The one thing that constant in this world is change. Change happens everywhere. Information technologies and the system are changing day by day. The new technologies are faster, reliable and accurate than the previous time. The scope of Information management system is increasingly becoming wider. In business field, people are giving interest to paper-less and automated work rather than manual work. Recent developments in mobile technologies have produced a new kind of device: Smart phones. Smart phones are, simply, programmable mobile phones, which supports subtle control over the events taking place in the mobile phones. The main characteristics of these Smart phones are their relatively sophisticated sensing capabilities, storage limit and built-in networking, local and remote data transfer, and so on.

“Can Smart phones be the most reliable, faster and successful in future?” people are giving a lot of concerns about the Smart phones. The trend of mobile banking, bill payment and access of internet and so forth are changing. People are choosing mobile phones rather than paying manually to pay the bills and dues. Transferring funds and bills payment can be done by just making confirm over the smart phones. The access to the internet and the supports of the operating system in smart phones is making significantly different in services.

The objectives on the reliability and effectiveness of the Smart phones are as follows:

The speed and supports on internet access must be faster enough.

Fully control mechanism supports with sensing capability, and storage capacity of the phones needs to be higher.

User friendly to access the domain of data in real time.

It should fully support Data protection and security of the user’s information.

Up to date with the technologies, operating system and updates.

Critical analysis:

One of the important aspects of the smart phones is data security and privacy of the user’s information. They are likely to be successful in future but some of the limitations do not leave it to be perfection in future. In past history, there are a lot of examples that the smart phones were hacked by the hacker and the reveal of the information being occurred. These can create serious problem for the users.

Another issue is flexible control. As full-fledged computer, smart phones, generally programmable to actively interact with subjects, record, data and communication should be able to send this information back to the users in real time.

We can be sure that the development in smart phone technology will improve the way of doing things easier, effective and reliable. The smart phones will replace previously employed methods such as beepers, diaries, and other valuable devices.

The connection to the server and the access to the internet need to be secured. Generally, the misuse of data can be harmful to the users, the security of the information and avoiding of unauthorized explore of information have to be minimized.

Application:

Smart Phones can be said that a combination of cell phones and personal digital assistant (PDA). It facilitates to make telephone calls, but also adds in feature that might find on a personal digital assistant. Some of the key features in smart phones are operating system, software, web access, QWERTY keyboard and messaging. (Cassavoy, 2010)

Generally Smartphone based on operating system completely different than normal cell phones. For example BlackBerry Smartphone runs BlackBerry OS, and other devices use Palm OS, Windows Mobile and so on. The another feature, software in Smartphone allows user to do more function than the cell phone like creating, editing Microsoft office document, downloading documents, editing photos and driving direction via GPS, creating playlist of digital tunes. In addition, Smartphone allows accessing the web at higher speed. The addition of Wi-Fi is really a smart feature in Smartphone. The QWERTY keyboard in Smartphone is another attractive feature. User can use keyboard as in his/her own PCs and Laptop. All cell phones can send and receive text message, but what makes a Smartphone apart is its handling of e-mail. It can sync with personal and sometimes, professional e-mail account. (Cassavoy, 2010)

The main reason that Smartphone becoming a popular device is because of greater functionality is built-in, Smartphones can do things much more quickly than the normal cell phones and personal digital assistant (PDA) .

Some of the benefits of Smartphone are as follows:

Stay connected:

The main advantage of the having Smartphone is mobile access to the internet using Wi-Fi or cellular network. This also helps to keep the user connected with the social networks. It also provides the internet search engine to get useful information from internet. (Mark, 2010)

Keep in touch:

Smartphone is helpful in many ways. Users can receive, read and reply email instantly. It helps the users to be in touch. (Mark, 2010)

Get organized:

Another important feature of the Smartphone is it helps to be organized such as a personal digital assistant does. Powerful memory capacity and High speed processor makes Smartphone equipped with an address, book, calendar, calculator, voice recorder and note pad that helps in user’s personal and professional life run smoothly. (Mark, 2010)

Business:

Users are able to work outside of their office with the help of Smartphone. Generally Smartphone have word processing capabilities, spreadsheet and database programs. This will help the user’s professional business life. (Mark, 2010)

Some other advantages are as below:

Smartphone can function as personal organisers, with electronic version of diaries, contact list and reminders. (is4profit, 2010)

User can enjoy flexible working environment. It’s like taking notes, reviewing and editing appointments, contact and important documents, all while users are on the move. (is4profit, 2010)

It allows information sharing. More data can be received and transmitted via Smartphone such as e-mail attachments or data files from websites. (is4profit, 2010)

The greater functionality; now user can use cameras with immediate snap and send functionality. A remote user can send MMS or share photograph with others immediately. (is4profit, 2010)

Faster communication: Web access is quicker in Smartphone than in previous device. It is very easy to access e-mail and information from the internet.(is4profit, 2010)

Analysis and Conclusion:

The costumer’s expectation is rising day by day about Smartphone, today’s Smartphone user expects a device to not only offer leading hardware and software function, but need to be more customizable than ever before, through availability of downloadable mobile application varieties. (Byrne, 2010)

Most cell phone users were pleased with clear voice calls, texting and games before the mobile phones became smart. The users didn’t expect availability of 3G/ 4G web, 1 Ghz speed of processors, high definition video, social networking GPS map, higher megapixel cameras, high quality sound, mobile application and high resolution screen. Now most of these features are in Smartphone like iPhone, BlackBerry etc. (MobileBeyond, 2010)

Smartphone are important for consumers as well as to IT professionals. The internet world is moving from web 2.0 to web 3.0, the Integration of all the media internet access by mobile device will be grown up. In Appearance, Smartphone are small and environmentally friendly and it is because they require less energy and less raw material consumption. There is high possibility of Smartphone used in information economy by IT professional. (Horton, 2009)

The competition is increasing day by day and the people are demanding Smartphone at the lowest price. Companies are fighting for higher market share. So it can be clearly analysed the Smartphone will be the one thing that almost every people will have in future. However, the satisfaction using Smartphone will only improve if mobile companies bring out hardware and software application that perform flawlessly and provide best value and choice. (MobileBeyond, 2010)

In conclusion, the advance features, the capabilities of the Smartphone, and the growing demand bring them to one of the popular digital devices almost people will have.

Question 2: Evaluate the role of e-commerce and web 2.0 technologies in eBay’s and Amazon’s increased popularity?

E-commerce is growing rapidly nowadays. The transaction of business and trade are going online rather than manual one. Most of the buyer looks internet at a glance when he/she feels to shop. The internet trend for business or say e-commerce is thus becoming more popular.

Ebay and Amazon are becoming one of the frequently used methods in e-commerce trend. These two methods of e-commerce are different in nature but somehow they are similar in dealing business operation. Both of them are using e-commerce and web 2.0 technologies. (CommunicateBetter, 2009)

Web 2.0 technology and the e-commerce are very much important for the eBay and Amazon. Before that the difference between the eBay and Amazon also play a vital role in buyers mind. eBay are better option than Amazon for some field where as Amazon also better in some other fields. Generally we can find auction sale on eBay where the price can be bargained among the buyer and seller where as the Amazon is fixed in price of the product it offers. The bargaining option is not available in Amazon. (CommunicateBetter, 2009)

Web 2.0 is a trend that promote around using interactive, community-driven sites for information sharing, networking among users. For instance, blogs and wikis along with Digg, Reddit. Customers are now able to interact with the business organization which enhance the company’s succession. Now Web 2.0 is removing the dull, static websites in previous time. Customer can play active role, they can interact with the website content and get involved in ways that were not possible in previous time. (CommunicateBetter, 2009)

The Role of E- commerce:

Web 2.0 feature in e-commerce are the advantageous for Amazon and eBay. This provides free blogging application that can be considered as web 2.0 pioneers and they are free of charge. Another important role is multimedia support, where the rich feature can be incorporated to enhance the customer experience such as Flash and Silverlight. The core of Web 2.0 is social networking, e-commerce host the features such as chat scripts and bulletin boards enhance to create a community environment. (CommunicateBetter, 2009)

Revolutionary changes are happening in online environment. New web technologies are giving a better interactive shopping experience on buyer’s side. With the advancement, Web 2.0 is offering a good perception among the customers. The business has only two options, either they have to meet the growing expectation or they have to lose them to another site. (Fry, 2011)

The Web 2.0 supports the high level of interaction on web site and similarly the buyer also expect the same level of interaction when they go shopping online. There has been occurred fundamental changes in measuring, the tracker or say analyst start to measure its effectiveness in terms of time spent on the web rather than just the traditional count of page views. Web pages are relying on AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) technology, this offers to streaming media to serve new content without reloading individual web pages. This changes in web technology is altering the way of online shopping. Almost, none of the customer want to wait for the next page to load after click, they want single-page browsing and checkout process that ultimately saves time, reduces frustration and shopping cart abandonment. (Fry, 2011)

In Web 2.0 technology the AJAX technology pulls relevant data forward flawlessly and helps them to smooth, consistent view and interaction. This can also help the customer to select the items frequently viewed, to view user generated reviews, product demonstration, assembling and tagging product with additional keywords. (Fry, 2011) .The web 2.0 is also offering pairing items from different brands and company. For example a buyer can now look to pair up similar items from different brands and sites. Similarly in Amazon, they are also able to help the customer to add their product in wish list and after that they can add to the basket so that the targeted product can be come up with details and can be easily found remaining on the same web page. (Fry, 2011)

We cannot neglect the E-commerce aspect while talking about the Amazon and eBay. Not only the web 2.0 is important for the eBay and Amazon but also the role of E-commerce arise equally. The order acquisition, transaction of payment, delivery of the product in internet is the E-commerce. The Amazon seller must use Amazon payments to accept the payment. Amazon collects the payment made by the buyer and deposits it into bank, where as eBay use different payment method to make transaction deal. Such as Pay pal. (Bromley, 2010)

Amazon and eBay, both are using Web 2.0 version technology on their sites. eBay provides different photo view of the product as well as the animation of the product feature to attract its customer but in Amazon, only few photos are available to its customer because they want to make sure their customer that they do business in reality for that if the ordered product is different and goes wrong they provide return policy to their customer. (Bromley, 2010)

Conclusion:

The role of Web 2.0 and E-commerce in Amazon and eBay is very crucial to their succession and popularity. The trend of online business (e-commerce) and latest web technology (web 2.0) is one of the important aspects of the business environment. To survive in global intense competition the business has to cope with the E-commerce and has to prepare online strategy. Hence, the e-commerce and web 2.0 technologies are one of most important reason for the success of Amazon and eBay business.