17/3 Jon Crooks: Difference between GPRS and UMTS (follow-up on Open Letter to Vodafone)Jon Crooks responded on Forum Oxford with some good insights (I only quote a small bit below). I tend to forget sometimes the fundamental differences between GPRS, UTMS, Edge, HSDPA and that's where an experts view is really what it needs. I'd like to see more people like Jon having open blogs, so that a good conversation in this space can take place.
There are some fundamental differences between how GPRS and UMTS data services are delivered over that most scarce of resources, the radio (and I include the cost of the relevant infrastructure here as well).
In short GPRS access effectively competes for voice access in the 2G network - so any attempt to offer a flat fee model has to consider the potential lost revenues from those voice calls that cannot now be made due to lack of bandwidth.
For UMTS - this is largely unused spectrum at this time and there is plenty spare for devoting to data services - such as the 3G data card package. 3G is not a service but a network capability and at the moment the voice services on offer over 3G are not very compelling - thus there is very little take up in the consumer market. However data services (mobile web browing from a PC, corporate VPN etc) is quite compelling at up to 384KBps and this is a differentiated service - hence the offer of flat rate packages. Granted sometimes there is no 3G coverage and they use GPRS (thus getting back into that lost voice revenue issue)- this is just something VF has to live with in order to promote 3G services. 17/3 Rudy's Open Letter to VodafoneOpen Letter to Vodafone
I am not interested in surfing Vodafone live! but I'm your customer with a need to browse the mobile web (and I'm sure I'm not the only one). You will probably consider I'm an early adopter but isn't it about time to create plans for people like us? I cannot remember having paid such excessive pricing to acces the internet as an early adopter in 1995.
I would like to suggest it's maybe better to start embracing the people who want to push the mobile web forward? In the end, we are all existing customers who can even bring in other ones (which of course I consequently do when I'm happy with services). In the end we will create the services and/or applications that people will acces through your networks in the near future.
Via Forum Oxford
Why do I blog this?
Because I think Rudy is right. And let us not forget - we are living in disruptive skypy times, more and more people add to their telco mobile devices others like computer-to-mobile-devices (iPod, Logitech's Remote Control) or Wifi capable devices like the PSP*. The telcos are still very strong because of the wide phone deployment, the ease of use of SMS, but they shouldn't forget how quickly a change can happen. If they don't want to be in trouble they have to reinvent themselves. A first step is to offer better pricing .
* About new PSP features:
Confirming that support for Macromedia Flash will finally be offered in a firmware update, Sony will also extend the RSS support to enable users to save and playback internet radio and entertainment movie content.
Making a first appearance at E3' , Sony has additionally confirmed the rumoured release of the camera and GPS receiver peripherals in the autumn. The new peripherals will add EyeToy like functionality to the PSP, along with video chat and GPS features. 17/3 Improbable Phone Projects15/3 Motivational Post-it NotesPlace-Its: A Study of Location-Based Reminders on Mobile Phones by Timothy Sohn, Kevin A. Li1, Gunny Lee, Ian Smith, James Scott, and William G. Griswold, Ubicomp 2005.
An interesting excerpt, in regard to this.
Our study revealed unexpected uses of location-aware reminders. We found that Place-It notes were often used for creating motivational reminders to perform activities that would vary in priority over time. This is similar to using post-it notes in highly visible areas for motivation. The locations for motivational reminders were often set at frequently visited places, such as ‘home’. We also found that a majority of the uses for Place-Its involved communicating with people through a variety of media (e.g. email, phone). Communication is typically not tied to specific locations, implying that location is being used as a cue for other kinds of situational context.
See also: Post about Geominder
Via Nicolas Nova 13/3 The New PhoneCNN Money (February 24, 2006): The new phone
But cheap calls are in many ways the least interesting part of the new phone. Marrying voice and the Internet makes the Web phone a powerful new platform for software applications. 10/3 About the change that telecoms have to makeRead the interview with Ron Pompei in Note to Telecoms: Rebrand or Die
[...] But honestly, the service providers, the handset makers, content creators -- everyone is trying to converge on the same concept: How can we create a seamless environment in which consumers can move from one device to the next, accessing any content that they want, anytime and anywhere.
[...] Women go into dressing rooms today, they change their outfit, they take a picture and e-mail it to their girlfriends and call them. If women are doing that, why doesn't every store set up Internet access in the dressing rooms to allow women to communicate more easily? And it can be branded -- a portal that you can step through to experience the brand in a way that expands the consumer's life.
This merger or convergence will involve people's ability to affect their experience and their environment. Telecom companies have to see themselves as providing a creative platform that allows for self-actualization.
[...] Telecom companies think they're in the business of technology when they're really in the business of connecting people.
About Ron Pompei:
In particular he has pioneered the idea of the "transformative environment" - a shop or work space that impacts on the user not simply on a physical level, but emotionally, intellectually and spiritually as well.
It is a philosophy that has been dubbed 'C3' - the integration of Commerce, Culture and Community - and one that Pompei believes has the power not simply to revitalize urban venues, but to transform the way people socialize and interact.
Why do I blog this?
Simple - we are on the same page as Ron Pompei. Slowly, more and more people understand that. 06/3 Convert your videos for PSP and iPodVideora Converter
Videora Converter is a free video conversion application developed by the creators of Videora. It allows you to convert your regular PC video files (avi, mpeg, etc) into the proper video format that your mobile or fixed video device understands. Each version is tailored specifically to the device in question.
Via Rebell 05/3 How all this fits together... (post from February 18, 2004)Written more than two years ago in a train, but I forgot to post it. I just rediscovered it now;)
Stefan Betschon writes in today's NZZ* about UTMS and the lack of content:
UMTS ist jetzt also da, aber ausser Videoconferencing ist den Netzwerkbetreibern noch nicht viel eingefallen. Bei der Swisscom versucht man die UMTS-Handys auch noch als teure Zweitfernseher zu vermarkten: Eine halbe Stunde Schweizer Fernsehen, Eurosport, TF 1 oder MTV kostet vier Franken. Weil das ein teurer Spass ist und weil absehbar ist, dass Empfangsmodule, die Fernsehsignale gratis aus der der Luft holen, bald in vielen Handys eingebaut sein werden, dürfte diese Anwendung keine grosse Popularität erreichen. Einige Spassvögel bezeichnen Sex und Glücksspiel als Killerapplikation von 3G: Girls, Gambling und Games. Allerdings werden renommierte Firmen Hemmungen haben, sich auf diese Geschäftsfelder vorzuwagen.
Translation (by me):
UTMS is now finally a reality, but until now the carriers didn't think much further than videoconferencing. Swisscom tries to market the UMTS mobile phones as expensive TV stations: half an hour of swiss TV, Eurosport, TF1 or MTV costs four Swiss francs. As this is quite a expensive hobby and as it is foreseeable that mobile phones will have an inbuilt TV receiver, this application has no future. Some funny guys say Girls, Gambling and Games will be the killer app for 3G. But most companys will consider it dangerous for their public image to venture into this business.
I agree with Betschon, that carriers are not very creative, but I also think it's not their job. Their job is giving us the right infrastructure (here Mobile Unlimited by Swisscom is great) and quality of service at a good price. If they would offer an easier access and better business models to outside companies, the creativity would flourish. One has only to look to Japan where this is a already a reality.
One thing that seems crucial is to educate people about the mobile internet and, together with the phone manufacturers, to offer tools that give an easy access to it.
One keyword here is "QR Codes" which converges realspace and mobilespace. If you read a newspaper or magazine in Japan, you will see QR codes everywhere. Instead of writing a address on the web which normally you don't have access to when reading a newspaper, the QR code is displayed. Quickly you take a photograph of the QR code with your mobile phone and you get then easily to the address on the mobile internet (which is encoded in the QR code).
The other is the mobile microcontent storage space or "mobile blog". When people understand that they can access that same content they are interested in from everywhere and that they can publish on it easily and whatever they want, than I think the mobile internet will grow rapidly - more rapidly than everything what we have seen so far. And thanks to the creativity of all the people, we will discover usages we cannot imagine today.
* Stoff für Breitband, NZZ vom Freitag, 18. Februar 2004, S. 59, Medien und Informatik 05/3 Camera phones in 2005: Europe 64%, Japan 90%Digital Cameras Help Change A Worldwide View of Photography
In 2005, 45 percent of all mobile phones sold in the U.S. were camera phones, up from 26 percent in 2004. Asia followed a very similar trend. Western Europe had a higher incidence of camera phones at 64 percent, and Japan had a much greater adoption rate with more than 90 percent of all mobile phones sold with camera capabilities both in 2004 and 2005.
Via Bruno Giussani | |
