Desktop Summit: Claire Rowland on service design [LWN.net]

Desktop Summit: Claire Rowland on service design

Posted Aug 19, 2011 0:11 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954)
Parent article: Desktop Summit: Claire Rowland on service design

Since February 2011, AT&T has had more new machine subscribers (i.e. devices of various sorts) than human subscribers

I don't get what these two classes of AT&T subscribers are. Can someone give examples?

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Desktop Summit: Claire Rowland on service design

Posted Aug 19, 2011 0:58 UTC (Fri) by foom (subscriber, #14868) [Link]

I think that includes both "m2m" (machine to machine) service, like a soda machine with a credit card reader on it, GPS tracking devices, etc, as well as data-only service, like tablets and data dongles for a laptop.

Desktop Summit: Claire Rowland on service design

Posted Aug 20, 2011 1:43 UTC (Sat) by dmag (subscriber, #17775) [Link]

Human subscribers are people with cell phones.

Machines are non-phones that use wireless data protocols. Think of the Kindle, cars that get traffic reports on their GPS, or companies that need to track the GPS location of their vehicle fleet.

I have no doubt we'll see Internet-connected toilets. You may laugh, I'm not ashamed to admit that I laughed about "playing games on your phone" 20 years ago. Heck, I never thought I'd buy a phone with a color screen -- what's the point of seeing your contact list in color?

AT&T human vs device subscribers

Posted Aug 20, 2011 1:59 UTC (Sat) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link]

Thanks. The thing is: AT&T is much more than a cell phone network; I needed some context.

I laughed about "playing games on your phone" 20 years ago. Heck, I never thought I'd buy a phone with a color screen

You're really only making a statement about poor terminology. I don't think you are playing games on your phone or have a color screen on your phone. You do those things on your pocket computer, as well as (maybe) make voice calls.

The only thing that could have been a surprise for anyone was that voice calls would be the killer ap for pocket computer (remember they flopped when they were called PDAs and didn't do telephone). Or maybe that one's laptop computer would some day fit in one's pocket.