- While perusing the Telus Mobility Web site-hey, it was a slow week-we noticed the Canadian carrier was offering a Motorola Inc. M800 Bag Phone for the bargain price of $500 without a contract. In this day and age of ever-decreasing phone sizes, we think it’s time to go the other way and bring back the bag phones. And what’s bigger than a 10-pound phone? Can’t you just see Jessica Alba or Scarlett Johansson showing up for the next whatever awards show with a hot pink Moto-Bag? Snazzy!
- Pantech is making a Hello Kitty phone, largely aimed at tween girls, one assumes. We predict a Hummer Phone for boys. After all, GM has been having trouble selling actual Hummers, but it has given away 42 million toy Hummers in McDonald’s Happy Meals. Hummer also has a Hummer-branded fragrance and a Hummer-branded laptop, according to an article in sister publication Advertising Age. We’ve noticed a new Dewalt-branded cooler. Why not license the Hummer brand to a phone manufacturer? Way cool. You read it hear first. (Side note: With limited real estate on the phone, Hummer likely would have to pay the carrier and the handset manufacturer for the privilege of them incorporating the Hummer name. That’s the beauty of wireless.)
- Well, it was fun to watch while it lasted, but Managing Editor Dan Meyer correctly predicted that at the end of the day, traditional wireless carriers would buy the bulk of AWS spectrum. As the satellite TV bidding group and the Dolan family folded their cards this week, we have to (grudgingly) give Dan kudos.
- We finally know someone outside of the wireless industry with a ring-back tone: reporter Joni Morse’s sister. And she works at the Gap. Talk about your target demographic.
- A new report from Informa Telecoms & Media says that operators must make it easier for users to discover and download games if the mobile gaming market is going to move from niche-market to mass-market status.
The market research firm said wireless games will generate $2.4 billion in revenue this year, but could grow to a $7.2 billion market by 2011 if players make it simpler for new gamers to find and purchase titles.
Wireless game developers likely are celebrating these numbers with lavish Star Wars-themed parties and all-night rounds of Halo death matches. This idea that mobile gaming vendors need to “make it simpler” for wireless shoppers to find and download their games is about as credible as the idea that WiMAX will “harness business information and personal entertainment easily and inexpensively.”
Have you ever tried to download a wireless game onto your phone? Cingular users must make the arduous trek through the “My Stuff” icon, then they must use all their strength and wit to click on the “Games & Apps” listing, and then-if they’re not completely lost by this point-they have to click on the “shop games” link. What horror!
Verizon Wireless subscribers have the even more arduous slog: They have to click on “Get It Now,” then “Get Fun and Games” and then “Get New App.” Certainly, this is the definition of “complex.” Seriously. Where’s Stephen Hawking when you need him?
Another possible explanation: Maybe people are just not that into wireless data.
- You can now sign up to attend “MobiCamp” at the upcoming CTIA I.T. Wireless show in Los Angeles. What’s MobiCamp, you ask? It’s a “spontaneous `un-conference’ alternative to CTIA and self-organized by participants via an online `wiki’ site.” Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
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