Before Hyping Technology, Perhaps You Should Make Sure It Works

from the ah,-details,-details dept

I remember going to a certain "Emerging Technologies" conference once, only to discover that wireless access was so emerging that it didn't work. It seems to be a common refrain. A reporter in the UK has an amusing list of conferences where the specific technology being hyped wasn't working. At ITU Telecom World everyone from Bill Gates on down was saying wireless was the next big thing - but journalists and exhibitors spent much of the conference complaining that they couldn't access the wireless network (or when they could that it was impossibly slow). There was also the 3G conference earlier this year where 3G coverage wasn't available. The technology industry is well known for hyping technologies long before they're really ready, but you would think that conference organizers would be especially careful to deal with these sorts of issues when the entire conference is about that particular technology.
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  • identicon
    Joe Schmoe, 7 Nov 2003 @ 12:02am

    What about...

    <SoapBox>
    What about also just calling technology for what it is instead of branded buzzword bullsh1t from one carrier to the next?!?!
    Wireless data on TMobile is called T-Zones. US Cellular calls it easyedge. Sprint calls it [I don't care]...
    All this does is obfuscate features and make them harder to sell. And to price innapropriately. And to garrrrr...
    </SoapBox>

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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