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scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
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What are mobile services like? What sort of consumer services are available to customers? In Europe mobile phone users can download music tracks to their handsets; music can be played to callers on voicemail and instead of a ringing tone; discounts and coupons can be sent to mobile phones for use at various shops and businesses, etc; are there similar services in the U.S.?
I believe that there are plans afoot to introduce the ability to pay for goods and services using mobile phones across Europe; such a service is already available in Japan and certain countries in Europe. Are there any plans for such a service in the U.S.?
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[ This Message was edited by: scotsboyuk on 2005-01-10 22:00 ] |
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richy240
Joined: Jan 24, 2003
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No, no and no.
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scotsboyuk
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It seems strange that the U.S. should be so lacking in terms of both technology and service in relation to mobile communication.
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[ This Message was edited by: scotsboyuk on 2004-09-29 06:03 ] |
richy240
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And it sucks too.
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scotsboyuk
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Why has it taken the U.S. networks so long to fully adopt GSM? Is their recalcitrant attitude more to do with economics or is it a case of thinking that the rest of the world should go along with them?
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
richy240
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Economics. No one would use these services... You'd be required to think to use services like you described.
People want to dial the phone & talk. Generally speaking, Americans don't even use the services available to them because they'd have to learn how to use them. Why spend the money to implement a service when no one would use it?
<sarcasm>The only thing a mobile phone is good for is making voice calls. Everything else is just a useless gimmick.</sarcasm>
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[ This Message was edited by: richy240 on 2004-09-29 07:52 ] |
scotsboyuk
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@richy240
Do you see that situation changing anytime in the near future? I suppose I assumed that since we Europeans want such services that Americans would also want them.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
richy240
Joined: Jan 24, 2003
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People are, slowly, starting to abandon their home phone lines in favor of mobile phones. I would imagine that when 3G data services become cheap and widely available, people will abandon their hard-wired internet lines also. (This is all speculation.)
I don't think we'll get coupons or pay for anything via mobile phone anytime soon, but I predict wireless data will be in high demand within the next few years. WiFi is very popular, so I think it is only a matter of time before 3G data is too. We just need the infrastructure to handle it.
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scotsboyuk
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I suppose the U.S. has the added complication of low population density when compared to Europe or Asia, making it more difficult to provide coverage to as many people as possible.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
plasmadog
Joined: May 06, 2004
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From: Beantown, India
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i think coverage and roaming does play a key factor in the fact that gsm phones aren't so popular.
my cousin was here on holiday last year and he was so surprised that the network was available practically everywhere, even in some secluded beach in goa, miles from the nearest house!
and also, i think european and asian operators are aggressively marketing data features (sms/mms/gprs) as much as they would the voice features. and everywhere, u turn on the television u have like an sms contest or an sms ringtone request..., even campaigning for the general elections was done through sms!
since the u.s has a really good network of broadband internet, users don't really see the need for gprs wap or mms...
plus margins on phone calls are much bigger for the phone companies. the 'cultural' factor probably plays a role as well. |
scotsboyuk
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@plasmadog
I would agree with you there, especially regarding the marketing of data services. I don't think we are far from a time when the networks's main source of revenue will be derived from data services, especially once 3G has become widely available.
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
richy240
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We're just starting to see SMS contests & such, but nothing like has been described. And they are network-dependent.
Regarding marketing, all we really see advertisements for is voice. Only a few for SMS services, and virtually none for data services. MMS ads were going for a while, but they seem to have lost momentum. There just isn't a demand for it.
Operators sell ringtones through their WAP portals, so purchasing them from 3rd parties is almost unheard of.
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[ This Message was edited by: richy240 on 2004-09-29 08:00 ] |
Sammy_boy
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This is a very interesting and illuminating thread, keep it up! 
I've noticed in what I've seen too that a lot of people still seem to use the old Motorola 'flip' phones, like the StarTac and such like, not even the later Moto models like the V500/V600. Is this because people don't see the need to get a new phone if all they do mainly is voice calls, or are handsets in the US very expensive?
A lot of people over there also still seem to use pagers a lot. Here in Europe, apart from a few exceptions (like hospitals and industrial sites, where phones' aren't really allowed) they seem to have dissapeared overnight, about the same time as text messaging really took off. Are pagers in the US still used widely?
"All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke
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scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
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There has been some discussion as to whether voters in Britain should be allowed to cast their vote by text.
Revenue from text votes to telly programmes generate huge amounts of money here in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, not just for the networks, but for the television companies too. The networks must make a huge amount of money from texts; there are over a billion sent every month in the UK alone and at an average price of ten pence each that adds up to around £100 million per month!
@Sam
I was in New York earlier this year and I was quite amazed at the standard of mobile I saw people using; they looked like the sort of thing we had four or five years ago. I did venture into an AT&T mobile shop and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they stocked some reasonably modern handsets, but some of the American brands were just appalling looking; I don't know how they get away with selling them. 
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC |
richy240
Joined: Jan 24, 2003
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People are buying updated phones, but they're just not very feature-rich. They'd rather get a free, voice-enabled phone than spend a little and get a 'mobile communicator' (for lack of a better term). And generally, if someone has a decent handset, they don't use it to its fullest.
Nice phones are quite fasionable though. Someone tried to show me his *new* Motorola V710 (I think) the other day... I spared him my P900 because he probably would have just given me a confused look and brushed me off. I've gotten that reaction a couple times.
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Posted: 2004-09-29 05:42
