Hello everyone.... this is my first post and I would like to contribute my 2
centavos worth.
Let me share with you my experience why I happen to think IM on keitai makes
sense.
I live in the Philippines and my girlfriend is working in Japan. Outgoing
International call from here are incredibly high and thus very prohibitive.
She bought an i-mode phone so then we could e-mail each other. That's well
and good if I'm always in front of the PC in my office. During times when I
"want" (not need) to reach her and I don't have access to the internet, I
can email her through SMS on my mobile.
Cons:
1. I can't receive emails to my mobile, only SMS.
2. I'ts very inconvenient to type "09012345678@docomo.ne.jp(subject)text
message maximum 160 characters" every time I email her.
3. Emails cost twice as much as a SMS.
Considering she has a web enabled device I made my site so she could send
short messages and I would receive it on my mobile via SMS. I can respond by
SMS but using an alias so that there's no need to type her long email
address. My system would post it on the site, which she could view by
refreshing the page.... this effectively makes it a private IM service.
We've tested it now for almost 3 weeks and its working just fine.
Now some more info to consider.....
1. The Philippines biggest export to Japan, US, Europe, Middle East is
skilled workers..... a lot of warm bodies there wanting to communicate with
their families and friends here.
2. Every penny they save at their host countries would be of huge benefit to
their families. (That means a lot more dollars and food at the table.)
3. Internet penetration here is 350,000 while mobile phones is 4,000,000++
Don't you see opportunity here for IM?
That's why we're planning of improving and commercializing our technology,
any VCs out there? :-)
I don't mind a little competition from AOL..... if its going to give a
little "peace of mind" to many people, at a low cost.... that's your killer
app.
Like Jason said:
>Now go and beat me up on this, but I actually think it's very powerful.
Victor
----------------------------------------------------
Victor A. Saromo
savictor@pacific.net.ph
tel (632) 819-1593
tel/fax (632) 889-1133
Makati, Philippines
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Tue Nov 14 12:19:20 2000