Mobile wallet app seen as next big trend [Bangkok Post, Thailand]

Aug. 20--Personalised mobile tariff packages coinciding with the mobile wallet and other advanced applications are the future trend for smartphones in this data-centric age.

Mobile operators expect such services to become lucrative revenue streams and to help retain customers.

Tom Zack, managing director of SAP Thailand, a unit of the German software maker, said the local telecom industry is in a "transitional period" as it shifts from 2.5G to 3G.

Mobile operators need to spend heavily on 3G network and IT infrastructure expansion next year after freezing investment in the last five years.

Modern networks and infrastructure will enable mobile operators to jump-start creative services over the next two years, particularly as they try to shift prepaid users to postpaid subscriptions.

Mr Zack said SAP is in talks with banks and mobile operators to provide mobile wallet service aimed at workers moving to Thailand.

The service allows users to make financial transactions via mobile phone with no bank account required.

The market for mobile business application is growing fast, said Mr Zack, thanks to the growing popularity of policies that let employees bring their own wireless devices to work to connect with the company network.

Alison Bessho, director of business solutions at T-Mobile, the third-largest US mobile operator (controlled by Deutsche Telekom), said her company uses SAP's HANA in-memory computing appliance to analyse huge volumes of data. Speed has improved as a result.

T-Mobile spent US$4 billion on migrating to a 4G network, plus an additional $400 million to optimise its customer information system.

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