Quincy, once upon a time I used to drive around in a car all day, selling oil. Having a notebook computer hooked to cyberspace would have been perfect. The Tablet would have been better than the one I've got, but this would be better than nothing. A fuel cell would make it better still. I feel as though I lived my life like a 20th century caveman. I am truly envious of the young punks who swan around with all mod cons, having an easy life. My thrill was a circular slide rule for goodness sake. How sad and pathetic is that?
There are lots of people who need notebook computers. Universities are full of them. So are downtown cities. Then, there is everyone else. Everyone needs communication and cyberspace. Most people would make do with a more convenient iPAQ or equivalent, compromising on screen size to get portability and battery life. With retina scans, they wouldn't need to compromise on screen size.
There is no cheaper, faster, easier, ready to go technology than WiFi. The cost of providing the network is trivial compared with the value of the service. The only question is whether some competitor can do it cheaper, faster, better. 1xEV-DO has potential. Flarion has potential too.
1xEV-DO won't displace my WiFi right here on my couch. Nor do I think that 1xEV-DO can outdo WiFi in crowded locations. The range is irrelevant in crowded places, where tiny cells are needed for frequency re-use. 1xEV-DO comes into its own in suburbia and beyond. WiFi can't compete out there.
There are millions of people buying WiFi right now. They are set up for it, justified by their own home or business access point. That takes care of half the equation - the subscriber equipment. The other half, the network, is cheap to provide.
By comparison, nobody sets up their own 1xEV-DO home or business access point. They wait until a wide area network is built, then have to buy the subscriber equipment and sign up for the service. It's a bigger step. The subscriber equipment is expensive. The data speed is slower than WiFi [though RoamAD has been planning only 330 kbps, which is slower than 1xEV-DO, but they can change that].
Are there enough people? It's everyone! Watch people texting and talking and googling. It's not a hula hoop equivalent. This is a change more significant than the invention of the horse, wheel, jet engine, paper, and everything else combined. Maybe contraception is more significant. No, even if the world's population drops 95%, cyberspace is going to make that look trivial.
This is big. EVERYONE who wants to remain in the human realm rather than drop out into the Ted Kaczynski zone and head for a hut in Montana to live off the land will have to be connected.
Mqurice |
