What’s Your Golden Ticket?
OK, so let me tell you all up front that I’ve been running a fever all weekend, so if this post seems a little disjointed you’ll have to forgive me! At any rate, while your guru was out camping and living it up, I’ve been laid up in bed and drinking chicken noodle soup… which isn’t exactly entertaining but it DID give me some good internet surfing time.
And it got me to thinking about something. Ricky and I have done a lot of talking lately about 3G (and 4G) networks, and how content becomes the key differentiator. But what I was thinking about over the weekend was this: does the average consumer know anything about the technology that is being used for that content?
The answer, emphatically so, is NO.
Sure, if you are reading this you probably do. You could tell me what
the difference was between GSM and CDMA. You could talk about the
various 3G tech that’s out there, and compare EV-DO and UMTS. But you,
the reader of this wonderful blog, are a geek. (Don’t be too offended,
I’m even more of a geek since I’m writing this). Let’s face it: do your
parents care about HOW their phone works? No, they only care that it
DOES work.
So how does this tie in? Easy, to the consumer, as we’ve
mentioned, the content is what matters. They will say "Cool, I can get
ESPN on my phone!" and NOT "Cool, that’s DVB-H in action!". They will
say "Check out what I downloaded with my phone!" NOT "Wow, that’s great
that I’m getting these speeds on HSDPA!"
In case my fever induced ramblings aren’t clear enough, let me say it
again. For the consumer, content is king.
BUT, in order for that content experience to be as deep as possible, it
needs to be as seamless as possible. How will this happen? Easy,
through devices that, on a technological level, are smart enough to
know where they can get data from the best.
This is the scenario that I
have in mind: I start streaming a shoutcast station on my phone at the
house, over my personal wifi network. As I walk out of the house, my
phone senses that I’m in range of a WiMax network… it automatically
transfers the stream over to that WiMax network. As I drive out of
range of the WIMax network, the stream continues through the good ‘ole
UMTS network… at least until I get to the Starbucks I was heading to,
where my phone jumps on to the WiFi network there to continue.
Seamless.
So how is this accomplished? There are a couple things to
think about, one technical, and one more ‘philosophical’.
1.) Security:
These networks can’t just be wide open. Would I love it if they were?
Sure, but I’m not naive. We’ll pay a pretty penny for the above
scenario, you can bet that! But because of that, how is a company going
to be able to allow things like seamless handoffs from, say, a UMTS
network to a UMA WIFI network, yet still keep good security on that
network? Obviously you can’t expect a consumer to enter a WEP or WPA
key every time they come into a new WIFI network. For GSM/UMTS this
isn’t a big deal as the SIM acts as the identification to the network
that "hey, it’s OK if I get on this network". But what about WiFi? Or WiMax?
That’s where something like EAP-SIM (which Ricky turned me on to)
comes in. Granted, I only know what I’ve learned ovver the last couple
of days of internet surfing, but essentially EAP-SIM is allowing the
SIM module to become the unique identifier in a WPA2 network… this
allows for security info to be double checked against a server, and the
phone to join the network, without the user having to interact or enter
keys. Pretty sweet if you ask me!
2.) Secondly the question is this: What’s your Golden Ticket? What is
the ‘killer app’ that makes you want more data? Is it mobile TV? Is it
mobile music? Is it uber-fast web browsing? What is it?
See, it’s not
JUST about general content, its about what really will grab consumers
so that they are interested. As
focused as all of us may be on the technology behind the network
(myself included), it’s what that technology enables that really matters (and that’s what got us all into it in the first place anyway, right?).
Do I think the idea of broadband on my phone is very, very
cool? Yes. But you know why I’m really stoked for 3G? Because I’m tired
of missing calls when I’m streaming shoutcast over EDGE. It’s not
anymore complicated than that. In the end, it’s the user experience that most
matters. So here’s my questing for all of you for comments? Forget the
technology, what would you like to be able to do with your phone?
What truly is your Golden Ticket?
OK, that’s all for the fever induced rambling for tonight!
-olly
Nice Post Olly! I think without a doubt highspeed web browsing is my number one essential. Mobile TV is exciting if I can grab some live sporting events but other than that, I dont watch TV so it makes little difference to me.
Great post, Olly! I think for me, the Golden Ticket is simply content. I like how the internet on my laptop, I can get pretty much whatever I want, and quickly. But I browse differently on my phone than I do my PC. I don’t visit near the same sites. In fact, probably the only place I visit on both my phone and my PC is Google Reader. That’s it. Mobile web, IMO, is more about connecting your life. That’s why I like Nokias so much, I suppose. Most of their devices and solutions aren’t about creating this online “Second Life,” they’re about connecting your real life even further.
For instance, my recent camping trip. I didn’t take a laptop, obviously. But I did use my phone to take pictures, which were automatically uploaded to Flickr. The same with videos, they’re automatically posted to Blip.tv.
Or streaming media. In the summer, I have a reggae station that I listen to on Shoutcast while I wash my truck. It’s all about using the internet in different ways to supplement my life, not replace it. And with the higher bandwidth, it can do so MORE RICHLY. THAT, imo, is the key.