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To: S100 who wrote (14193)	7/29/2001 11:24:28 AM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34857

Maybe I am just an old fashioned kind of guy who can't understand the new trend. But maybe, in a few years from now, we are all talking about the lessons learned from the 3G mobile bubble and some people will tell me "Woa, you're a genius - you knew it all before!". But do you have to be a genius to figure out that there seems to be something missing? Unless, something unpredictable happens the mobile internet looks like a huge Ponzi scheme of global proportions. Someone will have to pay for it in the end, that is of course, unless something unpredicatble happens that will magically bring economic sense into it. Under different circumstances some people would call this "waiting for a miracle" but I don't want to sound all too negative ;-) Hit the nail squarely on the head. Absolutely one of the best thought out and perceptive posts I've seen in a long, long time. It's becoming increasingly obvious that technology in general does not follow any new paradigms. There are simply different iterations of the same old thing: Whenever the "next best thing" is discovered (electricity, railroads, wireless, dot.bombs, etc.), and an attempt is made to make a buck out of it, a bubble inevitably follows. A Darwinian bust then takes place, resulting in survival of only the best. The survivors, however, make a lot of money. There will be a place for the mobile internet, but not on tiny cellphones with keyboards which are too small for even Ken and Barbie to use.

To: S100 who wrote (14193)	7/29/2001 2:15:52 PM
From: quartersawyer	Respond to of 34857

I decided I should get a first hand experience on the mobile internet Ben Kowarsch is a convincing writer. Teroesque. But he's looking at: 1) i-mode culture 2) <10kbps applications and drawing conclusions for 3G. That's so counter-intelligent you have to wonder what he's selling. My guess-- GSM et al.

To: S100 who wrote (14193)	9/2/2001 10:40:54 AM
From: quick_thinking	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34857

Benjamin's long contribution is smooth reading, but I think it's quite biased, and quite a lot of the facts are plain wrong, or badly researched. There are also a lot of statements which are qualitative or questions of taste (e.g. workmanship & quality of the mobile handsets), but where I personally strongly disagree based on many years of testing many different handsets as part of our business, as well as personal use. To point out a few errors of fact in Benjamin's message: (a) The 500/1000 Japanese/roman character restriction Benjamin mentions for standard i-mode email is wrong: (1) standard email service has a 250/500 character restriction and the additional restriction that attachments are not forwarded. _However_, there are lots and lots of added value email services which do not have this restriction. So if you need to send/receive longer emails it takes a few seconds (and maybe US$ 1 to 3 extra per month) to send longer emails. (b) Concerning the Sanyo C405SA handset: DoCoMo's R209i handset has more or less the same characteristics (black/white screen, small size) as Sanyo's C405SA for AU's CDMA service, however it weighs 1 gram more (63 grams instead of 62 grams) and is a little thicker - in exchange the battery life of the R209i is 430 hours against 200 hours for the C405SA. Could Benjamin's choice have been influenced by the fact that AU/KDDI sells handsets and services to short-time overseas visitors while DoCoMo does not (except for prepaid service)? (DoCoMo requires a residence registration card, which you only obtain if you live more than 3 months in Japan and have the appropriate residence permit and visa - while AU/KDDI does not have this requirement). (c) Benjamin's article sounds as if all DoCoMo handsets come with bells and whistles, TFT full color screens, JAVA engine, imode etc. Although these are the most popular types, DoCoMo has over 100 different handset varieties, lots of them are "serious" black and white non-imode "business" phones, some with 64k wireless data connections. And: you can obtain any imode phone without imode - all you do is tick the "no imode" box, when you register the phone, then you save the monthly imode subscription. Best regards, quick_thinking