Mobile Commerce

Hand-held wireless devices will play an increasingly important role in retail in the near future, giving consumers another way to shop besides in stores, through catalogs and on the Internet, experts predicted last week during a national retail trade show.

What gives? If you're talking about Facebook shares, it's the news that the social networking giant is getting into online and mobile commerce by launching a new service that lets Facebook users send gifts to their friends. Facebook rose 7% to $21.80 in heavy trading  Friday after Facebook said it would begin rolling out Gifts that let users send real gifts - not virtual ones - such as T-shirts, eyeglasses, socks, chocolate and coffee. Facebook takes a cut from each transaction.

What gives? If you're talking about Facebook shares, it's the news that the social networking giant is getting into online and mobile commerce by launching a new service that lets Facebook users send gifts to their friends. Facebook rose 7% to $21.80 in heavy trading  Friday after Facebook said it would begin rolling out Gifts that let users send real gifts - not virtual ones - such as T-shirts, eyeglasses, socks, chocolate and coffee. Facebook takes a cut from each transaction.

After several years of false starts, the grand hopes for mobile commerce in 2002 rest in no small part on the slender shoulders of Adirem Quintel. The 25-year-old field technician for Nortel Networks Corp. is part of an army of thousands of workers who are quietly yet methodically visiting cellular towers across the nation and upgrading them for a new generation of faster wireless networks.

Dot-com companies are shutting down daily, tech stocks are tumbling and the euphoria that once infused all things Internet has dissipated. But for the eternal optimists who populate the "new economy," there is still one sliver of hope: mobile commerce. "M-commerce," which has become the latest high-tech buzzword, turns cell phones and two-way pagers into shopping devices, along with Palm and Pocket PC hand-helds with wireless Internet access.

After several years of false starts, the grand hopes for mobile commerce in 2002 rest in no small part on the slender shoulders of Adirem Quintel. The 25-year-old field technician for Nortel Networks Corp. is part of an army of thousands of workers who are quietly yet methodically visiting cellular towers across the nation and upgrading them for a new generation of faster wireless networks.

Four credit card companies formed a cross-industry group this week to develop secure, user-friendly payment standards for transactions made using cell phones and other mobile devices. The Mobile Payment Forum was launched by American Express Co., MasterCard International, Visa International and JCB Co. Forum members are expected to include other financial institutions, operators of telecommunication networks, wireless device makers, merchants and software providers.

This week is the wireless industry's big annual trade show in Las Vegas, and with it will come a bevy of announcements about new, do-it-all mobile phones, mobile commerce possibilities and faster-than-ever wireless Internet connections. There also will be plenty of prognostication about the growth of the mobile Internet and how and when consumers will be wowed by its capabilities.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is buying social media company Kosmix Corp. in a move to better position itself with online and mobile consumers. "We are expanding our capabilities in today's rapidly growing social commerce environment," Eduardo Castro-Wright, Wal-Mart's vice chairman, said in a statement. "Social networking and mobile applications are increasingly becoming a part of our customers' day-to-day lives globally, influencing how they think about shopping, both online and in retail stores.

After Chicago public school teacher Wardella Winchester was kidnapped in March and forced into a car trunk, she pulled out a cell phone and dialed for help. But from the dark confines of the trunk, Winchester couldn't offer a clue where she was. And in Chicago, like most areas of the country, 911 dispatchers can't pinpoint a wireless phone with the accuracy of calls made from conventional wired phones. By the time police found her two days later in nearby Indiana, she had been fatally shot.

Four credit card companies formed a cross-industry group this week to develop secure, user-friendly payment standards for transactions made using cell phones and other mobile devices. The Mobile Payment Forum was launched by American Express Co., MasterCard International, Visa International and JCB Co. Forum members are expected to include other financial institutions, operators of telecommunication networks, wireless device makers, merchants and software providers.

Dot-com companies are shutting down daily, tech stocks are tumbling and the euphoria that once infused all things Internet has dissipated. But for the eternal optimists who populate the "new economy," there is still one sliver of hope: mobile commerce. "M-commerce," which has become the latest high-tech buzzword, turns cell phones and two-way pagers into shopping devices, along with Palm and Pocket PC hand-helds with wireless Internet access.

Hand-held wireless devices will play an increasingly important role in retail in the near future, giving consumers another way to shop besides in stores, through catalogs and on the Internet, experts predicted last week during a national retail trade show.

AT&T Inc., T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Wireless want to replace your wallet with a smart phone. The companies ? three of the country's largest mobile carriers ? are partnering to create a mobile commerce network to allow customers across the country to make purchases with just a wave of an iPhone or Android. Isis, the joint venture they created for the project, will be headed by Michael Abbot, a former financial executive with GE Capital. The system will use near-field communication technology, which passes encrypted information between devices at close range but doesn't require contact.

Fearing that a new technology capable of pinpointing the exact location of cell phone users could leave them vulnerable to aggressive marketers or criminals, consumer groups are urging regulators to impose stricter privacy rules. "There's a whole lot more value to information if I'm an advertiser or a bad guy, and I not only know what Web sites you are visiting but where you are as well," said Don Bromley, a security expert at Fiderus, a consulting firm based in Research Triangle Park, N.C.