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Hello Kitty May Be Key to 3G Survival
wa4osh writes "It's scary to think that sophisticated 3G mobile systems may depend for their survival on Hello Kitty (a cutesy Japanese pink cat with whiskers but no mouth) according to the recent Commdesign article "Hello Kitty may be key to 3G success". The article suggests that 3G's main market is downloading ringtones and backgrounds. Reading between the lines, it also suggests that 3G did not find a killer application. For example, what happened to 3G Video phones, or using 3G to send video clips to each other? These are all things that can be done with today's 2.5G technologies - GPRS and 1XRTT. So what's 3G really for? Perhaps Wi-Fi / 802.11 is solving the real need for broadband data mobility." The Wall Street Journal has an article which suggests that cellular companies are turning to Wi-Fi to hedge their bets.
Hello Kitty cellphone/vibrator combo. Hey, it's definitely not out of the question when we're talking about all things Hello Kitty.
It won't ever be a success in the United States.
Sex - Find It
If you build it...
...nerds will come.
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
In Other news, Microsoft buys up Pokemon/Yugioh, inorder to sell more tablet PC's.....
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
For example, what happened to 3G Video phones, or using 3G to send video clips to each other? These are all things that can be done with today's 2.5G technologies - GPRS and 1XRTT.
True they *can* be done with other technologies, but I think that the point is that people just don't need to do this stuff, with *any* technology. It's still just gee-whiz stuff without any real purpose outside of, "check out my new toy, Bob!".
I, for one, don't understand how major companies with gigantic R&D and marketing budgets can proceed to spend billions on infrastructure without doing just a bit of market research first. I think that asking a few thousand people, "Would you use a video phone if it cost this much?" would cost a few grand, and would very quickly tell them what they needed to know. Sounds like these companies didn't even do that much.
Hello Kitty may be key to 3G success
By Mike Clendenin (mclenden@cmp[com)
EE Times
November 27, 2002 (3:15 p.m. EST)
It's scary to think that sophisticated 3G mobile systems may depend for their survival on Hello Kitty, that cutesy Japanese pink cat with whiskers but no mouth. But that's what it might come down to.
Not long ago, a 3G content developer noted that backgrounds with the Hello Kitty design, which serves the same purpose as the Western world's yellow smiley face, were one of the most popular downloads over i-mode, the mobile multimedia service offered by Japan's NTT Docomo.
Such simple things are also trés chic in Taiwan. Sixty percent of the traffic on the proprietary i-mode service is for ring tones, background wallpaper like Hello Kitty and real-time news, according to the top executive at KG Telecom.
KGT, a relatively small operator in Taiwan, decided earlier this year to forgo its bid for a 3G license because it saw too many obstacles, such as a lack of applications, to the generation of cash in the short term. Instead, KGT turned to NTT Docomo because it offered a tip-to-toe solution. So far, Taiwan is one of only two export destinations for i-mode.
For the mobile industry, Taiwan and Japan represent interesting case studies that offer evidence of the services consumers want. Though such evidence is far from conclusive, network operators, equipment operators, equipment vendors, handset providers and content developers that are still uncertain about how to make 3G successful might well take note.
But among industry insiders, it seems, the only certainty is that data services -- which require such things as licenses and network upgrades -- also entail greater expenses, untested applications and a new round of experimentation with handsets and how they should be used. Of course a few operators are averaging more money per user, but that tends to be on more proprietary systems like those in Japan.
Natural communication?
The slowdown in the general telecom market also brought a sense of urgency, if not quite desperation, to those who gathered in Taipei for IEEE's recent GlobeCom 2002. Operators, handset makers and content developers want to see data services enjoy the kind of success they are having in Japan and Korea.
Of the world's 70 million mobile-data users, 80 percent are in Japan, noted Kurt Hellstrom, president of troubled mobile-phone giant Ericsson. "We are just starting to see the growth in mobile data. It starts with camera phones and sending pictures and one day this will be a natural way of communicating with each other," Hellstrom said. "Nobody on the inside has ever expected that this [data services] technology shift would take place overnight."
Yet it will happen a bit more quickly if the industry can pull itself together, observers said, and overcome political divisiveness on such issues as interfaces, protocols, formats and content billing.
For instance, 69 operators, mostly of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) networks, have launched multimedia messaging services (MMS) based on 3GPP standards, said J.T. Bergqvist, executive vice president of Nokia Networks. In terms of network interoperability, he said, the technical issues have largely been solved, opening the service to a potential base of 300 million users. Now "it is a question of [business] agreements between the operators" that will slow things down.
And for 3G, Bergqvist said, "We as an industry have not, by and large, been able to create something that is transportable from one operator to another. We have not created something yet where two operator systems would be interoperable. We have not created open interfaces in those data-oriented systems, particularly in Japan and Korea."
Such bottlenecks are, in some cases, causing frustrated operators to look for a shortcut to data services. That's what happened with Taiwan's KGT, which finally opted to purchase i-mode.
In December 1999 KGT was the first to launch the Wireless Application Protocol in Taiwan. Then in September 2000 it introduced GPRS, which was followed in August 2001 by an integrated GPRS over WAP portal called iGoGo. KGT launched i-mode in June 2002.
Executives at KGT believe the WAP protocol failed because it was primarily developed by a voice service community to help fill the gap of mobile data, making it a subset of voice.
WAP started as a value-added service and never took center stage where wireless data should have been, said Leslie Koo, chairman and chief executive officer of KGT. Handset consistency was an issue because each WAP handset had different versions of different browsers from different software vendors, so it was pretty much impossible for a carrier to provide consistent service to multiple handsets with various interfaces, Koo said.
"Sometimes your e-mail would work with Nokia handsets, but not with Ericsson's. And once you fine-tuned it to Ericsson's, then Motorola's had a bug. So you are caught constantly running around and finding answers from no one because your vendor will tell you, 'No, that's not my problem, it's the handsets.' Then the handset manufacturer will tell you, 'No, it's not the handsets, it's the browser.' And the browser manufacturer will tell you, 'Sorry, that's an outdated version of the browser, which is no longer supported.' "
Meanwhile, customer complaints are rolling in, he said. This leaves the carrier wondering whether it should be a wireless-access provider, a portal provider or a service integrator of "all these very complex vendor solutions and software solutions and content platforms. It is almost impossible to manage. No wonder WAP never took off," Koo said.
For better or worse, with i-mode, at least there are consistent standards for technical applications and business execution.
"These are not the best standards in the world, but they are standards that all i-mode service providers will follow," he said. "They not only include the content format but also the specs to handset manufacturers. So this is the first time that the carriers can ask the handset manufacturers and also the system integrators to provide an end-to-end solution that will meet the service requirements of delivering a consistent, high-quality service."
Common business sense suggests that the industry would learn from such a solution. So far, however, that remains questionable. "In the past, the industry, perhaps, has been guilty of just selling hardware. Glorious IDs," said Brian Holmes, a product-marketing director for Motorola (China) Electronics.
"But in this future world I speak to, design no longer specifically speaks to just hardware. It is about understanding consumer experiences and how they want to use the product, and actually doing application design specifically around the mobile environment and targeted at specific consumers. If we don't do that, as an industry we will disappoint."
Nearly commonplace
Asia, in general, has had the best rollout of data services so far. In Japan and Korea, networks and, more importantly, services are nearly commonplace. And mobile-data networks are rolling out in places like Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong, where mobile penetration (measured by SIM card subscriptions) is nearly at or above 100 percent, which is far above many Western countries.
Even in Asia, however, some network operators think that trumpeted promises of video-streaming services won't, in reality, pay the bills -- at least not yet. In certain markets based on highly proprietary systems, such as i-mode in Japan, there could be some exceptions, of course.
During a visit to Taiwan, NTT Docomo president and chief executive officer Keiji Tachikawa told IEEE Communication Society members that in Japan even cats and dogs will eventually participate in mobile chic.
Is such a scenario farfetched? Well, in a country that created the robotic dog, Aibo, it doesn't seem so crazy to imagine that man's best friend, if lost, would be found with the help of a GPS device that tracks an RF chip implanted in its collar. "The potential demand for mobile services is enormous if services could be applied to objects rather than people," Tachikawa said.
But given the realities of today's telecom slowdown, and the sensitive nature of the rollout stage for data services, where end users' first impressions are long-lasting, many operators will not assume that Japan's experience transfers easily.
If operators are to learn anything from Japan, it is that, to pay the bills, they should focus on the small stuff, such as Hello Kitty multimedia messages, rather than on the promise of video teleconferencing. "Trying to do full, 30-frame-per-second video, for example, on a GPRS network is probably not in the cards given the current level of compression technology," said Motorola's Holmes.
Yet, as the future shapes up video teleconferencing might actually be close to realization. Operators as well as handset providers and network equipment vendors are cozying up to the notion that IEEE 802.11 access should be a part of 3G. Ericsson's Hellstrom called it a "complementary" technology. Bell Labs fellow Qi Bi said, "Incorporating Wi-Fi into the third-generation system is an important part of the system design. 3G can provide ubiquitous coverage and Wi-Fi can cover the hot spots."
NTT Docomo's Tachikawa also factored Wi-Fi into his company's 4G plans. During his keynote to GlobeCom, Tachikawa revealed a few details of what NTT Docomo thinks 4G networks should do and how they will look. "We are thinking of using a cellular system because we plan to build it by extending the coverage and mobility of the 3G system," he said. "On the other hand, in low-mobility areas, such as indoors and in hot spots, it may be necessary to introduce a solution that incorporates wireless LAN-type technology for data transmission at even higher speed."
Fourth-generation systems should offer a peak speed of more than 100 Mbits per second in stationary mode, Tachikawa said, with an average of 20 Mbits/s when traveling. Network capacity should be at least 10 times that of 3G systems. In practical terms, that would quicken the download time of a 10-Mbyte file to one second on 4G, from 200 seconds on 3G, he said, enabling high-definition video to stream to phones and create a virtual-reality experience on high-resolution handset screens.
In the meantime, it's a good bet that operators will focus on early returns on investment, no matter how unglamorous the application might be. Since operators are used to a more-traditional role as connectivity providers rather than content providers -- let alone creators -- they will likely look to MMS as a workhorse revenue provider for 2.5G/3G data services, just as SMS is for 2G data services.
Many will be conservative, suggested Herman Rao, vice president of service network and enabling technologies for Taiwan's FarEastone Telecommunications Co. Ltd. "We know how to make money on connectivity, but we do not yet know how to make money on content. So the challenge for operators is on the content business and services model."
Rao, too, suspects that such simple applications as location-based maps, entertainment services and news will be the key to early 3G success. "Bandwidth is not as critical as equipment vendors try to make us believe," he said. "Video streaming won't be that important."
So like it or not, Hello Kitty and smiley faces may be the way forward. And that idea might not be such a stretch, since NTT Docomo is already moving on to enabling cats and dogs.
The article does have valid points, and yes Hello Kitty is (scarily) still quite a big thing in many parts of asia, much more of a thing than here. But the article is slanted in that it makes a much bigger deal about things then they really are.
Of the world's 70 million mobile-data users, 80 percent are in Japan, noted Kurt Hellstrom, president of troubled mobile-phone giant Ericsson.
This may be true, but you have to understand that they have a FAR superior infrastructure and are years ahead of most of the US and Canada, but remember tha once the rest of the world catches up that figure will change drastically - remember these are mobile data users and its a lot more common down there to do mobile data comm... for now until other places catch up. Singapore is also quite impressive. Going on a subway when I was in Singapore was almost like a video arcade with nearly 60-70% of everyone staring at their phones playing games or sending SMS's around to their friends.
Once data sending is more widley available in phones and our networks are built up a bit more things will change drastically. Reliant on Hello Kitty? I don't think so....
Sure it would be cool with video-phones and all that, but I'm not going to pay 10x the price for something I can't use because none of my friends have it, and batteries will die after a few minutes.. :P
I prefer my cheap old Nokia 6150 which I use to make phonecalls (surprise!) and send SMS with. Batteries last for about a week with normal usage.
My other account has a 3-digit UID.
If only someone could come up with a way for people to communicate with each other in some intuitive way on these things - I'd buy that for a dollar!
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
A cat with no mouth?
How are those depraved Japanese sickos going to satisfy their pleasures? There had better be a hole in the rear.
Lisa Simpson: "Hey Look, it's the Hello Kitty Factory"
As you hear cats meowing and see smoke suddenly spout huge amounts of smoke and the meowing stops.
MicroSoft(tm) follows suit in the icon trend and replaces mr paperclip with an american ico, martha stewart, a microsoft p.r. was quoted,"People love martha's advice, and we feel this "could be a good thing".
"If you are going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill
G-spot success
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
So what they're saying is, people are only getting these phones for their customizability? That would be analogous to buying a car not for transportation, but just so you can paint it puke green and stick "Type R" stickers and a ridiculous fin on it (although that may be a bad analogy, because I think some losers DO that).
Does anyone have a sub-etha sens-o-matic I can borrow? I think the collective IQ of this planet has dropped to the point where I need to leave it and find another.
~Philly
I want a cell phone that acts as a phone and as a gateway for my other devices. I should be able to connect my computer to it on the road. I should be able to connect my PDA to it. I should be able to connect a camera to it. It should have some of its own features. It should just work.
There are some Bluetooth enabled phones that almost meet these demands. They do not. Even when they come close, the networks are being built slowly.
Whoa, wait a minute here. Hello Kitty? I'm sold!
#!usr/bin/perl
print "Hello Kitty...\n";
Seiously, first statement: All things demanding high bandwitdh (like sending video streams and such) can already be done with 2.5G.
Second statement: Hello Kitty may be key to 3G success.
Coclusion: "Hello Kitty" clones can't be done with 2.5G?
Thats like comparing modems with DSL, browsing the web and look at pr0n works with a modem, why would I need a DSL connection?
True ravers don't need drugs
3G's main market is downloading ringtones and backgrounds
This focus on non-core functionality is rampant throughout the technical industry. Take MP3 players for example; the main feature of MP3 players (winamp, Musicmatch etc.) nowadays in skinning.
Who cares what the music quality is, as long as I can make my player look like Tux it must be good.
There's so much crap out there, I don't understand why designers don't try to make their product stand out by actually working properly instead of looking pretty.
Ask yourself the question.
Would you pay £4 ($6) per half-megabyte for GPRS in the UK?
I wouldn't. I don't.
Normal people just don't want to pay that much.
Get your own free personal location tracker
As soon as it becomes cheap enough for 3G to survive...
People don't like spending their money, and since the economy is in a slump, they are going to be even more uncertain about spending it on a product they don't really need.
3G means faster internet, etc. But, unless the users have the money to pay the price required, 3G won't move far...
But the concept of 3G will survive in some form or another until it becomes cheap enough for the casual user to purchase a 3G device.
Hello Kitty works in Japan, because the market is different there. In the States, Europe and Canada, either something that will get the consumers willing to pay the extra bucks is needed, or just plain old time, so the price of the 3G devices go down.
~ kjrose
Yah, the notion that customization is the primary motivation for 3G is pretty dumbfuckstupid...
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2002/09/kitty.html ;)
(Score:-1, Wrong)
In the grim future of Hello Kitty, there is only war...warhammer 3G
Just gimme an IP address.
I'll roll my own content and killer app.
Thanks.
Depends on your definition on mobility.
Try 802.11 while moving (relatively to your partner) and see how it performs.
What about handover between two 802.11 nodes (especially in different sub-networks)?
You'll need at least Mobile-IP.
AFAIK, the current trend seems to be less exclusive.
PAN, WLAN, 3G have their niches.
Of course, public WLAN spots are beginning to occupy a great share of the market, which 3G was targeted for.
Note, that it is also partly stated in the article:
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
Yes. Virtual reality on a cell phone. That'll work.
Sex - Find It
Oh no! Do you people have any idea what this will lead to?!
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
it's nice being able to go to slashdot and read an original story after the dupefest yesterday.....even if it is hello kitty related
Third Generation networks will be adopted, no question, because the large mobile players have the financial ability to push it to their customers and customers have a willingness to try it.
The long-term profitability of 3G technology, however, depends on if it can drive new users to mobile technology and if it will inspire current users to spend more money using wireless service.
Right now, 3G is used for downloading ringtones, sending small pictures and faster mobile web. Great! . . . but I, as a mobile telephone user, could care less about those things. Mobile web . . . the killer app? Gag me. I got on the "mobile web" with Verizon, simply because it was included as a "bonus." After using it, I can definitely say that I'd never pay for it, because it provides no real value.
For 3G technology to be successful in the long run, wireless companies must provide a data service that compliments and adds real value to mobile telephone service.
Since phones have a vibrate mode, no longer will we have to surf ebay to find a Hello Kitty vibrator.
Well, I prefer business models depending on Hello Kitty to business models depending on Hello Pussy - any day!
.-)
Unfortunately, I think the latter will be the real killer application. Yes - once again - gampling and pornography will save a new technology. It is saddening that the human race can only get viable business models from decadency. But hey - the phones are cool!
Pawlo.com
ISDN. Did the telco's ever make any money? It was a massive forklift upgrade but almost nobody came to the party.
Well... ISDN didn't have a mouthless japanese cat on it's side. So it HAS to work, right?
Most people (read non uber tech freaks) would love to have a wireless equivalent to their hard line. This means unlimited talk time (local at the very least), and ability to connect any desktop or laptop computer to the phone and use it as a modem, for $28 a month. It's almost the year 2003, but yet we have cellular companies who still offer "plans", minutes per month, credit checks, activation fees, and other arcane restrictions.
Make standard meat and potatos wireless telephone service easy available, the more expensive features will be easily sold then.
Why do technologies become standard? Because they're used frequently.
Why do people use technologies? Because they get some sort of benefit from them.
And "Hello Kitty," inane as it sounds, is a benefit that many in that market seem to want.
Remember that whole VHS/Betamax thing? Betamax had the smalller cassette with superior quality, but despite its "advantages," VHS still won out.
VHS had the bigger advantages in that fight: consumer and industry support.
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
Last time I checked, Hello Kitty was a white. Not that I know anything about Hello Kitty, mind you!
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Maybe if the admin tools at slashdot had a nice friendly 'Hello Kitty' interface, the editors would be more engaged (and miss fewer dupes).
The ability to use Hello Kitty 3G slashcode from *anywhere* would reduce time pressure. No longer would editors be forced to rush through articles so they can get to the bar sooner.
Now, with HK3GS, dupes can be posted *from the bar*. Woohoo!
It's called Unix? Unix had Hello Kitty like 30 years ago!!
Right now, Gates and Balmer are having an emergency meeting to figure out how they can get a Hello Kitty for Windows... Paperclip replacement, anyone?
Either that, or how the Kitty dies.
Hello Kitty (a cutesy Japanese pink cat with whiskers but no mouth)
It's a good thing you described it. Because, yoy know, we're geeks and none of us would know what you were talking about...
Seriously, even though we're not its target demographic, anyone here doesn't know Hello Kitty?
And, is that funny, or scary?
A friend of mine in Tokyo recently bought one of those cell phones that can take movies and snapshots and email them to someone (over the G2(?) 144kbps link). So I had the idea to set her up with a blog and use procmail and xmlrpc to autopost her cell phone media captures to her blog.
Next thing I know, this concept is a big deal and I find similar systems popping up all over the place.
It seems to be an up and coming meme, and I imagine that this nascent meme combined with 3G speeds could really turn into something exciting.
I would like to send MMS audio and video clips, sure, but whose email client can play audio/amr yet?
MMS/GRPS in some coutries offerse already advanced multimedia services. In Italy, Wind offerst videostreaming of football actions from Serie A directly on Nokia7650 as they happen. They also offer sound streaming of music on the mobile and short video clips of most important news (vieonews). This is happening on 2.5G MMS networks. Upcoming nokia video-phones allow you more movie-clip functinality.
The advantage of pure 3G however are two:
1) allows wireless videoconferecing between two mobile users(which is not possible on 2.5G networks)
2) 3G UMTS interface allow multiple sessions so that you can handle video communication, sound, voice and other comm interactions all together. This is what the computer Desktop world calls 'Multitasking'.
Do you still... oh, never mind.
... there is only war.
'nuff said.
http://www.talknerdy.org
Scott Adams once said that he wished he was clever enough to have come up with Dilbert's mouthlessness as a symbol of his lack of power.
"All I can say is I like him drawn that way"
Stop reading so much into the innocuous and go see a movie or a play.
I think many many people dream of just using a laptop of PDA for true wireless internet access -- if the costs are reasonable.
Right now the wireless telcos are pricing themselves out of the market.
It's scary to think that sophisticated 3G mobile systems may depend for their survival on Hello Kitty
What is your motivation for reading slashdot? Fun?Leisure? What is your motivation in 90% of your day? Fun? Leisure? Nothing scary in it other than the fact that people do not realize it.
drop the price of staying online sufficiently .. and the internet (and all that comes with it pr0n, mp3, web, email) will be its killer app.
I for one would love to have cheap wireless broadband access to the net from my laptop and even from home.
I think others would too.
-Johan
drop the fucking price of access!
simple as that.
Children in Japan might find Hello, Kitty to be the driving force behind 3G, but here in Amerika I've got a 750k population metro just busting with possible mobile data applications, and the cellular carriers collective heads are so far up their poop chutes we'll have an 802.11b mesh with a node on every block before they figure it out.
The problem in a nutshell is this - they believe they'll make more (like 10x) more for mobile data and they think they can charge per bit. Users are staying away in droves and they'll continue to do so until mobile behaves like DSL/cable modem, or low speed frame relay. I'd happily shell out $99/mo for something that got me ISDN speed at home and everywhere else in town, but that rate for an account with a 20 meg/month cap is utterly useless.
So much that could be done and its a darned shame we have to stay in business whilst doing our artwork, isn't it?
Full Disclosure: I own an evil, rate shaping ISP, that persecutes P2P users in such a zealous fashion as to inspire the admiration for various third world dictatorships.
I am very easy to get along with, but I don't have time to waste being nice to people who are being stupid. -Theo
If you did a market survey in say 1870; "Would you install a phone if it cost $xx?", what would the answer be?
Or in 1992: "Would you be on the internet if it cost $xx?"
The point is, you need to create demand for such services. A market survey is worth nothing if you ask for something the participants do not know what is.
"Water is great, but selling water might not be."
Yes, I have a feeling all those companies with soda, juice, and bottled water brands are crazy.
Cover your eyes and click this link!
Get it right! She has a mouth. It's under the fur. How do you think she talks? Huh?
The creator said so herself:
Talk about putting all your Kitties in one basket!
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
If you really love Hello Kitty (And who doesn't?) I'd suggest subscribing to alt.sex.hello-kitty (Hell folks here are less likely to know what Usenet is than Hello Kitty...)
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I have Verizon cellular. I'll go for it when I can get decent (100kb+) data for ~ $50/month (or less) with enough time/data to make it truly worthwhile.
My "killer application" would be the ability to plug my laptop into my cell phone and get a decent connection speed, EG: 56k, 128k would be nice, 512k would be sweet.
14.4 with high latency just doesn't cut it. Paying rediculous prices per MB won't cut it, either.
Currently, 14.4 connection rate, 1000 minutes, $45/mo (fairly standard prices) means you are really paying, (if you get sustained 14.4 connection) about $3.25 per MB.
Make that $0.50 per MB and I'll be an evangelist.
Best would be "always on" (with digital networks this shouldn't be a problem) and pay for quantities of data transferred.
This whole minutes thing is kinda stupid since about 1/3 of the time I get charged for is spent with me saying: "hello? hello!? Are you there?" and that just sucks.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Er PORN PORN PORN Why did VHS beat Beta? Why is TCP/IP the thing to learn and not ISO OSI? PORN PORN PORN! HEY MONKEY BOY WANNA FUCK EVERYONE BUT YER MUM? YER A MONKEY!!!! ps do you know what happens when you fuck your mum?
Bad journalism. This guy thinks he's a "journalist" by putting Hello Kitty in the headline. Well sure, he is because someone here fell for it and thought this was interesting, but look, how surprising, everyone is talking about Hello Kitty and not about what the article is about: Video Email isn't selling! WOW. Yesterday's news. Big woop. Hiphip huraaaah.
This guy just made news out of no news! Happens everyday!
As for 3G, it is too expensive, and no, we don't want mpegs in our mailbox. Also they are bigger, and batteries don't last very long. So people just get the cheap, lasts forever, flat and folding Docomos with still digital cameras. That was a hit actually. Yes, we like to talk and take photos. Not everyone likes to smile for more than half a second.
You're wrong. Phones weren't commonplace in 1870. The Internet wasn't commonplace in 1992. But cell phones are commonplace now. And have been some time.
You are not talking about a new appliance, but 3G over 2.5G. This is not a new appliance, it's just new widgetry that (by and large) nobody needs.
So you need to create a new market and new supply, to give birth to the demand. In my book, that sucks large watermelons.
... that make me realize how much I'm failing to learn about technology by NOT having a cell phone... I mean, I understood about 1/4 of that: 3G? 2.5G? GPRS? 1XRTT? WTF?
Freedom: "I won't!"
When a market comes to a point where every product is nearly the same (MP3 players, automobiles, cell phones, PCs) .. the only thing left to set yourself apart from competition are aesthetics.
Audio-on-demand. From anywhere you want. THAT will kick ass. MP3s have been one of the killer apps for the web. Being able to build a little MP3 player that can play MP3s, record them from the radio, AND stream any song you want over a 3G network - that will rock. Again, it's not a fucking cellphone. I want a small cellphone that I can talk into. Maybe a bluetooth headset would be nice. And an ultra-high density fuel cell to power the handset. But other than that, I am pretty satisfied with my cellphone as a thing I use to call people, not a thing I use for video, picture-taking or music-listening.
I mean, this stuff doesn't take much creativity to come up with. Sending phone-quality pictures to my friends from my cellphone? Eh. Not that impressive. Videophones? They've failed utterly though the technology has been there for years (and the bandwidth is actually there in many households for it to work quite well). No reason to think that video-cellphones will do better. People like cellphones because they can do other shit while they talk on them - I drive and use my cell all the time because I'm a BUSY fucking person (before I get flamed, I always use my handsfree set so I can devote most of my attention to the road).
So, in short, think of all the cool apps that could be built with 3G wireless bandwidth that ARE NOT cellphones. My car should have a GPS console, with integrated 3G wireless, that lets me search the web, auto-updates the map data (I don't know how the current car-GPS units do this). And audio-on-demand in the car - that would be great. Anyway, there are still things *I* can't do with *my* cell phone - real SMTP email access, real web browsing (not the current shitty excuse for this), download email attachments and view them - I suppose these examples are mostly 2.5G compatible apps, but the ones above seem to require 3G.
nice article partially true but lacks on a number of different of issues. one of these more critical things on which the whole article almost was based is that WIFI simply to operate requires lots of power thus mobile devices and handhelds would be required to to be plugged into a power outlet for it to work!!! so down that road with the current circuit standards, should WIFI become a a defacto, people will be changing their network cable connections to power connections... now how practical is that?? :P WIFI as is currently cannot and will not become the mobile 3g solution, but it is a different thing when PDA are in question and what power is used other than the common sources used today.
He's back!
He's mad!
And he's looking for a little pussy!
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
For those of you who have no idea of what 'Hello Kitty' is, you may want to check the web site.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
The USA GPRS networks still look small based on the coverages maps I have seen. How good is the coverage? To go all the places I go and have cell service, I cannot use GSM alone and the GSM/TDMA combination phones lack the features of the T68i.
Do not panic! I have been in touch with several of my cajun relatives in Southern Louisiana who are experts in these matters, and have encountered the same experience with native crawfish for many generations, follow these instructions EXACTLY as outlined below!
1). Have a buddy go to Fiesta Mart and get several dozen live crawfish and bring them back right away, they must still be alive. Put them in with your 'crayfish' to keep him company, this will sooth his nerves.
2) Meanwhile, begin heating at least 4 gallons of water in a 5 gallon pot, either on the stove, or outdoors on a propane burner, bring water to a rolling boil, adding a few tablespoons of salt.
3) Dump your 'crayfish' along with the Fiesta Mart live 'crawfish' into the boiling cauldron. Incidently, the sound you hear them make is not 'screaming', it is merely air escaping from their lungs.
4) Spread out newspaper on a large table, have several saucers with melted butter and garlic, with lemon on the side. Have all your friends seated, make sure you have plenty of beers.
5) After a few minutes, when crawfish have turned a bright red remove them from the boiling water and dump them all in the center of the newspaper.
6) Dig in. Rip the tail section from the heads and consume the tasty meat in the tail section with great gusto. Some people like to 'suck the heads', it's a matter of personal preference, I'll pass.
7) Toss the scraps around the rose bushes, you'll have the best looking roses on the block come next winter. You can sleep well knowing you did all you could for your 'crayfish', he's in a better place now. -telemarketer
Take Dilbert, for example. I'm sure that most of the Slashdot audience is familiar with Dilbert. He's the downtrodden cubicle dweller/engineer who is constantly doomed to failure and has no mouth.
Dilbert has a mouth. You can see it open in the animated cartoon. The strip, on the other hand, shows it closed all the time, and you can't see it because the lips are so thin.
Was there an animated Hello Kitty series? If so, did some characters talk like Garfield, Noddy, and Solid Snake (i.e. no mouth movement)?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Was this before or after Napster and friends became popular?
I think we're quickly reaching the point where technological progress is outstripping the need. We're at the point now where computer technology (be it embedded, in a cell phone, or a Desktop PC) can do pretty much anything a normal user would want and then quite a bit more. PCs that are 4-5 years old will still meet the basic needs of customers. The current fare is much more than is needed by a home user. At work (3D simulation development) we've gotten rid of all our dedicated graphical workstations (SGIs) because a decent PC with a GeForce4 / Quadro4 is more than adequate for even high end development, and cheaper too.
But the average home user is concerned with eMail, Web Browsing, and a few tasks that I'll call "Hobbies." Be it composition, or graphics editing, or photos, what not. A PC that is 5-6 years old can handle the basics with ease. Come up to a Penitum III class and you've got more power than the average home user will ever use.
Now bring this analogy over to cell phones. What does the average person do with their phone? Why talk to people of course. The current generation of digital cell phones handle this amazingly well. They also do numeric paging and voice mail. That covers the majority of your users. It's only the really tech saavy that go much beyond that. Mostly because any other features are just Icing on the cake. Things like AIM on a phone. Nice idea...but If I have a moble phone..why not just call the person? Typing is much harder on a numeric keypad anyways.
I don't think many people have the need to send picutres or video right now. I mean...someone will give the example of a person going into the store and taking a picutre of something to see if it's the right thing. But honestly...how often does the average Joe need to photograph something and have someone look at it immediately? That's more of a business class feature...
I don't know if you remeber, but WAP's meaning was for a long time "Where Are the Phones". As long as the device itself won't be able to allow killer app for cheap with a battery life comparable to a standard i-only-talk-into-it phone, neither 2.5 nor 3G won't go easy.
Today, even for 2.5G, mobile and infrastructure makers can't use the full bandwith because of battery life issues (I heard about less than 1/2 of theorical GPRS bandwidth being actually used, for instance).
So, even if a killer app would exist, it would need:
- better batteries
- more powersaving electronics
- better device size / screen size ratio
Another lead is of course business users for laptop access, but 1) WiFi may be a better contestant and 2) it's not what we could call "mainstream"
System.out.println("coucou");
Whenever there's a story about mobile phones on slashdot, I always see all these posts proudly claiming either
A) They don't need a cell phone/normal people don't need a cell phone
B) All these new features are unnecessary.
C) They need a cell phone only for making calls.
The main motivation seems to be to distinguish themselves from "ignorant teenagers" and such. Well I thank God for those ignorant teenagers. Sure, making your phone look like it belongs in a circus isn't stylish, but if it weren't for these teenagers we'd have no technological advancement whatsoever. At least not if left with the demand curve of the average slashdotter.
To group A I simply say this: For five years I haven't had a single meeting with friends that hasn't been set up by saying "Come to town, somewhere, sometime around 13:00. I'll call you when I'm free from my previous appointment." A few months ago, I had to meet someone who didn't have a cell phone, and it was somewhere I'd never been before. We had to set a very rigorous schedule with an exact but unknown location and it took us half an hour to find each other. Damn right normal people don't need cell phones, huh?
And that's just one argument, I didn't even mention safety etc.
To group B: I am currently going to college one Atlantic ocean away from my family. I'd kill for a video phone. No, webcams aren't enough. I can't whip out my laptop whenever I'm doing something fun I want my parents to see. There IS demand for advanced features beyond that of the "look what I have" factor.
To group C, these are the additional features of my current phone:
Ring tones for voice and SMS - very useful, I never have to check my phone when another one rings. My tone is tasteful.
Alarm clock - the only alarm clock I need.
Games - ok, unnecessary, but they can kill time, and who cares if they're there.
Java - I could write my own applications if I wasn't too lazy.
Calculator - Has saved me several times.
Unit converter - Invaluable having moved to the promised land of non-base10 conversions.
Calendar - Wouldn't remember anything without my always ready to alert calendar. Oh and I can sync it with my PC too.
Infrared - Hey, I can use my phone as a wireless modem!
Bluetooth - Wow, this is even easier than infrared.
Voice recorder - Never embarrass yourself looking for a pencil and paper again.
Countdown timer - faster than setting the alarm, very convenient for short periods of time.
Stopwatch - I use this every week to time things.
WAP - not really useful, but I can't wait 'til I get a phone that can browse the real internet.
Anyone saying that you can find these functions on other devices should remember that I have all of them in the volume of a few matchboxes. Think about it.
My Sig: SEGV
That's pretty fucking funny, because I have today's strip open in Photoshop at 1600% magnification, and I don't see no fucking lips. HE DOESN'T HAVE A MOUTH, DIPSHIT.
Ridiculous monthly transfer limits, that's what happened.
Sprint's sorta got it figured out now, but that's a recent development.
And the phones are still gonna have to come down in price. I don't care how pretty the screen is, I ain't payin' $300 for a frickin' telephone.
If you largely market 2.5G and 3G phones because they are able to download new ringtones and background images more quickly, you are not going to sell to the bleeding edge.
I want a 2.5G or 3G phone because I want other mobile devices, like a laptop or my Sony Clie to be able to use that bandwidth. Currently I can hook my Sony Clie up to my Samsung SCH-3500 through SprintPCS and get a 14.4 connection. The Wireless Web option adds a whole $5/month onto my bill. Not too bad..
I keep looking to upgrade to a Vision-capable phone, but I run into a problem of cords. Sprint sometimes offers a Wireless Web connection kit that has a Vision phone - USB cable, but these seem to be there mainly to transfer ringtones and pictures to the phone.
And you can forget about ever hooking up my Clie to the phone. Most of the third-party cord manufacturers seem to be saying "It will be difficult, if not impossible, to make custom built PDA - Vision phone cords."
In addition, most of the Vision plans only include 2MB data a month. That is plenty for ringtones, games, and pictures. If I want to check my mail, though, that starts to use that bandwidth very quickly.
So I am stuck with 14.4, it would seem, and stuck with an old phone so that I might actually have a cable. I am stuck with an old plan so that I can have decent bandwidth every month.
What is pushing 3G? Ringtones and pictures.
Why? This seems to be largely the only thing you can do with the 2.5G/3G phones in the U.S.
If I am wrong, someone please correct me on all of this. This seems to be the case using the information I have found (Google, etc.)
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
This is the whole problem with 3G, why I don't own any stock for companies having anything to DO with 3G, and I why I think 3G is a big sick joke. Here in Canada, I have a digital phone, filled with lame ass options that cost a fortune to use (so I never use them). I don't really need to check a stock quote from my phone, and certainly not at $0.50/minute (or worse). They might as well not be there - this is an important observation.
The phone companies want to bend you over for the service, then bend you over AGAIN for the content. It makes too much sense just to give you an IP - then they can't profit at every turn. I really don't understand why they don't get this. In Japan, i-Mode services MADE the digital network there. People can add their own little stupid things, and whatever is trendy, gets used. This is "revolutionary" and "radical" thinking. I hope the telcos get burnt even worse than they are now - they've effectively STOPPED (wireless) infrastructure development here. I can't complain too much about broadband, but it will never exist where I live in the woods.
There's a gotcha that the telcos don't know about though. It has to do with those "Features" my phone has I never use, and don't even consider because they cost so much to use. It's about to bite them in the ass, hard. What's that? It's the social use and acceptance of technology. In North America, most people associate the cellular phone with voice calls. Period. Different in europe and asia, but not here. Cell == Voice. No association with data.
If 802.11 takes off in a big way - all indicators are it will, it's great stuff - then the social acceptance of that technology will happen. People will associate "mobile wireless" with a 802.11 enabled PDA or notebook. They won't think about using mobile wireless services the way they use a cell phone - they'll just expect it as a feature of where they happen to be, offered by a mall, coffee place, school, office. It won't be the cell phone providing that connectivity.
Once that gets entrenched, it's all over for 3G wireless. I think it's already stillborn.
I hope the WiFi people take these people to the cleaners. Bend THEM over. Own your own infrastructure. WiFi gives people what they want, and you know what, $300 for an access point - or even $1000 for a few - isn't really that much compared to what equivilant service would cost me, if it ever happens. When infrastructure is cheaper than service, ya gotta start asking questions.
Maybe I'm wrong. 3G is a non-issue in my life, though.
My $0.02 (cdn)
..don't panic
The people who download Hello Kitty stuff for their cell phone are the same people who have Hello Kitty key fobs, knapsacks, hair clips, T-shirts, etc. It's a cultural phenomenon where a vast number of people are influenced by cute.
Cute isn't relegated to phones, screensavers and the like, either. When I worked at Fujitsu writing supercomputer and mainframe manuals, there was always the requisite cute section that told the system administrator how to insert floppy disks and take care of floppy media in general. These sections always included drawings of cute floppy disk guys suffering the abuse of magetism, incorrect insertion into drives or -- oh, the memories -- the dreaded high-temps! And, no, this was not just a matter of Fujitsu corporate culture. In freelancing, I did stuff for NEC supercomputer manuals that was basically the same. If it's a Japanese manual, it's got cute inside.
Cute manuals don't wash in North American tech manuals. Cute is taken to be an insult, I think, for a North American ubergeek. The point, therefore, is that our G3 providers have to always be sure to translate popular services based on cultural acceptance. Transliteration is doomed to be an expensive failure.
....in Asia and Europe that is...
3g survival is last mile broadband nothing more nothing less when thy gonna do away with the sprintpcs latency problem? is that a deterrent for use of it or a technological problem?
...they are going to depend on a fad or two to establish a new technology. You might call that the Hula-Hoop business model. Well, be prepared for the bust!
Okey :)
BZZZT! Wrong!
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/08/16/cell.phone.drivin g/index.html
Probably nobody else will see this because the parent article is days old by now, and the mod wave has passed by, but maybe you'll come back and see if anyone replied to your comment, and then at least you'll be ONE person who's had their vision adjusted.
When you talk on the phone, your driving skills are compromised; using a hands-free kit doesn't help much. I'm also a busy fucking person, I carry a cell phone, and I don't talk on it while the car is moving (even stop-and-go traffic). You need to stop kidding yourself. Sorry.
One simple rule for its versus it's
Hey, it's definitely not out of the question when we're talking about all things Hello Kitty.
You know what terrifies me about Hello Kitty?
Apparently, it's a *big thing* in Japan. No, I've never been to Japan, nor am I a Nipponophile ("Nippophile" sounds racist somehow...). Hell, I don't even like anime. But I hear the stories from friends who've been there.
I wake up in the middle of the night with a scream caught in my throat, with visions of Japanese engineers designing brakes and steering systems for Honda and Toyota cars, doing their back-of-the-envelope sketches and calculations on Hello Kitty stationary. The senior engineers in my nightmares have Hello Kitty sliderules.
Not coincidentally, people often wonder why I drive a 1976 Dodge Ram. I figure, if I'm going to share the road with cars whose balljoints were designed using Hello Kitty pocket calculators, I may as well keep myself wrapped up in some good thick steel.
How about the bow tied on one of the cat's ears? I tried that on my cat, and she had it off in nanoseconds. Hot melt glue was only slightly more effective, but not enough to build a franchise on the concept. A staple gun is the only alternative that I can think of - I'm simply amazed that PETA isn't up in arms about the tacit advocacy of using staple guns to affix bows to fluffy little pussycats.
BTW, Linux is not ready for the desktop.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast
to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists,
a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also
just stupid.
-- J.D. Watson, "The Double Helix"
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