Statistics recently released by The Carphone Warehouse, one of the UK`s biggest mobile phone resellers, have revealed that of the 35 000-odd people who have to date purchased mobile phones with GPRS capability, only about 200 have actually requested that the service be enabled.
It`s likely that the development of a viable gaming platform for GPRS phones will be the deciding factor in the successful penetration of the mainstream market.
Basheera Khan, UK correspondent, ITWeb
This suggests to me that people are still only buying new and improved mobile phones for appearance`s sake. It would appear that it is trendiness, not functionality, that drives the sale of funky new gadgets. Regardless of how hard or fast the innovators push themselves to develop mobile phones into devices that are depended on for more than just communication, in the UK at least, early adopters are only into it for the look of the thing.
That makes me wonder about a lot of things - like, for example, the potential sales of cars with global positioning systems built-in. It may be the next big thing, and may prove to be a popular selling point which alone ultimately clinches the deal, but how many people will make use of the accompanying services?
Technology limbo
An entire subsection of after-sales service and technical support will be springing up around the promise of people`s impending dependence on GPRS services, just as it was expected to mushroom around WAP services, I suppose. But it seems to me that just as WAP services have largely been left to languish in the limbo of technology for which consumers are just not ready, so too will GPRS suffer a similar fate.
It`s likely that the few hundred people who have signed up for the service - the true early adopters, one could argue - are excited at the prospect of trying out their new toy, and as a result, will provide the small but dedicated market for GPRS service providers. And because the service provision will be justified in some small way by these people, mobile phone resellers will continue to aggressively market GPRS phones, the trendoids will continue to fuel sales of newer and more technically developed handsets, and GPRS service providers will continue to operate at a loss, while optimistically looking forward to the day when the majority of GPRS phone sales are driven by the mass market`s genuine desire to make use of the service as it was intended.
It`s likely that the development of a viable gaming platform for GPRS phones will be the deciding factor in the successful penetration of the mainstream market. Once younger mobile phone users discover the potential for a relatively inexpensive gaming device that comes complete with communications functionality as well, the protocol will then at last meet the expectations of the industry as a whole.
Until then, GPRS phones are likely to remain just another designer accessory, to be dangled from the cutting-edge ear as eye-catchingly as possible.
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