*TDMA overlay with cdmaOne and WWeb* Chaz, the GSM overlay is especially economic because the GSM subscribers will be in the hundreds of millions before WWeb is endemic. TDMA will only be in the few millions so creating a cdmaOne overlay for that won't be very exciting. The TDMA people will just wait until they get WWeb ready to go. TDMA functions well enough for voice only.
While I'm not the inventor of the overlay, I guess a TDMA overlay using cdmaOne would be as simple as that for GSM. But the expected profits would be less because so few TDMA systems exist. So it's an economic rather than technical issue.
The big question for the TDMA and GSM providers is WHEN should they start to swing over to cdmaOne overlays. I imagine that as soon as the WWeb chip rate is announced, there will be a big swing to cdmaOne. That's why Ericy is waiting as long as possible; to keep everyone guessing - even though they continue to lose ground in the cdmaOne and WWeb opportunities they are making hay with GSM which China, Australia, Europe and others continue to roll out to fill network gaps and bring in new customers.
I think you can forget 3G TDMA which won't be able to handle IP [internet protocol] images effectively. It'll detract from their voice networks too much.
I have to disagree with you about marketing being more important than technology. That's simple untrue. You can put all the marketing effort you like into analogue service and it is going to simply become obsolete; expensive and poor quality. Which is not to say that marketing is unimportant.
A complete system is essential for anything to function properly. Sure, the wings on a 747 are more essential than the engines - at least you can sort of do a rough landing without engines, but without wings, you really have trouble even getting off the ground. Both the wings and engine are needed. Same in business, the technical details need to be right, the marketing needs to be right, the money has to be managed right, the staff have to be happy, and the legal and political system surrounding the business has to be right. None is really more important than the other. All little bits have to be functioning nicely. Lose one, you lose the lot.
Marketing people too often get carried away with their MBAs, red braces, expense accounts, self-importance and hot shot ideas. That's why marketing disasters like Formula Shell happen. The marketing people dislike technical geeks who they think can't run companies or sell stuff, but unfortunately, the marketing people generally don't understand the technical stuff so they are unable to either create stuff, sell it, or run the companies.
Hence the idea; "Wow! The crazy Telstra people are putting a nuclear physicist-geek in charge". Ziggy Sitowski or whatever his name was. Also, the idea that geek Irwin should be pushed aside for somebody with "CHARISMA". Maybe Bill Clinton, who has lots of hype, charisma and charm would be prepared to take over when he's finished with the presidency. He'd be able to lie with a much straighter face than Ericy could. Heck, we wouldn't even need a technical department - he could just tell everyone "Now you listen to me and listen carefully - these handsets do NOT have a swarm of click beetles in them". "I have never put a click beetle in a handset, not even once"...etc. Meanwhile the 3 click beetles in each handset are flat out...having been inserted by temporary workers.
Q! would have 80% ratings, a high share price and millions of click beetle handsets selling because the marketing department would be so hot. You'd just need to sell your stock at the right time. Maybe leave town too!
But on the specifics of TDMA/GSM vs cdmaOne, the construction cost per minute of any of those services is so low that the marketing effort is having a big impact for now. Some weak 'Onerate' or 'Allyoucaneat' price plans have a big impact. But as prices drop and competition mounts, the technology will come more into play and as WWeb, cdma2000 or HDR loom, then the technology will show itself more and all the marketing in the world won't turn a TDMA network into a WWeb network. All the pieces have to be right. Hopeless marketers can ruin a great technology. Great marketers can do wonders with weak technology. Great marketers and great technology beat all.
Mqurice [Who has seen enough stupid marketing efforts and enough pathetic market research to make him very, very careful about hot shot marketers. I can't allow that marketing is more important than technology.]
OT Jon, you can also see the Iridium flares as well as the Moon, Venus and Jupiter. I nearly saw one last night but got some untimely cloud cover. As a consolation prize another satellite of unknown type when cruising over the sky. |
