Alan Reiter Explains Why Microsoft's SPOT Won't Work
Alan Reiter has a good essay explaining all the many reasons why Microsoft’s new, very much hyped, SPOT technology won’t work. First off, he points out that it’s old news. Sending data by FM subchannels has been around for 20 years, and every time people have tried to do something with it (including almost everything Gates described) it’s failed miserably. Reiter goes through all the reasons why. While I think he’s probably right, he is missing two things: (1) Microsoft’s marketing muscle is not to be shrugged at and (2) Microsoft is very good at learning from failures. So, while the first version of SPOT (and probably the second, too) may not be a “success”, watch out for the third attempt.
