No 3G killer applications for a long time

date: April 25, 2001

The hunt for the elusive application that will propel super-fast 3G mobile phones into the future will take longer due to Japanese mobile giant NTT DoCoMo Inc's decision this week to delay a commercial launch.

Front-runner DoCoMo, which had promised the launch of 3G or third-generation services at the end of May along with a camera-equipped video conference cell phone, says full commercial services will now begin four months later on October 1.

But that isn't stopping speculation about what the 3G wireless platform will be able to do, thanks to lingering hype from last year's telecoms party, which ended up with European telecoms carriers pouring more than $108 billion into 3G wireless licences only to see their shares tumble by about a half.

"What we are doing right now is trying to spread the delivery of digital information. One way to do this is to send games, images and music and other such digital information (over mobile phones) online," DoCoMo President and Chief Executive Keiji Tachikawa said earlier this month.

A single application -- the "killer app" in tech parlance -- is often crediting with driving demand for a particular product, and the race is already on to find the best way to make use of 3G's ability to send and receive information at least five to 25 times faster than current second-generation (2G) speeds.

The most commonly identified application for 3G phones is the nearly ubiquitous prototype video phone with a camera on top, which will let phone users see each other during conversations.

While that may make full use of 3G's transmission speed and advanced chips, DoCoMo has been careful to play down expectations, predicting instead that the most common use for the 3G phone may be nothing more than as an electronic wallet.

Tachikawa said such entertaining features would eventually give way to practical use: "Eventually, it is our hope that micropayments will all be made through mobile terminals."

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