Danger Finally Shows Up In Europe
It's increasingly looking like Danger Research may turn into yet another story of a company that came out with something really innovative, but failed to capitalize on its potential. I've been happy with my Danger device, but increasingly frustrated by the terrible service and the fact that it's been over a year and no one has realized the value of building up a strong developer community that will release custom applications for the device. These applications would tie me to the device and make me less likely to switch - but, since they don't exist, I have almost no qualms about switching to a new device. For a while, there simply wasn't another device that met my needs, but with the launch of the Treo 600 and a few other devices, it looks like that's changing. Part of Danger's problem, it seems was getting too closely tied with T-Mobile (who, apparently, is the main reason why the Danger device has remained a closed system). For them to have succeeded they really needed many more carriers offering the device. Now, a year after the device was launched, Danger has finally announced a European carrier to offer the device, getting German carrier E-Plus to sign on. It strikes me that this might be too little, too late. The device was way ahead of the competition a year ago, but really doesn't hold much of an advantage any more. If the system remains closed, it loses what little design advantage it still held. Maybe E-Plus will do something different with Danger, and maybe the company will pull it off, but so far, they've been one big disappointment.
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