companies in partnership with businesses is to allow users to buy and sell without being connected to any wired network. Mobile commerce(m-commerce)is the new trend and is expected to drive the futu re deve e-commerce Being able to buy and sell goods/services over mobile devices is an important step towards achieving an anywhere, anytime paradigm. Location and time will no longer constrain people from completing their transactions. Suppose that a person would like to buy a gift for her son's birthday while she is on a bus. Instead of postponing the errand, she can use her mobile phone to search for the perfect gift. Her search can be narrowed by such criteria as the maximum price she is willing to pay, the desired delivery time, and the age of her son. It would be even more interesting if this person could outsource the entire transaction to intelligent components that could act on her behalf. Software agents are among the components that will have an important role to play in the worldwide spread of m-commerce. An e-commerce value-chain represents a set of business processes that implement interactions between online shoppers and e-commerce systems. Song and Whang suggested a value chain of eight processes: attract, interact, customize, transact, pay, deliver, service, and personalize [5]. Applying the above value chain to m-commerce requires an adjustment to the processes because of the features of wireless communi cation channels and mobile devices. Communication channels are unwired and suf fer from latency and low bandwidth. Devices are also unwired and suffer from low computing resources and small screen sizes. Following is an explanation of the processes that would require adjustment based on the features of m-commerce Attract: because users of mobile devices are not attached to any physical location, heir location at a specific time can be used to identify the businesses that are in erences ensures that users receive relevant offers according to their profil o he users' area and have special offers. Being aware of the users'interests an Interact: since mobile devices'display and keypad are limited in term of size (compared to fixed devices), it is difficult for users to display and browse online catalogues. Potential assistance to users from intelligent components could be very appropriate here Transact: since users of mobile devices cannot be constantly connected to the network, they have to go offline. This means that the transaction process has to be undertaken without the direct involvement of users. Intelligent component are needed to follow-up the progress of this process Pay: when payments are due, the exchange of sensitive information has nade secure. Specific security protocols and techniques are required and deal with the characteristics of wireless networks and mobile devices Mobile applications have their own set of obstacles. This definitely translates into for satisfying the promise of businesses and service providers in deliver e front line content to mobile devices. Varshney, Vetter, and Kalakota report issues that develop- ers must address to successfully define, design, and implement the necessary hardware and software infrastructure for m-commerce 6. The screen size of mobile devices is very crucial when designing interfaces for customers. Communication channels and their reliability and efficiency are still a concern(for example, how to recover from a disconnection). Despite all of these impediments, more advances continue to drive the wireless field. Indeed, new wireless standards are constantly surfacing, and the 254 December 2003/oL.46. No. 12ve COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACMcompanies in partnership with businesses is to allow users to buy and sell without being connected to any wired network. Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is the new trend and is expected to drive the future development of e-commerce. Being able to buy and sell goods/services over mobile devices is an important step towards achieving an anywhere, anytime paradigm. Location and time will no longer constrain people from completing their transactions. Suppose that a person would like to buy a gift for her son’s birthday while she is on a bus. Instead of postponing the errand, she can use her mobile phone to search for the perfect gift. Her search can be narrowed by such criteria as the maximum price she is willing to pay, the desired delivery time, and the age of her son. It would be even more interesting if this person could outsource the entire transaction to intelligent components that could act on her behalf. Software agents are among the components that will have an important role to play in the worldwide spread of m-commerce. An e-commerce value-chain represents a set of business processes that implement interactions between online shoppers and e-commerce systems. Song and Whang suggested a value chain of eight processes: attract, interact, customize, transact, pay, deliver, service, and personalize [5]. Applying the above value chain to m-commerce requires an adjustment to the processes because of the features of wireless communi￾cation channels and mobile devices. Communication channels are unwired and suf￾fer from latency and low bandwidth. Devices are also unwired and suffer from low computing resources and small screen sizes. Following is an explanation of the processes that would require adjustment based on the features of m-commerce: • Attract: because users of mobile devices are not attached to any physical location, their location at a specific time can be used to identify the businesses that are in the users’ area and have special offers. Being aware of the users’ interests and pref- erences ensures that users receive relevant offers according to their profile. • Interact: since mobile devices’ display and keypad are limited in term of size (compared to fixed devices), it is difficult for users to display and browse online catalogues. Potential assistance to users from intelligent components could be very appropriate here. • Transact: since users of mobile devices cannot be constantly connected to the network, they have to go offline. This means that the transaction process has to be undertaken without the direct involvement of users. Intelligent components are needed to follow-up the progress of this process. • Pay: when payments are due, the exchange of sensitive information has to be made secure. Specific security protocols and techniques are required and should deal with the characteristics of wireless networks and mobile devices. Mobile applications have their own set of obstacles. This definitely translates into an additional burden on application developers. Developers are put on the front line for satisfying the promise of businesses and service providers in delivering Internet content to mobile devices. Varshney, Vetter, and Kalakota report issues that develop￾ers must address to successfully define, design, and implement the necessary hardware and software infrastructure for m-commerce [6]. The screen size of mobile devices is very crucial when designing interfaces for customers. Communication channels and their reliability and efficiency are still a concern (for example, how to recover from a disconnection). Despite all of these impediments, more advances continue to drive the wireless field. Indeed, new wireless standards are constantly surfacing, and the 254 December 2003/Vol. 46, No. 12ve COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM