Alternatively, 3G users are promised the ability to watch streaming video or download online games to play during their commute. With such wide-ranging video applications, one would think the revolution would have already arrived.
"Personally," Fu said. "I think the bigger stumbling block for the techno-logy is sound. To enjoy video, you need to be able to hear it and to do that you need to wear a headset -- unless you're going to be the guy on the MRT who bothers everyone by watching his cellphone without an earphone. There's already a stigma to earphones and a lot of people just refuse to wear one. If you're not willing to wear an earphone, you're probably not going to be very interested in streaming video or placing video calls.
Of course, the biggest reason there hasn't been a surge in sales of 3G handsets is exactly because there hasn't yet been a surge in sales of 3G handsets. To enjoy the special services the technology offers, you need to be talking to a fellow 3G subscriber and there just aren't enough of them yet. Most analysts expect that when the number of subscribers reaches critical mass -- that is, when more of us start watching people watch their cellphones when they talk -- the rest of us will rush out to sign up.
One factor that might give 3G a leg up is 4G. In Japan, where telephony happens first, the nation's largest carrier, DoCoMo has already tested 4G with transmission speeds of iGbps. While the company says it won't build a 4G network until 2010, it promises that it will first roll-out its "Super 3G" with up to 100M bps downlink and 50M bps uplink speeds. It should be available for use after 2008.
Will 3G have caught on in the rest of the world by then? Taiwan looks more ready than the US to embrace the platform, but perhaps because it's a closer neighbor to Japan.
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