From: "Anders Lindh" <alindh@flyerone.com>
> I don't think Nokia should get all the blame for not
> introducing mobile Internet in the western world.
Especially seeing how much blame there is to
go around ;-)
> European governments and their shortsightedness
> with huge 3G license fees are the ones to blame.
> As a result operators have been short on money and
> investments in GPRS networks have been delayed.
You'll certainly get an argument about that theory
on this list -- one defense being: not all of Europe
had spectrum auctions.
True. They only had them in the really *big* markets.
(And the telcos involved have all been frantically
negotiating burden-sharing agreements since the
bottom fell out.)
> As long there isn't a large enough installed base of
> GPRS networks (and thus potential end users) it
> simply doesn't pay to launch new phones. And Nokia
> actually makes money selling phones, unlike some
> other phone manufacturers.
I sometimes think this is a matter of Finland being
a small country, plus the economic shock of the
early 90s. Finland simply can't afford to have a
world-leading industry that's also loss-leading its
market. Finland only has about 5 million people.
The Swedes can lose and fall back on some
other hi-tech markets they do well in, but the
Finns have a lot more of their eggs in this
mobile phone basket, and they remember all
too well what 16%+ unemployment felt like.
> On the service side, this is actually a chicken and
> egg problem. [snip] .... Once things get rolling
> (cheap 2.5G phones available) Europe will
> surely get it's act together.
Assuming that the standards people also get
their act together. Maybe they have, with the
New Improved WAP.
But smart -- *very* smart -- people can make
stupid choices. OSI is a case in point, and boy,
do I smell OSI in WAP.
Marshall T. Rose, writing in 1990:
"In 1988, ten years after the official 'birth' of the
OSI suite, there were pilot projects, nothing more.
In contrast, Internet technology had become a
commodity market.....Despite this amusing turn
of events, the Internet suite has a limited future.
The long-term favorite is the OSI suite, although
it is anyone's guess as to when the long term
actually starts." (p. 5, The Open Book).
Elsewhere he says that OSI will overtake
internet protocols by the year...2000.
Was he utterly blind to the faults of the process?
Absolutely not. He was a severe critic:
"Of all the various honorific and derisive titles
that have been bestowed upon [me], the most
the one he prefers the most is the *Cynic of
OSI*. It is an easy job: with OSI, there is so
much material to worth with!"
The Politics of Open Systems is the title of
a 13-page chapter in this otherwise densely-
technical book. Despite its obvious irrelevance
now, and Rose's lost bet, I hold onto it because
there is so much intelligence, and so much
distilled wisdom, in it. The monstrosity of OSI
survives, skeletally and fractionally, here and
there, but most notably in -- you guessed
it -- the telcos. So tell me that it can't happen
again. Please.
-michael turner
leap@gol.com
[ Need archives? How to unsubscribe? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Sat Aug 11 18:52:26 2001