Registered: May 2001
Location:
Posts: 1

The free Edge thing seems to have blown over. But it leaves open the question of whether a limited version of the business plan is viable. So do you think a company could make money off add-supported wireless internet. The company would NOT give away PDA's; at most, they would give away wireless modems. So do you all think this could be done?

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Aberdeen, SD
Posts: 2531

Given the right conditions (including consumer confidence � i.e. a reputable company) and a cheaper product (e.g. just the wireless modem) I think it could work. Depends on the advertising, too. I'm not going to click on tampon ads, but I'd definitely click on pda ads.

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-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 152

I think it would work if the provider supplied the hardware at his cost (or close to it) and then made the profit on the ads.

Of course, I do not know what the markup is on electronics of this sort, so it may not be worth it to the consumer to put up with it. But if I could get a $300 wireless modem for $100, it may be something worth looking at.

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Howard

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: "Children are a gift from God, they are a reward"
Posts: 1049

Some thoughts:

I think d-r hit the nail on the head with the comment about what kind of advertising. The mix would have to be targeted extremely well AND would have to be effective. Print ads, billboards, commercials, and banner ads only seem to pull in people who are already thinking about buying the advertised products.

I think an idea like this might have been funded in the past by people anxious to "get a piece of the web", but in the current market I don't think anyone could actually launch something like this successfully.

It would be easy to get actual figures on how effective the advertising is though.

PDA screens are so small- ads would be very annoying(what if they started using flashing ones like that monkey we use to see around here?!). Every body likes a free thing, but wouldn't the people most marketeers are after (affluent w/ spending money) just spend the money on their own gear so as to not have to put up with extra crap? I think students and other people with similar budget challenges would snap them up, but who wants to chase them? I didn't have two sticks to rub together when I was in school. Maybe Visa and Bud Light can just pay for the whole deal!

Then again I'm not a Advertising Guru.

Michael

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"I am a debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish."