Free Dumb
Gregory Alan Bolcer (gbolcer@gambetta.ICS.uci.edu)
Sun, 09 Aug 1998 14:34:22 -0700
I just got a new free phone from Citgo with
my caller id PacBell service. It's really cool.
the first one they sent me the power receptor
in the base fell out during shipment so they just
shipped me a new one. Now I can tell who's trying
to reach me while I am typing online and even know
if they send a message or not. Very cool. Life's
full of free things now. You can get 32 Meg for
free, after a $30 rebate. You can get a 33.6 modem
for free after a $18 rebate. Cell phones are even
free with the subscriber service. Heck, sound
cards are now obselete with USB. They are giving away
sound cards witha $11 rebate. I think I have to
agree with Barksdale, they will be giving away computers
soon now too. I don't see anything with price points;
I think the bottom of it all is going to be -$50. This
basically means that companies are willing to spend $50 per
person on advertising and shipment to get the thing to you.
Not only that, they will be disposable/recyclable.
Another hardware trend that I see happening. Everything
will have a GPS/Clock/wireless modem in it. I think
this is going to happen well within the next 7 years.
You can fit every single circuit in your standard rockwell
33.6 modem chip on a $.22 wafer with any combination of your
new chip technologies. The most expensive part of the GPS
is the receiver, but they've gone from $4500 to $79. No
sense stopping that trend. Clocks? It comes with the
GPS, but just to point out a trend that's gone way past
zero. Free digital wristwatches used to be all the rage.
Greg