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Mobile Section 3: Questions regarding mobile communications and the industry layer model

Question 3: Will mobile communications create separate markets for Layers III to V from those for fixed network communications?

As described in Strategy 2 outlined in Question 2, mobile communications are likely to spawn a whole new range of internet applications that are separate from those developed for fixed networks. As the number of mobile users is expected to exceed that of fixed users around 2002-2004 in many countries, will these applications create separate markets which will be as big as, if not bigger than, those for fixed users?

If so, will there also be specialist mobile players who will provide services such as mobile portals, mobile search engines and navigation (Layer IV), and mobile content packaging, for example, stock market quotations, ticket reservations etc (Layer V)?

Does this mean that 'm-business' has as much potential as 'e-business'? Is there a possibility that Europe and Japan will catch up with the US through 'm-business' applications?

If you wish to express your views on questions such as these go to the Mobile Workshop. To compare your visions with those of others go to Vision Check - Mobile.