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To: Maurice Winn who wrote (24132)	3/12/1999 8:34:00 PM
From: Ingenious	Respond to of 152472

>>Most functions aren't used! Perhaps the reason is the terrible user interface ( or lack thereof) on these little devices. Few have figured out (sans the Palm Pilot) how to make real applications do anything significant without forcing the user to get out a book or 2 inch thick programming manual. I would tend to say that features soon will be the driving force behind cell phone sales. Personally, I would gladly pay $10/month more for a cell phone that does it all (ie modem, palm pilot, digital voice recorder, calendar, telephone book, ISP, pager, pocket Nintendo device, GPS, etc etc ). Currently, I walk around with about 7 different devices and feel like Felix the cat with his bag of tricks! The fact is that cell phones are still just phones without wires. Nothing really sets them apart functionally from the home phone. In this day and age that actually seems a little ridiculous. Programming the VCR and TV has come a lot further than programming the cell phone. Perhaps that is just because more people watch TV than use cell phones. In fact, this lack of advancement in the user interface area of the cell phone really makes things interesting. The true success story in the wireless business is not necessarily going to be based on the standard (people really don't care that they are using CDMA/ GSM/ etc) but the phone with the best packaging and user interface. So far, I have not seen anyone who has really developed an easy to use interface that can use all the bells and whistles. Perhaps the PDQ phone will be the one.. . I certainly hope so. Leland

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (24132)	3/12/1999 9:24:00 PM
From: John Stichnoth	Respond to of 152472

Maurice: <The battle over price and capacity is definitely a thing of the past. Voice quality, dropped calls and other factors matter too. But to dismiss capacity like that is simply absurd. > Basic question: How many voice phone calls can a single base station handle? To amplify on your comments, since you seem so short-winded these days: The telcos are the one's making the initial decision on what service to offer. Their decision is undoubtedly based on cost of installing and maintaining the base stations, cost of the handsets they are forced to give away, given an "acceptable" quality level. To the extent the telcos have already made their choice, the battle is indeed over. Presently, from the consumers' point of view, the wireless phone is a commodity--except for size of the phone. The vast majority of consumers don't care what the system is as long as it sounds ok and the phone doesn't weigh very much. Your other point is crucial for the future--There isn't a killer app out there yet. When it comes, the phone systems will no longer be a commodity to the consumer. And a killer app might force a telco to dump its existing system and move to the one with the app. That would be huge. Just my thoughts. JS