02-20-2002, 06:10 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,177
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infoSync talks Smartphone 2002
http://www.infosync.no/show.php?id=1480
Jorgen Sundgot, infoSync, has written an interesting article about the Smartphone 2002. One of his comments: "Like with PPC 2002, it's possible for SMP 2002 users to personalize their device with ringtones, color schemes, home screens and profiles. Microsoft has chosen to use WAV files as a standard for ringtones, a solution which might not please operators and manufacturers who are standardizing on formats from which to create revenue - and could possibly bring Microsoft in between a rock and a hard place if the exchange of WAV files with ringtones based on the latest hits becomes popular since no DRM features are in place."
I couldn't help laughing when reading that! Yes, the Smartphone 2002 delivers what we all really expect from any device; the features to manage and customize it!
All mobile operators and handset makers; pay close attention now! The real mobile Internet is coming to a device near you - very soon, users are taking control over their devices! Instant messaging, backgrounds and ringing tones can no longer drive any multi-million dollar business plans. Want to make money in this market? Here's what you need to do: Innovate!
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02-20-2002, 07:16 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 556
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infoSync talks Smartphone 2002
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Originally Posted by Andy Sjostrom
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Andy, and what is it with Bluetooth support in Smartphone 2002? I was using Bluetooth with PocketPC and WindowsXP and it is really BIG PAIN IN THE A*S!!! (if somebody wants to have real interconnectivity)
Another important question: will programs written in C# be able to run on all microsoft platforms: Smartphone 2002, PocketPC, and WindowsXP??? (or not all of these platforms are supported for C# runtime?)
:?: :?: :?:
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02-20-2002, 07:18 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 361
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Bravo!
Andy, simply put: Well said!!! I love it when a company takes a bold move and changes the way we think about business, like Microsoft turning ring tones, etc, into a free item. They realize that they will win customers over by focusing more on the main OS liscences rather than the petty a la carte ring tones.
Amazing how Napster and the Internet changed our perspective.
Like Jason says, nothing is free, but it's just a question of whatthey ultimately charge for. Bravo!
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02-20-2002, 07:39 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 556
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infoSync talks Smartphone 2002
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Originally Posted by Andy Sjostrom
Jorgen Sundgot, infoSync, has written an interesting article about the Smartphone 2002. One of his comments: "Like with PPC 2002, it's possible for SMP 2002 users to personalize their device with ringtones, color schemes, home screens and profiles.
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Couldn't agree more.... and let this be a message to application developers also. There's nothing worse than starting a Windows application, written by someone who hasn't considered the fact that people customise their environments, resulting in something like....
 Like you, I'm glad I use a customiseable OS on both mobile and desktop environments, colours and WAV event sounds (ringing, FAX, Error) do make a (if somewhat geeky - though people are impressed when a Star Trek communicator or Enterprise whistle sound is heard as an SMS or telephone call arrives  ) difference.
But it's not enough for the OS to provide customisation, the developers must also learn to take advantage.
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02-20-2002, 08:33 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 17
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infoSync talks Smartphone 2002
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Andy Sjostrom
All mobile operators and handset makers; pay close attention now! The real mobile Internet is coming to a device near you - very soon, users are taking control over their devices! Instant messaging, backgrounds and ringing tones can no longer drive any multi-million dollar business plans. Want to make money in this market? Here's what you need to do: Innovate!
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Unfortunatelly that is wishful thinking. Now that operators are facing uncertain times with expensive 3G network building and license fees, are they going to abandon their only certain source of money? Would they call such a strategy innovative or wise?
One more thing to be taken into account is ringtones. Microsoft will back up their Smartphone OS with extensive software and service support, if they want people to start using devices which are powered by their OS. That will include downloadable ringtones and graphics, but all of them cannot be free. The users will demand for example latest pop tunes as ringtones, but because these tones cannot be offered without paying copyright fees to the artists / record companies, the service isn't going to be free. Of course many users know how to create their own WAV files, but many are illiterate in that regard. Many are simply too lazy to create a tune of their own, if there are reany tunes for them to download. Therefore they'll use Microsoft's Mobile MSN portal, because that's what MS wants anyway.
Either way, the users will end up paying at least for some services, whether the service provider is Microsoft, a handset manufacturer or an operator. I don't like that either, but that's just the way it is.
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02-20-2002, 10:22 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,177
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The fact that the mobile operators "only certain source of money" today is ringtones, background graphics, SMS and other brain dead products is not my problem. It is their problem, and they have earned that problem all too well. Now, reality is catching up and I have been all over this issue with them the last couple of years. Finally, they can't hide. Run, perhaps, but not hide.
The ringtones-product is an excellent starting point for the discussion that is at the absolute core of the mobile Internet debate:
who should be able to offer services, how to offer them and how to get paid?
I firmly believe that Internet is what will drive the wireless connectivity forward, in all aspects. With very, very few exceptions can I accept that a mobile operator shuts out the entire or parts of the Internet from their networks.
Anyone that has a service/product (ringtones, for example) to offer on the Internet should be able to sell it to mobile device users; over the Internet. Support for open content standards in mobile devices, be that Internet standards or multimedia standards, are absolutetly criticial to implement what everyone is talking about and desperately wanting: wireless access to the Internet.
So, I want a free market for ringtones on the Internet. Not a monopoly, owned by the company through which network I happen to connect to the Internet. Would you want your ISP to dictate what sound files to download to your PC?
How to get paid? In this debate it seems as if many believe that it is only the mobile operator that send invoices to their customers regurarly.
Content providers seem to line up at the mobile operator gates to share THEIR revenue with the operator. Strange.
I would like to shock them all now: many other companies send invoices to the content providers potential customers, too: banks, gas companies, power companies, insurance companies etc etc. If an invoicing system is a determining factor, then the mobile operator is not likely to be your best partner. And you know what? An invoicing system on the Internet with customers of your own is an option, too!
From micropayments on the Internet, the VISA/Mastercard partnership for Internet payments, to simple Handango-like sites. There are simply SO many options out there.
I get the feeling that many "content providers" worry more about HOW to get paid, than WHAT they actually have to sell. Market rule: if you have a product to sell that the market wants, then the basic condition for the transaction to occur has been fulfilled. In fact, this is why I believe many mobile operators and their likes are worried today; they don't have a product that the market really wants.
This ends up being a long reply... but one more thing:
addressing copyright issues by trying to avoid the Internet is not going to work in the long run. Napster to Kazaa to Morpheus to ??? will eventually reach mobile devices too. The music industry, and all other content industries, need to start asking themselves: how can we get paid through digital (Internet) means?
Conclusion:
the software in the Smartphone 2002 is one, extremely important innovation in the mobile device market, because it finally opens up the Internet to mobile phone users. Now, the mobile operators have to quickly start thinking about their VALUE ADD, not how to lock in their customers.
I want to freely choose the provider of my ringtones on the Internet or even produce my own. I will never pay a dime on a mobile operator's invoice for braid dead products like that. Soon, no one else will either.
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02-20-2002, 10:33 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 248
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infoSync talks Smartphone 2002
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Originally Posted by Andy Sjostrom
Instant messaging, backgrounds and ringing tones can no longer drive any multi-million dollar business plans.
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People have been paying truckloads of money for those crappy ringtones, pixelated logos, 160 character messages and are apparently very happy with that. Sorry, but I don't agree with you here. People are idiots and the money that the providers of such worthless services are makin is proving it.
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02-20-2002, 10:38 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,177
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Marc!
People paid truck loads of money for simple mail delivery not too long, as well! Now, they send emails over the Internet for a fraction of what they paid before the Internet. People are smart.
Mobile services/products will also have a "before and after" the Internet.
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02-20-2002, 10:53 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 248
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Andy, I don't know if Sweden is that much different from Germany, but traditional snail mail is not dead yet, about six years after the Internet went mainstream. It's still here and will continue at least for a couple of years.
I don't see people scrambling to buy these phones for the skins and wav ringtones and service providers go bankrupt soon.
The Smartphone 2002 platform has real advantages over the current standard phone with WAP and monochrome 4-line displays. But at the current price point, Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition and Smartphone 2002 will be high-end devices and the mainstream will stay with pixel logos and boring ringtones for some time.
It's definitely a cool platform, but I seriously doubt that it's going to cause a mobile revolution overnight.
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02-21-2002, 03:52 AM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 3
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I'll have to agree with Marc, as cool as the Stinger platfrom is, it's not mainstream. People have a hard enough time with computers let alone PPC. This isn't a knock on Microsoft, people just don't have the cash and patience for a do all device.
For the operator, why would they choose a platform that causes them to lose money? They're still reeling from the money spent on 3G and that's the last thing they need.
I understand Microsoft's position though but unless they start subsidizing the devices, people will stick to their Nokia phone, which may infact eventually run Symbian OS.
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