eMobile's infrastructure is new; they're have a network of HSDPA base
stations that apparently are very compact (a news report I saw
reckoned them at 1/10 the size of a conventional cellphone base
station) and cheap.
When they launch voice services in 2008 they will have a roaming
agreement with DoCoMo to give nationwide coverage until they can ramp
up their own infrastructure sufficiently.
As I understand it the EM ONE phone with which they're launching will
have the ability to make voice calls once the network catches up. (I
hope it's better than the appalling W-ZERO3 es, which had the build
quality of a Transformer.)
Others have commented quite rightly that eMobile could prove a hit
for laptop access, and their hardware is targeted at just this
segment -- the other three products they are launching with are
either USB or card-type terminals.
On 2007/02/24, at 22:26, Shannon Jacobs wrote:
> Not sure who asked for the views but here's my initial take on it:
>
> It seems to me that this is basically targeted at improved highly
> mobile Internet access, which is basically the same niche as the
> large-screen portable phones are going for now--but with better prices
> for the phones. It's also highly intrusive into WillCom's niche with
> the Zero-3 (the device that I already have). However, it apparently
> lacks voice capabilities, and I think that should be a fatal
> competitive
> disadvantage (given the quoted pricing). The device is also using
> Windows
> Mobile, which is utterly awful, and can't help anything.
>
> My basic reaction to this category of Internet access is "If you
> don't stop
> that, you'll go blind." You won't go blind quite as quickly with this
> device, since the display is larger, but you'll still go blind. (I
> really
> expect some lawsuits about blindness in a few years.)
>
> The short battery life is also going to hurt them, and the current
> service area is extremely limited. (I'm not covered at all.) With
> regards to the service area, there seem to be two basic possibilities.
> One is that they are patching into an existing network, but only
> paying for access in very limited areas. The other case is that
> they're installing completely new infrastructure. I think the first
> option puts them more in the area of remarketing existing service, but
> I haven't seen any evidence that the e-Access people are marketing
> geniuses, so I would expect them to get crushed by the competitive
> response. I'm even more skeptical of their success in the second case.
> They're selling mobility, which translates into a LOT of
> infrastructure.
>
> Right now I don't have any information about the capabilities of using
> the device with an external computer, but I would anticipate that it
> has the same modem capability that my Zero-3 has, but faster. However,
> the Zero-3 implementation is extremely cumbersome. Thanks to
> Microsoft, you have to go in through several menus and tweak a
> setting, and then the PDA side of the device is completely
> disconnected from the computer until you tweak it back. Linking the
> PDA to computers used to be one of the most important functions of a
> PDA, but Microsoft's ActiveSync is already so awful that it's about
> 3/4 dead now. (BtW, Some of the few alleged improvements in Vista
> involve ActiveSync.) It would be better if they could make this
> transparent, but I'm skeptical, since that would almost surely require
> using ActiveSync, and that program is already awful.
>
> One speculative idea would be an inexpensive replacement for the
> modular wireless component in the existing Zero-3 devices. If Sharp
> supported them in doing this, they could more easily steal some number
> of customers from WillCom. The module is quite small, and probably not
> worth more than a few thousand yen. Such an option would probably
> shave about 25,000 yen off the cost of switching for WillCom users
> with the Zero-3.
>
> However, the most interesting item I picked up so far was to learn
> that WillCom used to be mostly owned by Carlyle, though the current
> status is not clear. They're a gang of the worst war profiteers in the
> world, and I count that as a strong reason to dump my WillCom
> service... On the other hand, Carlyle tends to dump companies quickly,
> so it's possible they've sold WillCom already. Do anyone know anything
> definitive on this part?
>
>
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Received on Sat Feb 24 18:53:54 2007