Where's The Wireless Hot Key?

Mon, Oct 2nd 2006 11:53am — Derek Kerton

When I was on staff at Korea's SK Telecom in 2001-2003, one of the big differentiators I noticed between the wireless Internet in Korea and the USA was that their phones had a dedicated key for accessing data services. For example, in Korea it was a "NATE" key, the name of their portal, and in Japan, an "iMode" key was on DoCoMo phones. At the time, the US market was so far behind in data services that it followed that a dedicated key had not yet appeared...but what's up now? I can tell you what's up in Korea (but this link requires a subscription, so I'll cite the salient statistics below in this post): according to Korea's National Internet Development Agency, 30 million, or 81% of Korea's active phones have a hotkey. But here in the US we still don't, despite the fact that today's US subscriber can choose from a range of data services from every major carrier, there's still no dedicate key to access them. To get to downloaded games or the mobile Internet, we still surf through menus, yet we have added dedicated buttons for features like cameras and PTT. Why haven't the US carriers pushed their vendors for a branded, dedicated Hotkey that takes the user straight to the mobile portal? Small wonder the market for mobile content has flatlined, and is stuck between the tech enthusiasts and the mass market. Gee, do you think it would help if we made it easier, quicker, and more obvious?

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

4 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Rick, 2 Oct 2006 @ 11:53am

Hot Key for Data
Alltel does have a hot key for it's mobile web, it is the circle and you press down. No menu and it launches. We have a hot key for Messaging as well. Same spot most phones. If you want games - right nav key
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Derek Kerton (profile), 2 Oct 2006 @ 11:53am

Awesome. Good For Alltel
Can you link to a pic of the phone with the hotkey?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Nokia user, 2 Oct 2006 @ 11:53am

Nokia has it (at least in Europe/Asia)
On Nokia phones, pressing and holding the 0 key takes you to the home page that is set for the browser (usually the operator's home page). On the last couple of phones I've had in Europe and Asia, there is also a stylised i on that key. I admit it's not well advertised though so Joe Average probably doesn't realise it's there. I assume that Nokia phones in the US have similar functionality
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
WirelessGuy, 2 Oct 2006 @ 11:53am

Derek, T-mobile has their t-zones hot key on almost every phone.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]