Addressing some of the recent traffic re my post on this subject:
One of the key arguments against thin service frameworks is packet billing
charges. My understanding is that where carriers are considering this type
of solution, they would be bundled as a part of a flat rate all you can eat
plan. A number of readers have pointed out that these plans are becoming
widely available outside of Japan. I personally pay about 1500 yen a month
for all the GPRS data I can choke down.
Bearing that in mind, before we dismiss thin services out of hand, take a
look at the Cognima trial with Orange:
http://www.cognima.com/releases/25_jun_03.shtml
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/29271.html
The Register article points out, there are many useful scenarios for this
type of product. Adding thin-client components into the phone
infrastructure means networked corporate applications can be accessed and
remotely managed in the same way. This is something we at Bullant do.
Performance, by the way, is very good. At the Wireless Japan shows this
year we demonstrated this fact with multi-player move based games being
played between a DoCoMo and J-Phone handset. Latencies in the order of one
second were the norm for moves in a Connect 4 game running between different
players on different handsets across different phone networks.
BTW, checkout http://www.x-9.com/ - they used to have an iMode ping tool in
their iMode menu under tools. The answer for iMode latency was 150-200ms
which is very usable. In Australia, we put up with one to one and a half
second round trip latencies on GPRS.
Thin in the Bullant model also means I can run multiple networked
applications simultaneously so I can play a game, compose a mail and engage
in an IM session without any loss of context with instantaneous switching
between applications.
It has been pointed out that Japanese carriers do not own applications -
content providers do. Having worked in Japan for some time I understand the
model well.
Not so with Cognima. It is being trialled and branded by Orange in Europe.
By providing this service, Orange hopes to increase customer satisfaction
and reduce churn. I believe Cognima are trialing with six European carriers
in total.
I concede that the concept of a 'thin phone' is a poor idea. As I was at
pains to point out in my original post, this would only work when network
connectivity is ubiquitous (in utopia that is - and my carrier doesn't have
a roaming agreement with them yet). There are a number of models for a thin
service framework that must provide a balance on the phone and in the
network functionality and can add to the overall user experience.
Received on Wed Sep 24 08:13:44 2003