|
|  |
|
|
|
| |
| Oct 14, 2009 12:43 am |
|
re: re: Poken vs. Apple iPhone |
Russ Jackman
| |
There are a few other holes in the concept, Lamar ...
First, is you need a piece of proprietary hardware to be able to "participate". Not only is it yet *another* gadget to carry around, but it is a single-purpose gadget. People are still buying expensive do-everything smart phones in the down economy, quite often to have everything - communications, camera, media player, web, email, social networking - combined into one gadget.
If they were to open up the standard so other devices could touch-and-share, then they might hit a critical mass by having the concept incorporated into cell phones and other devices people are already buying and using. They could try to license the technology, but they would need a lot more consumer awareness and consumer demand to justify hardware vendors paying any significant licensing fee. For example, Nokia might pay 20 cents to include the feature and four-fingered hand graphic into a cell phone intended for the tween / teen market (or for any device they sell in fad-crazy Japan - LOL), but I can't ever see RIM adding it to a Blackberry. There would be (and are) existing technologies to share information, without adding another standard or protocol.
Second, as I read it, I can only share one profile with the device? What if I don't want my business associates receiving my personal SN information, and vice-versa? If I meet you at a mixer, I may be fine with having you follow me on Twitter, but I certainly don't want to receive a friend request on Facebook after meeting you once. So, how do I control which of my SN contact details are given to any particular person when the hands touch?
With privacy concerns and indiscriminate social networking use already costing people potential jobs and clients, you would need to control which aspects of your networking contact details are going to any particular contact.
Third, the gadget doesn't do anything that can't be handled efficiently without it ... there's no real value added beyond "gee whiz". I can write down my Twitter ID on a business card just as easily, or exchange email addresses or business cards and personally invite you to join the social or business networks I decide to invite you into. Go to a dance club and watch men and women hook up ... it's more and more common for them to just hand their cell phone to the other person to program their number in, instead of writing it down on a piece of paper. And no, I can't see too many single people using this gadget unless it supports more than one profile (i.e. real contact info as well as a "fake number" - LOL). BTW, if this company decides to support multiple profiles in their device after this is posted, I do expect to get a royalty for the idea ;)
And on that subject, there was a device a couple of years ago in Japan for singles where you could program the characteristics of what you were looking for, and if you came into close proximity of of someone and your lists matched, the device would glow or somehow alert you that Mr/Ms. Right was close by ...
Since the Poken doesn't make things easier or considerably faster for users, it is a fad ... it's a cool gimmick for tweens to play with for awhile. They could end up selling 20 or 30 million of these things in North America, but even at that it would not reach the critical mass necessary to be a useful tool for business.Private Reply to Russ Jackman (new win) |
|
| |
|
