Saturday, October 29, 2005

Mobile Craze

Mobile Solutions

I'm not a tech geek but I try to keep up to date with various technology news and advances. And of course like the mass out there, I own a mobile handset too and fiddle with the uses daily.

2005 has been a year of evolution in the mobile services industry locally. The local major service providers began rolling out attractive 3G services, the Third Generation of mobile technology. With subscription rates comparable to normal 2G's and additional perks, the 3G services are really appealing to business users and other "power users". As 3G enabled handsets are fast becoming affordable to the masses, there's no doubt that the coming few years would see 2G services and handsets being phased out.

Multi-media rich contents, email and web-surfing capabilities, faster internet access - The day when school lectures are delivered over the mobile phone is approaching. And when Starhub's i-mode services are launched soon, users would experience another era of mobile experience. i-mode was launched in 1999 by Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and now carries 7,100 official sites worldwide for at least 50 million mobile subscribers globally. And it is rapidly being adopted, with 22 countries on the list currently and Starhub being the first operator in Singapore to offer these services to subsribers. The key i-mode services and content here would be Bloomberg, eBay, GV, Mediacorp TV, MTV Networks Asia, OCBC Bank, Sina, SPH, Yahoo! Mobile and ZUJI, and with the vast market and possibilities, the list is set to swell, perhaps at an alarming rate we have never encountered on other kinds of service platforms.

End-users now are being pampered by the various choices of subscriptions plans, services and mobile handsets. But before we become too complacent, lets take a peek at some figures. As mentioned above, i-mode was introduced in Japan in 1999 and as of now, there are already 22 countries offering such services with more than 50 millions users. And we are much rather at the 2.5G interim phase than the acclaimed 3G, a significant part due to the inherent design of some handsets having lower data transfers. For those who are not convinced about 3G, in the US, its transfer rate ranges from 144Kbps to 2.4Mbps. And 4G is supposed to be much faster and improved, maybe even reaching the speed of wired broadband services. So how long did we take to move from 2G to 3G in Singapore?

I was previously a M1 CDMA(Code Division Multiple Access) subsriber for about one and a half years. Back in 2000, I switched over from Singtel GSM1800 to M1 CDMA due to the supposedly cheap and superior advantages of CDMA network. I can vouch for it though. The call rates were the cheapest then and the voice quality was really crystal clear most of the times, with several friends commenting that I was on a fixed line instead. But in 2001, it was decided that the spectrum, the CDMA network was utilising, was to be vacated for the 3G services. So M1 had to carryout a massive re-allocation exercise, where subsribers had to collect their new GSM SIM cards and selected free GSM handsets at specified locations, over a few weeks/months. 3 more years later, we are finally presented with the much awaited 3G network. But the operators took too long a period to get ready. It was supposed to be in 2004.

We claimed many top spots in various fields globally as well as regionally. Just recently, the one that grabbed my eyes was Singapore's Orchard Road being ranked 14th for the world's most expensive retail space. Perhaps we can manage numerous top rankings regionally and some globally. But we do have to admit that in many technological areas, we are still very way off behind Asia's powerhouses such as Japan, Hongkong and South Korea. Despite the worrying social trends among the younger Japanese generation and them being one of the major sources of pornographic materials, they are still the leaders in many areas. In 1999, when mobile phones were getting popular here, they were already having i-mode. And in 2005 when we are starting to reap the benefits of 3G, they are already planning to introduce 4G next year.

We do not have to be the ones coming out with tech-breakthroughs. But it's essential that we become the early adopters of such breakthroughs from others. Adopt and innovate from there. Easily, we are occupying the podium spots in SEA now, but it would be increasingly more challenging and competitive to stay up there. Once the rest builds up a substantial base and foundation, only the ones who dare to venture the untrodden would emerge tops. Afterall, risk is essential, of course that is calculated risk. But are we too calcuative here and thus limiting more creative innovations? That is for us ourselves to prove.

Do watch out the mobile industry. And more importantly how that would revolutionise our lifestyle, habits and the spending power of consumers.

I'm still waiting for the ultimate Digital SLR/mobile phone/PDA/media player combo.

posted by eruption @ 12:48:00 PM 0 comments

Friday, October 14, 2005

Just How Social are WE?

A long way to go

A lapse of a few months of non-blogging. Here it comes rolling back.

After reading one of the letters in TODAY, October 10, i sent in my views too. Below are my thoughts and views originally sent in. TODAY published my letter, with slight edits, on October 12, in the VOICES section.

Able-bodied are too demanding too.

I refer to Mr. Gary Seet Ann Hup's comments "Disabled too demanding", Oct 10.

Yes, there's no doubt wheelchair users would need more time to board and alight buses. If and only if there are more considerate and selfless passengers who would not jam up the front portion and entrance of the bus when there are plenty of space towards the rear end.

We have seen "precious minutes wasted" at bus-stops when some passengers just refuse to move their butts and thus slow down the boarding and alighting times. Does this mean that the masses are being delayed just because many of the "able-bodied" are not considerate and thoughtful enough? Before we point any finger at the wheelchair users and claim that they would delay us, lets do some serious self-reflection first.

And how many Singaporeans are willing to step forward to form the pool service as Mr. Seet suggested? I would take it that Mr. Seet would be one of the first.

It's not only about the wheelchair users. Those using crutches, walking sticks and other forms of walking aids, not to forget some senior citizens, tend to take a longer time, than the young and healthy "able-bodied", to board and alight buses. And there are also those who have been injured, during accidents and falls, and so require the assistance of crutches temporarily. So are we going to suggest that all these individuals are "too demanding" too?

We cannot and must not "penalise" the wheelchair users just because they have to move and travel around in their wheelchairs for the rest of their lives. Instead, it should be fair that they could enjoy the same privileges and service as the rest of us.

Perhaps we should be more innovative in finding solutions to solve all these "problems". How about a bus with a automatic ramp-loader at the rear to serve their needs? Or an escalator system onboard the bus to serve all the passengers so that we can rest our aching legs after a tiring day at work.

Afterall, we pride ourselves to have world-class educational institutes and universities, and reowned researchers and research programmes. I'm pretty sure that there would not be much difficulty in devising some smart technical gadgets/systems to allow wheelchair users to enjoy the public bus service and yet offer no or minimal delay to other passengers.

While we are attempting to improve the service standards in Singapore, don't leave out the group of less privileged and disabled.


Below is the letter which I responded to.

Extracted from TODAYonline: Disabled too demanding, 10th October 2005

Cannot expect same services as able-bodied

Letter from Gary Seet Ann Hup

I refer to the news comment, "Hold the bus, is someone being left behind?" (Oct 7). While I agree with integrating the disabled into the community, I don't agree with altering public buses to suit their needs.

The SMRT and Land Transport Authority (LTA) have already retrofitted our trains and train stations to make them accessible to people who use wheelchairs. The question is how to get these people to the stations from where they are, be it from their homes, workplaces or anywhere else.

The solution cannot be to retrofit public buses to accommodate them.

So as not to be labelled insensitive, let me explain. The LTA has introduced bus lanes and the public bus operators have set their schedules to make travelling by bus as smooth as possible and to move the masses as quickly as possible.

Like it or not, any delay has a cost in terms of longer travel times. Wheelchair users would need more time to board and alight from buses and this would hold up other passengers.

Being patient and understanding is one thing. Being late for work because of it is another.

Wheelchair-users should be "connected" to a pick-up service. Ideally, it should be a taxi service which takes them to the nearest MRT station and/or from the MRT station to their final destination.

Of course, this would cost them more than an able-bodied person pays to take the bus. If this system could be integrated into the taxi booking system it could be better administered and, perhaps, lower the cost.

Alternatives include setting up a pool of volunteers who could offer their services when needed. I'm not advocating a taxi service as fares might be quite hefty.

One has to take into account that, realistically, wheelchair-users cannot expect to be as mobile as able-bodied people.

To think otherwise would be akin to a poor person wanting to have whatever a rich person has. What a society can do is try to remove as many obstacles as possible.

It's a long climb.

posted by eruption @ 11:21:00 PM 0 comments