High-tech sector needs to convince consumers of need for its products

Sometimes it seems as if the whole, promising technological world - the one we were all promised would arrive any moment now - is crumbling away.

Those who waited for WAP to deliver the Internet and found it only supplied a peephole into a window into the Internet instead are nursing disappointment, annoyance, a sense of having been duped, or most likely, all three.

Much-hyped 3G networks are still well off on the horizon, while the Japanese are reporting a disastrous trial run of 3G, with handsets being recalled this week after offering extremely poor performance and getting very, very hot.

We also keep hearing of the wonders of the networked home, in which the refrigerator will know the milk supplies are running low, and inform the nearest Superquinn.

Yet the handful who dare even attempt a home network have enough of a challenge in getting more than one computer and a printer onto a simple LAN (local area network).

And don't even get me started on sorting out a decent broadband home connection so that some of the pretty basic things I'd like to do with the Internet become a reality.

All this is an exasperation, a combination of technologies promoted too early - a recipe for disappointment - and unfortunate market forces.

The latter include sour economic conditions that have served to realign the market, usually to the benefit of slow moving incumbents, particularly in the telecoms sector.

But more is going on to produce this disquieting feeling that the glorious technology revolution is not going at all according to plan.

And (of course) I'll tell you what I think it is. It's people - you and me - that haven't yet been convinced that much of what's on offer really does much for us, at least not for the cost at which the revolution is being offered.

This situation is exemplified by the woes facing a California wireless company called Metricom, which filed for bankruptcy protection this week.

Metricom is better known as the force behind Ricochet, a wireless access service that was considered incredibly exciting and cutting-edge just a few years ago.

Basically, a Ricochet modem and service subscription allowed you to sit in an outdoor cafe and connect to the Net on your laptop at 128bps.

The service was only ever rolled out in 15 cities and only had 40,000 subscribers, even though the company's coolness factor pushed its shares up to $103.50 in January of last year.

This week, it was at $1.82, before being suspended on Monday.

Many argue that Ricochet had simply become outmoded as many turned to handhelds such as the iPaq or Palm for wireless connection to the Web. But I think those low subscription numbers say it all, and point towards the bigger issue. People might think services such as Ricochet's are fantastic, but they don't yet see a reason to pay for them.

Getting e-mail everywhere at every minute isn't enormously compelling yet. People prefer to wait until they get back to the office or home or, in a push, use a Net cafe or airport access terminal.

The same goes for many of the services and gadgets on offer.

People just don't see the advantage, or else, the advantage does not outweigh the costs.

Think of Internet shopping. Often, the shipping costs negate the convenience, or the fact that you can't see, or test, or try on the merchandise; or the clumsiness of the website makes buying online too much of a pain. Shopping statistics bear out the fact that most people feel as I do: only a few categories of consumer products are really attractive to buy on the Web (tickets, books, CDs, electronics, flowers) and it becomes especially convenient to buy online at certain times of the year (holidays).

It's not simply an issue of cost - look at the penetration of PCs, a high-ticket item by any estimation; or gizmos like MP3 players, PlayStations and other games consoles, and games themselves, for that matter.

If consumers see value, they'll buy. Right now, much of what we're being offered just doesn't offer enough value for the cost incurred.

And much of what companies want us to buy into in the future is based on the premise that we will be eager to be marketed at.

Consider the much-vaunted "location-based services for next generation mobile handsets", believed to be a key consumer driver for 2.5G and 3G telecoms networks.

Translated into English, this means that marketers think you will want to receive advertisements for products and services in the ILAC Centre simply because you happen to be walking up Moore Street.

I already spend enough time getting rid of e-mail advertisements I neither asked for nor wanted, so what could possibly entice me to fall in love with spam on my mobile?

Sheesh! Maybe the technology industry should start listening to consumers, rather than loudly answering them with products and services they never asked for in the first place.

klillington@irish-times.ie