Mobile Commerce Microbrowser
A Solution in Mobile Commerce Micro browser
Micro browsers
Micro browsers are a miniaturized version of desktop browsers such as Netscape Navigator sand Microsoft Internet Explorers. They provide graphical user interfaces that enable mobile users to interact with mobile commerce applications. Due to the limited resources of hand held devices, micro browsers differ from traditional desktop browsers in the following ways:
smaller windows,
smaller footprints, and
fewer functions and multimedia features.Figure 5 shows a typical micro browser, a Mobile Browser version 7.0 from Open wave Systems, which includes the following features: compatibility with WAP or i-mode,multimedia support, color images and animation, and dual network stack, HTTP and WSP, support (Open wave Systems Inc., n.d.).
Figure 5: Open wave Mobile Browser version 7
Input/Output Devices
Various I/O devices have been adopted by mobile handheld devices. The only major output device is the screen, whereas there are several popular input devices, including:
· Keyboards: There are two kinds of keyboards: built-in keyboards and external, plug-in keyboards. The problem with the former is that they are too small for touch-typing, whereas the latter suffers from inconvenience. Fabric keyboards that can be rolled up or folded around the handheld devices are being developed to relieve the problem of external keyboards.
· Touch screens/writing areas with a stylus: A touch screen is a display that is sensitive to human touch, allowing a user to interact with the applications by touching pictures or words on the screen, and a stylus is an input device used to write text or draw lines on a surface as input to a handheld device.
Memory
Desktop PCs or notebooks usually have between 64 to 256 Mbytes of memory available for users, whereas handheld devices typically have only 4 to 64 Mbytes. PDAs normally have more storage space than smart cellular phones. The former commonly have 16 Mbytes, and the latter may have a memory size as low as a few Kbytes. Three types of memory are usually employed by handheld devices: i) random access memory, ii) read-only memory, and iii) flash memory. It is expected that hard disks, which provide much more storage capacity, will be adopted by handheld devices in the near future. A comprehensive survey of storage options can be found in Scheible (2002).
Batteries
Rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries are the batteries most commonly used by handheld devices. The life of this kind of battery is short, generally only a few hours of operating time. Battery technology will not significantly improve unless and until manufacturers begin to switch to fuel cells, which is unlikely in the near future. A fuel cell operates like a battery, but unlike a battery, a fuel cell does not run down or require recharging and will continue to produce energy in the form of electricity and heat as long as fuel is supplied. Since the fuel cell relies on chemical energy rather than combustion, emissions would be much lower than emissions from the cleanest existing fuel combustion processes.
Hand held Computing
Hand held computing is the future of computer science because 650 million smart cellular phones, not including PDAs, will be used by 2006. Hand held computing is the programming for hand held devices and it includes two kinds: client-and server-side hand held programming.
Client-Side Handheld Programming
Client-side handheld programming is to develop embedded applications such as an address book on handheld devices. Some of the popular mobile environments/languages for this kind of programming are listed below:
BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless): It is an open-source on-line application development platform for wireless CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) devices from Qualcomm Inc. (n.d.). Because BREW runs in between the application and the chip operating system software, the application can use the device's functionality without the developer needing to code to the system interface or even having to understand wireless applications.
J2ME (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition): It is a technology developed by Sun Micro system that allows programmers to use the Java programming language and related tools to develop programs for mobile wireless information devices such as cellular phones and personal digital assistants (Sun Micro system, Inc., n.d.). J2ME consists of programming specifications and a special virtual machine, the K Virtual Machine, that allows a J2ME-encoded program to run in the mobile device. J2ME consists of two elements—configurations and profiles
PalmOS: Palm OS (Palm Source, Inc., n.d.) runs on almost two out of every three mobile stations. Its popularity can be attributed to its many advantages, such as its long battery life, support for a wide variety of wireless standards, and the abundant software available. The plain design of the Palm OS has resulted in a long battery life, approximately twice that of its rivals. It supports many important wireless standards, including Bluetooth and 802.11b local wireless and GSM, Mobitex, and CDMA wide-area wireless networks.
Windows mobile: Microsoft Windows CE, introduced in 1996, was not well received primarily because of battery-hungry hardware and limited functionality, possibly due to the way that Windows CE was adapted for mobile stations from other Microsoft 32-bit desktop operating systems. Microsoft later introduced Pocket PC (n.d.) and Smartphone (n.d.), which were designed with better service for mobile users in mind and offers far more computing power than Windows
Symbian: EPOC16 from Psion Software is a 16-bit version of an operating system that has been available for several years and is embedded in many mobile stations; EPOC32 is a 32-bit open operating system that supports preemptive multitasking. In mid-1998, Psion joined forces with Ericsson, Nokia, and Motorola to form a new joint venture called Symbian OS (2004), with the aim of establishing EPOC as the de facto operating system for mobile stations.
Server-Side Hand held Programming
Server-side hand held programming is to develop hand held applications such as mobile Web contents for mobile hand held devices. Many mobile applications such as instant messaging and emails require the supports of server-side programs. Mobile Web contents is the most common one of these applications. They are usually implemented by using a three-tier architecture: i) user interface, ii) functional module, and iii) database management system. Figure 6 shows a generalized system structure of database-driven mobile Web sites.
Database design: E-R modeling or normalization Mobile contents developers Queries
Figure 6: A generalized system structure of database-driven mobile Web sites
Mobile Commerce Payment Methods
Mobile commerce security is defined as the technological and managerial procedures applied to mobile commerce to provide security properties. Among the many issues that arise with mobile commerce security, mobile payment methods are the most important. They are the methods used to pay for goods or services with a mobile handheld device.
Requirements and Properties
The requirements and properties of secure mobile commerce information and systems are as follows (Lee, Kou, & Hu, 2004):
· Confidentiality: The information and systems must not be disclosed to unauthorized persons, processes, or devices.
· Authentication: Ensures parties that a transaction is not an impostor and is trusted.
· Integrity: The information and systems have not been altered or corrupted by outside parties.
· Authorization: Procedures must be provided to verify that a user can make the requested purchases.
· Availability: An authorized user must have timely, reliable access to information in order to perform mobile commerce transactions.
· Non-repudiation: Ensures a user that the transaction performed by him/her can not be denied. The requirements for mobile commerce security are:
· Confidentiality, authentication, integrity, authorization, availability, and non-repudiation must be rigorously enforced.
· They should be interoperable for most systems.
· They should be acceptable by the current or future systems with reduced cost.
· No mobile commerce transactions are deferred/deterred because of the deployment. The requirements for mobile payment methods are the same as the ones of mobile commerce security with an additional item:
· They should allow content providers to provide affordable, easy-to-use, efficient and interoperable payment methods to users.
Macro payment and Micro payment Methods
They are usually two kinds of mobile commerce payment methods:
Figure 7: A typical macro payment scenario
A typical macro payment / micro payment scenario is as follows and they are illustrated in Figures 7 and 8, respectively:
· A mobile user submits his/her credit-card or personal information to the mobile content via a handheld device.
· A third-party processor verifies and authorizes the transaction.
· The third-party processor routes verification and authorization requests to the card issuing bank or mobile carrier.
· The user pays his/her monthly credit-card or phone bill.
The bank pays the mobile content provider or the mobile carrier pays the mobile content provider directly or through a bank after deducting transaction fees.
Figure 8: A typical micro payment scenario
Conclusions
This section gives conclusions of the four mobile commerce themes discussed in this article:
· Mobile commerce systems: A mobile commerce system involves a range of disciplines and technologies. This level of complexity makes understanding and constructing a mobile commerce system an arduous task. To facilitate this process, this chapter divided a mobile commerce system into six components: i) mobile commerce applications, ii) mobile hand held devices, iii) mobile middle ware, iv) wireless networks, v) wired networks, and vi) host computers.
· Mobile hand held devices: Mobile hand held devices are one of the core components of mobile commerce systems, as they are needed for mobile users to directly interact with mobile commerce applications. Understanding the devices and knowing their functions and capabilities is vital for the success of mobile commerce applications. A hand held device relies on a wide range of disciplines and technologies for its success. To facilitate the understanding, this chapter broke down the functions of a hand held device into six major components: i) mobile operating systems, ii) mobile central processing units, iii) micro browsers, iv) input/output devices, v) memory, and vi) batteries.
· Hand held computing: Hand held computing is the programming for hand held devices and it includes two kinds:
· Client-side hand held programming: It is to develop embedded applications such as an address book on hand held devices.
· Server-side hand held programming: It is to develop hand held applications such as mobile Web contents for mobile hand held devices.
· Mobile payment methods: Another important issue for mobile commerce is mobile security and payment. Mobile commerce systems can prosper only if
Information can be securely exchanged among end systems (consumers and vendors). Security issues (including payment) include data reliability, integrity, confidentiality, and authentication and are usually an important part of implementation in wireless protocols/systems. Solutions are updated frequently, due to the lack of a comprehensive wireless security infrastructure and standard. A unified approach has not yet emerged. Among the many themes of mobile commerce security, mobile payment methods are probably the most important. These consist of the methods used to pay for goods or services with a mobile hand held device, such as a smart cellular phone or an Internet-enabled PDA. A typical mobile payment process includes: i) registration, ii) payment submission, iii) authentication and authorization by a content provider, and iv) confirmation.