Will People Access Data More By WiFi Or By 3G?
While chatting around the Techdirt virtual water cooler, Mike and I enjoy a few good disagreements, but one area where we are in complete accord is our peeving on the endless x vs. y scenarios concocted by press. Of these, WiFi vs. 3G seems to have a surprisingly long life for a debate between rather different technologies. In a recent report, ArcChart research does a good job of explaining why this debate won’t die. They explain that, although very different, the two technologies are both complementary AND competitive. I agree with this theory, although propose they are more complementary than competitive. ARC loses me when they claim, “few would argue that Wi-Fi will be the dominant access technology”. Sign me up for one of the few. Which one will be “dominant” depends on your metric: Wide Area Wireless networks will support far more data sessions than WiFi, while WiFi is likely to host longer sessions, and more total data. I’m not sure which will garner more revenue or profit. I imagine it should be no surprise that two different solutions should each shine depending on the metric used. I have a car and a blender. My car is much better when the metric is miles/gallon, but my blender does better in milkshakes/month. Mike, what do you say we write a controversial press release on Autos vs. Blenders – it has a “vs.” in it so it’s bound to get published.
