When good PR goes bad September 14, 2006
Posted by Angus in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
My response to iBurst’s strange 4G claim on ITWeb.
4G? Please… [14 Sep 2006]
As an iBurst customer I shudder at the thought that I am already experiencing a 4G broadband service.
I think that THAMI MTSHALI / Ivan Booth is pushing a little too hard when it comes to defining iBurst as 4G. How can his `4G` service offering a theoretical 1Mbps download (closer to 150kbps in Sandton) possibly be compared true 4G services that are currently only now being trialed in Japan by DoCoMo and Samsung in Korea. When we are closer to 10Mbps and up to 1Gbps – then maybe you can start calling it 4G.
I cite a number of sources – http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/007741.html
`The spectrums for 4G technology will be decided at WRC (World Radiocommunication Conference) in October of 2007.`
If/when iBurst starts delivering these levels of throughput, then maybe. The product pricing and service levels may be great, but trying to lay claim to something you are not, is not.
When you want to say something in the media, make sure you don’t put yourself in a position to end up with egg on your face. Show me even 10Mbps and then you can have your claim. You can almost picture the brief and the discussion that followed – ‘Why don’t we claim to be the first 4G provider – that way we’ll beat the mob to it’.
Almost sounds like MTN’s claims that they had HSDPA before Vodacom… when there were no MTN HSDPA devices in the country for weeks after that.
When the simplest things can be the smartest September 5, 2006
Posted by Angus in Mobile.2 comments
The trend continues. Great products + slick marketing. But wait, there’s more – Samsung has done something really smart in their latest range of phones (called the Ultra range). In addition to being extremely thin, they have a sneaky little feature that is perfect, perfect, perfect for the South African market.
This feature is called U-Track, and this is what it does. When you set up your phone for the first time – you enter the cellphone numbers of 2 friends/family members into the U-Track config menu. When your phone gets nicked, lifted, jacked or liberated by a scumbag – its highly likely that quicker than you can say Jack Robinson, that a new simcard will be put into the phone.
First thing the phone (U-Track) does is SMS’s your 2 mates with the cellphone number of the new SIM thats in the phone – and it does it for all future simcards that are entered. Without the new phone ‘owner’ ever knowing. How cool is that!
A great example of a smart solution to a big problem – and its so simple.
Have a look at the D900 here.
