Look the Emperor has no clothes on !  ....at last the end to the headlong
race  ........can we just now hang about and enjoy what we have for a few
years ?  .............

I thought they were always pushing 3G at a fairly low level. They
started with specific 3G tariffs, but quickly it became standardised
and you simply chose the phone you liked. Some offered more, like video
calling, but you didn't have to know or care that this was because the
phone was 3G. If some retailers deviated from that selling practice,
more fool them.

In the future, the majority of phones will be 3G by default and it will
be irrelevant. If someone has a 3G phone but never makes a video call
or downloads a video clip or streams TV, so be it, but they'll at least
have the technology there for when they change their mind or see a
need.

As services improve, people may use them occasionally and with T-Mobile
pushing Web&Walk and HSDPA mobile broadband (Vodafone are doing the
same with their data card service, but at a higher price) I think email
and the web will drive traffic and revenue, as it's offering something
people are already used to at home and work. No need to sell something
people don't actually think they want, and often pay through the nose
for (£5 for a mobile game you'll play for an hour or two?). Not that
the price of games, ring tones or wallpapers is a problem solely for
3G!

Get a modern smartphone (e.g. N80 or P990), or even something like the
SE K800i and you've got web access, email, RSS, blogging and MP3 in a
phone that performs very well for a 3G device. Far more useful than
Vodafone live with some proprietory email service and limited content
you must pay a monthly charge for.

Maybe because 3G doesn't really offer much more, except for speed and
how do you sell that? 3G is meaningless in its own right, and when we
get 4G in a few years, how will you sell that? Even quicker downloads,
even smoother video calling?!

3G is the way to go but the end user certainly doesn't need to know
about it. It's never going to be the same as the switch from analogue
to digital was.

Jonathan
(What Mobile magazine)