Posted on Techdirt - 1 April 2003 @ 06:45am
Researchers at the UK-based Work Foundation are warning mobile carriers that if they charge too much for 3G services and handsets it could hurt 3G uptake (they needed a study to come up with this?). The Work Foundation believes that UK mobile operators don’t understand how sensitive UK mobile subscribers are about their mobile phone bills. While 3G operators love to talk about consumers, the services aren’t aimed at or priced for regular consumers at the moment. They are for early adopters who are willing to pay a premium for latest technology. The working stiffs at the Work Foundation will just have to wait like the rest of us for prices to drop to normal levels.
Posted on Techdirt - 1 April 2003 @ 06:30am
There are some good laughs to be had today from amusing April Fool’s stories on wireless news sites. Check out Mobile Burn’s review of the NovAtel ActionPac 8, a phone only your grandfather could love. Phone Scoop has a great set of parody news stories that poke fun at wireless announcements from the past year. My favorite has to be “Sprint PCS Launches PCS Taste.”
Posted on Techdirt - 31 March 2003 @ 03:20pm
Musicwave has partnered with PacketVideo to build Europe’s first downloadable wireless music video service. Sounds interesting but I really wonder if people will pay to download music videos, especially since they don’t pay for music videos now. However I am willing to pay for a giant jukebox in the sky.
Posted on Techdirt - 31 March 2003 @ 03:16pm
Qualcomm and Motorola have placed big bets on the Chinese mobile market. If CDMA can reach US level’s of penetration in China it would be a huge gain in global market share for CDMA. And now Nokia is getting in on the action by setting a up CDMA focused manufacturing subsidiary in China. Nokia has grown on the back of GSM so to see them committing such resources to CDMA really says something about the future of CDMA in China which is still predominantly a GSM market.
Posted on Techdirt - 31 March 2003 @ 03:09pm
With 3G services in the UK and Italy up and running the next market to go live for Hutchison on Australia. Apparently it’s been a bitter battle down under with other carriers trying to steal some of Hutch’s 3G thunder by announcing their own 3G-like services. The competition is so fierce Hutch is taking legal action against Optus for their 2.5G ad campaign. The whole thing is ridiculous, consumer aren’t stupid. They will decide for themselves what is “next generation” and more importantly if they want it.
Posted on Techdirt - 31 March 2003 @ 02:32pm
Wireless carriers are increasingly getting into the software business as they look for more ways to differentiate their offerings and gain some leverage over Nokia, Microsoft and Symbian. As the market moves toward smartphones software becomes more important to carriers and handset makers. One way or the other we’ll end up with a dominant OS that is used across carriers and handset makers. The question remains which one and when. Vodafone and Orange are doing their part by investing is Java start up SaveJe that is working on a full Java OS for handsets. A Java OS would allow Vodafone and Orange to commission completely custom handsets with their own unique interfaces (not necessarily a good thing) while still allowing the devices to run common java apps.
Posted on Techdirt - 26 March 2003 @ 11:09am
Ever since the rapid growth of DoCoMo’s i-mode carriers around the world, and DoCoMo itself, have been trying to replicate that growth outside of Japan. DoCoMo’s success with European partners had been lukewarm at best. But now it seems that Vodafone might be on to something with its Live! handsets and services. Since launching 5 months ago they have signed up 1 million customers, the majority in Germany, the UK and Italy. But it’s still unclear of those 1 million customers who bought Live! compatible handsets how many are using data services such as MMS and mobile email.
Posted on Techdirt - 26 March 2003 @ 10:48am
User of compatible Motorola handsets can now download themes to their devices which include screensavers, ringtones and wallpaper. The current themes are based on musicians who are a natural fit for handset customization obsessed youth. But it seems like a stretch for Motorola to be marketing the themes. They don’t have the same level of brand recognition as Nokia but then this could be an attempt to change all that.
Posted on Techdirt - 24 March 2003 @ 10:21am
Our wireless savvy users are already familiar with the differences between 1G, 2G and 3G. But like us you might find yourself having to explain the differences to non-TDW readers. The International Herald Tribune has a good summary of the Gs, but as expected from a European GSM perspective. This is completely applicable to US GSM operators with one exception. US GSM operators already plan to implement EDGE (think of it as 2.75G), which many Euro operators plan to skip to go straight to UMTS (aka 3G). For CDMA operators, they started with 2G and their new faster 1xRTT networks (SprintPCS Vision, Verizon Express Network) are technically 2.5G, but they like to call them 3G. However Verizon has started testing true CDMA 3G data networks which could role out next year.
Posted on Techdirt - 24 March 2003 @ 09:53am
With all the hype around MMS and 3G it is easy to forget about good old SMS. Except of course if you are a wireless subscriber, in which case you’re oblivious to MMS and 3G but completely enthralled by SMS. In China Coke is using SMS to measure how well users understand their latest TV campaign. Ad viewers are urged to send a text message answering 5 questions about the ad in exchange for a chance to win a free mobile phone. Over a 30 day period they have received 200,000 SMS entries. The latest figures from the UK show person-to-person text messaging growth has yet to slow down. In Febraury 2003 wireless subscribers exchanged 1.53 billion text messages, that’s an average of 55 million per day. The US is far behind the curve, but not for long. In November 2002 SMS service provider InphoMatch reported that they delivered 1 billion inter-carrier text messages over the past year. Now that US carriers are marketing bundles of text messages we should see usage picking up faster and possibly match UK levels in 12 to 18 months.
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No Subject Given
The translator gadget sounds cool. Very Star Trek. But it could get you in trouble if the translation is wrong!
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How is i-mode different from what Palm is trying to do with the Palm VII? Aside from the fact that the i-mode devices have are phones.
Re: Who'll use this?
This is not the ideal solution for people with large MP3 collections. But the same goes for free email services and heavy email users. Myplay could be cool for people new to MP3 and as a way of making part of your collection available to you from another PC.
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Allnetdevices.com has an interesting analysis on Handspring's impact on the future of Palm Computing. They assert that Handspring is going after the "tech-casual" user, while Palm is better suited to go after the enterprise user.
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The end of the PDQ? I didn't realize that it ever had a beginning beyond being featured on the Qualcomm home page.
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Knowing News Corp, the first thing they will do after acquiring ZD is launch a slew of computer sports games products, complete with risque photos of Laura Croft. News Corp has a pretty simple formula for success, sports and sex.
Gratuitous Smartchip use
Ummm... now why do I need this smartchip thingy if most of the merchants I deal with over the web store my CC info for me?
Neat looking card though.
tagline suggestion
Tagline? We don't need no stinkin' tagline.
how much faster?
So, if the G4 is a "supercomputer", does that mean it a Mac will finally draw web pages faster than my windows machine? I used to really dig Macs, but then I started using Win95 and realized everything got way faster (including crashes). I will say that Netscape for Linux draws pages faster then anything, even on my $600 eMachines.
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One interesting thing to note about Samsung, they also control most of the Korean recording industry. That said, this is not that surprising.
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The sky car could make my commute very managable.
MP3 Anywhere
I have the DVD product and it works OK. The sound quality with the TV is OK, but when I play the sound through my home theater, you the quality is pretty low. Part of it could be due to my cheap sound card and the fact the transmitter and receiver are on two seperate floors. Picture quality is acceptable.
Re: An old one, but a good one
Sounds very familiar.
Re: I'd hate to be Visto
I was checking my Yahoo Mail and they have added some new features. You can now forward your Yahoo Mail to another account and access your mail via a regualr POP client. These guys are amazing.
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How come Techdirt.com wasn't mentioned? Mike, you need to get your PR guys on this.
Webvan
I don't know if Webvan deserves the $4B valuation, but I was impressed when I tried their service. They have the pontential to be more than just a Safeway killer. I can see them bringing me a couple of videos and maybe my dry cleaing when they drop of my groceries. Now, that would be convenient. Plus, they could provide fast delivery on books and cds since they have their own local distribution network.
Re: Porn does NOT drive new tech!
OK, maybe my word choice was bad. But if the porn industry is an early adopter, then they drive market accpetance of a technology. I didn't mean to imply they develop the tech.
You get what you pay for
I agree that its annoying to see ads on for-pay services but in the end you do get what you pay for. I've tried NetZero and its good as a last resort. I wouldn't want to use it every day. Their network and java technology just aren't as stable as using AOL or another national ISP.
Re: Interesting take...
The US is pretty far behind Europe when it comes to wireless services. In Europe phones support SMS (Short Messaging Service) which lets users send instant messages between phones. The conventional wisdom right now is that smartphones with wireless data capabilities will be the killer info appliance of the near future.
Direct Marketing and Internet Savvy
While I agree with Mike that this deal reeks of desperation, there are some pretty solid fits here. Columbia House has really missed the boat on the Internet. They could have been huge, but they lacked net savvyness. CDNow has been crushed by Amazon, but has a solid web site. Combine CDnow's net expertise with Columbia House's direct marketing savvyness and you could have a real powerhouse.
The fact that both Sony and Time Warner are involved also hints at a bigger opportunity down the line, music downloads. CDNow/Columbia House is well positioned to have exclusive rights to an extensive library of music downloads. CDNow just started offfering downloadable music files in the Windows Media format