Get fun back to the telecommunication business

Let's rewind back to the times when there was an Fun factor involved in mobile technology. 

Do you still remember the times when ring tones, colorful phone covers and background images were hip? There was an huge market for these products. Why? These were far from technical innovation, actually these were quite useless in that sense. It was all about fun.

WOW! I want that!

I still remember when first melody ringtones were pre-production (~1995). I was sitting on an meeting with an old timer 'been there, seen that'  sales representative from one of major it-suppliers. He was explaining something about new NFS-filers or Unix servers and naturally wanted to sell it to us.

  My co-worker got an phone call. Nothing unusual with that.. exept his phone had an new phone firm

ware with melody ring tones. The tone was simple but still something no outsider has heard before. 

  The sales rep went quiet and after a while he said 'Wow! I want that!'. He forgot what he was selling and just kept on asking if we could flash his phone with the experimental firmware. Isn't this something any company wish to have? Sell by showing (or in this case) hearing an new fun feature.


  Walkie talkie for mobile phones (Push to talk)

  Push to talk (PTT, PoC) is an walkie talkie solution for mobile networks. A user push an button and talks. Receivers, which can be many, get the talk burst after the button has been released. PTT has be used by taxi companies which allows them to have even nation wide walkie talkie network. You either talk 1-to-many or 1-to-1. 

  PTT is still one of my all time favorite technologies which never flew. But why it did not get the wings? IMHO the use cases and implementations were way too business orientated. It was all about how companies can use the services... and forgetting the ordinary users. How many of non-telecommunication people have ever heard about push-to-talk? I bet not many, at least in Asia or in Europe.

 I believe this technology could still be popular by releasing it to the younger generation. Let's rewind the time again. I remember in 1980's when there was special phone numbers in Finland which worked as 'chit chat' lines. I was told by my parents not to call to these numbers as those were expensive.. I called anyway. It was so exiting to be able to talk with group of other people who I know nothing about. I could learn new things and how other people think. Simply fun. After my parents got the phone bill, I was put to 'no sugar diet'. 

 So let the kids use the service for an while, they will end up creating new services. For example group of school kids can create their own PTT-groups and keep on talking while on their way back to home or in home. Some kids could have a party or ask others to come and play football together. Some could even ask for help to solve some difficult math homework.


  Voice and video Twitter

  Turning PTT around it would easily become voice and video Twitter. Users could subscribe to others voice-tweets. It would be great to hear what is going on with a local football game while driving home back from work. Or listen to F1-race commentary by a skilled fan.


That's it for now. Would love to hear your comments. Next time I'll talk something about Mobile Mapping posibilities.