.

Financial Institutions: Expectations include network operator independent solution, application as per designed by the bank, exceptional branding opportunities for the institutions, ability to handle volumes of transactions and ensure customer loyalty.

Mobile commerce is a natural successor to electronic commerce. Mobile payments complement cash, cheques, credit cards and debit cards. Mobile payments are most advantageous in the utilities and insurance sectors with access to account-based payment instruments such as electronic funds transfer, internet banking payments, direct debit and electronic bill presentment.

Mobile payment solutions may be classified according to the type of payment effected, and based on the technology adopted to implement the solution.

Solutions based on payments are

• Bank Account based – the bank account of the customer is linked to the mobile device of the customer
• Credit card based – the credit card number is linked to the customer’s device
• Telecommunication Company Billing based – the payment by the customer is made through the service provider and later charged in his phone bill.

Solutions based on technology adopted are

• Short Message Service (SMS)
• Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) – technology unique to GSM
• Phone based application (J2ME/BREW) – the application resides on the mobile phone of the customer.
• Near Field Communication (NFC) – is a fusion of RFID and mobile phones. NFC enabled phones act as RFID tags or readers.
• Chip based – the application is integrated in the SIM card.
• Mobile wallet – the application resides in the device with details of the customer allowing him to make payments using the device.

Providing heterogeneous mobility allows the mobile device moving to other networks in order to satisfy service requirements such as Quality of Service (QoS), and provide the best experience for the user.

Media-Independent Handover (MIH) is a framework defined by the IEEE 802.21 working group to support the handover in heterogeneous networks. This framework aims to facilitate the network discovery and selection process by gathering information locally from the mobile network interfaces and remotely from other MIH entities in the network infrastructure.  This framework has three different components as mentioned below.

MIH Function (MIHF): The MIHF is a logical entity that comprises three services: Media Independent Command Service (MICS), Media Independent Event Service (MIES), and Media Independent Information Service (MIIS).

Service Access Points (SAP): SAP is an interface that defines a set of primitives to communicate between the MIHF and the other layers.

MIH Users: MIH users are entities that use MIH services and manage the mobility process, normally a layer 3 mobility protocol (L3MP). These MIH users can be located in the mobile node or in the network.

This media-independent framework is a more scalable and efficient method of addressing inter-technology handovers.