Comment Spam, Contact Dave. And Some Interesting Thoughts From Tim

Sadly, because of the comment spammers who were up to 70 phony posts per hour last night I have turned comments off until further notice. It’s sad when these idiots have to spoil a good thing, but oh well… You can reach me via the good old method of email: dave (at) satviz (dot) com

Tim Hibbard, whose blog you should be reading and whose location can usually be found here, posted a couple cogent comments to my post on Canadian insurance companies offering cash discounts for GPS use:

—————–

I think this is a good idea, and it helps promote the positive connotation of GPS. This is an example of GPS helping the consumer and we will need a lot more examples of this before GPS can rise above the “track my kid” status.

I believe that the biggest market for GPS is consumer. Transportation companies and assest/vehicle tracking will always have a need for GPS, but there is a lot of money to be made at the consumer level. However, the privacy implications issues will bubble over sometime in the next 3 years. If the average consumer does not see the positive daily benefits of GPS, or is not educated on the potential positive uses of GPS, then the consumer market will shut down. People are willing to give up privacy, but you better give them a good reason to do so. Americans are cheap and lazy efficient. That is why Garmin’s new mobile product that routes you to the cheapest gas station is great for the consumer market.

The cell phone service providers have to get on board and allow us access to the GPS data. Nextel is the only company that will allow a 3rd party java application on the phone to access the GPS chip. If the rest of the companies would follow Nextel’s lead, we can write some killer applications that add value to the average consumers life. Then, when the GPS privacy implications come to a head, the average Joe will want GPS to stick around because it helps him be cheaper and lazier.

————

I like what Tim has to say. Especially the part about “lazy”. There’s an old saying about necessity being the mother of invention. Personally, I believe that’s true, and I also believe that laziness is the father. Inventing things to make life easier is rarely wrong … and it usually turns out to have some sort of socially redeeming values as well.

I know Tim and his company have been having a lot of success with java and the Nextel phone systems … but it’s so funny, I was just interrupted by a phone call from yet another dissatisfied Nextel tracking customer asking for a price quote to toss out the NexTel product and substitute a non-Java application on an HP phone/PDA that will provide a much better level of service. Not trying to knock NexTel out of turn, their own clients are doing that … as far as Java in place of a real OS like Windows Mobile … I’ll let the software engineers debate that one.

Anyway, thanks Tim, talk to you soon.