From: "Nick May" <nick@kyushu.com>
> michael@haa.haa.haa writes:
> >even someday there will be no non Java-enabled phone...do u think so?
>
> Isn't this a bit like "one day there will be no more [non-] html email" ?
And
> "one day everyone will use Outlook so they too can share viri"?
As someone once noted in another context: "Ten million files can't be
wrong."
[Oops, I meant "flies. ;->]
> If phones are connected to a network full time [...]
> there will be a class of users who want the *absolute
> security* of knowing that nothing they download can run on their phone -
> whatever secure sandbox it is supposed to run in. What comes after Java?
> Emacs? (lisp - I know)...
Or Xemacs, and it won't even have to run on the phone per se,
after I get my telnet iAppli running..... [Not clued in? Insert smiley-
face here and move on....]
> There is another class of users who just want the smallest phone possible
> and who they are interested primarily in voice communication.
This, I think, is the real argument, at least for the coming decade.
If in fact the phone is a new platform, it will probably do what
platforms have done -- drop to a certain price plateau, even while
features, capacity and bugs :-( continue to grow exponentially,
to preserve industry profit margins for as long as possible. However,
being a phone first -- unlike computers, both now and of yore -- some
people will...well, to paraphrase Freud on the subject of cigars:
"Sometimes a mobile phone is just a mobile phone." (He says,
suddenly spitting out the antenna tip disgustedly....)
On the other hand, "platform" as a metaphor seems to break down
when applied to something that fits in your pocket. If anything,
*we* are *its* platform, no? (My phone just grew *two*
antennas and beeped "take me to your leader.")
-michael turner
leap@gol.com
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Thu Jul 12 15:37:09 2001