Some thinking on micropayments.
Jakob Nielsen (pro-micropayment)
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980125.html
"Some analysts say that users don't want to be "nickeled and dimed" while
they are
online. In fact, the problem is being dimed; not being nickeled."
Nielsen predicted (1998) that most sites would move to micropayments within
two years.
The bursting of the bubble might be invoked as a major noise injection in
what
might otherwise have been a good signal, in this case. (By their very
nature, speculative
mania ends unpredictably.)
Clay Shirky, courtesy of O'Reilly (con)
http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/12/19/micropayments.html
"These arguments run aground on the historical record....."
True enough, if you're talking about Digicash, et. all. I wouldn't call
"not making
it through the bubble" the same as "withstanding the test of time," however.
How many of know the names of the dozens of pre-Ford car companies?
"Furthermore, businesses like the gas company and the phone company
that use micropayments offline share one characteristic: They are all
monopolies
or cartels."
Like, um....NTT? No, he hasn't been under a rock, he just hasn't
been....here.
Once again, a case of Japan being viewed through the wrong end of the
telescope?
"Micropayments, meanwhile, waste the users' mental effort in order to
conserve
cheap resources, by creating many tiny, unpredictable transactions."
Per-service flat-rate pricing seems to solve this problem for things like
ringtones and images, as does nickeling rather than diming. In general,
this guy (smart as he seems about many things) is a little too anxious
about user anxiety. The fact that gumball machines sometimes dispense
candy in flavors we don't like doesn't keep people from using gumball
machines. By his reasoning, they wouldn't exist.
Robert Cringely (pro, sort of)
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20010531.html
[Far too much to quote, most of it speculative, all of it interesting]
And of course, there's our own....
Steve Mollman (pro, sort of)
http://www.japaninc.net/newsletters/index.html?list=ww&issue=5
Who cites the convenience of DoCoMo's billing as the breakthrough.
Tell me if I'm missing anything else good.
-m
leap@gol.com
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Fri Jun 1 07:48:15 2001