Mobile 2.0 = The Web?
I was reading Blue Flavor’s 10 Things I Learned at Mobile 2.0, and the first meme appeared to make some sense. Mobile 2.0 = The Web? Quite a possibility. Definitely in India, I thought, and perhaps, in China as well. Why? Because of the sheer number of people using these portable, dead cheap, devices.
Almost everyone uses a cellphone today. They’re extremely familiar with their interface. The moment someone is idle, even for a minute, (s)he takes the unit out and start playing with it. Have you noticed? In the buses, local trains/subways, airport lounges, coffee shops, malls (wife is browsing chinaware, while husband flicking / fiddling with his phone and sometimes, vice versa, if they’re on a gadgets floor.)
What could make this possible? The device, for one, is already in the consumers’ hands. Right now! If gmail.com/app like applications begin to connect with service industry — banking, transportation, shopping, information, e-governance, corporate uses (heavy, marketing industries, et al) — then, very soon, we could unload those heavy bricks, that we call notebooks, off our shoulders.
What could pour a dash of cold water over this idea? Operators, Carriers or Cellphone service providers — as they are called in different parts of the world — continue to charge a premium. Or worse hike up prices, or make it impossible to have a decent access to the internet, like the lack of GPRS, assuming a particular device supports it. But with drooping prices, cost of owning a new device is hardly an issue. These days, I see people buying phones just to match their clothing. Serious!
The problem with traditional access to internet has always been about costs and learning curve in owning a personal computer. With a cellphone, both those difficulties are out of the way. You’re one button push away from the big bubble that we’re all gung-ho about. Push internet and (utility) services over it — for starters — and they’ll be hooked for good.
Definitely possible in India.
Definitely possible in India.
Nov 15, 06 at 13:47Of course, but then again operators are charging us premium of a per kb download charge and monthly rates also for JUST keeping the GPRS connection alive on the number.