[Mobile Cloud Computing]

By

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background of the Study1

Objectives and Scope3

Purpose of the Study3

Research Questions4

CHAPTER 2: PROBLEM DEFINITION6

Consuming WS from Mobile Clients6

The Idea of Mobile Cloud Computing7

(C1) Loss of connection8

(C2) Bandwidth/Latency9

(C3) Limited resources9

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW11

Cloud Computing Concept11

The Mobile Technology13

The Mobile Cloud Computing15

The Number of Potential Users17

Consolidation of Mobile Computing in Business18

Mobile Phone Applications and Mobile Computing19

Mobile Computing and Application in Schools21

Networking Games and Mobile Computing23

Mobile Computing and Current Market24

Cloud computing in the pocket24

Companies drive growth in the mobile sector25

The power of the cloud scaling26

Applications in the cloud in relation to the mobile market26

Future of Mobile Computing27

REFERENCES29

APPENDIX32

Project Timelines32

Chapter 1: Introduction

Background of the Study

Mobile operators in emerging markets suffer from significantly poor Average revenue Per User (ARPU) vs. operators in developed western markets (Figure 1). While there has been rapid growth due to addition of new users to the pool of mobile users, the cost of voice calls as well as other basic services such as short messaging services (SMS) has been plummeting. According to the Vodafone annual report for 2010, “The combination of competition and regulatory pressures contributed to a 10% decline in the global average price per minute in the 2010 calendar year. However, price pressures are being partly offset by increased mobile usage leading to a 6% increase in mobile service revenue over the same period.” (Vodafone Annual Report, 2010).

The market today is marked by intense competition where declining prices and high customer attrition is common place. In such circumstances, mobile operators are looking for creatively increasing ARPUs through value added services, enhancing user demand for Mobile Data services, increasingly delivered through the 'cloud'. Cloud computing refers to use the data, information from a centralized pool of resources via computer network (Carr, 2003). Cloud resembles a central repository or hub from where all the computers on network can use applications. A minimal operating system and a web browser are just sufficient for a computer to work under cloud. These services are also hypothesized to be important for retaining customers and reducing attrition.

Figure 1: Poor ARPUs in emerging economies such as India, Pakistan and China

(http://www.indiatelecomonline.com/global-wireless-arpu-trend/_)

As shown in the graph above, the ARPUs in emerging markets, especially the “BRIC” countries, are very low, arguably due to the low consumption of value added services and tough competition (Cousins, & Varshney, 2009, pp. 117-123). Usage of cloud computing in mobile phones like Google Maps, Gmail and other navigational applications are becoming increasingly commonplace. All of these are enablers for using cloud computing to deliver value added services to customers - thereby, retaining them and realizing higher ARPUs (Charland, & Leroux, 2011, pp. 49-5).

The dissertation aims to thoroughly understand the mobile cloud computing opportunity in emerging markets (specifically, India, Pakistan and UAE). These are the countries where the growth in this sector has been immense and something which has attracted the attention of analysts, researchers, market players as well as governments (Tarasewich, Gong, Hoon, & DeWester, 2008, pp. 121-144). These are the geographies where the users are most prone to innovative marketing strategies ...