Comments on: On the invincibility of mobile phones http://thejo.in/2006/09/on-the-invincibility-of-mobile-phones/ I'm a graduate student at the School of Information at UC Berkeley. I'm interested in technology, startups and product design and tend to write about those topics. Sat, 03 Jul 2010 07:08:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Thejo http://thejo.in/2006/09/on-the-invincibility-of-mobile-phones/comment-page-1/#comment-28186 Thejo Mon, 04 Sep 2006 16:57:36 +0000 http://thejo.in/2006/09/on-the-invincibility-of-mobile-phones/#comment-28186 1. I think people will definitely buy music to play on cellphones. There is no mass usage of jukeboxes and other portable players like a walkman at present in India. Mobile phones are changing that. One big benefit for example is the ability to buy singles. Selling to mobile phones will be much bigger than iTunes or other online stores all over the world in the coming years as the audio capabilities of phones increase. I'm not sure how well Hutch is doing. But, they've launched very recently... 2. Wimax is not relevant in this case. It is only a different air interface. It might as well be Wi-Fi, GSM, CDMA... whatever. The phones will always use whatever air interface is most suitable. Market forces and regulation will decide what is best. Hybrid phones are already available which shift between traditional telecom networks to Wi-fi networks when they are available. But, it will ideally be seamless to the end user. 3. We think with the phone as the center piece, as today it is the device best placed to accomodate other devices. Of course, it won't be possible to make a similar classification 5-10 years down the line. It will just be a device with all capabilities. But, in this transition period, it is the phone which is getting the new features, with the phone manufacturers being the architects of that change. Hence the mobile phone centric view. It could also be due to the fact that the phone is the most used of all the functionalities. 1. I think people will definitely buy music to play on cellphones. There is no mass usage of jukeboxes and other portable players like a walkman at present in India. Mobile phones are changing that. One big benefit for example is the ability to buy singles. Selling to mobile phones will be much bigger than iTunes or other online stores all over the world in the coming years as the audio capabilities of phones increase. I’m not sure how well Hutch is doing. But, they’ve launched very recently…

2. Wimax is not relevant in this case. It is only a different air interface. It might as well be Wi-Fi, GSM, CDMA… whatever. The phones will always use whatever air interface is most suitable. Market forces and regulation will decide what is best. Hybrid phones are already available which shift between traditional telecom networks to Wi-fi networks when they are available. But, it will ideally be seamless to the end user.

3. We think with the phone as the center piece, as today it is the device best placed to accomodate other devices. Of course, it won’t be possible to make a similar classification 5-10 years down the line. It will just be a device with all capabilities. But, in this transition period, it is the phone which is getting the new features, with the phone manufacturers being the architects of that change. Hence the mobile phone centric view. It could also be due to the fact that the phone is the most used of all the functionalities.

]]> By: Yashu http://thejo.in/2006/09/on-the-invincibility-of-mobile-phones/comment-page-1/#comment-28185 Yashu Mon, 04 Sep 2006 16:32:40 +0000 http://thejo.in/2006/09/on-the-invincibility-of-mobile-phones/#comment-28185 1. Do you seriously think someone would buy music to play on their cell phones in India? How much does Hutch sell? 2. What about the impact of Wimax? When we have Wimax cities, there is bound to be a Wimax phone, and those probably will be easier to use for the "information right now" itch 3. Would these devices which do everything still be called phones? Why not have a camera that you can use to make phone calls? Or a hand held browser that takes pictures? Isn't part of the problem the fact that we think with the phone as the centre piece? 1. Do you seriously think someone would buy music to play on their cell phones in India? How much does Hutch sell?
2. What about the impact of Wimax? When we have Wimax cities, there is bound to be a Wimax phone, and those probably will be easier to use for the “information right now” itch
3. Would these devices which do everything still be called phones? Why not have a camera that you can use to make phone calls? Or a hand held browser that takes pictures? Isn’t part of the problem the fact that we think with the phone as the centre piece?

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