Mobile Commerce, also known as M-Commerce or mCommerce, is the ability to conduct commerce using a mobile device, such as a mobile phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a smartphone, or other emerging mobile equipment such as dashtop mobile devices. Mobile Commerce has been defined as follows:
"Mobile Commerce is any transaction, involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods and services, which is initiated and/or completed by using mobile access to computer-mediated networks with the help of an electronic device."
According to comScore, up to November 2011 there were 38 percent of smartphone owners have used their phone to make a purchase at least once.
The Global Mobile Commerce Forum, which came to include over 100 organisations, had its fully minuted launch in London on 10 November 1997. It was founded by Logica and Cellnet. The meeting was opened by Dr Mike Short, former chairman of the GSM Association, with forecasts from Kevin Duffey (Group Telecoms Director of Logica) and Tom Alexander (later CEO of Virgin Mobile and then of Orange).