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America is a technology laggard, according to the iPhone |
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Jul 09, 2007 at 01:09 PM |
As I spend the best part of the day and night focused on an industry still dominated by US-based technology companies but live and work several thousand miles away, it doesn't come easy to then say that the US is a technology laggard.
These are not my words but those of ex-Financial Times journalist and first-ever professional hack blogger friend Tom Foremski over at siliconvalleywatcher.com.
He makes a very good point about the telecoms business in the US and the potential disruptive elements lurking within the iPhone. Read about it here: http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/
Europe is way ahead of the US when it comes to mobile phone technology, but can the same fundamental aspects of what Tom is talking about be applied here?
I see no reason why not, and if this is the case then it's an indication that telcos are milking it for all it's worth around the world.
I remember a attending a conference in France a few years ago where a tech veteran highlighted in a presentation that the true cost of a text message was something like 0.00001 of a penny, but that most people were charged 10 pence each time for the privilege!
More money was made by European telcos on texts than on anything else, with texts actually proving to be the savior of many after the 3G bidding fiasco.
Things really are not that far apart, as I still haven't worked out how to activate the wi-fi facility on my mobile. I think it's disabled on purpose.
There has been some crazy mainstream reporting here in the UK regarding which of the telcos are going to get the iPhone deal when it arrives in Europe - with 3G capability - sometime in late 2007 or first quarter 2008.
I don't really care unless it's my service provider, and that's on the cards for the UK because my contract runs out at the end of the year (on purpose) so that I had the option to switch to the iPhone should I choose to do so.
If owning the iPhone creates a change in the way telcos operate, I will be first in the queue in the cold and rainy days of our winter just to be able to say years later that I helped make a change in what is surely one of the biggest rip-offs we have had to deal with today as consumers.
The US being a technology laggard may yet be the best thing to impact Europe - in the form of the iPhone, of course.
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