J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res., Volume 11, Issue 3 (September 2016) – 6 articles

Numerous mobile payment solutions, which rely on new disruptive technologies, have been launched on the payment market in recent years. But despite the growing number of mobile payment apps, very few solutions have turned to be successful as the majority of them fail to gain a critical mass of users. In this paper, we investigate successful platform adoption strategies by using the Reach and Range Framework for Multi-Sided Platforms as a strategic tool to which mobile payment providers can adhere in order to tackle some of the main challenges they face throughout the evolution of their platforms. The analysis indicates that successful mobile payment solutions tend to be launched as one-sided platforms and then gradually be expanded into being two-sided. Our study showcases that the success of mobile payment platforms lies with the ability of the platform to balance the reach (number of participants) and the range (features and functionalities) of the platform. Full article

This paper advances a framework for examining the competitive principles of mobile payment platforms. We postulate that the strategic interplay of platform layers will drive the competitive dynamics of platform-driven ubiquitous systems. This framework has been employed in a comparative case study between monopolistic (i.e., Pingit) and federated (i.e., Paym) mobile payment platforms to illustrate its applicability and yield principles on the nature and impact of competition among platform-driven ubiquitous systems. Preliminary findings indicate that monopolistic mobile digital platforms attempt to create unique configurals to obtain monopolistic power by tightly coupling platform layers, which are difficult to replicate. Conversely, federated digital platforms compete by dispersing the service layer to harness the collective resources from individual firms. Furthermore, the interaction and integration among platform layers give rise to commodity and value platform layers that translate into competitive battlegrounds among mobile payment services. This paper therefore represents a concrete step in unraveling the competitive dynamics of platform-driven ubiquitous systems from an architectural viewpoint. Full article

Stored data is a critical component of any application. The stored data component of mobile applications (apps) presents special considerations. This paper examines stored data for mobile apps. It identifies three types of mobile apps and describes the stored data characteristics of each type. It proposes decision factors for selecting a data storage approach for a mobile app and the impact of the factors on the usability of the app. The paper surveys over 70 apps in a specific domain (that of walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain) to examine their data storage characteristics. It also presents a case study of the development of one app in this domain (eCamino) and how the decision factors were applied in selecting the stored data approach for this app. The paper also discusses the implications of the research for apps in other domains. The paper concludes that in general the data storage approach selected for a mobile app depends on the characteristics of the situation in which the app will be used, but in the domain examined one particular approach (synchronized data storage) has clear benefits over other approaches. Full article

The ageing population of Europe is a concern for political decision makers and visions on how to deal with the issues are being debated. The issues raised concern elderly people, the age group 75-90 years, but not much thought is given the young elderly- the age groups 60-75 years-as the serious age-related problems are not visible among them. Nevertheless, pro-active preventive action programs among the young elderly could significantly reduce the problems society faces when people become elderly. We will address the issues with the ageing population from the perspective of digital wellness services that are designed, produced and offered over omnivore platforms on smart mobile phones and backed up by analytics tools over cloud services. The aim is to keep the young elderly healthy, active and independent when they reach the 75+ age group. In this research the digital wellness services are proposed as effective interventions to build wellness routines. The design of wellness services need to be done through co-creation with the young elderly, not for them. Full article

The two-sided market of newspapers with its two customer groups, readers and advertisers, is changing due to digitalization. This former stable and profitable market has lately suffered from both decreasing subscription and advertiser revenue. In this paper we use the term ubiquitous media environments to represent the vision of future media environments enabling device independent mass-scale distribution of ubiquitous media services in integrated infrastructures. We build upon a two-year action research project where researchers worked together with the Swedish newspaper industry to envision future ubiquitous media services and explore the following research question: how can ubiquitous media services be designed to leverage and balance value in a two-sided market? Five examples of ubiquitous media services were developed in collaboration and thereafter evaluated. These services were then illustrated in movie clips to trigger discussions on how ubiquitous media services can be designed. Drawing on the value aspects of ubiquitous media services from an advertiser and reader point-of-view and the platform owner role of the newspapers in a future ubiquitous media environments, we describe and discuss how ubiquitous media services can be designed to leverage value for advertisers and readers, and how newspaper organizations can strategize ubiquitous media environments. Full article