Future

- Introduction of WiMax

- Changing personal and social spaces

- Constant distraction

- Portable high speed data processor

- Platform for communication and community formation

- New technology changes our behaviour

- Evoke audio and visual sensory

- Media arena is less and less populated

- The Net includes and unifies all content.

Comparison with Japan

Happenings in Japan:-

A New Set of Social Rules for a Newly Wireless Society

Mobile media are bringing sweeping changes to how we coordinate, communicate, and share information.
Tokyo in the '80s, telephone cards, pay phones, and urban landmarks were the technologies that coordinated actions on the street.

Now, the keitai (Japanese for mobile phone) has become a social necessity in Japan, particularly among the younger set. According to a survey by the Mobile Communications Research Group in November 2001, 64.6 percent of all Japanese owned a mobile phone. Among twentysomethings this number was 89.6 percent, among those enrolled in college, 97.8 percent, and among high school students, 78.8 percent. The mobile Internet is the most distinctive aspect of Japanese mobile phone use ever since NTT DoCoMo launched the i-mode keitai Internet service in 1999. Youths, again, are the heaviest users of these services, particularly keitai e-mail, where they send text, graphics and photographs between mobile phones.

Out of the micro-level swarm of messages, however, more systematic forms of organization are emerging. A quick Web search will bring up dozens of pages with uploaded Sha-mail photos, ranging from erotic sites to celebrity stalking sites to sites with family photos. For example, the site for the Sha-mail Diary Confederation with 29 writers sharing their diaries of Sha-mail photos. Inspired by Hall's article, Joichi Ito set up a moblog for sending photos from his camera-keitai directly to his blog.

Case Study

Tell us more about the wireless experience @ MacDonald’s?

We believe in bringing you innovative and convenient services that enhance your McDonald's restaurant visit, and Wi-Fi is a perfect example. As McDonald's continues to deliver fast and friendly food service at more than 30,000 convenient locations around the world, you can now enjoy the possibility of staying connected with friends, family and co-workers.

What has the response from customers been like?

We reckon that there has been positive feedback from customers. Customers are increasing their patronisation of MacDonald’s due to this free wireless service. This is especially so for students who now have an added reason to patronize us.

Has it created any problems?

This free wireless service has definitely created problems which we anticipated initially. First, we find that customer turnover has been much lower. This is obviously due to the increase in time which patrons spend at MacDonald’s due to the free wireless service. Hence, although the outlet may always seem packed, business may not necessarily be very good as there are many people who are just sitting around, using the internet. Second, there are definitely legal infringements especially if patrons seek to use our free wireless service for illegal downloading and access to pornographic websites. This is an issue that we have to readdress and hopefully, a block on such material will solve this problem.


What happens if you catch people surfing illegal/pornographic websites?

We will confront the patron and warn him/her that what he/she is doing is illegal. If the patron fails to heed my warning, we will subsequently refer him/her to the police.

Any plans to increase prices to accommodate the free wireless in return?

If the customer turnover rate remains low, it is inevitable that we may have to pass on the cost of the wireless to the patrons. As of now, this free wireless service is still in its pilot phase and any subsequent decision should be made only after a substantial market analysis.

Disadvantages

- Increased mobility of Internet and tech-savvy users

- Results in death of traditional media

- World becoming even smaller than it is presently

- Streaming of the latest episodes of shows in Singapore a day after its television broadcast in America

- Wireless internet access benefits us as consumers

- ‘Old’ media namely, television studios are the ones losing out on viewers

- CW as an example, a result of targeted demographics affinity for the new media

- Re-evaluating what constitutes a ratings hit in this new age of time-shifted viewing and downloads

- This is a drawback to the network

- The show's average of 2.5 million viewers is not able to lift CW out of the ratings cellar or staunch its financial losses

- While Singapore media has yet to see such a phenomenon, this will be the future of all traditional media

- The shift from traditional media to new media has already begun with Wireless@SG, this future is fast approaching

Advantages

- Convenience of setup

- Internet accessible everywhere

- Can be shared amongst multiple users without extra cost

- Relatively low cost of setup

- Ad revenue for some companies goes up because internet usage is on the rise

- Organisations save much more without having to pay for cabling costs and excessive downtime

- Creates more healthy competition in the media to come up with innovative ways to reach out to audiences utilising wireless internet.

- Due to such competition, consumers of wireless get to be exposed to various creative ways of advertising.