EarthVision Newsletter Archive
Back to Archive Home PageSent: Wednesday, July 19, 2000
Subject: EarthVision Cellular Consumer News! Issue #14 Vol. 2Another issue of the EarthVision Cellular Consumer Newsletter. This newsletter is for the soon to be educated cellular phone user community. If you know of anyone else that may have an interest in our newsletter, make sure to forward them a copy. Now we move forward at Mach II speed!
[Note: This newsletter is delivered Bi Weekly on Wednesday.]
***************************************************************** EARTHVISION CREATES CAAB (CONSUMER AFFAIRS ADVISORY BOARD)
REQUEST FOR DONATION BY LIONS CLUB FOR USED CELLULAR PHONES
CLASS ACTION SUIT ON CELLULAR PHONES CAUSING CANCER?
WASHINGTON DC POLICE RESIST COMMUNITY BUYING CELL PHONES FOR DEPT
BRICK & MORTAR STORES BATTLE E-TAILERS WITH M-COMMERCE
WALKING & TALKING. NEW BOOTS POWER UP CELLULAR PHONES
GREED AND STAGNATION KILLING THE WAP TECHNOLOGY FUTURE
CELLULAR PHONE SPAM ABOUT TO BURST IN COLORADO
MORE INFORMATION FROM OUR DID YOU KNOW FILES....
WIRELESS PHONES ALLOW SMALL BUSINESSES TO COMPETE
EDITORIAL COMMENTS FROM EARTHVISION CELLULAR
*****************************************************************EarthVision Cellular Consumer News Issue # 14 Volume 2
EARTHVISION CREATES CAAB (CONSUMER AFFAIRS ADVISORY BOARD)
We are pleased to announce the creation of a new corporate board of EarthVision Cellular. The Consumers Affairs Advisory Board or CAAB for short. The individuals that have been selected to officially reside on a corporate board of the company. This corporate board is unique because the board members comprise of people that are not employees of EarthVision Cellular but are actually selected from the general public.
CAAB was created to assist us with making sure that we were as close to the public as possible in learning your needs and what it is that you would want from a company in our industry. We believe that people selected from the general public were much more qualified in helping us understand your needs and how to offer you a higher level of service.
These individuals were selected because they expressed an interest in helping us improve our customer service, actively contributed to the company's growth in some form, and/or offered suggestions for improvement in general at some point in time. We have filled 5 of the 7 positions available on this new corporate board. This may be increased to ten members in the future depending on the need. For the time being, we will stick to the lucky 7.
The board members will report directly to the Chairman of the Board of Directors. The function of CAAB members will be to create proposals for consideration by the Board of Directors that they think are important to the public. These proposals are then submitted to the Board of Directors for review and approval for implementation. Each CAAB member will serve a voluntary term of five years.
In return for their efforts, each CAAB member has been offered stock options, fringe benefits, and the official title of being a corporate board member of the company. They will be officially recognized as early as August 31st, 2000. For the purposes of privacy, we will only list the name and city/state of each member. We look forward to working with them now and well into the future.
It gives me great honor to officially announce the appointed board members of the Consumer Affairs Advisory Board.
Mark Hom, Daly City, CA
Judy Makinson, Orlando, FL
Aaron Osgood, Falmouth, ME
Pamela Anderson, Ontario, CA
Steve Plympton Jr., Portland, MELadies and Gentlemen of the Board, your voice is that of the people. We hope that you will use it often and well. On behalf of the Board of Directors, we would like to welcome you to the EarthVision Cellular team. Thank you for participating and we will look forward to sharing our success with you.
REQUEST FOR DONATION BY LIONS CLUB FOR USED CELLULAR PHONES
We have have a request from a Lion's Club member seeking used cellular phones to be donated. The phones will be put to good use for those who are victims of abuse and for the elderly. Your donation may be a tax write off and you would be surprised as to how much they are worth for these purposes.
Yes, we do donate phones too. There are many excellent charitable organizations out there. Way too many for us to be able to supply all of them. We would hope that you would take a moment to pack up an old phone and ship it off. The time and expense is negligible for helping someone who really needs one.
Hello,My name is Donna Blevins. I am a member of the Hazel Dell Lions Club in Vancouver Washington. If you are familiar with the Lions Club International, you may recognize our community service projects such as collection of used eyeglasses and hearing aides to be given to the needy.
Our club is in the process of developing a program of collecting used cell phones for distribution to needy community members such as victims of domestic abuse and the elderly.
I read in a recent newsletter that your group was offering to collect and distribute donated cell phones to community groups that would further distribute them to needy recipients. I would like to request such donations in the name of the Hazel Dell Lions Club. We would like to have deactivated phones with chargers, batteries and manuals, if possible, so the recipient can learn to use the phones. Any information would be greatly appreciated and can be directed to me at this email address: DJAmethyst@aol.com. I am enclosing a link to the Hazel Dell Lions Club so that you may get a better idea of what our club does. http://members.home.com/hdlions/ Sincerely, Donna Blevins, Hazel Dell Lions Club
CLASS ACTION SUIT ON CELLULAR PHONES CAUSING CANCER?
Our friend Mr. Carlo is back again! He is afraid that people might forget about him or something. This time he has suggested that the attorney who ran the litigation in class action lawsuits against tobacco companies might consider another one on behalf of wireless consumers who have been affected by radio frequency emissions from cellular phones.
The first thing I have to say about class action lawsuits is that the consumer doesn't necessarily benefit from this type of litigation. The attorney certainly makes a ton of money while the customers generally get a coupon for their troubles. I am sure many of you have seen this type of request by an attorney that has come in the mail in reference to a class action suit in exchange for some cheesy coupon. We have already seen the results from the litigation with the tobacco companies too.
However, even if this attorney were considering doing so, he will probably wait until 2003 to do that. Why would he wait. Well, the World Health Organization (WHO) has asked for more studies on cellular phone use and cancer. They have requested that the research be focused on changes in brain activity, reaction times, and sleep patterns. (I don't sleep with my cellular phone in my bed, do you?) So far, nothing has been proven that cellular phones have caused any type of cancer. The tests that have been conducted to date have been shall we say misleading? Maybe we will stick with saying that they are less than credible based on the testing methods and procedures used.
The FDA and CTIA (a private organization of wireless companies) will be doing research on this very subject. The results are expected to be available in 2003. CTIA has agreed to fund the research recommended by the FDA under the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement reached on June 9th.
Then we have the two congressman from Massachusetts who introduced a legislative bill called the Wireless Phone Health Risk Assessment Act of 2000. The bill required that the FDA spend 25 million dollars of our tax money on research even though the above agreement was reached. Very interesting when you consider that our federal legislators after leaving office are paid their current salary until they die and they don't pay social security taxes either. It is no wonder they are so willing to throw our money right out the door. They aren't feeling the brunt of it like we do.
WASHINGTON DC POLICE RESIST COMMUNITY BUYING CELL PHONES FOR DEPT
Not surprising, Washington, D.C. is now home to Mr. Carlo. But that isn't really the issue with the police force nor does it have any relation to Mr. Carlo. Just thought I would toss it in as a barb.
Brookland is the northeastern part of Washington, D.C. The most crime ridden area in our great capitol city. The community is concerned enough about the amount of criminal activity that they have recommended buying phones for the local police in the area to help them do their job. A community of about 15 blocks patrolled by 45 officers. Robberies have jumped 2 to 3 times what would be considered normal in the area.
The police force has stated that they have a limited budget? If the community is donating the phones then there isn't a budget issue other than airtime of which local carriers would probably donate as well. The CTIA has stated they will be talking with police to determine if they can be of assistance.
CTIA member companies have donated around 14,000 cellular phones and airtime to neighborhood community watch groups. This comes out to 52,000 reports of criminal activity taking place each month thanks to the neighborhood watch groups who have been given the donated phones.
The problem with overloaded police radio networks is widespread. We simply cannot see the logic in the police department refusing assistance from the community to help them to be better prepared in doing their jobs.
Maybe it is a status symbol issue. The DC Police force only supplies high ranking officers and some detectives with cellular phones. Another issue brought up was that some district area's of police force would have cellular phones while other areas did not. I would think that a little PR on the local news would diminish that problem quite a bit. Must be a status symbol thing.
BRICK & MORTAR STORES BATTLE E-TAILERS WITH M-COMMERCE
M-Commerce. The ability to shop using a cellular phone. Also known as Mobile Commerce. Former employees of Mindspring have come to the defense of the Brick & Mortar retailers. They have developed a wireless application to allow retailers to communicate with customers irregardless of location and conduct purchases via their cellular phones. This will extend into using pagers and PDA units as well.
Right now the service is fairly basic. A customer enters the preferences of things they would like to know. Examples are the price and availability of a specific product. The retailers have already entered inventory and pricing into a database and when the customer makes the inquiry the information is transmitted automatically to them.
They are currently developing a patented software which will allow actual transactions to take place over the cellular phone or other wireless device. How secure the transmission of this data may be over a wireless device has yet to be addressed.
Even with the service being so basic in form, it still generates foot traffic to retailers and malls. With the brick and mortar industry still seeing 190 million adults each month in malls around the US, not including the teens, there is still a very competitive market looking to grab a customer's attention.
Although e-commerce is doing well, the hidden skeleton in the closet is that 28% of online transactions fail and 23% of people stopped purchasing at the site. That is a huge market loss to online e-tailers that will give brick and mortars the chance to regain customer market share.
Only a few e-tailers are doing m-commerce and the sales volume isn't overwhelming by any means. We must also take into account that we are social animals. We will always head to the mall to check out the other people and just to get out of the house for a bit. Malls may be seeing a decline in sales because of the internet but they are not going the way of the dinosaurs into extinction.
For those of you who are curious, the company developing this service is called Strio and the transaction service is being called Wireless Internet Transaction System and is abbreviated as WITS.
WALKING & TALKING. NEW BOOTS POWER UP CELLULAR PHONES
This has to be the strangest product we have yet to hear about. It isn't quite ready for commercial distribution and probably won't be for some time. But it is interesting none the less. First we had the foot powered generator. Now we have prototypes boots being built that allow for our natural walking activity to become a source for powering up not only cellular phones but other electronics such as laptops and other devices.
Two British inventors are currently testing the prototype boot. The boots are built with a device in the heel that will generate power when the heel of the boot is pressed a few millimeters. The type of surface will make a difference. Solid ground will be more effective than walking on sand.
The current goal is to make the boot generate 2 to 3 watts of power from each boot. There is still some work to be done. A recent test showed that the boot wearer had to walk at a leisurely pace for four hours to generate one minute of talk time on the phone. The inventors are confident that they can improve the amount of charging power available after walking for a specific amount of time.
Other applications for the boots may be in monitoring vital signs of people with medical conditions or allowing soldiers to determine when landmines are in close proximity. As testing progresses, the applications for the boots will become a little more obvious.
The name of the company is even more interesting. The Electric Shoe Company based in the UK. They are hoping to land clients such as Nike for various types of shoes and electronic manufacturers such as Sony for powering up walkmans, MP3 players, and other gadgets.
From a military aspect, they would be used for giving a soldier to to be outfitted with wearable computer units that would be powered by walking in the boots.
It is still too early to tell how and what these boots will do for the consumer. If they do become available, I am going to get me a pair as soon as they hit the market. They would work great if I were to go out on a date and then at the end of the date if all went well, I would present a light bulb telling her that she was definitely the highlight of the evening.
GREED AND STAGNATION KILLING THE WAP TECHNOLOGY FUTURE
We hear all the time about WAP this and WAP that. Many companies are starting to clone one another in their race to offer WAP oriented service. What they don't know is that their efforts, resources, and money may be totally wasted on a dying service. The fact is that most consumers are not impressed by WAP technology not only in the US but everywhere.
Geoworks has claimed they have a patent on the WAP technology and are requiring companies to shell out $20K as an annual fee. They had a deadline which many developers have chosen to ignore. Geoworks has extended the deadline because they are in a legal dispute over who holds the patent on WAP technology and stated this may have caused some confusion. For those companies that fail to license the technology by the end of the next deadline, they will be forced to pay a $100K license fee for a 3 year contract. Companies that have been found to have violated the patent will be held accountable for the infringement as well.
There is still a question if companies will abide by the next deadline or not. So far only seven companies have complied with the licensing agreement. There is also some major discontent among the providers of WAP enhancements as to if they should license their ideas as it relates to WAP technology too. If everyone starts to patent their ideas, the cost of WAP technology is going to become much more expensive.
To top off all of this is the indifference to WAP by cellular phone users. One programmer has stated that he has given up on developing WAP sites unless a client specifically insists that a WAP site be built for the company. Consumer apathy to WAP technology is much to high to overcome. Some companies such as Merrill Lynch are still claiming that WAP is a goldmine. But we have to look at BTCell Net. A very large European wireless carrier who claimed that they would have a million WAP customers. How many do they have? A disappointing 50,000 subscribers. Sprint PCS isn't driving up the number of subscribers that they had hoped for either.
The cost to companies to create and offer a WAP site is far beyond that of which most companies will contemplate as part of their budget and smaller businesses can only consider it a pipe dream. With the limited options available to consumers, it is very understandable why it hasn't caught on as a service. Many manufacturers who have the WAP phone at stake are doing their best to try combat consumer apathy and are working feverishly to get consumers to purchase WAP phones and service. The other problem is in the use of WAP service. It isn't very user friendly neither to the consumers nor to the developers that create WAP sites.
Those companies that are saying that WAP still has potential are claiming numbers of 242 million users by 2010 with WAP phones. These types of predictions are great. But they are not proven nor tested which is why many investors have not jumped into WAP development companies. It almost comes across like a cheer leading squad trying to rally a losing team.
Not to worry though. There are new technologies coming out that should be much more user friendly the cellular phone users. We will just have to wait until those offering WAP technology figure out that there are new technologies on the horizon that are coming real soon and they should be looking ahead instead up at the pie in the sky hoping for the dollars to come floating down.
CELLULAR PHONE SPAM ABOUT TO BURST IN COLORADO
There are a lot of companies out there just tripping over themselves with the thought of sending spam to wireless phone users. The advertisers offering the service need a bib to keep the drool off of their chests at the prospect of advertising revenue.
The first test will be done in Colorado with 1000 mobile phone users. These are supposedly opt in type programs. The question that comes to mind then is how will these advertisers know to contact you. We will probably get email spam and maybe even some telemarketing calls. It is doubtful that the carriers would be foolish enough to give out cellular phone user numbers but you never know. Which companies are looking to be in the forefront of the spam advertising to cellular phones? SkyGo, WindWire, 24/7 Media, and Double Click are the ones getting all the attention to date. Colorado was chosen because SkyGo is located in Boulder and wants to do a trial run in their home state.
It was suggested that the ads may be presented while you are dialing. Now that is something to make you think. When you are dialing out, how do you see the telephone number you are dialing if the screen is filled with spam. We were wondering about that but no answers were available.
Other questions that popped up when we learned of the spam advertising:
How does it affect a consumers airtime usage?
Would a cellular phone user find ads on their cellular phones to be beneficial? Do consumers really want to be bombarded with more ads? What information is sold to third parties? If a user did sign up for ads, how many times would they have to ask to be cancelled?Ask AT&T wireless subscribers about something like this happening back in April where they heard three beeps on their phones thinking it was a family emergency only to find it was an unsolicited spam advertisement. It was annoying enough that a Congressman from New Jersey decided to draft a bill to make cellular phone spam illegal.
Get ready for the push for wireless advertising spam. We are probably going to be hit with it on our pagers, PDAs, and cellular phones whether we like it or not. Yes, pager users and PDA users will also be affected by this pest problem. We will have to stand back and watch this service take a major flop on the marketplace before they are back to the drawing board trying to target advertising to something else. Many people see the wireless industry as a place to get rich because there are so many users. We refer to them as Come N Go types. They come with limited knowledge of the industry and go out the back door when it doesn't work out.
My only question is this one. Doesn't anyone research the wireless industry anymore?
MORE INFORMATION FROM OUR DID YOU KNOW FILES....
Did you know....
That if you subscribe to Verizon wireless and then change an option available on your plan, your contract date is reset to start on the date of the option plan change. It doesn't matter if you are only three months from the end of your contract, you reset the contract timer.
There are around 16 websites dedicated to the bashing of Sprint PCS service.
Nokia has came out with it's first world phone called the Nokia 8890. A very nifty device which allows for voice dialing too. You can travel the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
CDMA technology is expected to become the dominant player for the manufacturing of cellular phones and for use on wireless networks.
Traditional payphone use is being pushed out by cellular phones so fast that providers are now looking to offer other services with the payphone to subsidize the market loss.
Children and WAP phones are not a good mix. At least 12 adult sites are now available to WAP phone users.
Nokia was the manufacturer for the older model AT&T branded phones.
The first cellular phone was actually manufactured in 1973. The first time the cellular phone was introduced to the public was eleven years later in 1984. The DynaTac 8000X mobile phone. (We actually have one on display that was created with a temporary manufacturing code)
Western Wireless is looking for a Director of Operations. (Not that you care!)
We carry batteries for 95% of the cellular phones that have been manufactured to date.
Only 1% of internet surfers actually purchase online.
WIRELESS PHONES ALLOW SMALL BUSINESSES TO COMPETE
Using a cellular phone for your small business can make a big difference if you want to compete with the big boys. As a small business, you must present the most professional image you can offer to a customer at all times. Turning on an answering machine isn't going to do the trick. It may be cheap but the savings is going to cost you customers.
When a customer calls in and hears an answering machine with a warped voice on tape saying: "I am either on the other line or away from my desk, please leave a message...." type thing, they are asking themselves if you are for real. Remember that you are in business and that quality counts. Put yourself in the customers shoes for a moment. What incentive do they have to leave a message or even do business with you? Did your answering machine build confidence with the customer? The most likely answer is NO.
Quality doesn't have to be expensive but it isn't "cheap" either. Every service you add to your business should be considered a long term investment. Selecting a quality product or service is about getting the best value for your dollar spent and is not based on price. If your buying decision is based solely on price, you are going to get more than your fair share of disappointments.
My advice is to lose the answering machine. Cellular phones are known as the anywhere anytime form of communication. If you cannot afford the cost of cellular phone service each month then you are probably not financially prepared to run a business anyhow.
There are millions of small businesses in the US that are operated as one man shops. These business owners use cellular phones as their only form of communication with customers. Their home phone line is then used as a fax machine or to connect to the internet as needed. Besides, you are making a smart move by having another phone line just for business. The cost of doing business with your cellular phone may be a tax write off. If you are working out of your home, it is not as clean in reporting your business expenses to the IRS.
Cellular phones are a perfect match for the small business. When a customer calls into a business, they have a burning question that is a priority to them. Plan on losing a customer's business if you cannot acknowledge their question when they call in. They will move on to the next company who can.
Ironic as it may seem, small businesses using an answering machine can be lumped together with the mega corporation. Just another faceless entity to the customer. You are giving up your one true advantage as a small business which is that you can offer personalized service to the customer.
There are a number of benefits to using a cellular phone for your business beyond what was mentioned above. The most important of any of them is that you are presenting a very professional image while maintaining your advantage as a small business.
One more thing you need to keep in mind when you change over to using your cellular phone as your business line. Reprint your business cards and stationary with the new phone number. If you must scratch out your current home phone number, tell the customer why and then follow up with sending them a new business card as quickly as possible. Did I mention that you need to present a professional business image at all times? Include this factor into every decision you make for your business. Don't and you will be closing your doors real soon.
EDITORIAL COMMENTS FROM EARTHVISION CELLULAR
William has said that he is being lit up for his grammar errors. For the record, William wanted to apologize to anyone who is a stickler for grammar in English. He said if you think his grammar is bad in English, check out his grammar errors in Spanish. It is much worse. Now we know why he really went into medicine in the first place. A doctor's writing is so bad you can barely read it and the use of grammar is non existent. His handwriting is absolutely horrible too. I said something to him about it once. His response was: "Confucius say poor handwriting better than good memory."
Speaking of grammar errors. William has contacted the publisher of his e-book and told them he is withdrawing his book from publishing. We will take the entire e-book and put it up on the website for anyone and everyone to read and benefit from the information available. This information is copyrighted so you will need to contact us for permission in writing to reproduce any of the material.
Just a quick peek at what college students think about owning a cellular phone. 15% think that a cell phone makes them look stylish, 28% believe they are a necessity for a good social life, and 29% believe that owning a cellular phone is a status symbol.
We have two new strategic partners. One of the companies offers gift certificates for all of the companies listed on their site. We are the only wireless vendor listed with them. The other company we have created an alliance with isn't launched yet. It was founded by a former Microsoft executive who branded it as "preference shopping". They found us and asked us to be one of their vendors. More strategic alliances are in the works. As soon as the dust settles, we will build a page listing our strategic partners for our subscribers to take advantage of the various offers available.
PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND ASSOCIATES ABOUT OUR NEWSLETTER. WE APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT AND ASSISTANCE IN MAKING OUR NEWSLETTER A SUCCESS.If you want your name to vanish from our list because our newsletter is just too boring or someone else signed you up, let us know. We will reluctantly take you off of our newsletter list. And we still reserve the right to make faces at you when you aren't looking.