Forum Moderators: phranque
I found this article on the BBC and thought it might be worth a discussion.
[news.bbc.co.uk...]
Its mainly about mobile phone group Orange, cutting jobs, but theres one part that struck me:
On Wednesday, the French government agreed a 9bn euro (£5.73bn; $9.0bn) rescue package for France Telecom as part of plans to halve the company's huge 70bn euro debt pile by 2005.
Thats 70 billion euros!
Thats a phenominal amount of money to owe, dont you think?
My point for this thread is that this money has most likely largely gone on technology R&D (probably a large percentage on the 3G rights auction a while back).
Is it really worth it?
From a business point of view, this money obviously has to be re-couped. Now a large company, even the size of Orange, cannot expect to make that amount of money from consumers (me, you and the next guy).
We (as a mass market) wont pay large amounts of money for a 3G phone and the subsequent costs involved. So the money has to be made back somehow.
Here we see the birth of a new form of marketing communication -
>charge companies to send pictures of products to users, >charge companies for access to text mailing lists,
>charge companies to pitch sales live over the phone (how annoying would it be if you could see the telecanvisser? ;)),
>charge companies to sponsor your mobile desktop
>charge companies to provide endless virtual merchandise (ringtones and logos are only the start of it!).
So again my question is, ultimately is it worth it?
We all complain about junk mail, spam, unsolicited calls, etc, but it is necessary for the companies that propigate it to justify the cost of development of the technologies we use.
Just think for a second about this:
For the above example -
debt (money already spent) - 70bn
therefore money that has to be recouped - 70 bn
total cost - 140bn euros
For what - pictures via mobile phone.
An over simplification, but just think what that money could be used for....
Rant over :)
JOAT
What's the point? Who wants to look at web pages on a 1" x 1" screen?
On the other hand, a picture is worth 1000 words, right? So maybe there will be a use for images on the cell phone.
Telephone over the internet, however is very exciting to me.
70 billion of any currency is a lot of money. Is it worth it? I doubt it. I don't think the entire moon landing back in 1969 cost 70 Billion Dollars, but I could be mistaken.
LOL That same statement was made in regard to pictures on the internet. I'll have to dig up the quote, but it was made by a guy that was working on SGML and he wondered why anyone would want to display graphic images when text was so readily available.
More and more people are wanting to look at webpages on their cell phones and I wouldn't be so quick to assume that cell phone designers are going to keep the screens so small. In fact, you can already buy a headset that plugs into your phone to view webpages. The display is still small, but so near the eye that you don't realize it. Voice activated scrolling and surfing of course... :)
Think of SPAM and why it became so popular.
Think of sheep (with charge cards) with electronic leads, .....
The one who wins this may win really big.
Not a pretty picture considering I am starting to get voice messages on my cel phone saying "Look in your next bill for our advertisement for ....."
Ughhh. Whose perspective are you asking for, the consumers or the advertisers?
Personally I think im pretty creative, and if i was so inclined i could come up with a million and one ways to market stuff to people.
But, thankfully im not. :)
Im totally against (as some of my posts have shown) junk mail / spam / cold calling / etc and i have a distinct fear that its just gonna get worse as technology develops.
Example:
In the next few years, we will see fridges that tell you when you are out of a certain product (in mass market). It only takes a small step from there for your fridges trying to sell you products.
I personally think its bad enought that we get email, phone calls and mail without being pitched in our own home.
At least now we (the average consumer) have a way to stop it. Throw out the mail, block the emails, hang up the phone. But, when our appliances start telling us what to buy, how many people can change that?
It takes a lot of technical knowledge (at least a lot more than the average consumer has!).
The times are a changin'!
JOAT
But, when our appliances start telling us what to buy, how many people can change that?
Gee, maybe the Amish are right after all! Time to move to northern Montana and live in a cabin. As long as I can get DSL or Satellite Modems, I'm set.
i think thats the way forward!
imagine the serinity of on marketing influences invading your private space?
But, you would still have to put up with web marketing activities, and IMHO thats where the industry will move on in leaps and bounds! :)
Theres no escape!
JOAT
