Monday, August 18, 2008

Two Complaints

Briefly, two problems that should already be solved:

  1. Text Messaging: Why are we still being charged for ~150 measly little ASCII characters? Why hasn't instant messaging on mobile devices entirely replaced SMS/MMS? IM is free and SMS/MMS costs ~$0.20/each or ~$20/month unlimited. In fact, its actually more expensive to send data via text message than the Hubble Space Telescope.

    Yes, I know there are currently IM apps on cell phones, but they're really no good and not well integrated into the device. But poor execution doesn’t damn a plan (or technology). Given the right implementation, this should be seamless and invisible, the only noticeable changes being the elimination of SMS charges on my bill and the ability to send short messages to any of my friends on any mobile or IM network. In fact, Apple could do this with my iPhone, keeping the same UI & everything, and I would be none the wiser, but of course AT&T would never allow them to eliminate such a valuable revenue stream.

  2. Social Media Status Updates: Why do I have to log into several different sites to ensure all my followers across the web can enjoy my witty status updates? Why can't there be one site that allows me to fire off an update via web or mobile, and my Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. statuses are immediately updated? Bonus points for periodically checking my pages to see if I've made a rogue "native" update and keeping the rest in sync.