Is "Open Network" too late? Why pay for something I don't need?
This is good news, as far as the investment we make in our smart phones, its just that I wonder if its too late. My observations in society lead me to see the trend or popular move heading in a different direction, leaving the Cell Networks playing the chase game.
Every where I go having a Palm Treo with wifi capabilities and my son who just received a tiny laptop for college, find ourselves not checking the bars on our phone but, is there wifi?
Then I keep seeing these new products and I know I'm not alone. Like the Sony Mylo, and every so often another product pops up offering wifi calling. Not to mention every laptop computer out there.
The College where I work is completely hot with wifi, even in the parking lots and I imagine if not already this will be rule of thumb at all Colleges. I go to the grocery store and they are offering free wifi, and of coarse the coffee houses are all offering wifi. Even at my UPS store I can get wifi, not to mention the campgrounds have wifi also.
Its becoming a tool to attract customers to their businesses. Like a generation ago when they would wash your windshields and give you green or blue stamps for making purchases there. Could wifi be the new attraction that draws the costumer to a store? I believe so, the useful applications seem endless for the consumer.
Wifi vs cellular, its no contest, I would surly use my wifi to make a call before I would use up my minuets on my cell phone. Several smart phones out there offer wifi calling and I'm sure more will come, and as far as my Palm Treo, that's why I purchased it. Why pay for something i don't need?
R. William Collier
http://mindworthy.mypodcast.com
Verizon edges closer toward open network | Crave, the gadget blog - CNET
