DISQUS

Mobile Industry Review: Trak for Android looks really wicked

  • Peter Cranstone · 1 year ago
    What's the revenue model?

    And if you can think of one - what would you be willing to pay?

    Free food always attracts the masses - what would be fascinating to understand is what would it take to convert the masses to fare paying customers?
  • Ewan · 1 year ago
    You're absolutely right Peter. That definitely remains to be seen.
  • MartinSFP · 1 year ago
    In the meantime, Brightkite does something very similar.
  • Ewan · 1 year ago
    Ah yes that's very much in my could-be-good folder. I'm looking forward to
    seeing how it's actually, actually implemented. Anything that involves me
    having to actually type "I'm at the Soho House Hotel" simply won't work
    though. Only the geeks will do that. Your average normob can't be arsed
    and will be too busy worrying about chocolate.
  • MartinSFP · 1 year ago
    I've just had a look. Oh dear - you do actually have to type your location (although you can setup presets like 'home', 'work' etc). Why don't they support GPS? Surely that's the obvious solution! Fair enough, have a non-GPS option but not even giving people the ability is insane.

    Yahoo also have something similar (using GPS) in the works.
  • Ewan · 1 year ago
    I think the short answer, Martin, is because most handsets simply don't
    support GPS. And if they do, you then need to write an application for each
    one that will interface with it's GPS receiver and pass that to the online
    service. Dream on if you want this to work with your average RAZR. Ergo
    text is the way ahead.
  • MartinSFP · 1 year ago
    Most GPS handsets are S60 or Windows Mobile so you'd only need 2 apps. I suppose if America is your target market then yes, text is sadly the only viable option right now but GPS will make the whole service so much easier, faster and usable.
  • Ewan · 1 year ago
    Agreed. You've also got Blackberry too. Then you have to ignore everyone
    who uses a sony, samsung, LG and so on. Arse.
  • Vlad · 1 year ago
    Wonderful. If only Google had not bought Jaiku...I hope my point is pretty obvious. Jaiku for S60 already hints at something like that, Google not integrating it into Android is highly unlikely.