Comparing usage of mobile commerce in Taiwan, USA and Germany

Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is emerging, and a knowledge of the differences in different areas is of great importance because it offers a direct communication with each other anytime anywhere. On the basis of the classification of m-commerce and mobile applications proposed by Lehner and Watson, this paper reports three studies on the usage of m-commerce. Using the Grey Relation Analysis (GRA), the respective patterns of m-commerce in Germany, USA and Taiwan are distinguished. The results show that (1) the patterns change over area, and thus no single application checklist is good for globalisation in this industry, (2) GRA can be used as a framework for identifying the usage and patterns of m-commerce and (3) consumers in different areas do not regard the applications as equally important.