Sprint Wireless in the US is the first North American wireless carrier to launch “PCS Vision”, which lets you take and share digital pictures over the wireless network.
http://www.pcsvision.com/pictures.html
To me, the applications for this are interesting, and none of us probably really knows what the broader uses will be. I saw someone on another mailing list refer to this as the “next big thing” and I thought that was an interesting opinion because it challenges my own notion that these types of services never really see the light of day ’cause people just can’t figure out what to do with them..
I think I understand what some people see in these types of services but I’m not sure that they really defeat the all of the problems with this particular phone. In this case you still need to have a digital camera which either puts a photo up on the web somewhere, or you need to have their special digital camera that connects to the PCS phone.
That factor means difficulty of use which means further difficulty surmounting the chicken/egg problem. If the camera was built-in to the phone, well, that’s a killer app. But even then you still need to have the special, highly expensive phone at both ends in order for it to work. People rarely buy mobile phones in groups, at the same time; or even with the same carrier.
Anyone else have any opinions?
-Ian.
———–