The Brave New World of Wireless

“CEOs espousing pie-in-the sky notions of wireless “convergence” and “seamless mobility” are sounding increasingly, well, down to earth. More than ever, cell phones are functioning in sync with, and sometimes instead of, PCs and TVs.”
This paragraph reminded me of how fact things in the mobile world are changing, something that a lot of people forget — especially when they focus on it every day as part of their job. I remember a TV ad by a big computer seller in Australia focusing on future technologies…it showed someone sitting on a beach working via the internet, and all the techies scoffed because there wasn’t a cable to the laptop, so there was no way she could connect to the internet. And I’m not that old…
Some other interesting quotes from the article: “And the quality of transmission is only improving, says Jeff Hallock, vice-president for product marketing and strategy at Sprint: “We are on the threshold of quality that, frankly, exceeds consumer expectations.” That’s a very bold statement to make — a lot of consumers have some very unreasonable expectations.
Of particular interest to MocoNews readers is the following paragraph:

Content providers may end up being the biggest beneficiaries of this next-generation boom in data services, says Andrei Jezierski, partner at management consultancy i2 Partners in New York. They can contribute everything from custom graphics to programming (see BW Online, 1/19/06, “Build Your Own Phone Face”). And the price of that contribution could skyrocket. After all, as they venture into radio, wireless-service providers will compete for content with traditional radio stations and satellite radio. Good content will become an important point of differentiation — giving content providers an upper hand and an increasing share of the profits.

That will be the case and is what has operators worried: The network will become a commodity and the content will be all that matters.

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