Handset And Software Makers Seek Cheaper Mobile Web

Handset manufacturers and mobile content/application developers are urging the telcos to offer cheaper (and more simple) internet access to their mobile users, reports Reuters from 3GSM. This is hardly surprising of course, since both groups stand to benefit from higher uptake of mobile internet and have little to do with providing it…but more people using the data services would benefit the telcos as well — assuming their networks can handle it. Blaming the lack of uptake completely on high and complicated pricing is a little tricky too: The situation has changed a lot in recent years, but one of the major complaints that still come up about the mobile internet is usability, and that’s down to the handset and software guys.
The article points out that “sales of handheld connected computers and smartphones, the most advanced handsets that can run computer-like software applications, slowed to 30 percent in the fourth quarter, from 50 percent in the third, according to Canalys market research”.