Hi Chaz,
Re: Again Americans and Asians really do seem to live in a different world than Europeans.
Certainly no dispute from me on this viewpoint. <gg>
Access to the internet is crucial, and speed of access is crucial to that. To hide in the sand and ignore that puts Ericsson at great risk, yet that seems to be exactly what the Ericsson management is doing.
Hey, how'd I get on this thread anyway? I'm an FO nutcase. This wireless stuff seems so, well, ephemeral, to re-coin an old term. :)
In Europe, GPRS is it. No other choice - damn the consumers.
Now here I will take exception. GPRS, while not bleeding edge stuff, is certainly a reasonable evolutionary step on the way to a more robust and multifaceted wireless experience. I see the consumer as inevitably having to pony up for whatever service comes along. Just as with the miserable uptake of MSS, if the wireless terrestrial folks get too far ahead of the consumer, there simply won't be revenues to justify the new generation of base stations. It will boil down to a chicken and egg argument. Until there are compelling uses for 3G networks, the consumer will shy away. As long as the consumer shies away, there is no compelling reason to develop killer 3G apps.
Re: But what Ericsson's management and Ericsson's stockholders need to understand is the the rest of the world has no patience for that kind of stone age approach.
Just speaking only for myself as a Yank with a cable modem, I could care less what these wireless offerings are going to do for me. Here's an example. MSDW Online has just offered all its customers a wireless access system for trading. Cost, about USD60 per month. I have declined to subscribe. If I'm going to trade, it won't be on a beach with 'Brad and Debbie'. Nope, it'll be in front of my puter, Medusa, with three monitors running, all kinds of data available and a hopefully available broadband connection to speed things along. Would I feel comfortable with the proprietary data feed from MSDW sending me alerts on stocks and then moving based on whatever newsfeed they deem to provide? How about the size of their pipe? If the whole group of wireless subscribers were all informed of a market implosion like occurred on April 17, would my order get any priority whatsoever, or would I be sold out at the bottom of the elevator shaft? I'd have to think that wireless gadget facility would be an exceptionally naive way to approach things. I have no idea how much data they intend to provide, but I'm certain it is not nearly enough to make an informed decision. JMVHO. :)
Re: Was the idea to buy and dump, like the old auto firms did with competing technologies, i.e. buy them and deep six them -full fathoms down?
So far this appears to be the most plausible explanation to me. Perhaps Q*'s "victory" before the ITU in Dec. '98 will prove to be pyrrhic?
Ciao, Ray |
