Mobile Data Ecosystem

The ecosystem of any technology consists of the set of companies, organizations, and people whose business is impacted by the technology or whose business impacts the technology. In the ecosystem, any such entity has its own role to play, usually with a complex set of relationships to other entities in the ecosystem. The mobile data has its own ecosystem in which many different entities play. This chapter provides an overview of this ecosystem, defining different roles and clustering the roles in four groups. The groups are that of standard definers, manufacturers, service providers, and users. The group of standard definers includes the roles of standard organizations and regulatory agencies. The group of manufacturers includes the roles of component providers, either hardware or software; equipment makers for mobile devices; network equipment and servers; as well as developers of mobile applications. The group of service providers includes the role of mobile network operators, Internet service providers, and application service providers that operate on the Internet. The group of users includes consumers and enterprises. Any given company can take more than one role in the ecosystem.