These are big ticket items that are sensitive to credit conditions and indicative of both business activity and consumption.

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Yet the nature of m-commerce transactions, most relatively small in size and concentrated on items that are time- or location-sensitive, will limit the overall size of the m-commerce market.

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"The price surge of daily life items has caused mental pressure on those wage earners who are sensitive to prices, " said Wang Shuixiong, a sociologist with Renmin University in Beijing.

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Buying books and music, still the web's most popular shopping items, will not happen much in m-commerce because they are not usually time-sensitive.

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