“People Don’t Want In-Flight Internet” Nonsense
I’ve been meaning to post this for a few days, but Stowe Boyd beat me to it.
With the ending of Boeing’’s Connexion service, some have presented the idea that travelers want to “get away” from their computers while on a plane, and that in-flight Web access is somehow undesirable. I find this to be absolute nonsense. Forbes quotes analyst Doug McVitie who said “When the doors close on the airplane, there’s normally a sigh of relief–people want to be unreachable.” McVitie totally misses the point. Boeing’s key differentiator from other services was that they offered the ability to surf the Web, which (for those who know their way around a browser) is liberating, not constraining.
I just ordered a Verizon wireless card for my powerbook, and know many others who have done the same. I bought mine so that I could be online anywhere — boating, in the car (with the wife driving,) at the neighborhood pool etc. Verizon sells a ton of these cards, and according to Claude Mitchell at Verizon they are seeing “seeing considerable growth in all categories” of cellular broadband. This wouldn’t be happening if significant numbers of people didn’t want always-on access. Ask the many thousands who buy these cards “would you like them to work on airplanes in flight?” you’d get a resounding YES.
Even Glenn Fleishman, one of the smartest guys in the industry said “he was surprised as anyone to see the poor uptake numbers in this story and elsewhere.” I think the answer is simple. For one, (as Scoble mentions) battery life was a constraint. Why pay $27.00 for a day of access when your battery poops out after 2 hours? Another reason is that configuring yet another account and figuring out how to log into yet another access point was daunting. I know that Scoble says some MS managers say they liked being off the grid, but I think they are an anomaly. For every overworked Microsoft middle manager playing catch-up to a competitor, there are 20 real people trying to get stuff done or want to download a TV show off iTunes. EVDO card sales prove it.
It’s sort of like saying after the Apple Lisa failed (I used to sell them BTW) that “people don’t want to use a mouse or a graphical user interface.” Lunacy. Like the Lisa, Connexion was too early, wasn’t transparent enough, and wasn’t cheap enough - period. Now we have to wait for the Macintosh and/or Windows of inflight Internet…
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The point I’m supposed to have missed has in fact been endorsed by Boeing. There is no market for “surfing the web” in-flight. It’s feasible, but that’s not the same as financially viable. Not every airline passenger needs an online security blanket. Boeing tried and the market didn’t follow. Kudos to Boeing and tough-luck to all the tech-heads who’d rather have WiFi installed in their WCs than face up to the reality that there’s a time and a place for everything.
Being “online by the pool” shows that people like Broback don’t understand this simple concept. Boeing’s key Connexion differentiator turned out to be a financial failure (at least one airline is suing Boeing as a result of the withdrawal of the service because it had invested so much in equipping its fleet). That’s a fact. the reasons behind this failure are facts too, and that’s another valid point.
A lot of grown-ups can live without 24/24 online access, in the air or by the pool. It’s the ones who can’t we have to worry about.
I agree that finacially viable and desirable are two different things. You make my case when you bring it up. My point is people want it, but it’s not viable (at this time).
People wanted the mouse, but they didn’t want to have to buy an Apple Lisa to get one.
Arguing that for some reason sitting in an aluminum tube makes you not want to get any work done just seems silly to me.
Fact: for some reason millions love to be tethered. Blackberry sales prove this.
There are a lot of grown ups that have moved on from the slide rule, and the etch-a-sketch and find their online PC to be the epicenter of their work AND play.
In ten years, being online while flying will be as common as pretzel packets are today.
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