| dc.description.abstract | Technological and financial limitations have hampered the effective advertisement of products
and services by microenterprises thus limiting their contribution towards national economic
growth. Recent advances in mobile technologies makes the use of location based mobile
advertising (LBMA) a viable option in addressing this challenge. However, a majority of
LBMA are developed for use on smart and feature phones with inbuilt positioning and program
execution capabilities thus leaving out a majority of microenterprises who use basic phones.
This study therefore examined the use of alternative positioning methods, namely symbolic
and network based geo-location, and device independent system access methods; SMS and
USSD, for the development of LBMA for use by microenterprises. Functional decomposition
and rapid prototyping methodologies were utilized to develop a suitable LBMA application
model and system prototype respectively. The prototype utilizing network based geo-location
proved to be successful in delivering LBMA services to microenterprises. The delivery of
LBMA services to microenterprises using network based geo-location, SMS and USSD was
therefore found to be feasible and practical. It is therefore recommended that this approach be
scaled up and commercialized whilst addressing emergent adoption issues such as cost and
security concerns occasioned by the use of user’s real time locations. | en_US |
