> I really cant see the thinking behind this. Even if the business
> model was great but no-one was interested in the services
> how could i-mode have been successfull?
I get your point ;-) I tend to think that I-mode was born in a different
culture and for different needs in Japan therefore might never had born in
e.g. Germany, Finland or the US. If a western mobile networks would enable
sufficient technology and business structure (the charge ratio between the
operator and service providers is still a joke), we could see a new I-mode
born elsewhere.
Most people, not to mention cultures, have different needs. If I look the
list of the most popular i-mode services, I don't find much that would
appeal me so much that I would need and use them daily. I may have
downloaded a few ringing tones during the last couple of years but I find
the number of really useful services limited. My most frequently used
mobile services are directory search, weather (when travelling), stock
quotes (again when out of fixed net access) and occasionally the car
registry to check the owner of a nice sports car ;-)
Again from personal perspective; mobile banking services. I don't need to
know how much money I have on my account (some people do), I trust that
there's something left for my daily needs. I never have such urgent bills
that they couldn't wait until I'm at home with my Mac and don't need to
sacrifice the user interface to pay the bill. However what I would find
useful is that the cash registry in a shop or coffee house would transmit a
charge to my mobile phone with Bluetooth (or similar technology), I would
acknowledge it with one button and have it charged from my bank account.
Well, that's not really anything mobile but a wireless appliance of some
sort.
And last but not least, I think global roaming is something that one
couldn't live without. I simply don't understand why it's not a big issue
with I-mode.
Sorry for the very "anti-hype" viewpoint ;-) I grew up through the born of
the Internet and saw the hype while working with the reality.. I'm quite
positive that there can be both mobile services that I find useful on a
daily basis and services, and services that I don't find useful but they
make a lot of money to the operators and the service providers.
Petri
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Received on Tue Feb 20 12:00:54 2001