Strategies and scenarios for wireless information systems

This thesis investigates the emerging market for wireless information services caused by the convergence of Internet, information and telecommunication technologies. Portals and content and application providers are now entering a market previously controlled and dominated by the wireless network providers. This thesis starts with a description of this new value chain and a discussion of the power of each of the participants. This is followed by an overview of the market size and the projections for the future, together with a description of services currently available around the world and associated business models. A case study on wireless financial services follows next, to illustrate what might happen and be available in other industries in the near future. I developed three scenarios for the wireless Internet services the next three years: ** A closed case: The Wireless Network As A Toll Road ** Status quo: Internet and Commerce Without Wires, Why The Hype? ** An open case: New Unique and Value-added Offerings Create New Markets I used interviews with leading industry expert to validate these scenarios. There was a general consensus among the experts and managers that my most optimistic and pessimistic scenarios represent the likely range of possible future outcomes. The majority believes we will move from the current closed (i.e. the pessimistic) case to the open model (i.e. the optimistic scenario) ending up somewhere close to the open case. The experts believed that the open model would eventually "win" due to technical improvements and competitive pressure. Based on this, I arrived at ten strategies for successful market penetration of wireless information services. The top three are; act quickly to gain first-mover advantages, enter into profit sharing because this is a complex and networked marketplace, and thirdly address unspoken and subtle needs. The main challenges facing the players in this market are: ** They have to share the ownership and responsibility of the customer experience ** The need for developing open standards together to fuel the growth of the market ** That the timing of the products and services must be right the first time.

Department dc:contributor.department

Management of Technology Program.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2000

Author dc:creator

• Hatloy, Andres Svadberg, 1964-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Henry Birdseye Weil.

• Management of Technology Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/9276

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/9276