Homework 3

WiMAX based mobile devices enable new possiblities. Or more than that?

mCommerce as a part of mobile business is a special kind of eCommerce which is based on the usage of wirless communication and devices. This is offering services like finding the nearest cinema which shows the newes movies or sending customized advertisment to a mobile client. For example: you need a new digital camera and you will be informed by your mobile device that the camera shop in the next shop offers the newest model of canon.

This kind of mobile offering services is not new and existing technologies like UMTS or GPRS will be able to realize that. These technologies are able to fullfill the requirements of mCommerce: localisation of the client, personalize the needs of the customer and allows an instantly connectivity.

But the bandwith of these technologies is limited and as a consequence no big amount of data could be exchanged in acceptable time. The solution will be the a new technology called WiMAX.

WiMAX is based on microwaves like WLAN with the goal offering high bandwith by a short delay time. WiMAX differs from WLAN by the fact that one base station decides which client can send data. WiMAX enables an instantly connectivity to the internet to small mobile clients (also to laptops, but these devices are not interessting for us).

A mobile device which uses WiMAX allows us doing new things which were reserved to local internet clients. Additional to these mCommerce services we are able to extend our mobile devices to entertain us and to communicate in new ways. All TVs content can be offered on demand. Watching live a soccer game of your favorite team while you are going abraod. News, videos, documentations, ... can be downloaded. So, you decide when you want to consume these informations. There will be no dependence from a TVs schedule. If you are somewhere in Europe you are able to listen to an australian online radio station. Newspapers become needless because if somewhere something happens, your mobile device will receive the latest news immedietally.

Also communicate with somebody changes. You don't need to dial your communication partner because your mobile device has a feature similar to skype or icq. Chatting and IRC is also possible.

Surfing in the internet with all features of a wired internet connection are possible. Starting with email and surfing and ending up mobile online banking and mobile online brokerage.

The reason for the success of this technology is that the usage is not a new one. All this things can be done already today. The difference is that you can communicate, entertain yourself and use the internet in a mobile way without any restrictions to bandwith.

Also new services can be offerd. In case of a medical emergency this mobile device can call an ambulance by sending the position of its owner and a first diagnose. It can be used as a navigation system which warns you if a traffic jam will occure. If a car accident happens to you the ambulance can be called automatically. Or you can control the heating system at home or switching on a washing maschine or the oven.

We can think also in a more si-fi direction. Obligatory using a mobile device for identification can be change the world dramatically. A driver license, passport or the credit card can be replaced. Also simple medical data can be stored on it e.g. blood group, allergies, ... Access control to some restricted area can also be realized. Also government can use this devices to observe everybody. Nobody can escape from that. It can be a very helpful tool to support the paranoid spy laws of governments which will have a police state in future. This would be the realization of Orwell's dreams.

This possibilities are very vulnerable for abuse but can make life more easier and convinient. Maybe it is possible to have a camera placed as a contact lens which is connected to this mobile device. All recieved pictures are scanned and a realtime-search for background information will be done via the high speed internet connection enabled by WiMAX. For example. you are standing in front of a advertisment of a cinema movie, the scanner sends the pictures to the mobile device, the main content will be aquired aout of the picture and a semantical search for the story, names of the protagonists and reviews will be offered.

The usage of this tool replaces a lot of other tools: cell phone, organizer, a music and video player,
But I think the society will change also. People are playing to their new toys without recognizing their directly area. The number of people which shut themself away from their fellow men will increase. Maybe these people forget how to communicate each other without a chat program.

An other bad fact is that all this people got entertainted by a lot of pictures and so the will not be able to read and recognize the content of a written message. This problem occurs today at schools and I think it will increase.