Jeff,
Why would European operators prefer browsing instead of pulled downloads?
My experience is that people prefer pull-services for ringtones, wallpapers and games in Europe. Pull serivces are easy to use and, more important, they can be charged for both pre- and postpaid customers. This is the evolution currently taking place in Europe and also in China.
The idea to offer browser services in order to increase ARPU from packet fees is currently being challenged. Orange charges a flat rate (packet tsukai houdai) for browser services. In Holland the monthly fee is EUR 6 including access to a couple of core services.
To replace SMS by email for messaging is another issue. As long as the WAP phones do not have an email client, it will be impossible. I have played with the Sharp V-Live phone and starting up a WAP session to read your mail on a server is not the best user experience. I-mode phones are still superior for e-mailing. I do not think carriers are very eager to replace SMS by email because SMS revenues are much larger than packet fees from emails.
Arjen van Blokland
104.com
Received on Thu May 8 12:14:19 2003