Just returned from China and would like to make some comments on SMS/MMS progress. These are just my observations and not based on actual statistics.
SMS is extremely popular. You can see it on the streets, in restaurants, public transportation etc etc.
The way it works in Chinese language is simple. For example, if you want to type the word Beijing, which is two words in Chinese, you simply start typing "Be". The screen will offer you 4 choices such as Bei Bek Be and Bee. So in this case, you will choose Bei and the screen then offers you a choice of 4 Chinese words. You will select the one that means Bei and then move on to type the word jing to finish Beijing.
The cost is .1 yuan a message, about 1.2 US cents, very affordable to the average user in China.
As for MMS, I did not run into any of the 10,000 reported subscriber, nor did I see any actual MMS handsets. I also saw a lot of GPRS related ads but again, did not run into anyone who knows much about it. Even though the majority of the people I had contact with on this trip are related to the tourism industry, they are very heavy cellphone users and I would expect them to be at the forefront of the latest gadgets.
Most of Nokia'ads are for the 7650 and no other models, not only in the big cities like Beijing and Shanghai but also the more rural cities. This is puzzling since the cost is so high that they couldn't possibly expect the masses to remotely consider purchasing. All the other usual suspects such as Samsung, LG, TCL, Bird ... all have equally prominent billboards all over the country.
The speed at which China is progressing far exceeded my previous expectations, not only in telecom but just about everything else. I need some time to rethink this whole China market. For example, GSM1X for China Unicom could be such a perfect fit for two major reasons. First, it will solve this "lack of coverage" issue for the cdma network. Second, it could build on the success of SMS in China with possibly BREW apps that are far less costly than Mobile's version of MMS now.
In either case, I strongly believe that China would join the Korea and Japan next year in terms of wireless applications. Unless cornbrain wakes up, along with VZ, US is going to be left behind. Europe pretty much has no chance of keeping up with this break neck pace. |
