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6.3 Mobile Financial Applications 175

videos, images, and audio to mobile devices. MMS is an Voice Portals
extension of SMS (no extra charge with an SMS “bundle”).
It allows for longer messages than with SMS. A voice portal is a website with an audio interface that can be
For the difference between SMS and MMS and their ben- accessed through a telephone call. A user requests informa-
efits for mobile marketing, see mogreet.wordpress.com/ tion by speaking, and the voice portal finds the information on
2012/03/15/understanding-mobile-marketing-what- the Web, transforms it into a computer-generated voice reply,
is-sms-mms- message- marketing. and provides the answer by voice. For example, Bing Tell
voice assistant (bing.com/dev/speech; a Microsoft company)
Location-Based Services allows callers to request information ranging from weather to
current traffic conditions. IVR and voice portals are likely to
Retailers who use location-based services use the global become important ways of delivering m- commerce services
positioning system (GPS) or other positioning techniques to over audio. Popular applications are used for banking, hospi-
find a customer’s location and then deliver services, such as tals, airlines, government services, and online entertainment.
ads for products and services, and coupons in real time. GPS A similar service, called Siri, is available on iPhones where
also is used in emergency services, traffic management, and you can place commands by voice, including sending mes-
other applications. sages asking questions, and receiving answers.
Note: Some companies are trying to connect to the Internet
by sending signals from high in the sky and even from outer
Voice Support Services space (e.g., watch the video titled “Beaming the Internet
from Outer Space” (1:36 min) at money.cnn.com/video/
The most natural mode of human communication is voice. technology/2014/02/26/t-beaming-internet-from-space -
Voice recognition and voice synthesizing in m-commerce outernet-cubesat.cnnmoney). Also, note that there is an
applications offer advantages such as hands- and eyes-free increase in mobile cloud computing (see prezi.com/dpnifer-
operation, better operation in dirty or moving environ- apgzh/examples-of-mobile-cloud-computing).
ments, faster input (people talk about two-and-a-half times
faster than they type), and ease-of-use for disabled people.
Putting It All Together
IVR Systems
The previously mentioned software, hardware, and telecom-
Voice support applications such as interactive voice response munications are connected by a management system to support
(IVR) systems enable users to interact by telephones (of any wireless electronic trading, as shown in Figure 6.4. The figure,
kind) with a computerized system to request and receive which is self-explanatory, shows the flow of information from
information. These systems have been around since the 1980s the user (Step 1) to the conclusion of the transaction (Step 9).
but are now becoming more capable and widespread as artifi-
cial intelligence-based voice-recognition capabilities continue
to improve. SECTION 6.2 REVIEW QUESTIONS

Intelligent Personal Assistants 1. Briefly describe some of the key differences and similari-
ties among the major mobile devices.
As described in Chapter 5, companies use AI to understand 2. Briefly describe the types of messaging services offered
spoken natural languages. This application is used for intel- for mobile devices.
ligent personal assistants, which are offered today by major 3. Define mobile portal and voice portal.
corporations. Well known are: Google Now, Microsoft’s 4. Distinguish between MMS and SMS.
Cortana, Apple’s Sire, and Amazon’s Alexa. Other compa- 5. Define IVR.
nies create competing products (e.g., SoundHound). Note
that these products are integrated in smartwatches, smart
TVs, and cars. 6.3 MOBILE FINANCIAL APPLICATIONS
Of special interest is Amazon’s Echo which is a screen-
less, voice-controlled device that operates with Amazon’s Most mobile financial services are mobile versions of their
Alexa and it excels in smart home applications. For details, wireline counterparts. However, they can be used anytime, any-
see Rubin (2016), Manjoo (2016), and Mayo (2016). where. We divided these services into two broad categories: