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Cellular and Computing Industries Finally Collide
magarity writes "For years now cell phones have become increasing complex as computers become ever smaller. The two industries now directly collide. Of special interest is the change in mission statement by Microsoft from 'a computer on every desk and in every home' to 'empowering people through great software, any time, any place and on any device.' With mobile phone saturation in the industrialized world from +80% (Italy) to 45% (USA), this is the next battleground for information technology dominance. Both industries have giant sized players; the shakeouts, as well as implications for consumers, will be huge."
Yes, you are the only one who thinks that.
"someone should make a hot air balloon that is shaped like a giant vagina" -- Bill Clinton
What gets lost in this discussion is why cellphone usage so much greater (in terms of percentage) in Europe and Japan is a comparison of the alternatives. How many European and Pacific Rim countries have unmeetered local phone service? That is, talk all you want next door or across town for a very low flat monthly fee?
As phones become more intelligent, it only seems natural that phone manufacturers would have an easier time than microsoft because microsoft has to scale down its product, clean out bugs, adapt the software to be real-time --- all while getting new teams organized that have the ability to do this.
Cell phone companies already have a large number of experienced exployees that have been meeting th ese necessary goals for years.
I'm no Luddite, I think all this innovation is fine and dandy (although, sorry, I do not salivate at the prospect of MS getting into my phone) ... but can anyone promise that I'll still be able to buy plain, simple, boring phones and basically do telephone calls? And don't need an engineering degree to operate? Please?
This is from someone who misses corded dial telephones that never broke, or if they did the phone company swapped you for a new one. There were a lot of problems with that era, but some nice things, too. I still have a classic ugly-beige tabletop phone with a hard-to-turn dial and a REAL BELL. And even Alexander Graham Bell could probably use it in minutes.
Here's a partial list of my priorities when it comes to having a cellphone:
.
.
.
1) Geographic range
2) Sound quality
3) Dropped calls
75) Playing tetris
76) Browsing the web
77) Checking e-mail
It's a phone, for God's sake.
Probably because like most of Europe it is far cheaper to put up cell towers than to have wires run everywhere. Americans tend to forget how subsidized our wired telephone system was.
t m
A quote:
RIGHT NOISES. That's because Europe's fourth-largest economy suffers from an outdated, expensive telecommunications infrastructure...
From: http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_09/b3670213.h
--- I do not moderate.
As someone who worked for AT&T Wireless for years, I can tell you they are quickly running our of money. The centralized "cellular" paradigm is quickly running our of steam. It is simply not economically scalable to compete with very high speed ad-hoc "bottom up", software definted radio mesh networks that are the wave of the future. My opinion, is not only will telcos fail, but lets help them fail as fast as possible to make room for innovation by opening up more parts of the spectrum.
As for Microsft's involvement, who cares? I can't see them either dominating this space like they managed to do with the desktop. Interoperability will be the key, just like on the net today. Linux alread has a foot hold in this market.
Planet P - Liberation With Technology.
www.enthea.org
I know I shouldn't make a response to a joke, but... I find it very interesting that the Microsoft mission is becoming incredibly diffuse. They went from OS to applications over a very long time. In a relatively small amount of time they have added peripherils, hotmail, pocket PCs, the XBox, and now phones. Now their mission statement is reduced to "software for stuff."
This sort of diversification may be good for the company, but when they loose focus on their core it becomes very difficult to maintain the kinds of market share that they are used to. Of course, these other things rely on their dominance on the desktop but at some point something has to give.
Actually, while this seems to be a reflection of the technological backwardness of the US - it's really a reflection on the failed socialist policies of European states. I used to work with a guy who had emigrated from Romainia
You remember that thing they called the "soviet bloc", don't you? Romania was part of it. Italy wasn't, Finland wasn't, Austria wasn't - those are the EU countries with the highest market penetration for mobile phones. Here in Austria, I can get a fully digital landline set up within 2 days at a reasonable price, in any damn Alpine village. It's not much different in most of Western Europe. No, it wasn't always like this, but: the success of mobile telephony started after the modernisation of terrestrial. So, please forget the myth that cell phones took off in Europe because the "normal" phones just don't work properly. It might have to do with the fact that there's just one standard, GSM, but that's a wild guess.
Sure, there are no flat-fee "chat with your next-door neighbour on the phone" plans as in the US. But how does that help mobile telephony, which is comparatively expensive in any case?
Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson, Sagem, Alcatel, Symbian.
The list could go on. Many, many of the big players in the mobile phone market (phones, network technology, software) are located in. Europe. Europe is a huge market. Not only Italy or Finnland, but also the other big and small countries (DE, FR, GB, ES) have a penetration beyond 60%. There are approximately twice as many mobile phones in Europe as in the US.
And the younger generation wants to do more than just phone someone. SMS, Games, even the number of ringtones or display colors is a very important factor for many customers here.
I believe that while EMS (enhanced message service) was useless like WAP, MMS (multimedia message service) will be used widely. Many people (especially nerds) laugh about these uses but you shouldn't underestimate how much they are accepted by other people. Mobile Multimedia Instant Messaging willl later (with the help of GPRS and UMTS) bring the Internet into the mobile world:
EVERNET. It's not just a marketing hype! If the price is ok (and even if it isn't -> SMS), the (European) customers will use it, because it changes their life so much. For all these features you need software, capable delivering these "services":
You should take a closer look on the Symbian OS v7. It's a well engineered OS with a bright future. One day, at some places in Europe, it might be used more frequently than MS Windows.
We will see who will win this war. One could even call it a war between continents... but this would perhaps be too flamebait. My guess: At the end everyone will find their niche!
--- censored
Case in point: phone sex lines. And the first service I could get on a WAP enabled phone? You guessed it: downloading dot-matrix style pixelated naked ladies. It's not cash that makes the world go round...it's pussy.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?