What Were We Thinking?
By Ray Valdés
Winter is a sure sign that it's time for us to look back on the past 12 months, assess what happened, and make plans for the coming year. In keeping with this retrospective mood, remember those industry concepts that sounded good at the time, but now fall into the what-were-we-thinking category?
My November column looked at some wacky wireless notions such as the idea that it's desirable to surf the Web using a WAP phone. To do this, one must first navigate to a search engine, then flip through various result pages before finally reaching a destination site. The wireless industry has now replaced the "wireless Web" hype with another hallmark idea that has quickly lost its charm: A consumer walking by a Coke machine receives a cell phone message that offers her a special deal on drinks dispensed by that machine. She presses a key on the phone and grabs a soda can from the vending machine.
This scenario achieved its official boost from industry talk to pop culture when it aired as an MTV-style commercial on prime-time television. Many businesses hope to capitalize on the wireless purchasing model. No doubt, in a few months or years we'll scratch our heads and wonder what we were thinking when we were excited that cell-phone spam could be part of our rosy future.
Here are more ideas that seemed good at the time, but may not in the near future:
Free Stuff in Exchange for Your Data
An idea that's not quite dead yet is the notion of providing free goods or services to consumers, such as free Internet connectivity or a free access device, in exchange for two things: the right to bombard the consumer with advertising, and the ability to obtain detailed information on the user's surfing and buying habits that can be sold to interested parties.<>
