Gonca Telli Yamamoto. Mobilized Marketing and the Consumer: Technological Developments and Challenges. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference, 2010.
The dictionary definition of mobile is capable of moving or being moved, movable. Mobile technology considers the portable, movable and usable movement devices and the systems that operate such devices. Therefore, mobile technology has a tremendously wide scope with the services it presents, the installation systems and the devices used on such systems. The developments in this technology come out in dizzying speed. The realized innovations offer people the means of life that gradually mobilize and merge into very different options. In this section, first the definition of mobile communication is examined in detail and the issues and characteristics regarding how it became involved in life and popularized are discussed.
Special care is shown for systems such as the wireless internet and GPS-Galileo which support mobile communication. Their features and the means provided by these systems are explained. The technological developments in mobile communication began from 0G with the establishment of communication satellites, mobile phones and radio connections, and with the formation of global telephone networks and wideband areas, and they are now detailed up to 4G, which is to take place in our lives in the future. At this stage, especially the 2.5G system used in our present time technology and also Bluetooth, ultra wide band, ad hoc wireless systems that have been developed in transition to 3G are also interrelated. Besides, the mobile phone is the most commonly used device of mobile communication and its features are also discussed.
Finally, the development of mobile communication with user dimensions is evaluated and its various functions added compared to other means of communication are discussed.
Definition of Mobile Communication
Mobile communication, most simply, is the type of communication provided via mobile devices. As a means, which cannot be limited to individual movements, activity in mobile communication is related with the changing places of the individual in the process of life. The continuity of the mobile communication arises from the continuous togetherness of the communication tool with the individual who always carries the device everywhere.
The fastest developments in terms of mobile life are related with the field of communication. Changes have arisen in parallel to the previously developed technologies in mobile communication. The obtained developments in this regard have rapidly been included in life in the last decade and a brand new communication style and technologies which support this style have arisen.
Mobilization previously showed itself with wireless telephones as the devices used by certain sections. After the use of mobile computers expanded, the opportunity of reaching information from anywhere instead of reaching it in its place has been provided. As the functions of the mobile phone interlaced with those of computers, the opportunity for active individuals to communicate regardless of place, time and location also arose. These opportunities provided the person to possess a memory where he or she can communicate and keep records related with business, and made the functions of the already available devices as usable as possible everywhere. Mobile communication is communicating via tools and instruments that are produced with mobile technologies.
According to its general definition, communication is the exchange of ideas and information mutually between two people, two groups or within groups through talk, certain signals, writing or behaviors. The transfer of data from one system to another is also expressed as communication. According to Fabun (1968) communication is the transfer of meaning.
By looking at technological changes and developments at present, it is noted that a transition has been experienced in the use of mobile devices mainly communication via Internet, and mobile phone technologies have gradually gained weight in communication. Indeed, communication can now be easily established and managed via palmtop computers as well as mobile phones.
The mobile paradigm is gradually developing. On implementations made with mobile instruments, very big changes can be observed in very frequent intervals. Mobile devices are rapidly transforming into multi-function platforms which can transfer sound, data or multimedia applications.
For the time being, mobile communication can be evaluated as the final point of existing technologies on communication. Mobile communication is the transfer of the communication, information, message, thoughts or meanings via mobile devices at both synchronous and asynchronous times.
Mobile communication does not only consist of speaking on mobile phone. Similar to all other technologies, the formation and development or use of self-information, produces and maintains the spread of relevant information. Mobile devices are used in countless areas (science, studies, politics, tourism, marketing, management etc). It is noted from the micro perspective that they provide active use in the fields oriented towards management and realization of corporate policy and the operation of the control mechanisms in the work environment. Therefore, it densely takes its place as a success providing the communication environment in business management and marketing. Although palmtop computers, iphones and Blackberry’s have been developed and recently added into the field of communication in a different style, it is seen that the most commonly used device for this type of communication is the mobile phone. Mobile can be considered everywhere, not because it covers everything but because it comes from everywhere.
In the entire world, the expansion of mobile phones and service providers as well as the gradual decrease of prices has caused telephones to expand only at the base, and the depth of the market with regard to mobile phones has gradually increased. As of 2008, in addition to many brands sold fewer than 50 US dollars, the launching of a mobile phone below 10 US dollars wholesale price is also expected to be launched in 2009. However, as the mobile phone ownership ratio reached 50% globally, the growth of the market slowed down despite all the mentioned developments. Therefore, the concentration of mobile technologies on new areas of use and the development of income depends on the innovations to be realized with regard to the sector. For this reason, the idea that product development is the best strategy is dominant in mobile phone marketing. Because the sector will not lose interest and remain open so long as it supports development and growth with innovations.
According to the predictions, the telecom sector will continue its rapid development also in 2009 with highly impressive figures. It is estimated that GSM, which is to celebrate its 21st year on September 7, 2008, will be used by over 700 operators in more than 200 countries. With approximately 546 million mobile internet users globally, IDC predicts that the number of mobile devices accessing the internet will surpass the number of online PCs by 2012. The mobile subscriber base is expected to cross 412.12 million by the end of 2009 with the overall mobile density reaching 38%.
The major telecommunication forecasts before 2009 were as follows;
- Following the subprime mortgage crisis, the increasing possibility of crisis in certain fields of communication is not considered as a danger but rather as certain opportunities for business executives,
- Highly affordable mobile phones will be launched,
- Mergers and acquisitions will also continue in 2008, similar to those in 2007,
- Different strategic plans shall be prepared on how to act in the market in order to become stronger than the mentioned ongoing mergers,
- The prices of GPS will decrease,
- In the telecom sector, investments targeting youth will continue,
- As the GSM sector will celebrate its 21st year in 2008, R&D activities will continue with regard to what could be done towards backward and forward,
- New technologies and new business models will continue to enter the market rapidly, and precautions will be taken for tradition technologies to sustain their existences,
- 70% of the mobile communication and mobile data transfer will be realized from inside of the buildings; therefore, the service sector will be strengthened,
- The increases of speed, which are experienced in communication and which are severely demanded, will be passed through serious questioning and investment plans for speed increases that are not found healthy will be delayed,
- The volume of digital communication will increase, diversify, refresh and become more important
These forecasts express that the plans related with mobile communication should be made for effectiveness and their importance has increased; besides, new technologies are supported and the cost of such type of technologies has decreased. The expansion of the mobile market will provide a great contribution to the service sector and the development of this sector will be owed to the young people.
In terms of social structure, mobile communication can be evaluated according to two basic distinctions. One of them is personal mobile communication and the other one is the mass mobile communication. In personal mobile communication, individuals and individual subjects come forth. The device, which provides it in the best way, is the mobile phone. At present, mobile phones are the devices with which businesses are managed owing to various properties such as use on the desired moment and at the desired place in transferring daily plans and with ease of finding places of meeting. Besides, thanks to the camera on phone, it is possible to take images and send them, and which has various other functions such as Mp3 player, and navigation. The structures such as CRM and ERP are observed from the perspective of companies to the field of communication. Based on these structures, the inclusion of traditional content management platforms is also in question. Mass mobile communication is related with communication oriented towards masses through this way. Mass mobile communication can be evaluated as the systems used by organizations for propaganda, promotion and marketing. Here, the provided content is mostly based on public or corporate means. Especially in media relations such as TV, radio and newspaper, it is clear that in addition to mass communication in PR companies, financial organizations and the general blog, mobile mass communication will also be an influential field.
Mobile communication can be realized via all wireless instruments, Internet and GPS-Galileo in terms of presentation.
Wireless
According to Goldsmith (2005), wireless communication is the fastest growing segment in the communication industry from every aspect. Here, the potential created by the exchange of high speed and high quality information between portable devices in any part of the world is emphasized. Cellular systems developed exponentially and the number of uses reached approximately 2 billion users by 2005 all over the world.
Besides the potential applications, which can be created with this technology, mobile phones that can use multimedia Internet, intelligent houses and devices, automatic road systems, video teleconference and remote education and self-functioning sensor networks are the samples. Highly evident technical works are realized on wireless techniques that support such applications (Goldsmith, 2008).
The devices where wireless communication is used are mobile phones, multimedia devices and palmtop computers. Besides, recording and transferring protocols and messaging technically, individually and socially covering issues such as communication and its calculations, the controls of networks direct and monitor mobile uses location-free mobile personal services, personal effects, personally created data bases, social factors, the access of channels with each other, traffic management, satellite systems and global personal communication, micro cell based personal communication systems, cable free communication industry and technological developments and applications. In this work, mostly wireless communication technologies and the social change and development it brought are taken into consideration. This will be accelerated from the development of networks.
The most significant change in the overall wireless network in the next few years will be the merger of Voice-centric cellular, with circuit-switched delivery in real time and data-centric WLAN, and with IP-based, best-effort packet-switched delivery networks into a single data network (Gatherer & Kumar, 2008).
Bluetooth Technology
Bluetooth is a specification for the use of low-power radio communications to wirelessly link phones, computers and other network devices over short distances. In other words, it is the name of the low-power radio signals that enable wireless connection over short distances to telephones, computers and other communication devices. Bluetooth technology was initially designed to support mobile phones, PDAs, wireless earphones, simple wireless networks and peripheral units. Wireless signals of Bluetooth cover short distances, such as 10 meters (30 feet). Bluetooth devices generally communicate at less than 1 Mbps.
Bluetooth is one of the technologies that have been developed for wireless communication since the 1990s. With this technology, a signal can simply be sent, for example from a computer to a printer as wireless (Haig, 2002). However, in such an environment with such highly developed wireless communication, Bluetooth created a tremendously impressive and new opportunity for marketers in both sales and marketing environments.
Bluetooth is a technology that provides totally cable free and synchronous transfer of data from cable networks to the other side, other networks and the Internet, and which provides a transparent access (Michael & Salter, 2006, p.65). This brings a lot of opportunities for marketers and people who have Bluetooth mechanisms in their mobile devices.
Bluetooth is an important technology that makes many things more comfortable and easier. The main aim of Bluetooth is data synchronization (Scholz, 2007). For example, people who have a Bluetooth featured communication device can use this system to synchronize their devices or to use a wireless earphone. However, due to security concerns, the users have to shut down this feature for most of the time. On the other hand, companies have begun Bluecasting, and people do not want to experience another raid of spam mails on these tools.
According to DMA (2005), Bluetooth mobile technology provides marketers with important opportunities in terms of a rich and totally free content at certain places and locations. For mobile devices that can recognize any Bluetooth device, transactions such as coupons, music download clips and access to WAP micro sites can easily be provided.
Bluetooth is currently included as standard technology on many products such as telephones, printers, modems and earphones. This technology provides data transfer between two or more approximate devices of short bandwidth. It is mostly used with a Bluetooth earphone, connected with mobile phone or palmtop computers.
Bluetooth facilities the installation and retrieval among devices. Bluetooth devices may sometimes advertise all services created, and enable the recognition and use of such services on many networks.
Ultrawideband
This technology is similar to that of Bluetooth technology and expresses that data can be transmitted with minimum power on an ultra wide band up to approximately 70 m (230 feet) despite many barriers of distance. This technology has certain superiorities. These are low power consumption, further travels of radio waves and the ability to surpass many barriers (Gratton & Gratton, 2004). This system is actually based on military radar studies (Engler, 1995).
UWB is a very important feature in the wireless field. It is able to provide high data transfer in 10 m areas with low power consumption (Kolic, 2004). Thanks to that, it is possible to obtain high speed communication in short-distance environments with a low force between various digital instruments. Especially the services given in multimedia instruments have reached a competitive price level against the services given through alternative wired communication systems. Owing to this, we could get rid of the highly disturbing cables at our homes and offices. These systems have also started to be considered as a technological supporting home-office formation.
The ability to transfer any record from a video recording device to a PC is an example. Another example is being able to view the photographs in a digital camera on a larger screen. Meanwhile, mobile phone also grew in complexity and began to possess various other features such as video, photo, etc. Portable MP3 players, DVD players, and digital cameras are the instruments that created a trend in the UWB market. Their addition to the functions of the mobile phone is a significant development in terms of marketing and sales, such as new type of presentations or enlightenment of the usage or the products etc.
Ad Hoc Wireless Networks
The present wireless devices are gradually becoming smaller, lighter, cheaper and faster. According to Readhead & Trill (2004), Ad Hoc networks (symbiotic networks) are complex network forms consisting of a symbiotic connection of two or more devices from one network. If such devices would be equipped with useful functions, people will also want to use these functions at their homes or even in motion. These types of networks are developed for these types of devices. Due to them, mobilization is also realized without extra cost.
These applications were initially seen in the military field like many of the other communication devices. These types of devices, distributed to different vehicles or combat vehicles (tank, truck etc.) and soldiers, continuously circulate in the war field. A high depreciation rate can be identified for a continuously circulating network. Mobile devices are also regarded as vitally critical in terms of security (Zhou & Haas, 1999).
According to Gedge (2004), Ad hoc Networks are attracting attention with their capacities to bypass the new generation technologies where personal or social networks are located, and they have highly destructive effects on manual network operators.
On account of home usage, cabled communication uses computer and internet installation compositions. The connection structures can easily be seen here with consoles, mobile phones, headsets etc.
WiMAX
The WiMAX uptake has a unique set of potential, opportunities and challenges in the emerging markets. WiMAX is used as an alternate way to serve areas that cannot use traditional wire line networks. And the target market for WiMAX is lucrative enough to have boosted expectations for technology. However WiMAX deployments have been slower than what the hype suggests owing to factors like regulatory issues and the low buying power of consumers that stand to benefit the most from technology. There are some examples of commercial uses of this technology although some of them are only as access technology and not as a mobile platform.
Internet
In our era, as technological skills increase and devices develop, the number of those who have access to the Internet also increases in greater numbers and Internet is becoming nested into life itself. Yet, Internet has interlaced with mobile and the entry of the mobile Internet concept into life has become possible. According to Saarikoski (2006), in the first scientific article, Minges (2005) deals with this issue with the question, “Is Internet mobile?” Apparently, this question has begun to be asked further. Actually, in terms of the ability to reach everywhere, Internet is mobile but in terms of carrying everywhere. It does not quite fit into the meaning of mobility yet.
As the capacities and network speeds of devices increase, a large content begins to be supplied via mobile Internet. Even, according to the marketers, mobile Internet can turn into a platform through which the target masses can be accessed. Thanks to this platform, corporations are now able to provide any messages they desire to their clients. Applications related with mobile Internet are especially concentrated on mobile advertising, and mobile Internet users express that they are more open to mobile advertisements compared to other mobile contents. For example, as of the year end of 2007, 29% of the mobile data users in the US expressed that they could remember some advertising forms on their telephones. These forms are other forms of mobile video advertising, mobile game advertising and mobile marketing. A 26% ratio among mobile Internet users remember that they see certain advertising forms during use. It is stated that this figure is 28% in the UK and 34% in Spain, which is coherent.
According to Bayne (2002, p.12), the main difference between the Internet and wireless are the devices in use. According to researches, the number of mobile phone users which is 2 billion in 2005 will increase to approximately 3.3 billion in 2010. Just in the USA, there were 233 million registered users in the end of 2006 corresponding to 76% of the country’s total population.
Mobile internet users regard mobile advertising as 60% more acceptable compared to an average data user. Likewise, mobile video users also have a similar tendency with regard to the reception of advertising messages in the immobile world via various media types.
These first applications of the usage of mobile Internet are supposed to be the conventional marketing applications for the companies that want to reach the large masses as stated before. But there will be several improvements and changes with the applications and the users’ preferences.
GPS-Galileo
Named for the Italian astronomer Galileo Galileo, the positioning system is officially referred to as just “Galileo”. It is also sometimes colloquially described as the “Galileo Positioning System”; however, since this abbreviates to GPS, the shorter name is preferred to avoid confusion with the U.S. GPS.
GALILEO is the global navigation infrastructure under civil control. It is a system established with the cooperation of the European Union (EU) and European Space Agency (ESA). This system consists of 30 satellites, the associated ground infrastructure and regional/local augmentations.
It provides many facilities to GPS users all over the world; for example, in aviation, road, marine and rail transportation, telecommunication, emergency situations, exploration of resources, mining and construction, financial transactions, etc. All users and governments have contributions in the future of GPS. In the USA, the works on the functioning of civil global navigation satellite systems and international cooperation, as well as the prevention of the deliberate distortion or breakage of signal systems is supported.
GALILEO is also a new technologic progress, developed for the provision of new generation global services. The role played by satellite global positioning systems in our everyday lives is set to grow considerably. The real impact of satellite global positioning on society and industrial development, as is the case for all major technical innovations, will become clear only gradually even though many practical applications are already possible. While there is no question that the future of guidance systems involves satellite radio navigation, there are sectors other than the transport sector which are already dependent on this new technology even if they are not aware of the fact. This is true of the financial sector when it comes to determining the exact time of bank transactions. Some analysts regard satellite radio navigation as an invention that is as significant in its way as that of the watch. In the same way that no one nowadays can ignore the time of day, in the future no one will be able to do so without knowing their precise location.
The €3.4 billion project is an alternative complementary to the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Russian GLONASS. On November 30, 2007, 27 EU transportation ministers involved reached an agreement that it should be operational by 2013.
When in operation, it will have two ground operations centers, one near Munich, Germany, and the other in Fucino, 130 km east of Rome, Italy. Galileo is intended to provide more precise measurements than available through GPS or GLONASS (Galileo will be accurate down to the meter range), better positioning services at high latitudes and an independent positioning system upon which European nations can rely even in times of war or political disagreement, since Russia or the USA could disable use by others (through encryption). Like GPS, use will also be free for everyone.
Development of Europe’s GALILEO Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) began in 1999. With the system to be created, a network of 30 satellites will continuously transmit high-frequency radio signals, containing time and distance data that can be picked up by any GALILEO receiver, allowing the user to pinpoint their position anywhere on Earth. It will allow for precise positioning for air, sea and road traffic management, urban and in-door positioning as well as off-shore applications.
Besides, global satellite navigation is an exciting technology and in addition to providing many industrially developed productivity and coherence, it also puts forth a new pleasure and superior level of safety for cruising, and various sports and entertainment activities.
GALILEO is designed to meet the needs of a wide range of positioning and navigation applications with unparalleled precision and a guarantee of signal continuity and reliability even in extreme latitudes. As a key component of the second phase of development of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), GALILEO is scheduled to be fully operational in 2008.
The Future of GNSS: Galileo + GPS
According to the data of the European Union, the vast majority of satellite navigation applications are currently based on GPS performances, and great technological effort is spent to integrate satellite-derived information with a number of other techniques in order to reach a better positioning precision with improved reliability.
According to the scenarios, EGNOS, the European regional augmentation of GPS, will start to provide its own services and then, with the advent of GALILEO, the service and quality of global satellite navigation system (GNSS) will be doubled. The availability of two or more constellations, more than doubling the total number of available satellites in the sky, will enhance the quality of the services, increasing the number of potential users and applications.
Also according to EU data, significant enhancements are expected to be realized with GALILEO’s specific characteristics. Firstly, for urban areas or indoor applications, the design of GALILEO signals will improve the availability of service (broadcast of data-less ranging channels, in addition to the classical pseudo random ranging codes). Secondly, the high-end professional market will also benefit from the GALILEO signal characteristics. Three carrier phase measurements will be essential for the development of specific “TCAR” algorithms, leading to centimeter accuracy over large regions. These kinds of improvements are creating worldwide opportunities especially foremost the communication and transportation sectors and then spread to all other sectors.
Worldwide Opportunities
GALILEO services will be a primary component in future high-tech industries, comprising exciting new markets and opportunities. With countries including China, Canada, the Ukraine and India already expressing a concrete interest in GALILEO’s space-based navigation technology products and services, the time is now to invest in what will undoubtedly become a massive worldwide market.
The range of potential applications with GALILEO is extremely wide. Looking beyond the transport sector, where it will enhance safety, efficiency and comfort, GALILEO’s advanced technological features and its commercially oriented services will make it a valuable tool for nearly all economic sectors. Integration with other technologies such as mobile communication or traditional navigation aids will further increase its potential.
Useful applications will benefit both industrialized countries and the developing world. These will include infrastructure and public works management, agricultural and livestock management and tracking, coordination of external staff and even e-banking and e-commerce authentication. But the value of GALILEO is not limited to the economy and companies. GALILEO will also be a key asset for the provision of public services. In addition to the use of the system for features such as rescue operations and border control, specific user groups will benefit greatly. For instance, it can guide the blind and people suffering from reduced mobility, monitor Alzheimer’s sufferers with memory loss, help protect the environment and guide explorers, hikers or sailing enthusiasts.
Developments of Mobile Communication
Mobile communication was initially born with technologies aiming to make defense industry more effective, and was developed to enhance intelligence, and gradually, it expanded over the society and came into our lives. Handheld radios can be regarded as its first and simple form.
When mobile phones went into an uptrend in 1996, they were regarded as a fashion accessory for everyone and its beyond was not thought (Michael & Salter, 2006, p. 2). Because, similar to every new fashion element, it came in as an element that facilities everyday life with certain changes in life, human and comfort. However, it developed much further when values obtained with its use were realized. While mobile devices started to be trendy, the networks were advancing.
Global telephone networks took a different shape with the use of communication satellites, mobile phones and radio connections, and a wide means of services appeared with the creation of the wide band area.
At present, mobile phones have expanded almost from the deepest rural areas of Africa to the regions on the North Pole, anywhere people live. According to Saadhna Panday from the South Africa Human Sciences Research Council, “More people have access to a cell phone than a land line.” Indeed, the opportunity to access mobile devices without requiring a cable line has arisen at any point of the world. And that presents brand new and wide opportunities in terms of marketing.
The telephone industry is among the branches that are mostly influenced by technological developments and new changes. According to Borstorff, Featherstone & Haymon (2006), the telephone industry was relatively developing in the 1950s, and it was very simple. Bell system had the highest market share in the US. In addition to that, there were also small companies such as Farmers in the same market. Only simple services were provided with regard to the telephone and prices did not change until 1982. The profitability of small companies was also affected from the inflation and the increase in operating costs in 1980. The same was true also for farmers. Although The Alabama Public Service Commission (APSC) made some attempts to increase prices, it could not be very effective. With such an approach, the government failed to respond to the problems of the telephone companies on time. Therefore, small companies were urged to make a decision to reduce costs and dismiss staff. Finally, prices increased in 1982 and remained stable until 1995. The Bell system dissolved in 1983. With the dissolution of the actor with the biggest slice of the market, the telecommunication world went into a big change and deregulation occurred in the sector. In 1995, APSC ratified a law that requires independent telephone companies to charge prices according to the conditions of each individual state taking into account the inflation rates. The law, validated in 1996, opened the telecommunication industry to competition at every level.
Because of the open price system, the systems employed under telephone gained a competition-based understanding. The companies and organizations, which tried to make the market more effective, were not satisfied with the means in their hands, and they introduced new marketing instruments and methods such as telemarketing and telesales. Individuals conceived the rational of shopping and paying via telephone and lines. This rational turned into a habit in a very short time and influenced the social attitude towards receiving the service at its door. These kinds of efforts also set up conditions for today’s marketing environment and customer habitude.
| Table 2. Most commonly used mobile functions at present | |
| 1. Call | 2. Mobile game |
| 3. SMS | 4. Mobile search |
| 5. Subscriptions | 6. Use of operator’s login |
| 7. Calculator | 8. Surf on WAP sites |
| 9. Camera | 10. Ticket |
| 11. Light | 12. Coupon |
Technological life criteria should be formed in the societies before the transition into mobile life. These criteria mainly include the increase of technological tendencies (technology creation and utilization tendencies), the increase of the number of mobile instruments and users, and the turning of mobile instruments into a necessity. As technological progresses in the world are realized stage by stage, mobilization period also appeared gradually. First, analog systems were put into operation; these systems were vastly used especially in the Cold War period for intelligence and preparedness for war, etc., and portable systems began to be preferred. And finally, technical details that brought out the transformation into the present time when mobile systems were dwelled upon. The following is Table 2 that contains general information regarding the systems that found a wide area of use in the world. These systems are classified from 0G to the presently evolving 4G (see Table 1).
Through Mobile Communication Systems
These systems should be collocated with their formation dates and their features. Therefore, we classified the systems from analog to current most advanced 4G.
First Generation (Analog Mobile Phone Systems)
As also mentioned earlier, mobile phones as one of the most important products of our time’s communication technologies were not easily reached. The developments followed each other stage by stage and the products with common properties began to increase on period by period basis with obtained facilities. Following the facilities of the period of rotary printed media, the radio was invented in 1920s and so, a new media instrument was brought on the agenda. After the press, radio was the first media instrument addressing to wide masses, for the first time delivering the voice. The period of radio and the period defined as 0G in telephone developed in parallel to each other. Zero generation (0G) can be defined as a telephone which is not cellular which has few users and which can work as an analog system.
1G – First Generation mobile phone networks were the earliest cellular systems to develop, and they relied on a network of distributed transceivers to communicate with mobile phones. First Generation phones were also analogue, used for voice calls only, and their signals were transmitted by the method of frequency modulation. These systems typically allocated one 25 MHz frequency band for the signals to be sent from the cell base station to the handset, and a second different 25 MHz band for signals being returned from the handset to the base station. These bands were then split into a number of communications channels, each of which would be used by a particular caller.
| Table 1. Major mobile communication systems with year of first widespread use | ||
| Generation | Description | |
| System | Year | |
| (Source: M. Steer, 2007. “Beyond 3G” IEEE Microwave Magazine, p.77) | ||
| 0G | Broadcast, no cells, few users, analog modulation | |
| MTS | 1946 | Mobile Telephone Service, half duplex, operator assist to establish call, push-to-talk |
| AMTS | 1965 | Advanced Mobile Telephone System, Japan, full-duplex, 900 MHz |
| IMTS | 1969 | Improved Mobile Telephone Service, full duplex, up to 13 channels, 60–100 km (40–60 mile) radius, direct dial using DTMF (dual tone multi-frequency) keypad. |
| 0.5G | FDMA, analog modulation (also Autotel) | |
| PALM | 1971 | Public Automated Land Mobile radiotelephone service used digital signaling for supervisory messages, technology link between IMTS and AMPS. |
| ARP | 1971 | AutoRadioPuhelin (Car Radio Phone), obsoleted in 2000, used cells (30 km radius) but not hand-off. 80 channels at 150 MHz, half-duplex and latter full duplex. |
| 1G | Analog modulation, FSK for signaling, cellular, FDMA | |
| NMT | 1981 | Nordic Mobile Telephone, 12.5 kHz channel, 450 MHz, 900 MHz |
| AMPS | 1983 | Advanced Mobile Phone System, 30 kHz channel |
| TACS | 1985 | Total Access Communication Systems, 25 kHz channel, widely used up to 1990s, similar to AMPS |
| Hicap | 1988 | NTT’s mobile radiotelephone service in Japan |
| Mobitex | 1990 | National public access wireless data network, first public access wireless data communication services including two-way paging network services, 12.5 kHz channel, GMSK. |
| DataTac | 1990 | Point-to-point wireless data communications standard (like Mobitex), wireless wide area network, 25 kHz channels, max bandwidth 19.2 kb/s (used by the original BlackBerry device) |
| 2G | Digital modulation | |
| PHS | 1990 | Personal Handyphone System, originally a cordless phone, now functions as both a cordless phone and as a mobile phone |
| GSM | 1991 | Global System for Mobile Communications (formerly Groupe Spécial Mobile), TDMA, GMSK, constant envelope, 200 kHz channel, max. 13.4 kb per timeslot (at 1900 MHz), 2 billion customers in 210 countries |
| DAMPS | 1991 | Digital AMPS, narrowband, (formerly NADC for North American Digital Cellular and prior to that as USDC for U.S. Digital Cellular), pi/4DQPSK, 30 kHz channel |
| PDC | 1992 | Personal Digital Cellular, Japan, 25 kHz channel |
| cdmaOne | 1995 | Brand name of first CDMA system known as IS-95. spread spectrum, CDMA, 1.25 MHz channel, QPSK |
| CSD | 1997 | Circuit Switched Data, original data transmission format developed for GSM, max. bandwidth 9.6 kb/s, uses a single timeslot |
| 2.5G | Higher data rates | |
| WiDEN | 1996 | Wideband Integrated Dispatch Enhanced Network, combines four 25 kHz channels, max. bandwidth = 100 kb/s |
| GPRS | 2000 | General Packet Radio System, compatible with GSM network, used GSM time slot and higher-order modulation to send 60 kb per time slot, 200 kHz channel, max. bandwidth = 171.2 kb/s |
| HSCSD | 2000 | High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data, compatible with GSM network, max. bandwidth = 57.6 kb/s, based on CSD, higher quality of service than GPRS |
| 2.75G | Medium bandwidth data—1 Mb/s | |
| CDMA2000 | 2000 | CDMA, upgraded cdmaOne, double data rate, 1.25 MHz channel |
| EDGE | 2003 | Enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution, compatible with GSM network, 8PSK, TDMA, max. bandwidth = 384 kb/s, 200 kHz channel |
| 3G | Spread spectrum | |
| FOMA | 2001 | Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access, first 3G service, NTT’s implementation of WCDMA |
| UMTS | ||
| WCDMA | 2004 | Main 3G outside China |
| OFDMA | 2007 | Evolution to 4G (downlink high bandwidth data) |
| 1xEV-DO | 2006 | (IS-856) Evolution of CDMA2000, max. downlink bandwidth 307 kb/s, max. uplink bandwidth 153 kb/s. |
| TD-SCDMA | 2006 | Time division synchronous CDMA, China. Uses the same band for transmit and receive, base stations and mobiles use different time slots to communicate, 1.6 MHz channel |
| GAN/UMA | 2006 | Generic Access Network, formerly known as unlicensed mobile access, provides GSM and GPRS mobile services over unlicensed spectrum technologies (e.g., Bluetooth and WiFi.) |
| 3.5G | ||
| HSDPA | 2006 | High-speed downlink packet access, high download speeds up to 14.4 Mb/s, incorporated in UMTS |
| 3.75G | ||
| HSUPA | 2007 | High-speed uplink packet access, high upload speeds up to 5.76 Mb/s, incorporated in UMTS |
| 4.0G | Low latency (e.g., for VoIP) + MIMO + OFDM + wireless broadband (WBB, > 100 Mb/s) + software defined Radio | |
Following the radio, developments which were also noted in the field of cinema and voice could be added to silent motion pictures. In the mid 1950s, television was invented as a mass media instrument and the opportunity of watching on screen broadcasts without having to go anywhere came into the lives of people (Sharma, Herzog & Melfi, 2008, p.32). Instruments such as radio and television took their places in mass communication as the instruments that affect society on social terms as the media, and influenced the world.
Analog telephone systems were initially developed in the US in the 1970s. The first mobile phone service began to be given via an analog system in Chicago in 1983. In Japan, this system was commissioned by Japan Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation in 1979
In case of AMPS, the first 1G system in the US began to be used in July 1978. There, each channel is distributed through separation of adjacent channels, each of which covers a 30 kHz area. As this system restricts the number of calls in a time period, it was not regarded as sufficient and it was not used efficiently especially in terms of suitable radio waves. Nevertheless, the system had enabled multi-users on the same channel to use the channel simultaneously. This system was defined as “frequency division multiple access” (FDMA).
As the power outputs of cellular transmitters were limited and they were designed for a certain coverage area, it is not possible for the frequencies on other cells at a further distance to block each other. So, the system is considered as one, where the frequencies are reused and the capacity of network increased. The cellular structure of the network can also be used for other properties on cellular phone conversations. Mobile telephone provided a kind of change in passage from one cellular region to another. And this has enabled the utilization of a certain group of frequencies by telephone during the time of change.
The systems that were being newly developed in that period showed a peculiar development as there was not a technology-based certain accumulation of knowledge, and the product’s developmental stages were realized with the effects of the changes that arose in short terms. Such developments may sometimes be in the form of shock waves or make the previous systems unusable.
NMT 450, the Nordic Mobile Telephone System using the 450 MHz band, was the first cell phone network to start operating in Europe in 1981. Later, in 1985, the United Kingdom began operations with its TACS (Total Access Communications System). With the introduction of 2G networks, the 1G phones were destined to become obsolete, as they were not adaptable to the new 2G standards. The new 2G standards created a more secure conversation environment and therefore, it turned into a standard in demand by mobile phone users.
These systems initially created a serious benefit in terms of corporate communication, and brought a brand new approach in terms of sales. Salesmen began to visit their clients through taking appointments, and even to take many orders on phone and gain a great deal of time. The savings were not only limited by time, but also corporate costs were significantly reduced. Besides, customers were remembered and called, and the replacement of certain face to face sales efforts with those on phone has reduced the costs of companies.
After mobile systems were included in marketing, a sales style other than catalogue sales arose and it started to be used effectively in new marketing. Although new type of sales organizations that are defined with the names such as telesales and telemarketing had arisen with the development of analog telephone systems, these methods became more usable.
Meanwhile, as mobile phones enabled a highly efficient use with regard to sales or marketing (especially for researches) and ensured benefits from the means of technology, it has turned into a permanent attitude. The relations established on these systems were generally in the form of inbound/outbound calls. Meanwhile, it is also known that during access to the customer through these systems, the more aggressive calls of the manufacturers or the intermediary companies will create a reaction and an irritating situation for the customer.
Second Generation Digital Portable Phone Systems
The developments in digital technology realized a transformation with a dizzying speed in the last twenty years. In the early 1990s, with the configuration of PDC digital cellular systems and their application to the telephone systems, the ground for a different development has been prepared. As of May 1990, there were 42 million PDC subscribers in Japan. This technology was followed by the IS-95 digital cellular telephone system developed in the USA in 1998. In front of the IS-95 and IS-136 digital cellular system formats in the US, the GSM formats are found and started to be used in Europe and Asia.
It will be rational to consider 2G mobile phone networks as the first mobile system that used purely digital technology. The demands placed on the networks were identified on the networks and particularly in the densely populated areas within cities, they handled a large number of calls, reducing the risks of interference and dropped calls. Although many of the principles involved in a 1G system also apply to 2G, 2G networks also entered the market and received a demand. There are differences in the way that the signals are handled on these two systems. For example, the 1G network are not capable of providing the more advanced features of the 2G systems, such as caller identity and text messaging. Equipped with better features, 2G telephones triggered and expanded the mobile phone market.
One of the most successful 2G digital systems in terms attaining a standard is GSM. This standard was developed during the 1980s, and is currently under the control of the ETSI. With the benefit of a well-specified system, commercial GSM services were able to start operating in Europe in mid-1991. The GSM system is able to utilize any of the three frequency bands at 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz. So, many GSM phones could operate as dual-band or tri-band phones, whereby they are adaptable to the local frequency system in the region the user travels through.
In GSM 900, in addition to various band widths, for example two frequency band widths of 25 MHz can be used for uplink and downlink-uplink connections, as well as the band 890-915 MHz for the uplink communications from the mobile station to the base station, and the band 935-960 MHz for the downlink communications from the base station to the mobile station. Each band is divided into 124 carrier frequencies, spaced 200 kHz apart, in a similar fashion to the FDMA method used in 1G systems. Then, each carrier frequency is further divided using TDMA into eight 577 long “time slots”, every one of which represents one communication channel. The total number of possible channels available is therefore 124 x 8, producing a theoretical maximum of 992 simultaneous conversations. In the USA, a different form of TDMA is used in the system known as IS-136 D-AMPS, and there is another US system called IS-95 (CDMA one), which is a spread spectrum code division multiple access (CDMA) system. The CDMA technique is also used in 3G systems.
According to Steer (2007), ‘Many services in 2G were conducted under the hegemony of GSM. In this system, with the development of the code division multiple access system (CDMA), the use of mobile phone expanded unlimitedly’. CDMA enabled the conceptual development of 2G systems and as it symbolized GSM, being mostly classified as 2.5G.
On the basic 2G networks, as only 9.6 kbps is used similar to that in GSM, it was insufficient for any complex digital services.
Although the basic approach on mobile phones aims to invent complementary or more functional systems, sometimes fundamental changes are also made as the changing of the basic approaches would make the communication stronger. These changes both target the quality of speaking and communication and they also enable the use of fax, etc. instruments and increase the efficiency of the business world with the inclusion of supporting systems.
Naturally, mobile systems can be considered as an interim product in the passage to the information age at the point from where the industrial revolution is reached. Thanks to being able to pass through certain stages, in addition to the currently developing digitalization, mobilization has also begun to be used effectively and expanded. Now, the identity of the caller can be seen on phone, individuals can communicate with the person or organization they desire, and messaging through texting on manual phones can easily and directly be sent with the handheld device.
This is both supportive and preventive for marketers. But, because it prevents the calls that could cause unnecessary frictions, it can also be considered as a material and moral support. Mobile telephones provided a very rapid distribution of SMS messages. It is possible to turn the instruments into a form that could yield in faster and more economic commercial benefits through sending mass messages with devices that enable both reaching individuals and masses and the sales area in a very short time. Mobile phones, as one of the most important mobile devices, are also more practical for the user. The models are gradually becoming lighter, portability is increased or they are turned into more ergonomic and healthy devices with the addition of various pieces (bluetooth etc.) in order to expand its use.
3rd Generation Mobile Phone Systems
According to Michael & Salter (2006, p.11), 3G mobile phones are simple but functional devices that receive travel or direction warnings, and they can pay bills and parking tickets.
3rd Generation (3G) mobile phone systems, provides its users with an access through data on an expanded bandwidth, that switches on an optimum system (Steer, 2007).
According to Qualcomm’s report, 3G technologies provide over 488 million subscribers in the world with enhanced data and sound services over wide band. According to the same report, on 4 September 2007, there were over 400 3G operators in 135 countries all over the world.
3G – Third Generation mobile phone networks are defined as the latest stage in the development of wireless communications technology. The main features of 3G systems are that they support much higher data transmission rates and offer increased capacity, which makes them suitable for high-speed data applications as well as for traditional voice calls. In fact, 3G systems are designed to process data, and since voice signals are converted to digital data, these results in speech are being dealt with in much the same way as any other form of data. Third Generation systems use packet-switching technology, which is more efficient and faster than the traditional circuit-switched systems, but they do require a somewhat different infrastructure to the 2G systems.
Besides, according to the mentioned source here above, high data processing speed may provide a wider scale data service for the subscribers of 3G mobile phones. Mobile internet access and multimedia applications can be shown as its best example. Compared to previous mobile phones, new features presented by 3G telephones will expand their limits with certain new services to be offered. They may be listed as watching TV, multimedia, videoconferencing, Web browsing, e-mail, paging, fax, and navigational maps.
In this open-ended development process, the first country to adopt 3G systems was Japan. The reason was the sharp impact on the Japanese PDC Networks on the severe competition in the big digital mobile phone market in Japan. Unlike GSM systems, the 2.5 G stage in Japan was slurred over with some sort of enhanced services and the gap between the 2G and 3G was filled in with such services. Passage to the new standard is considered as a starting point towards solvings capacity issues.
Recently, an explosion in mobile phone sales is observed in Japan. One third of Japan’s population uses mobile phones. According to the estimates, the registered number of subscribers was 60 million in the beginning of the new millennium. IMT-2000 based commercial services were started in Japan in 2001. These services provide some more functions to the devices and some more features to the users.
Third generation mobile phones have also become suitable for global roaming especially in Europe, North America and Japan. However, due to the problems arising from different standards, there is still a need for wide band and multi-modal telephones. There are problems in terms of providing 3G services to the regions that are obliged to use 2G or 2.5G networks.
In mobile, operating frequencies of the 3G system use 2GHz (the IMT-2000 core band) radio spectrum and by the agency of that, they are separated from crowded frequency bands used by 2G and 2.5 G networks. UMTS systems may also enable different data ratios depending on the situation of the user. For example, a maximum of 144 kbps capacity is used for moving vehicles, while the capacity for pedestrians is up to 384 kbps and that for domestic or stationary users is 2 Mbps.
As the 3G systems encompass more different features, the data exchange can be provided easily; therefore, it can be considered as a big step with respect to the intertwining of the mobile phone and internet. Due to that, mobile systems can serve more different aspects such as entertainment, watching, and relaxing compared to the telephone, and the demands for entertainment and videos may change the tendencies and attitudes in the marketing area.
4th Generation Mobile Phone Systems
The fourth generation mobile systems are becoming much lower in cost and much more effective in terms of capacity. It brings together the idea of using new technological advantages in fields that may come into mind easily. It is important to recognize the more effective use of the scopes of existing 3G systems. Regarding 4th Generation telephones, the creation of an entire mobile work environment in terms of the customer is focused with all details as security, etc. All productions towards this aim can fully benefit from multi-media and they can be realized at very high speed. Communication can be realized with an extremely low delay. These systems can also use semantics, robotics and new forms of mobile technology.
WiMAX is the 4G wireless technology designed to enable pervasive, high-speed mobile internet access to the widest array of devices including notebook PCs, handsets, smartphones, and consumer electronics such as gaming devices, cameras, camcorders, music players, and more. WiMAX also delivers low-cost, open networks and is the first all IP mobile internet solution enabling efficient and scalable networks for data, video, and voice.
With the 4G networks setup, customers would receive improved coverage for voice calls across countries and a network for mobile internet with speeds that would be 10-15 times faster than today. The launch of high-speed mobile broadband services based on LTE-technology is expected at the end of 2010 (Orr, 2009).
Mobile Phone and Its Properties
Mobile telephone is a personal communication device that has several abilities for its users. It is also known with other names such as the cellular phone or wireless telephone. It is individual and not shared with others like land phones. If there had already been such sharing, mobile phone would not be much different from land phones. Briefly, mobile phone is one of the personal instruments of people like their underclothes.
According to Chokvasin (2007), a real mobile phone has features that enable it to recognize its owner; for example, that person’s phone number, the ring melody, the image on the telephone, the telephone book and notes, etc. of that person. Mobile telephone is a factor of everyday life, which sticks on the person and cannot be rejected or neglected.
Mobile telephone is a media with quite high interaction which enables the receiver to immediately reply after receiving the message (Bauer et al. 2005, p. 182). The ability to establish uninterrupted bilateral communication is the main feature which differentiates mobile channel from others.
Mobile phone brands try to remain in the market with emphasis that they are the single channel that provide 7 days and 24 hours access to the actual target mass. Mobile communication turns became an important part of life with its own means.
In a very short time after its entry to the market, mobile phones nested into the lives of people and their users became almost not able to live without them. For most people, the mobile phone started to be considered as a new limb added to the human body with its confidence increasing and life simplifying features. So, mobile phone began to be used in every moment of life and mobile communication in every point of life.
As an interesting product in terms of marketing, although it is included among luxury products by virtue of its features, it is also included among the easily sold items in the market. Price, availability, and the distribution at the infrastructural organizations make this possible. The presented benefits are continuously developing. As benefiting elements continuously develop, its continuous consumption and depreciation of models are in question. Therefore, they are produced with very fast consumption-based thoughts.
The basic features of mobile phones are:
- Synchronous voice, image, text exchange and saving
- Speed
- Economy
- Bilateral Feature (Interactive)
- Ease of Usage
These features increase the importance attached to mobile communication. Because of mobile phones, even the definition of proximity has changed. It enables reaching the desired point anytime, anywhere and by anyone. These features have great importance in terms of mobile communication.
Mobile messaging in mobile communication can be made audio, visual and written while messages in the past were sent as letters, telegrams and news. Mobile messaging is an important feature, which also approximates telephone to computer. Mobile messaging includes exchanging and saving audio, visual and written messages. Therefore, the concepts related with messaging in mobile communication are mostly used interchangeably. However, mobile communication has enabled passage to messaging perception with a wider scope.
Mobile messaging can be realized with different methods. The methods used in a mobile area should be considered as pieces of mobile data services. Mobile data services include varieties such as mobile TV, mobile music, mobile games, themes, video, location-based services (LBS), business related services, mobile news, mobile advertising, “push to talk”, and even “look to talk” which are continuously developed in terms of content. In the personalization of mobile devices, demands should be focused on, and related services should be provided.
For a mobile device user, phones are prepared as it is selected for different customer segments and along with the received melody on the interface, the melody that rings in redial, the wall paper, graphics and many other applications and services are presented as interesting elements, and so the telephone is completely specialized as based on personal selections. The most commonly used mobile functions are calling, playing games, SMS messaging and mobile search (see Table 2). It could also used as a light when needed.
Mobile phones are not only used for communication purposes, but also for operational purposes. As operations provide the use of the phone instead of a simple calculator, clock and time-measuring alarm, chronometer, calendar, calorimeter, and step meter; they also provide many functions such as listening to music, watching films, using it as a dictionary, determining the location, messaging on the Internet, monitoring the place the person is located and finding direction. Therefore, mobile phones are enriched devices. As the non-sound services increase in mobile communication, the use of such services expands and mobile marketing becomes more influential in our lives.
In fact, the mobilization trend in the world advances from two main points in addition to the phone calls. The first one of them is registering progress in sales and distribution, payment and delivery through the use of mobile communication and the second one is the penetration of mobile advertisement and promotions into the lives of people. This causes new structuring in the entertainment sector and creates an environment oriented towards individuality in the concept of entertainment. Because of the new features of mobile phones, it is easy to reach the customer and to send the messages (mostly advertising messages as the previous custom).
According to E-marketer, mobile advertising was 1.5 billion in 2006 and it is expected to reach 14 billion dollars in 2011. According to this forecast, the sector will grow by approximately 10 times in the next three years. Because of this system, approximately 5 billion dollars is expected from the US side. According to forecasts, the share of global mobile advertising will increase from 5.4% in 2006 to 21% in 2011.
Thanks to the mobile operators who provide services to mobile phones. In addition to the communication function, it is now possible to download songs, video clips, logos, melodies, and games to the telephone, to check e-mails, to learn scores of games, to read newspaper, to reach the news and weather forecast, to learn the conditions of traffic, to obtain the definition of a word and to surf on WAP and Web sites, and consequently to explore the Internet. In order to open and view web pages on the mobile phone, the telephone is required to have a special tariff or browser. As some web sites have mobile phone recognition systems, they can automatically view private pages (WAP pages). The mobile phone is designed not only as a device to call people, but also as a camera, mp3 player or a device for other functions that make life colorful. Many service providers serve their users to help them live by using all these features of their mobile phones, and to make them live the most pleasant experiences via the mobile Internet world.
The Usage Evolution of Mobile Communication
By 1977, AT&T Bell Labs constructed and operated a prototype cellular phone system. A year later, public trials of the new cellular phone system were started in Chicago, IL with over 2000 trial cellular phone customers. Then, the sector finalized its decision towards opening to the public in general, and with the outcome of scientific tests, the mobile phone was also added among the subjects of marketing. In 1979, the first commercial cellular phone system began operation in Tokyo. In 1981, Motorola and American Radio phone started a second U.S. cellular radio-phone system test in the Washington/Baltimore area. In 1983, the first American commercial analog cellular phone service or AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service) was offered in Chicago, IL by Ameritech, which expanded the mobile market.
Analog AMPS system is the first generation telephone system and it has pushed the limits with requests and demands that exceed its capacity after a while. These systems were first used on corporate communication and they created serious benefits. A brand new approach arose especially in terms of sales and marketing. In the new communication environment, people were able to call and answer calls at any time.
Most sellers began to call their clients via mobile phone for appointments, and they even began to receive many orders via mobile phone. It created a serious time saving for the staff in the work environment. Marketers, who work on behalf of the company, enabled the company to acquire very important customer information: the portfolio of mobile phone numbers. The telephone numbers of clients or callers could be entered on the system. These records could be obtained via manual telephones for a certain time period, and they could be registered on mobile books as written documents. With mobile phones, the marketing staff became able to reach their clients from their cars. Reaching the staff with mobilized telephones could be possible from the analog system at worst, when they were in their cars or at the point where they were located.
However, as the production oriented infrastructure was weak on this system, the ergonomic structure of the devices fell short and certain difficulties of use arose, which triggered the idea of searching a better version for each model produced. Insufficient technological devices caused results for the customer in certain cases, and it became a problem for the manufacturer in many aspects. Difficulties arose especially in terms of access, and technological constraints were shown in the passages which include different service providers. Despite everything, the width of the market and its readiness to grow enabled the entry of competitor forms to the market and accelerated the marketing traffic. However, mobile phones created wide coverage areas, high capacities and load distribution instruments, and gained a very significant superiority compared to manual telephones in the market. The battery life of earlier mobile phones was short and as its speed could not meet the expected standards either, the necessity of various technologies in this regard arose and highlighted the importance of R&D studies. Besides, service suppliers noticed the potential in this aspect and provided support for the advancement of mobile phones. Technological developments provided passage to digitalization, and caused a fundamental change in initial systems.
In the 1990s, mobile systems completed the establishment stage, and therefore, they began to see significant decreases in their costs. The growth trend began rapidly. The mentioned growth was mainly due to the second generation mobile phones, which enhanced digital systems. The products took their places in the market with brand new technologies such as GSM, D-AMPS, and CDMA.
With the increasing number of mobile phone functions added to the initial voice call, individuals were provided with the opportunity of texting via phone in addition to the voice call. Fast and easy communication was provided with short message systems. In addition to the immediate delivery of messages, the services to deliver the messages later to unreached numbers were developed. Messaging sales promotions were used as a means of sending advertisement messages to clients and new marketing devices were put into operation. With the engagement of additional functions such as SMS and Bluetooth, messages began to be used effectively on commercial terms. A situation of aggressive calls or messaging of companies arose instead of customer acquisition and sustainment. In the latter applications on the system, the clients who owned one of the mobile communication devices for recent applications in the system were interested in receiving personalized messages and could easily adapt into messaging. As messaging is cheaper, the young population with a restricted budget and concern on cost began to use messaging more effectively. Young people sometimes tried to reduce their mobile phone costs to a minimum with the provided promotions, and together with the promotions, messaging almost turned into a method of providing financial support for this type of devices as a mutual fulfillment of interests.
With the innovations brought by technology, the creation of a new social environment around the mobile phone has become possible. However, as the message load began to increase and successive messages began to arise from many different organizations, they also started to create a pressure on the customer and different, offensive reactions of customers appeared.
The enhanced systems with new technological means caused both speech and communication quality to increase, and enabled the use of the fax, and other devices when support systems are required. When such support systems are put into operation, written messages can be transferred to paper and turn into documents with legal validity. This which came together with the industrial revolution both enables obtaining assistance from the system during the documentation of the contracts to be made in the business world, and increasing professional efficiency and changing of conditions related with contracts. Naturally, mobile systems should be considered as the final stage of the industrial revolution and an interim point towards the information age. According to computer supported businesses, due to the stages on mobile devices, which have more functional qualities, only digitalization was not sufficient and a second step in digital utilization area towards the creation of systems for a more effective use of mobilization was put into operation.
Mobile devices with a brand new communication environment which allows to see the caller’s identity on the screen and through which individuals can both orally communicate and send text messages, both provide time saving and a positive psychological impact as they prevent undesired effects.
On the other hand, they caused messages such as SMS to expand very rapidly and enabled such instruments to create value on commercial terms. Included in the social environment as the devices that can be used commonly and comfortably, mobile phones have also begun to be more practical, lighter and cheaper compared to the devices in the past.
Besides, a new symbol on present time business cards is the inclusion of mobile phone numbers in addition to e-mail. With mobile devices, it is also possible to use audio, visual and written elements for communication. The transmission of visual elements helps use the system more effectively and creates both audio and visual effects. Here, a user-dominant situation appears in general. Whether to accept or reject the received visual or written elements depends on the user.
The producers, who perceived the requirement of companies for high speed access and multi- function operations with faster data processing speeds as a result of the demands in Internet use and the increase in the number of Internet users, have focused on the development of third generation systems. 3G systems are to be enhanced with new features on mobile phones. This technology which indicates the intertwining of mobile phone and Internet as it provides a wider data exchange easily can be considered as a great leap in communication.
Owing to 3G communication devices, the understanding of using other systems for entertainment, watching and listening have evolved towards these devices and caused them to change. As a result of gradually increasing service quality, obtaining value added voice quality, messaging, high speed Internet communication, video call and enhanced security methods, will provide new opportunities for mobile trade. The compatibility of new system mobile devices with previous networks will provide a less economic load on service providers. The continuous progress of communication is not only important for production but also for a further level of system compatibility and it may provide significant contributions in terms of developing commercial applications.
Mobile phones are enhanced with new functions every day. These new functions develop new areas of use. The software and functions of use are upgraded. Although the new 3G system had just been launched not long ago, many companies had already started researching and developing a fourth generation (4G) system. As the change is based on very short periods, researchers aim to design 4G as a system that can reach a much faster speed, have a connection speed of up to 100Mb per second during connection, possess tighter network security and also bring up the quality during communication whether it is voice or video calls. The 4G system is expected to be launched in 2010. 4G telephone devices provide connection with a tremendously low delay. So, highly efficient systems and a perfect connection will be established with a communication speed as fast as light.
Mobile phone is a multi-functioned device in essence, but this functionality is being increased continuously with the idea of making a demand for more. This is one of the determinants in the mobile phone market. Smartphone and PDA phones are already launched in the market. These devices are incorporated with computing functions which will be able to replace other devices such as laptop, PDA and even entertainment devices, and have the functions of creating music, drawing pictures, and shooting movies. PDAs are handheld devices which can carry computer applications such as telephone/fax, Internet and network operations to the system manually. It is possible to benefit from PDAs as mobile phones, fax exchange, web scanner and personal organizer. Data can be entered in these mobile machines without requiring a keyboard like other portable computers, only with thin point pen handwriting on the screen. These devices have the function of recognizing hand-writing. Even certain PDAs use the technologies of voice recognition and communicate the oral data input as a document to the other side.
Although the keyboard is used on some PDAs, some others allow data entry with a thin point pen. Apple Computer was among the first companies to launch these devices in 1993. In a short time, many different manufacturer companies launched similar products. One of the most popular of these devices at present is the Palm Pilots series produced by Palm Inc. PDAs are currently named as palmtops, handheld computers, or pocket computers. PDA telephones are the devices that employ both PDA and cellular phone technologies and which generally have a touch screen and a rarely used mini keyboard. Apart from them, there are other models with smart phone, PDA, mobile phone and numerical keys on the mini keyboard. In this context, PDAs are also sometimes named as “Smartphones”.
Actually, many mobile phones are gradually turning into PDA devices. At present, the most developed mobile phones can be synchronized with PCs that work with short range wireless technologies such as Bluetooth. Mobile telephones are gradually shrinking, while their powers of operation are increasing. Many sector analysts express that smartphone, PDA and other similar portable handheld devices are becoming more competitive with each other. With 3G networks, mobile phones can now be used via wideband instead of computers in cases that require high speed and uninterrupted connection in video conferencing, watching TV and accessing the Internet.
In 2001, Japanese NTT DoCoMo launched the world’s first commercial W-CDMA standard mobile phone system, FOMA. Later in 2003, Hutchison Whampoa launched a 3G mobile phone service. As stated earlier, providing high speed access to the Internet is the most important aim according to the 3G communication rule. This communication rule functions on telephones as similar to IP (Internet Protocol) and uses different communication than GPRS. GPRS provides only a limited data flow whereas 3G provides a higher data flow. So, video calls are supported. 3G’s Internet access speed is up to 2MB (megabytes) per second, while that of GPRS is only 144B (bites) per second. So, the 3G system is able to provide WAN (Wide Area Network) and LAN (Local Area Network). Here, the key concept is to turn the local-lined terminal to wireless. Another service is the provision of M-Commerce (Mobile Commerce) and global positioning services with 3G. M-Commerce is associated with the idea of electronics, and thus the transaction is realized.
Through mobile phones, each link on the chain of marketing began to communicate faster and in a more reliable manner with each other. PDA, Bluetooth, 3G and 4G networks and due to the ease of use of mobile phones, they managed to become permanent in the market with their characteristics based on change.
According to Bohlin (2006), the number of worldwide mobile phone users was 1.5 billion in 2004, but it will increase to 3 billion in 2010 and this figure will be saturated with 2.3 billion people in 2030. Ling (2004) for example, expresses the development in Bangladesh as with 1 land phone per 100 people, while local farmers use their solar-energized mobile phones to withdraw micro loans and to learn the prices of agricultural products, and so, they increase their powers to bargain during negotiations with merchants.
| Table 4. Broadcast differences comparison from 1966 to 2007 (Source: Based on Sharma, Herzog &Melfi, p. 57. based on Piper Jaffray (2007) The User Revolution: The New Advertiser Ecosystem. (February 2007),16.) | |||||
| 2007 | |||||
| 1 | Mobile voice call | ||||
| 2 | Mobile message | ||||
| 3 | Mobile telephone ringtone | ||||
| 4 | Mobile music | ||||
| 5 | Mobile societies | ||||
| 6 | Mobile games | ||||
| 7 | Mobile TV | ||||
| 8 | Mobile media | ||||
| 9 | Mobile internet | ||||
| 10 | Newspapers | ||||
| 11 | Magazines | ||||
| 12 | |||||
| 13 | TV broadcast | ||||
| 14 | Radio | ||||
| 15 | CD Player | ||||
| 16 | Cable TV | ||||
| 17 | Digital TV | ||||
| 18 | Laptop computers | ||||
| 19 | Satellite TV | ||||
| 20 | Internet call | ||||
| 21 | Internet | ||||
| 22 | DVD player | ||||
| 23 | Satellite radio | ||||
| 1986 | 24 | MP3 player | |||
| 1 | Newspapers | 25 | Tivo/DVR | ||
| 2 | Yellow pages | 26 | Slingbox | ||
| 3 | Magazines | 27 | ipod/itunes | ||
| 4 | TV broadcast | 28 | Blogs | ||
| 5 | Radio | 29 | Online video | ||
| 6 | Cassette tapes | 30 | Console video games | ||
| 1966 | 7 | Walkman | 31 | PC video games | |
| 1 | Newspapers | 8 | VCR | 32 | Massively Multiplayer On-line Role Playing (MMORP) Games |
| 2 | TV Broadcast | 9 | Cable TV | 33 | Film download |
| 3 | Magazines | 10 | Personal Computers | 34 | Podcasts |
| 4 | Radio broadcasts | 11 | Console video games | 35 | Instant Messaging (IM) |
| 5 | Albums and record devices & track | 12 | PC video games | 36 | Social networks |
| 37 | Videocasts | ||||
In spite of positive factors such as electric power which provides the functioning of mobile phones included in the clean energy category and accumulate and use energy, the rapidly changing models of telephones have created certain effects in terms of polluting nature. Here, the producers undertake an important responsibility in terms of producing recyclable models because the scope of disposal for anything with a number of 2-3 billion units in the world would be serious.