At 07:12 PM 6/30/00 +0200, Anthony Atkielski wrote:
Why use SMS instead of just voice?
Has anyone considered the ergonomics of WAP? Even if it works perfectly,
how many people are willing to work on a screen smaller than a credit card?
How many people are capable of touch-typing on a keyboard with only ten soft
keys that must be pressed in various arcane combinations for almost ever
letter? It just doesn't make intuitive sense.
On the face of it, I would have tended to agree.
But I have been astonished by the degree of adoption of SMS (in UK) by
school children who purchase their own pre-pay mobile phones (for about
$50-100). SMS may be awkward, but the per-use cost is is very low, and
totally predictable. And the users in this case soon learn to handle the
"inadequate" user interface.
But it doesn't stop there: when I travel abroad, my daughter sends SMS
messages to my mobile phone, and I respond in kind. And wherever I am in
the world, the cost does not very. And even I am finding the user
interface manageable for simple messages.
Because it's messaging, not isochronous, SMS can ride "low-grade" bandwidth
that voice cannot use. I sometimes think the advantages of messaging are
lost among those who are used to continuous network connections.
#g
------------
Graham Klyne
(GK(_at_)ACM(_dot_)ORG)