Siemens develops mobile post-it application

Siemens has developed a mobile post-it application. The basic idea is that people can send messages to a specific area rather than a specific handset, and when other people enter the area the message is sent to them. Unfortunately the press release is in German (PDF) so some of my questions have gone unanswered, such as whos server the system sits on. I would assume an operators server, but that leaves the issue of whether the service is opt-in and whether the opt-in status can be restricted to a particular type of message. “There will be ways to accept and reject messages” according to a spokesperson, but it will be interesting to see how. Anyway, the commercial service is two years away so I suspect the carrier will simply display a message on your screen announcing a message is available, which someone will have to pay for at some point.

Aside from these issues, this is a pretty nifty idea with some interesting applications which may (or may not) take off. It’s also interesting in that it changes the nature of a mobile phone from a person to person device to one that can be made to respond to its environment. This is not the first location-based application, of course… as an aside, I mentioned a similar application in passing in my predictions for 2005, but I don’t know whether Siemens has referred to this as the “killer app for 3G”…

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