WHAT COULD WORK FOR 3G?

It’s often joked that the business model for 3G literally consists of 3Gs: girls, games and gambling. This is witty, but probably not true. Porn, games and gambling may be killer apps for the wired web, but they may not work as well for the wireless web, which is accessed through very small devices with tiny screens.

 

So what then could be viable business models for 3G? As mentioned earlier, a lot could be learnt from i-Mode as the principles are the same. But before we explore how lessons from i-Mode can be applied to 3G, it’s worth noting much expectation has changed in recent years.

 

At one time it was assumed that video conferencing would be the killer application for 3G. These days, nobody seriously thinks so anymore, at least not for the initial rollout. At the projected realistic data rate of about 40 to 60 kbps, the speed would be barely adequate for clear video transmission. Besides, video streaming would drain the battery very quickly. Lastly, video transmission won’t be cheap.

 

I’m not suggesting that no one would what to conduct mobile video conferencing. But it would be a limited market; perhaps businessman or rich kids with money to burn. We’re talking about a really niche group here, and you can’t build a successful business model around a small target market. So what can you do?.

 

One of the first things you must do is to understand the differences between fixed-line and wireless web. It’s way too simplistic to view the latter as just the mobile version of the former. Normal Internet web pages are made to fit a large screen. But mobile phone screens are tiny. People wouldn’t want to actually browse the web on their phones. …. (to be continue)

 

Original author: Onn Yeoh

 

 

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