"I agree with Cha2 that the internet nexus of data will push wireless use, but right now, I can't see widespread adoption based on these tiny screens on cell phones... The tornado seems to be years away, even for 2.5G..."
I think it'll be closer than years away, but I do think China (and maybe unmentioned India, another sleeping giant from the prospective of telecom) will add most of the excitement in the next year, also the unknowns (possible LA TDMA change overs? The fulfillment of the NXTL story? ETC.)
As far as internet, I couldn't see it either on that little handheld screen, until I had a thought which fell on me like a revelation: I'm used to surfing the web on my desktop, going from link to link, but the cell phone internet experience will be fundamentally different from mine; people won't so much surf as go to one site and that's it (unless they devise a favorites button that they can update from their desktop); they'll have one task they'll want to accomplish on the run; go to a weather site, a restaurant site, a traffic site (where gps will be an excellent advantage: personalized traffic reports), an email site etc. Unless it's gaming (which could just be one of the new wireless killer apps), which takes more time but it's still one site; so if you need one or two pieces of information at a time, screen size shouldn't matter overmuch.
I don't know how imode subscribers experience the net; perhaps my revelation is just so much hot air (wouldn't be the first time...) so take this FWIW. |
