With leap@gol.com's comments about vid-dating in mind:
Anyone who thinks that low bandwidth video is a non-starter should think
back a little to cu-seeme....
<sad-bastard true confessions>
I was into it about 5 years ago - the usual path. Long, deep intimate
typed "conversations" with a complete stranger who was eccentrically
rendered in little monochrome blocks. Then falling madly in love after
lots of virtual sex, consideration of flying half way around the world
before finally coming to senses. All this over a 28k modem link on old,
slow hardware (she was using win 3.1!) and the tiny "quickcum camera" from
Connectix.
If you messed around on cu-seeme all those years ago, you may have had a
similar experience. (if not, ah - you missed something.) It was fairly
common, I later found - everyone had gone through it once, including
several real-world friends. (cu-seeme is a bore now I gather)
What was especially odd about it was that there were, to hand, several
real life, gorgeous, willing little moppets - who were not half as
interesting as quite a lot of what was rendered at 1/2 frame a second
monochrome on my elderly Mac. I can remember having to make the choice on
two occasions - wetware or virtual-ware - virtual-ware (the Swedish uni
girl!) always won - which I found intellectually interesting at the time...
</ sad-bastard true confessions>
Ok - the the point: a video experience can be VERY compelling at low
bandwidth. The "sweet spot" may be 375k, but 2.2k with horrid latency was
enough for me and many others.
Now to imode: how many imode users, including MANY married middle aged
women, have a "mail friend" of the opposite-sex (or same-sex - but same
persuasion) with whom they exchange NUMEROUS e-mails. I can't think of a
Japanese keitai using friend who doesn't.... LOTS of sites are dating
agencies... (as leap pointed out.)
imode is big big big on the one to one, PRIVATE personal interactions. A
landline phone is often shared - but a keitai is a private thing. It
contains many secrets. Maybe that is not how it outside Japan, but privacy
(in the old fashioned sense) is scarcer here.
How long before we get the headlines: "HOUSEWIVES ADDICTED TO IMODE VIDEO
SEX?" or "THEIR FOMA'N for it!"
If you did not experience the cu-seeme thing back then, you may have your
doubts about vid-phones now.... If you did, I suspect you won't - not in
Japan at least.
If you've got this far and are thinking "he IS a sad-bastard" kindly
remember that no-one has ever lost money providing hi-tech services to
sad-bastards....
Nick
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Thu Jul 19 17:30:34 2001