[Hands0n]

It has been a fair while since I have been into London City for anything more than a flying visit by car, directly into a car park and then an office. Wandering the streets or getting tanked up in a local hostellery has not been something that I have done for probably three years or so! And so, yesterday (Friday 16/12/05) I found myself going into London via SE Trains, walking over London Bridge into The City and spending much of the evening hanging around in bars, imbibing in the local hooch.

While getting well and truly plastered what did occur to me is the distinct lack of modern (read current) 3G mobile phone handsets in use by the average Joe. I saw literally dozens of Nokia 6210 and 6310s. I lost count of the number of Samsung D500! No end of Sony Ericsson T610s (I lurve those little phones and still keep mine safely in its box!), a motely collection of Siemens and other European mobile handsets. But, astonishingly few , as few as could be counted on the hands of the crew of the Lunar Lander, handsets that could even be mistaken for 3G.

I saw several LG U81xx, literally one or two Nokia 6680/N70 (I always have a spot of bother which is which until I see it face on), and a small assortment of other 3G handsets that are current (i.e. a brace of Moto E1000) and not so current (I saw one Motorola A835!).

But overwhelmingly the vast bulk of what I saw pressed against people's heads were 2G.

This got me to wondering - is that the general state of the market at the moment? Or will it all be different on December 26th? There are plenty of eyewateringly attractive 2G handsets on the shelves - with a corresponding dearth of 3G counterparts.

As I spent the evening sowing the seeds for my next-day-hangover I got a several phone calls. I don't know if I'm just hanging around with Luddites but it drew much mirth as I whipped out my 6680 and spoke into it. Cries of "Why are you talking into your computer?" issued forth :D They asked. I tried to explain. But it was to no avail. They all just wanted to "make phone calls" on their mobile handsets and couldn't understand why we'd want to take a photo, check our diary, send/watch a video etc..

Perhaps it is just folk like us ................... but I don't think so really :)

[Ben]

I can totally see where you're coming from, there aren't that many 3G capable handsets out there when you walk around and look at what's in peoples hands, especially on a night out!

Perhaps this is the way it's going to be for the medium term. Until the manufacturers integrate dual-mode capabilities into the more mundane handsets, 3G will be the new 'digital divide' that sees some of us with the power of broadband in our pockets and the vast majority doing just what you describe - just calling and sending the odd text, being left behind in the data revolution.

I believe that video calling and even, to an extend, multimedia services are holding back the potential of 3G. I think the key issue is that operators don't necessarily want their users flocking to 3G unless they're going to use the extra services it enabled. They'd rather keep it clutter-free for the high-spenders and have the talkers and texters on the GSM network. Obviously this is different for Three, and they may indeed be a catalyst at the end of the day for more basic 3G-capable 'standard' phones. That, however, has been made far more unlikely by the evolution of the 'media company' :(