A few articles on the platform of the future: the cell phone.
I have not experienced this personally, but one thing to remember is that the USA is generally considered the least advanced country in terms of cell phones. The features found in South Korea and Europe are years ahead of us and give some insight into features we can expect to see. Someday.
Hmm, they need us to get fancier phones and pay for more features to make money? I would say the first problem for cell companies is making their phones easier to understand and operate. Unfortunately few techies understand how to build products that consumers can grok.
Spotty Reception: Cellphone Firms Grapple With Music, Video Push
April 1, 2006
Last December, Sprint Nextel Corp. promised some cellphone customers a Bon Jovi concert live over their phones. For the first 15 minutes, however, viewers saw only blank screens. The arena-rock band eventually materialized, only to disappear periodically, leaving viewers staring at a message: "We are experiencing technical problems. Please come back in a few minutes."
Entering the entertainment business is proving tricky for Sprint and other U.S. cellphone operators. With most American adults already users of cellphones, the wireless industry needs to reap higher monthly fees from existing customers to grow. Persuading them to pay extra for music, videos and other entertainment and information over their phones is considered essential, and the industry has poured billions of dollars into the initiative.
But technical hiccups such as Sprint's Bon Jovi broadcast show how far the U.S. wireless industry has to go to persuade customers to use their cellphones as entertainment centers. Cellular companies have been hampered by their inexperience as middlemen between consumers and producers of music, videos and other content. Their high-speed networks can't yet guarantee constant connections. And equipment is expensive. Thus far, less than 1% of U.S. cellphone users have shelled out hundreds of dollars for phones fancy enough to access the most advanced entertainment.
Using a cell phone to pay for things was a hot topic in one of my business school classes. The students from Korea (who already have this feature) loved it while our professor said it would never work/no one would want it.
Using Your Cellphone as a Credit Card
U.S. Is Catching Up to Asia In Adding New Services; Overcoming Security Concerns
8 February 2006
TAKING A SERVICE that is growing in Asia, Motorola Inc. is planning to launch a system that will allow people to purchase products simply by waving a cellphone with an embedded chip over scanners at the cash register.
The U.S. has been late to this game. Companies in Asia have already introduced cellphones that can do everything from buying groceries to purchasing movie tickets. Tokyo commuters can now board trains by waving their phones over a sensor in turnstiles.
U.S. operators have been upgrading their networks so they can handle more than just voice calls. Such upgrades happened much earlier in Asia and Europe. But Motorola is the first telecom-equipment maker to attempt to launch a large-scale mobile-wallet service in the U.S.
Before the service can be launched here, though, Motorola has to overcome several significant obstacles. First, it must cut a deal with a wireless carrier. Motorola, based in Schaumburg, Ill., says it is in "advanced discussions" with several cellphone companies and expects a deal later this year. It is also talking to cellphone companies in Asia, Latin America and other regions about the service. Once the deals are cut, people will be able to download the service, known as M-Wallet, from cellphone companies' Web sites. M-Wallet is designed to work on a range of devices, including Palm Pilots and phones not made by Motorola.
Another hurdle: Motorola also will have to get retailers to participate and in some cases to invest in upgrading their checkout scanners to communicate with phones equipped with embedded chips.
The move by Motorola is the latest effort by the wireless industry to come up with new sources of revenue to make up for declining calling rates and market saturation. Already, consumers are using their phones to take pictures, listen to music and send text messages. But financial transactions add a host of new issues, not the least of which is security.
A day rarely passes without some mention of these "social networking" sites. Clearly they are a tech that everyone but myself is using.
Social Networking Goes Mobile
MySpace, Facebook Strike Deals With Cell Companies; A New Set of Safety Concerns
April 4, 2006
In a development likely to generate dismay from some parents and teachers, social networking sites MySpace and Facebook are going mobile.
Tens of millions of teenagers spend countless hours logging on to such sites, updating their profiles, posting pictures, writing blogs and exchanging messages. Until now, the services have been largely tethered to desktops or laptops. Now, Facebook Inc., a popular social-networking Web site among college students, and Cingular Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless are starting a service that will make it possible for users to post messages on Facebook's home pages or search for other users' phone numbers and email addresses from a cellphone.
Wireless companies are pushing to offer more social-networking features because the young people that gravitate to these services also tend to be the heaviest users of text messaging, picture messaging and ring-tone downloads. These services are becoming increasingly important as growth in cellphone service subscription is expected to decline and rate competition intensifies.
