On Monday 26 July 2004 13:44, Ziggy David Lubowa wrote: > When rolling out a product you first have to look at a couple of things, > Acceptance and Convinience. I stand to be corrected on this as well, my > view is that the whole sms thing is something you going to school the > masses for a longtime.
Well, while SMS requires literacy, technically, it's the cheapest and most basic form of communication to phone owners, yet very rewarding to wireless providers. Almost anything can be done on SMS nowadays, and wireless providers are now focussing on getting more out of the SMS service. SMS will bring in more revenue streams to the provider than 3G and GPRS will, and customers will use it more because 3G and GPRS are too costly, let alone available on most of todays phones. Some providers are already seeing millions of $$ monthly on SMS alone. > As simple as we think SMS ( to some of us who have > used it for a while and also know the who schematics of it) it might not be > to many, which means you might have many calls to your call centres for > help. That shouldn't be a problem. Call centre support is free (and comes in many languages). > Look at SMSINFO and all the other SMS products do you know how long > it actually took to sink in , even with all the advertising many people > still didnt understand the product, either it was syntax errors or didnt > know which number or they need a whole lot of schooling to get it right. Most of the time, it's more about getting the right product to the right people. As with all other services, if you identify something the masses want, they'll eat it up! If you have 2 different markets, have a product suited for both markets. Don't expect to have a high-tech product and think both markets will accept it. Target the right product to the right market. > These are some of the disadvantages of SMS i believe. Some people might not > mind at all scratching those many times and sending a simple sms , it > actually makes them feel that they have more control of there airtime. There is a lot of money to be made in voice, but a lot with SMS too. Look at SMS, it's thin, cheap to the provider and user, and doesn't only come in English :). The issue isn't whether users know how to use SMS, but how the content provider or wireless provider gets them to use SMS in the way most convenient to them. As mentioned earlier, create a basic product people want (like voice, a killer app.), and you'll get demand. > Look > at companies who still use notebooks rather than Databases which have a > point and click interface, what would you say is more convinient there ??? Well, computer literacy is harder to teach than writing (in some language). > and how long do you think it will take them to accept change ?? You won't always have support when it comes to change; these are things that will have to be managed slowly. Which brings me back to, create that killer app. that users need or want, and you have their attention. The Internet has been in UG a long time; it hasn't seen that much following over the past 10 years, when compared to MTN and Mango that came in, and immediately got users to CHANGE from CelTel to them. Why? They had the killer app. Users only want services that make sense to them. If it's expensive but very basic (voice), they'll still pay for it. > > i am basically looking at acceptance which i believe plays a big role in > product roll out. Develop the right content for the right market, and you will have created demand. I mean, Microsoft is a clear example :). Mark. --------------------------------------------- This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
