Don't think of these as browsers with small screens and limited functionality. Look at them as pagers on speed: Wow! Look at those big screens! Two way communications!
As I recall, when the Palm Pilot came out and people compared them to full function computers, they were considered just short of useless. Small screen. No memory. No disk. No color. No modem. No. No. No. No.
The commercial applications for these will be huge. Like a Palm Pilot with your company's entire data base on board. Updated instantly. Designed for the small screen.
Changes are coming and PG is well positioned to take advantage of them.
Electronic books (Rocket et al) will eventually make it into the mainstream. I saw one for sale online @ $199 -- $100 less than two months ago. The Peanut Reader for Palm works surprisingly well, and there are lots of Palms out there already.
Popular press prices WILL come down as printing and distribution expenses are eliminated and demand rises. When people are used to downloading books to portable electronic devices and paying very little, PG popularity will take off. Hold on, Its coming!
I suggest charging a nominal fee, say $1 for each download and use the revenue to promote (maybe even advertise) PG. This means actually paying someone to get on TV, talk to newspaper editors, beg for free banner space etc.
Free is good, if you know about it. $1 aint bad if that's what it takes to find out about it.
What if the entrepreneurs who built Silicon Valley had decided to build cars instead of computers...
Actually, they did. Except it was Detroit and it was almost 100 years ago. Then it was airplanes in Wichita 75 years ago. And radios. And computers. And software. Now the Internet. Every one has given a boost to our economy and standard of living.
Each industry still has its stubborn, successful entrepreneurs. He (she) may be making special parts for race cars or designing airplane kits, but there is still a place for him.
As for subsistance farming, we used to be a country of subsistance farmers, but we got better. Not because a big chemical company invented Roundup, but because farmers tinkered with their equipment to make it better and faster and more efficient. In the US, we have all the information needed to move farmers from subsistance to productive agriculture. The internet may finally be the means for distributing that information. Of course, then you need to figure out what to do with all the displaced farmers.
As for the brainpower of politicians. Charlie Rose had a series of programs from Silicon Valley where he interviewed Scott McNealy and the like. Each one interviewed impressed me as being very bright. I can't remember ever being impressed by a politician that way.
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Don't think of these as browsers with small screens and limited functionality. Look at them as pagers on speed: Wow! Look at those big screens! Two way communications!
As I recall, when the Palm Pilot came out and people compared them to full function computers, they were considered just short of useless. Small screen. No memory. No disk. No color. No modem. No. No. No. No.
The commercial applications for these will be huge. Like a Palm Pilot with your company's entire data base on board. Updated instantly. Designed for the small screen.
Changes are coming and PG is well positioned to take advantage of them.
Electronic books (Rocket et al) will eventually make it into the mainstream. I saw one for sale online @ $199 -- $100 less than two months ago. The Peanut Reader for Palm works surprisingly well, and there are lots of Palms out there already.
Popular press prices WILL come down as printing and distribution expenses are eliminated and demand rises. When people are used to downloading books to portable electronic devices and paying very little, PG popularity will take off. Hold on, Its coming!
I suggest charging a nominal fee, say $1 for each download and use the revenue to promote (maybe even advertise) PG. This means actually paying someone to get on TV, talk to newspaper editors, beg for free banner space etc.
Free is good, if you know about it. $1 aint bad if that's what it takes to find out about it.
What if the entrepreneurs who built Silicon Valley had decided to build cars instead of computers ...
Actually, they did. Except it was Detroit and it was almost 100 years ago. Then it was airplanes in Wichita 75 years ago. And radios. And computers. And software. Now the Internet. Every one has given a boost to our economy and standard of living.
Each industry still has its stubborn, successful entrepreneurs. He (she) may be making special parts for race cars or designing airplane kits, but there is still a place for him.
As for subsistance farming, we used to be a country of subsistance farmers, but we got better. Not because a big chemical company invented Roundup, but because farmers tinkered with their equipment to make it better and faster and more efficient. In the US, we have all the information needed to move farmers from subsistance to productive agriculture. The internet may finally be the means for distributing that information. Of course, then you need to figure out what to do with all the displaced farmers.
As for the brainpower of politicians. Charlie Rose had a series of programs from Silicon Valley where he interviewed Scott McNealy and the like. Each one interviewed impressed me as being very bright. I can't remember ever being impressed by a politician that way.