Mobile Value Services

Abstract

This chapter may appear to deviate from the central theme of the book. Nevertheless, we will show - briefly - that fuzzy logic and fuzzy ontology may have a key role to play in the design of the next generation of mobile value services. Mobile technology is one of the most important technologies in the history of humankind with now more than 5 billion mobile phone subscriptions in the world. It is also described as one of the “disruptive technologies” as it is changing the daily routines of ordinary people, the information and communication systems in business and industry and even the communication infrastructure of whole countries.Mobile technology is a platform for mobile services through which the expected changes will take place. It is widely assumed that the future of mobile telephony will rely on mobile services and that the use of mobile services will be an integral part of the revenues that were expected to be generated by third generation mobile telephony. The adoption of new mobile services contradicts this proposition as it has been much slower than expected. Several reasons have been suggested for the slow uptake of mobile services, ranging from cultural differences to the business models of the actors, lacking innovation capabilities of content and service providers, and national mobile network operator (MNO) strategies.