I wonder how much Alfred is being paid for writing this kind of bullshit (“3G is the real deal”). It’s not about how cheap the service has become or how broad the pipe is. He entirely (or conveniently) forgot about the user experience on mobile devices, which is the key factor deterring people from signing up. Until the industry (hardware/software vendors, mobile operators, content providers) works together to come up with a more compelling solution (who the fuck watches RotS trailer on a 4cm by 6cm screen and be willing to pay for it?), I’m not surprised if 3G goes the way of GPRS, particularly in a small market like Singapore where operators have to struggle through consumer indifference.
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Well it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put two and two together. With SPH as the Government’s mouthpiece, and the telco honchos being largely from the same cesspool, the figure is anything you want it to be.
I rather hate Siew’s use of “digirati” towards the end of his article. No less than a person such as Mike Masnick, a person who knows technology inside out — he’s a regular contributor to The Feature (www.thefeature.com) and has his personal techology blog called TechDirt (www.techdirt.com) has warned of the hype over 3G.
Not too long ago, Misnick commented: “However, most importantly, you have to wonder who really wants to sit around and watch Tim Robbins escape from jail on a one inch screen for two hours and twenty two minutes.”* Or try this: “Wireless companies make all sorts of marketing-based claims about how the next wireless technology that’s coming along will work at ridiculous speeds in any environment without any interference and the entire world will be wonderfully happy in its own, always-on, always-available, always-fast, always-connected wonderland.”**
Sadly, this about sums up not the dissimilar levels of intelligence, nor the language dexterity, but the mental conditioning of the journalists or writers on both banks of the Pacific Ocean. One swallows and digests, the other just regurgitates it all over the poor consumer.
* http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050429/0836256_F.shtml
** http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040927/0841206_F.shtml
First, the URL to the story doesn’t work… at least for me.
I’ve talked to 3G mobile providers, asking them why they only have such niggardly data caps (100-200MB; max 1-2GB a month) and off the record, they say it’s a cost issue. That is, it costs them too much to build a 3G network that’ll provide anywhere near the user experience fixed connections offer.
This is before we look at the device the service is delivered on.