Rui CarmoThere isn't any decent news today, but a couple of folk dropped me a line regarding Russell's recent post on the Vodafone 3G launch and asking whether I was planning to write a reply. One of them managed to tick me off pretty badly (assuming I had some sort of "free inside track" to the mobile industry and asking for info) and the other was just... Wierd. Altogether too wierd, in fact.
Both my (short, polite and to the point) replies to them were along these three topics:
- Why? I already talked to Russell about his post. It's pretty good and to the point, even if we have different views. There's nothing more to it. Just in case you didn't catch that, I'll say it again: It's good. It has a clearly defined viewpoint. It's his opinion. Ask him for more information on Live!-like services in the US mobile market - there's a reason the map atop this site is centered in Portugal, you know...
- The European marketplace is an entirely different animal from the US - or Japan. In fact, it is a virtual menagerie of completely different markets, and the Vodafone 3G roll-out is, at its highest level, a set of guidelines that all Vodafone operations are converging towards - it is a grand vision, for sure, and it's already being delivered in a lot of different fronts (branding, cross-sell deals, technology platforms, etc.), but it will always have local twists to fit those different markets. If it ever went to the US, it would adapt as well, because (get this!) it's pure common sense to adapt your offering to different markets and cultures (Coca-Cola is a classic case study for that, and it's no coincidence that the "Think Global, Act Local" moniker is so closely associated with them.)
- It's work. I have a Disclaimer that I tend to stick to unless the issues are broad enough (and non-controversial enough) for me to be able to address here (or anywhere else in public, by that matter). It gets me pegged as cynical everytime I refuse to get involved in arguments, but I'm used to that. Work is work, blogging is blogging. And what I do isn't even blogging, because I refuse to enter ideological quagmires like the trendy BoingBoing folk do - they can obviously discuss controversial stuff like packing fresh brains and podcasting (just to grab two random items off today's home page) to no end. I can't - I have a life to lead.
Again, as I've written many times before, whatever you read here, it's never about what I really do for a living, and if you try to divine something from that (or from what I don't write about), you're being extremely clueless.
With that off my chest, I can add it's very nice to work for a company that understands mobile music, especially when it gets things going with local artists. And if this kills off the iPod two years down the road, I won't whine about it - it's just the way things are.
Global strategy, local action. And a red logo. Hmmmm. Lemme go fetch a fresh soda - I'm not telling which brand. :)