Abstract:
A method, program and system for calculating a cost discount for mobile telephone Internet access are provided. The invention comprises receiving an access request from a customer using a mobile phone and determining that the phone is using a wireless communication protocol (i.e. WAP). An electronic document (i.e. WML Web page) is sent back to the mobile phone. The session time is tracked, and if a customer purchase order is received, a discount is applied to the purchase price of the order.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Technical Field 
     The present invention relates generally to computer network environments, and more specifically to mobile phone access via the Internet of electronic commerce sites. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     Internet shopping via web-based cellular phone is not picking up very rapidly in the United States, primarily because of the high cost per minute Web access. Internet access via mobile phone adds costs to Web access that are normally not encountered with land line access. These additional costs provide a significant disincentive to use mobile phones for Internet shopping, by adding to the costs of purchases. 
     Some telecommunication plans do allow free web access over cellular phones to selected merchants (from whom telecommunication companies receives payment). However, the free web access is not extended to all merchants. 
     Currently, Internet merchants have to subscribe to discount plans offered by telecommunications carriers. These plans often allow cellular phone users to access the merchant sites for free. Cellular phone users might rely on a bookmark listing such discount/free merchant sites. However, the high costs of such special arrangements with the telecommunications carriers are only affordable to large, well-established Internet businesses. 
     Therefore, an affordable and flexible discount method for defraying the costs of cellular phone Internet shopping would be desirable. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention provides a method, program and system for calculating a cost discount for mobile telephone Internet access. The invention comprises receiving an access request from a customer using a mobile phone and determining that the phone is using a wireless communication protocol. An electronic document is sent back to the mobile phone. The session time is tracked, and if a customer purchase order is received, a discount is applied to the purchase price of the order. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein: 
         FIG. 1  depicts a pictorial representation of a network of data processing systems in which the present invention may be implemented; 
         FIG. 2  depicts a block diagram of a data processing system that may be implemented as a server in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3A  depicts a diagram illustrating a mobile phone in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3B  depicts a block diagram illustrating the hardware configuration of a mobile phone in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  depicts a flowchart illustrating an application of a cellular phone discount in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 5  depicts a flowchart illustrating the overall process flow of a cell phone discount by the merchant server in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 6  depicts a diagram illustrating a discount computation mechanism in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 7  depicts a diagram illustrating the software structure of a merchant server in accordance with the present invention; and 
         FIG. 8  depicts a pictorial diagram illustrating phone displays for discount information in accordance with the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     With reference now to the figures,  FIG. 1  depicts a pictorial representation of a network of data processing systems in which the present invention may be implemented. Network data processing system  100  is a network of computers in which the present invention may be implemented. Network data processing system  100  contains a network  102 , which is the medium used to provide communications links between various devices and computers connected together within network data processing system  100 . Network  102  may include several types of connections, such as wire, wireless communication links, or fiber optic cables. However, for the purposes of the present invention, wireless communication links will be emphasized. 
     In the depicted example, server  104 ,  106 , and  108  are connected to network  102 . In the depicted example, servers  104  and  106  are merchant servers with high speed connections to network  102 , while server  108  is a telecommunications/gateway server. In addition, clients  110 ,  112  and  114  also are connected to network  102 . Client  110  is a personal computer using a conventional land line communication link. Clients  112  and  114  are mobile phones relying on wireless communication links. Clients  110 ,  112 , and  114  are clients to servers  104 ,  106 , and  108 . Network data processing system  100  may include additional servers, clients, and other devices not shown. 
     In the depicted example, network data processing system  100  is the Internet with network  102  representing a worldwide collection of networks and gateways that use the TCP/IP suite of protocols to communicate with one another. At the heart of the Internet is a backbone of high-speed data communication lines between major nodes or host computers, consisting of thousands of commercial, government, educational and other computer systems that route data and messages.  FIG. 1  is intended as an example, and not as an architectural limitation for the present invention. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , a block diagram of a data processing system that may be implemented as a server is depicted in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Data processing system  200  may be a symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) system including a plurality of processors  202  and  204  connected to system bus  206 . Alternatively, a single processor system may be employed. Also connected to system bus  206  is memory controller/cache  208 , which provides an interface to local memory  209 . I/O bus bridge  210  is connected to system bus  206  and provides an interface to I/O bus  212 . Memory controller/cache  208  and I/O bus bridge  210  may be integrated as depicted. 
     Peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus bridge  214  connected to I/O bus  212  provides an interface to PCI local bus  216 . A number of modems may be connected to PCI bus  216 . Typical PCI bus implementations will support four PCI expansion slots or add-in connectors. Communications links to clients  110 - 114  in  FIG. 1  may be provided through modem  218  and network adapter  220  connected to PCI local bus  216  through add-in boards. 
     Additional PCI bus bridges  222  and  224  provide interfaces for additional PCI buses  226  and  228 , from which additional modems or network adapters may be supported. In this manner, data processing system  200  allows connections to multiple network computers. A memory-mapped graphics adapter  230  and hard disk  232  may also be connected to I/O bus  212  as depicted, either directly or indirectly. 
     Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware depicted in  FIG. 2  may vary. For example, other peripheral devices, such as optical disk drives and the like, also may be used in addition to or in place of the hardware depicted. The depicted example is not meant to imply architectural limitations with respect to the present invention. 
     The data processing system depicted in  FIG. 2  may be, for example, an eServer pSeries system, a product of International Business Machines Corporation in Armonk, N.Y., running the Advanced Interactive Executive (AIX) or Linux operating systems. 
     With reference now to  FIG. 3A , a diagram illustrating a mobile phone is depicted in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Mobile phone  300  includes a display  306  for presenting textual and graphical information. Display  306  may be a known display device, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) device. 
     Mobile phone  300  may also include keypad  308 , speaker  314 , and microphone  316 . The keypad may be used to enter, for example, telephone numbers, user identification information, and commands for interacting with the interface. Audio feedback may be presented via speaker  314 . In addition to normal voice conversation, feedback may include other information, for example, location. Microphone  316  can be used not only for voice conversation, but for entering specific voice commands for voice actuated functions. 
     Mobile phone  300  also includes antenna  318 , which is necessary for establishing wireless communication links with remote transmitting towers. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 3B , a block diagram illustrating the hardware configuration of mobile phone  300  is shown in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.  FIG. 3B  illustrates the increasing sophistication of modern mobile phone designs. 
     Mobile phone  300  employs bus architecture. Processor  322  and main memory  324  are connected to bus  330 . Display adapter  326 , keypad adapter  328 , storage  332 , and audio adapter  334  are also connected to bus  330 . Mobile phone  300  also includes wireless link  336  connected to bus  330 . Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware in  FIG. 3B  may vary depending on the implementation. Other internal hardware or peripheral devices may be used in addition to or in place of the hardware depicted in FIG.  3 B. 
     Mobile phone  300  may rely on Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) for facilitating communications. WAP is a standard for providing wireless phones, pagers and other handheld devices with secure access to e-mail and text-based Web pages. WAP provides a complete environment for wireless applications that includes a wireless counterpart of TCP/IP and a framework for telephony integration such as call control and phone book access. WAP features the Wireless Markup Language (WML), which was derived from Phone.com&#39;s Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML) and is a streamlined version of HTML for small screen displays. It also uses WMLScript, a compact JavaScript-like language that runs in limited memory. WAP also supports handheld input methods such as a keypad and voice recognition. Independent of the air interface, WAP runs over all the major wireless networks in place. It is also device independent, requiring only a minimum functionality in the unit so that it can be used with a myriad of phones and handheld devices. However, it should be pointed out that WAP has been described for illustrative purposes, and other wireless protocols may be used to implement the present invention. 
     The depicted example in FIG.  3 B and examples described above are not meant to imply architectural limitations. In addition, the use of wireless communications protocols for Internet access need not be restricted to mobile phones. The present invention may be applied to other wireless devices which have similar communications protocols. Mobile phones are used merely for illustrative purposes. 
     The present invention provides a method for Internet merchants to apply discounts to cellular phone purchases. While prior art approaches rely on merchants subscribing to a discount plan offered by a telecommunications supplier, the present invention allows the merchant to offer discounts directly to the customer. This direct approach not only provides greater flexibility than subscribing to a centralized discount plan, but also opens opportunities for Internet merchants that might not otherwise be able to afford subscribing with the major telecommunications companies. 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , a flowchart illustrating an application of a cellular phone discount is depicted in accordance with the present invention. The customer registers with an Internet merchant (step  401 ). Session identifiers may be used to track the customer (i.e. IDs embedded in cookies or Universal Resource Locator (URL) encoding). First time customer who have not registered with a merchant may be alerted by the merchant server that a discount may be applied to any purchases, which will provide further incentive for first time wireless customers who may not otherwise be aware of the potential savings. An email may also be sent to customers alerting them about possible discounts. 
     The merchant server determines that the customer&#39;s client (e.g. cell phone) is communicating over the WAP protocol (wireless communications)(step  402 ). This may be accomplished by detecting the type of browse used by the mobile phone, the type of header, or the presence of a WAP gateway. The merchant server then returns WML and also tracks the time the client spends at the web site (step  403 ). To reduce costs to consumers, and thereby encourage more cell phone web purchases, the time spent at a merchant&#39;s web site can be used to calculate discounts applied to purchases. In addition to time-based discounts, other discounting methods may be used to cover cellular phone costs. Examples of alternate discounts schemes include fixed rate per call and percentage of purchase price. Some merchants may wish to apply a ceiling to the discount. In addition, because different wireless communication plans may have different costs, greater discounts may be applied to higher priced plans. Examples of ways to determine the particular plan used by a customer (and hence relative costs) include: detecting the particular WAP gateway being used, the customer&#39;s wireless service provider, and customer profiles. Many other discount schemes are possible and should be determined according to merchant business needs. 
     When and if the customer makes a purchase from the merchant, a discount is applied directly to the purchase price, depending on the cost determination and discount method of the merchant (step  404 ). The system then determines if there are more requests from the same customer (step  405 ). An example would be a “continue shopping” command from the customer after placing the order. If there is another request, the system returns to step  403 . If there are no more requests from the customer, the process stops and the system exits. 
     Turning to  FIG. 5 , a flowchart illustrating the overall process flow of a cell phone discount by the merchant server is depicted in accordance with the present invention. Customers register with a merchant database (step  501 ). This database in maintained on the merchant server and contains different types of registered customers. The criteria for classifying customers is determined by the business requirements of the merchant. For example, merchants may classify customers as business or professional customers, or they may classify customers according to the customer&#39;s wireless communication plan. Merchants might also classify customers according to the types of products the customers are interested in purchasing. These kinds of details can be gathered from the customers during the registration process in step  501 , and may also be updated at a later date. In addition, the server might track repeat customers and apply greater discounts to regular customers, depending upon the customers&#39; purchase histories. 
     When a customer contacts the merchant server or places an order (step  502 ), the merchant server maps the customer to a discount scheme table (step  503 ), depending on the customer&#39;s classification within the database. The discount scheme table may contain several discounting methods, similar to those described above. The different schemes may be applied to different customer classifications. Alternatively, the server may calculate which discount scheme will produce the greatest savings for the customer for a particular transaction. 
     After the customer/order is mapped to a particular discount scheme, the server uses the scheme to compute the discount for the transaction (step  504 ) and then applies the discount when calculating the customer&#39;s bill (step  505 ), as illustrated below in FIG.  6 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 6 , a diagram illustrating a discount computation mechanism is depicted in accordance with the present invention. The example in  FIG. 6  illustrates a time-based discount scheme. However, as stated above, other discount schemes may be used. The computation mechanism identifies a particular customer with the session and transaction. In the present example, the session identifier is 1A36794 (which is in the cookie). Because the present example is using a time-based discount scheme, the computation mechanism uses the total session time recorded by the server (45 minutes). The session time is then multiplied by a cost conversion factor (10¢ per minute), and the total discount ($4.50) is calculated and applied to the purchase price. 
     The discount schemes used by merchants might require a minimum total purchase, in order to make the discount services more cost effective for the merchants. 
     Referring to  FIG. 7 , a diagram illustrating the software structure of a merchant server is depicted in accordance with the present invention. This diagram is an example of the types of software features used to carry out the method of the present invention. The merchant server contains Web Server software  701 , which enables the server to communicate with other servers and client machines. Incoming requests coming through the Web Server software  701  are compared to a database  702  of types of customers. These types might include first time customers, repeat customers with registered accounts, business customers, or any type of classification that the merchant wishes to use, based on the nature of the merchant&#39;s business. The classification of customers may also be based on method of communication used by the customer in contacting the merchant. The explanation of the present invention assumes that the customer is using mobile or cellular telephone communication. However, there may also be possible sub-classifications with mobile communications. 
     The classification of the incoming customer request is then mapped to a table of discount schemes  703 . Discount computation software  704  then calculates the discount based on the appropriate discount scheme. This discount is then applied to the purchase price by billing software  705 . 
     Referring now to  FIG. 8 , a pictorial diagram illustrating phone displays for discount information is depicted in accordance with the present invention. The displays illustrated in  FIG. 8  are merely possible examples of the type of discount display a customer might receive on his or her cell phone after an order is placed. Display  800  is an example of a detailed display identifying the merchant, the discount parameter (i.e. time), and the total discount on the order. In the example illustrated by display  810 , a menu selection option is presented to the customer rather than detailed information. 
     Because wireless Internet purchases may be impulse and discretionary, an Internet merchant that discounts the cost of cell-phone access may find more visitors and recoup the cost of the discounts due to economies of scale from greater sales. By using the present invention, merchants will not have to pay the telecommunications carriers in order to provide free cell-phone access to the merchant web sites. This allows smaller merchants to avoid the often prohibitive costs of making special arrangements with the telecommunications firms. 
     It is important to note that while the present invention has been described in the context of a fully functioning data processing system, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the processes of the present invention are capable of being distributed in the form of a computer readable medium of instructions and a variety of forms and that the present invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of signal bearing media actually used to carry out the distribution. Examples of computer readable media include recordable-type media, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk drive, a RAM, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, and transmission-type media, such as digital and analog communications links, wired or wireless communications links using transmission forms, such as, for example, radio frequency and light wave transmissions. The computer readable media may take the form of coded formats that are decoded for actual use in a particular data processing system. WAP and WML are used merely for illustrative purposes. Other markup languages (e.g. HDML) and communications protocols (e.g. bluetooth) may be used with the present invention. 
     The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention, the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.