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

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