Asia seen not yet fully ready for mobile commerce

Asia seen not yet fully ready for mobile commerce

SINGAPORE (AFP): Asia has the right ingredients for mobile commerce to flourish but more time is needed to prepare the service providers and technology, the head of industry specialist Network365 said on Tuesday.

"We see it's in this part of the world where mobile commerce is really taking off (but) these things take time," said Raomal Perera, chief executive of the Irish-based company which provides infrastructure for electronic commerce through mobile communications devices.

"There is an initial period where people are trying things out and services are still improving," he said on the sidelines of a mobile commerce conference.

Mobile commerce would take off as better infrastructure was introduced and services became easier to use, he said.

Asia has the second highest number of mobile phone subscribers of any world region, accounting for about 33 percent of worldwide users at the end of 2000, behind Europe with 38 percent.

It also has a young population eager to take advantage of new technology and of new services, such as making transactions by mobile devices.

"When you think of commerce, it's something that we do all the time. Time is money for most people and if there is a simpler way of doing it, why not," he said.

Speakers at the mobile commerce conference expressed optimism that Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) services, popularly known as third generation or 3G, would take off despite doubts by skeptics.

Third-generation mobile phone services allow speedy access to data and video through the Internet.

The three main drivers towards 3G -- telecom carriers, handset makers and content providers -- must work together if consumers are to embrace the next generation of mobile telephony, said Greg Tarr, founder of Internet venture fund company M-Werks.

"If they don't work together, we will have interoperability problems," he said.

Japanese mobile phone giant NTT DoCoMo Inc. is to launch a trial 3G service on May 30, but its full commercial operation has been delayed until Oct. 31.