"The second problem is even worse, namely, why on earth the
user still has to stuff physical cash into the i-vending
machine, instead of just having the charge appear on the
phone bill at the end of the month...."
agree with this point...what technical constraint led to this business
decision? It seems inconsistent with all other paid content billing (i.e.,
consolidated on the NTT bill at the end of the month)...what happened here?
anyone...anyone?...
-----Original Message-----
From: Jani PATOKALLIO [mailto:jpatokal@iki.fi]
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2001 10:35 PM
To: keitai-l@appelsiini.net
Subject: (keitai-l) Re: [Fwd: DoCoMo & Coke]
Renfield Kuroda wrote:
> Outline of "i-vending Project" (provisional name) Trial
>
> 1. Primary components of the trial
> a. Advanced Payment Service
> The user accesses i-mode's dedicated website and signs up for the
> service.
> The "i-vending
> machine" then verifies the user's identity, after which the user can
> insert funds into any
> "i-vending machine" for subsequent cashless purchases.
This is ridiculously complex and, I suspect, doomed to failure.
The way the wireless vending machines in Finland work is that
the user dials a number printed on the machine, is charged the
price of a Coke can for the call, and the Coke is delivered
immediately. Time required is however long it takes you to
punch in the 9 digits of a typical Finnish phone number, or
less if you're an addict like me who stores the number in the
phone itself. My jaw dropped the first time I saw this and
I still think it's amazing, probably the only cool thing the
rest of the world has done with mobiles that Japan has not
yet caught on to... and is now, ineptly, trying to copy.
The first problem is one of authorization vs. authentication.
The Finnish model assumes that anyone with a phone is
authorized to buy a Coke; the Japanese model insists on
authenticating that the person with the phone is the owner
of the phone ("verifies the user's identity" just means enter
security code, right?), adding an additional layer of complexity.
The second problem is even worse, namely, why on earth the
user still has to stuff physical cash into the i-vending
machine, instead of just having the charge appear on the
phone bill at the end of the month. It's stupid, it's
inconvinient, and you get the chicken-and-egg problem which
has caused the failure of all digicash systems to date.
Why should I take perfectly usable cash and turn it into
random unrefundable e-roubles that I can only use in a
few places while the trial lasts?
Oh well...
Cheers,
--
Jani PATOKALLIO / jpatokal@iki.fi / +81 90 7722 3557
Sanpo Laboratory, Mechano-Informatics Dept., University of Tokyo
ヤニ・パトカリオ / jani@sanpo.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp / 090 7722 3557
東京大学、工学系研究科、機械情報工学科、算法設計研究室
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Received on Thu Mar 29 19:59:23 2001