From: "Jani PATOKALLIO" <jpatokal@iki.fi>
> Michael Turner wrote:
> > From: "Jani PATOKALLIO" <jpatokal@iki.fi>
> But the basic functions performed by both systems are still the same,
> yes?
You could say that about cannons vs bazookas, too, but people
don't *use* them the same way, do they?
> Yup. But people are still surfing the Net with their old
> clunky desktops. Why is nobody scanning barcodes with them?
You could have used this argument against the mouse,
back in 1980: nobody's using it on desktop PCs, so
it must be no good.
I have cursor keys, after all.
The mouse *really* took off when Microsoft decided
to make an exception to its general rule about not manufacturing
hardware - and made the M-S mouse available. (This is
also pretty much how CDROM finally took off, too: M-S
going to it as SW distribution medium.)
Yes, it's chicken-and-egg. What you need is a big
enough chicken.
> * * *
>
> You see, what I'm suggesting is that people are not particularly
> interested in barcodes and their possibilities, and that this will
> not change no matter how portable and cheap you make the technology
> for reading them.
While you're at it, suggest as well that people aren't particularly
interested in URLs and their possibilities (most people don't
know all the amazing things you can do with them), but rather in content
and convenience - which is what browsers and web servers
make available via URLs.
Barcode is boring. So are URLs. Both are big because of
how they leverage technology and knowledge bases.
> ....You'd need a laser and a scanner, which would be yet another
> power and space drain for tiny machines that are already an (uneconomical)
> marvel of miniaturization. (Although having a laser in my keitai is
> definitely a feature I'd be willing to fork out a few extra yen for!)
Lasers are highly miniaturizable. Laser pointers (which can run for some
time on small batteries) only need to be as big as they are so they can
be practical as pointers. The minimum optics head for scanning
would probably be quite small as well.
Amazon has been using wireless barcode readers - it's not a
stretch.
-m
leap@gol.com
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Mon Nov 27 18:15:16 2000