Want PTT Today?
Nokia announces a push-to-talk phone for fitness buffs – wow talk about focused segmentation. With a timer, stopwatch, an application called Fitness Coach with workout modules, seems like an odd match for PTT, but perhaps Finnish fitness-buffs like to keep calls short so they can keep working out. Either way, more significant is that Nokia plans a variety of PTT phones, some with dedicated PTT buttons, some with soft buttons by early 2004. In fact, a PTT software client will be a standard feature on all Nokia phones by 2005. However, there is no need to wait! Obviously there is Nextel and Verizon Wireless PTT, but if you have a phone with a Symbian OS and a GPRS connection, you can download a PTT software client from service provider Fastmobile, and begin using PTT immediately, regardless of whether your phone company endorses it. Fastchat connects you with other Fastchat customers, or with MSN IM on desktop computers. Hey, I’m not shilling these guys, and don’t work for them. But I didn’t want to talk about Nokia’s “early 2004” announcement without mentioning that some startups have some innovative PTT solutions already commercialized.
