M-Business - The Race to Mobility

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Mobile Application Infrastructure

Companies must know the type of infrastructure required by mobile applications. They must also understand the costs associated with the development of mobile infrastructure. Let us understand the various building blocks of mobile infrastructure and which are the major companies providing the infrastructure and their business models: Application Gateways: Also known as platform providers they are the companies, which provide user management services like secure access, directories and administration services. Companies in this category also provide services like e-mail, message scheduling, portal services like content, knowledge management and e-commerce services like catalog, transactions and billing services. Companies in this category include Openwave that provides end-to-end software solutions to large carrier companies. It also provides software solutions in applications and infrastructure area. Mobile Application Service Providers: These companies provide outsourcing services to the companies, which do not have enough money to develop their own mobile infrastructure, or do not want to get into this segment.

They also offer data center and infrastructure hosting services besides renting their equipment, space and bandwidth to other companies. A company in this category is Aether that provides mobile software solutions for government, logistics and healthcare sectors. Aether derives its revenues from three services including recurring subscriptions for its services, software licensing and engineering services.

Mobile Internet Service Providers: They are an important component of the mobile infrastructure as these companies provide end users with Internet connectivity. Companies like AT&T, OmniSky and Verizon provide wireless Internet connectivity to the mobile users. They also provide services like e-mail, instant messaging, and information surfing and secure m-commerce transactions. OmniSky provides unlimited use of wireless e-mail and Internet services for its subscribers. The subscribers have to purchase a wireless modem from the company, which enables their handheld devices to access the company's services. OmniSky charges a flat rate fee for its services.

Mobile Application Enablers: The companies under this group provide data and transaction security services. Verisign, Sybase and Synchrologic are companies, which provide these services to the mobile users. Verisign provides services in the area of transaction security, Sybase in micro-database and Synchrologic in the area of data synchronization.

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