Friday, November 15, 2002
All In One Utopia?
Posted by Andy Sjostrom in "THOUGHT" @ 02:24 AM
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2896754,00.html
Visitor Pierre Karlsson pointed me to an interesting article written by David Coursey, Executive Editor, AnchorDesk. The article is called "Why all-in-one handhelds will never catch on".
Here are some snippets from the article:
"The conventional wisdom--or perhaps it's the wireless industry's common prayer--is that messaging and multimedia will be the Next Big Thing in wireless. After all, Swedish kids spend almost their entire allowances sending short text messages to one another and the Japanese are gaga sending each other pictures they've taken with their cell phones. Or so we are told. It's supposed to follow that American teens will do the same, using their phones for what amounts to expensive instant messaging, and that parents will start capturing their Kodak moments on a phone for immediate dispatch to relatives. I HATE TO BREAK IT to the wonderful folks in the wireless industry, but I think both scenarios are bunk."
David then goes on and constructively explains his own predications for the wireless industry. All in all I agree with his conclusions, although I can't help reacting to the following: "As for applications, SMS messaging--the 160-character instant messages the Euro kids are all nuts over--will never be nearly as big here. Why? Because most Americans already have other ways to access the Net; Europeans rely more on their wireless devices because home Internet penetration there lags behind the U.S."
Very funny! Internet penetration in the Nordic countries is around 80%. In Sweden, I it's even more. That's an Internet penetration that kicks ass with any country's ditto -- including the US. So, the explanation to why SMS won't take on in the US is not related to poor Internet penetration over seas. Instead, I believe it is a combination of relatively high Internet penetration in the US which will drive wireless IP based messaging and the adoption of the old fashion pager. Be that as it may.
Pierre's own conclusion is that most of us don't want more devices, but different people want different devices. That is possible, according to Pierre, by making different devices or modular devices on top one platform. I agree. Do you?
UPDATE: Internet penetration in Sweden is 67.9 %, although lower than I thought, it is the highest percentage found on Internet World Stats. Thanks to WillyG for the link!
Visitor Pierre Karlsson pointed me to an interesting article written by David Coursey, Executive Editor, AnchorDesk. The article is called "Why all-in-one handhelds will never catch on".
Here are some snippets from the article:
"The conventional wisdom--or perhaps it's the wireless industry's common prayer--is that messaging and multimedia will be the Next Big Thing in wireless. After all, Swedish kids spend almost their entire allowances sending short text messages to one another and the Japanese are gaga sending each other pictures they've taken with their cell phones. Or so we are told. It's supposed to follow that American teens will do the same, using their phones for what amounts to expensive instant messaging, and that parents will start capturing their Kodak moments on a phone for immediate dispatch to relatives. I HATE TO BREAK IT to the wonderful folks in the wireless industry, but I think both scenarios are bunk."
David then goes on and constructively explains his own predications for the wireless industry. All in all I agree with his conclusions, although I can't help reacting to the following: "As for applications, SMS messaging--the 160-character instant messages the Euro kids are all nuts over--will never be nearly as big here. Why? Because most Americans already have other ways to access the Net; Europeans rely more on their wireless devices because home Internet penetration there lags behind the U.S."
Very funny! Internet penetration in the Nordic countries is around 80%. In Sweden, I it's even more. That's an Internet penetration that kicks ass with any country's ditto -- including the US. So, the explanation to why SMS won't take on in the US is not related to poor Internet penetration over seas. Instead, I believe it is a combination of relatively high Internet penetration in the US which will drive wireless IP based messaging and the adoption of the old fashion pager. Be that as it may.
Pierre's own conclusion is that most of us don't want more devices, but different people want different devices. That is possible, according to Pierre, by making different devices or modular devices on top one platform. I agree. Do you?
UPDATE: Internet penetration in Sweden is 67.9 %, although lower than I thought, it is the highest percentage found on Internet World Stats. Thanks to WillyG for the link!
