It is useful to define the commonly used concepts associated with the rise of the Internet over the past decade in order to clarify key distinctions in the business realities they represent. These concepts are e-commerce, e-business, m-business, and m-commerce. E-commerce simply refers to the buying and selling of products and services over the web. The larger concept of e-business represents all the technological applications and business processes that enable a company to service an e-commerce transaction. In addition to encompassing e-commerce, e-business includes both the front- and back-office applications (e.g., ERP, CRM, supply chain management, and e-procurement) that form the core engine driving contemporary business transactions. In the broadest sense, e-business is the overall strategy of redefining old business models, with the aid of technology, to maximize customer value and profits.

Nearly all e-commerce and e-business applications envisioned and developed so far assume fixed or stationary users with wired infrastructure. This paradigm of fixed e-commerce is being rethought with the emergence and widespread adoption of wireless data networks for mobile commerce. M-commerce refers to business transactions conducted while on the move. Its growth is due to users seeking to conduct business, communicate, and share information while they are away from their desktop computers.

M-commerce is not possible without its partner m-business, which is the application infrastructure required to maintain business relationships and sell information, services, and commodities via mobile devices. Think of m-commerce as the façade and m-business as everything that happens behind the scenes. M-business, the logical extension of e-business, is creating new customer channels and addressing return on investment (ROI) of enterprise applications. Note that m-commerce can take place even if devices are offline.