July 1, 2008. That's Day One for the new law forcing drivers in California to either wear a headset, pull over to make a call (unheard of) or - imagine this - not use the phone at all while behind the wheel. Given the options - and our love affair with the phone - looks like people will be paying for fancy headsets, or paying tickets. As a phone hog myself, I use a headset. But while I have tried desperately to adopt one BlueTooth or the other, I find myself reverting back to a faithful wire, over the head gizmo. Better sound for me and for my caller. Let's hope with the law will come headset innovation.
Yes, headset makers/sellers - even the not-so-good ones - will be the obvious benefactor of this new law. But there are other technology providers that will use this to skirt the recession. Text-to-speech, which continues pop up in new places, will proliferate even further. Speech-to-text (see my posts on SimulScribe and others) will also thrive. Jott's new BlackBerry download seems worth trying, although I'm not there yet. It uses speech-to-text to keep you from responding to email while driving (I assume that will be illegal too).
In fact, all speech technology and related innovation will continue to boom as we learn that tiny keyboards are not that handy, after all. Driving or not. Take the example of RingBranch, a new 'personal auto-attendant' application that leverages Faves-type wireless plans to enable people to make endless free wireless calls. While I am not sold on their model (Unlimited plans arrives shortly after they launched) I do like the notion of them becoming a consumer phone portal. Add speech to this application and now any California driver will call their RingBranch number, speak their contact name and be connected. I know many cell phones come equipped with voice dialing but a hosted service will provide better accuracy and be able to use it as a hook for other portal-like features. Personally, RingBranch would interest me if I could use it to make cheap international cell calls.
Who said the government can't influence the economy. The headset law will help many - in more ways that one.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
It's been about a year now that the city of Chicago, though not the rest of Illinois, has mandated that drivers wear a headset or stop talking on a cell phone while driving. The fact that the law exists only in Chicago makes me a useful lab rat here - I live in Chicago but work in a close suburb, outside the Chicago City Council's jurisdiction. And I must say that while I faithfully use my Blue Tooth while driving around Chicago, I will sometimes pick up my hand-held cell phone to make a quick call while driving around the suburbs. I've found that I no longer feel comfortable holding a cell phone and driving at the same time. Telling this to friends and family members has resulted in at least two, but possibly as many as four, new purchases of headsets. California's new law is good news for the headset companies but even better news for state drivers. I can't recall how many times I've found myself stuck behind a slow, unfocused SUV, only to look a little closer and see the driver talking away on a hand-held cell.
Thanks for your feedback/comments on RingBranch - much appreciated! And we hear you about becoming a hosted portal application - that's where we're headed. To that end, we launched ad-based calling today as a way to monetize our business. You can read about the details here: http://tinyurl.com/6x6kbl
If you have any questions, just let us know, as your input is important to us!
Best,
RingBranch
ringbranch.com
blog.ringbranch.com
twitter.com/ringbranch
Post a Comment