Ubiquitous commerce - always on, always aware, always pro-active

The development of the infrastructure for ubiquitous computing is progressing rapidly, yet the applications that will be built on this new infrastructure remain largely ill defined. What will we do with these emerging capabilities? Stock quotes in 3-D on your heads-up display? Sports scores in stereo sound? We believe that the new kinds of services will result from three primary capabilities of ubiquitous devices: (1) to provide a service channel for remote service providers through an "always on" connection, (2) to inform these services about the local context of the user through an array of sensors, and (3) to enable these services to affect things in the user environment through actuators and local communication links. The new services enabled by these capabilities will lead to a new era of ubiquitous commerce, and change all business functions from customer relationship management to enterprise and supply chain management.