(keitai-l) Re: optimized service for mobile phones

From: Tom Hume <tom_at_futureplatforms.com>
Date: 03/29/04
Message-Id: <774BC4CE-81B4-11D8-B432-000A95CE0FFE@futureplatforms.com>
On 29 Mar 2004, at 17:30, Curt Sampson wrote:

> What you don't seem to realize, Ken, is that, at least between about 
> 1995
> and something approaching the present, business success was all about
> speed. The folks who got something half-assed out there before someone
> else got something good out there were the winners. That may offend 
> your
> sense of technical aesthetics, but that's reality.

Vodafone Live launched after I-mode and the portals of the other UK 
operators, yet is the clear winner now. First doesn't necessarily mean 
best. "first-mover advantage" is practically a cliche of the dot-com 
years... which doesn't mean it's a priori a bad thing, of course - but 
neither is it necessarily a good thing.

> folks produce. I've seen way, way too many people design for what they
> think the situation will be five years in the future, only to discover
> that everything's changed three years later, and a lot of their design
> criteria are now completely inapplicable. I think that the whole 
> WAP/WML
> thing is a perfect example of that. Why on earth do you need WAP when
> you've got a low-latency 384 Kbps link?)

Is it a question of needing it? I mean, nowadays the fact is that WAP 
is what's out there and supported in handsets. However much that might 
offend your technical sensibilities, it's a fact; developers of mobile 
services need to recognise that (or sit around waiting for something 
better to come along - not really an option if you believe that getting 
something out of the door before your competitors is what counts).

--
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Received on Mon Mar 29 22:08:18 2004