DISQUS

VentureBeat: The next Killer App?

  • carl rahn griffith · 2 years ago
    No RSS?
  • Devang Shah · 2 years ago
    Considering that more than two thirds (I have heard claims as high as four fifths) of those 1.1 billion e-mails are SPAM, what do you think will be the impact of all these shot-gun-marketers on voice messaging ? It is not as if internet can be regulated and I assume that you propose to use the internet infrastructure to enable these application.

    All I can say about voice messaging is, 'No Thanks'. I have enough trouble as it is dealing with those annoying telemarketers operating in a regulated market.
  • km4 · 2 years ago
    What a lame article !
  • Zaid · 2 years ago
    Trust me, day iPhone or whatever comes out, the primary use of the phone will become...you guessed it, music.

    I have a SLVR which has 512mb built-in iTunes. There's nothing like having ONE slim device for both phone + music.
  • niti · 2 years ago
    Banking and funds transfer on the mobile, using your phone to pay for stuff, sending funds from your phone to another's phone, checking your balance at the store before making a purchase. "Paypal" but on the go...
  • Stozz · 2 years ago
    ZAID is right. Get a Nokia N91 and live the dream. (OK - it could be slimmer; but it does phone calls and emails better than an iPod ;-)
  • Sulccc · 2 years ago
    Hi,

    MMS using only for voice content isn't the same as you mentioning in your article under Voice SMS? OK, may be one button click is the different, but on some phone is very easy.

    How about server based Podcast with control on mobile?

    Sulccc/Tamas
  • rick gregory · 2 years ago
    hmm... in determining #3 there's no mention of camera usage or music usage. I have no stats here, but I'd like to see those in the mix - is PTT really used by more people than the camera on their phone?

    Also, people use phones for communications because that's the expectation set going in... Phones are sold as, well, phones. Not small computers that can act like phones. Customers say to themselves "I need a new phone... and my new phone has to have a camera/IM/PTT/whatever." This initial mindset thus biases people toward using the phone for communication. Witness the Nokia 770 - people did not get that it deliberately was NOT a phone... it was a small, general purpose computing device that was intimately tied to the IP network, not the cell network.

    Also, this usage is colored by the fact that people get their phones from their phone companies - this further cements in peoples' heads that what they are buying is a phone vs a small computing device that also has phone capabilities. There are FAR more phone models out there than you can get on the wireless vendors' sites, but the vendor supplied phones are far cheaper to the customer and hence dominant. Add to this that few people ever unlock their phones from their vendor and you have an even more restricted set of functionality.

    Finally, this article veers a bit too much toward being a promo piece for one company... I'd rather see your analysis of the space with links to blog posts by Konstantin and others than vendor written articles. Read/Write Web does this too and I think it dilutes the voice of the blog.
  • William Oudsema · 2 years ago
    the next killer app will be converting print to audio so print can be listened to via the phone. i can't wait to pick my audio "skin".
  • William Oudsema · 2 years ago
    There is a solution to spam with regards to the print to audio conversion app. The biggest problem is which audo "skin" to select .....
  • Francis Galton · 2 years ago
    I believe Rick Gregory hit it right on when he mentioned cameras. I'm not sure why the author is still out pondering what the number 3 killer app is. Anyone who's been paying attention would be aware that our new media environment is filled with contents taken from mobile phone cameras and video recordings. Research shows that there's a big big percentage of mobile phones that now comes standard with a camera. And if we could go a step deeper and survey how often users use their mobile camera, I believe the results would be fairly convincing.
  • chris · 2 years ago
    Anyone mentioning music, cameras, etc. completely misread and subjectively responded to this article; you're comparing apples to oranges. I couldn't agree more with Konstantin. The basis for his prediction focuses specifically on channels of 'communication' not 'entertainment'. Point: How does a child leave a message for a friend or parent or a secretary leave a message for a boss using a camera, ringback, ringtone, song, etc. Incorporating video into messaging is cool but more intrusive as it inherently weakens the ability to multi-task - a major point in his argument. Voice SMS is superb in being personal, private, non-intrusive, speedy, and efficent.
  • Matt Marshall · 2 years ago
    Rick, I hear your concern. I'm trying to make this contributors column more opinionated, but also don't want authors to pitch their own companies. I thought Kon had some good analysis, which is why I let this one slip. Going forward, I'll continue to try to avoid overt pitching.

    Thanks for the feedback.

    Matt
  • Dan · 2 years ago
    The barrier to voice SMS spam, is that it costs a dime to send it (at least it would cost at least that much on my carrier, Cingular). $80M is a lot to spend on ads no one wants to see.