If you have heard of ZIP DIAL, then no point reading further but if you haven’t then you will regret not having read this article before.
1985 - First mobile telephone service started on non-commercial basis in Delhi. Call rates at its zenith. But 25 years down the line here we are where even a rickshaw puller owns a Nokia 6600, possibly 2nd hand! And the time frame is just 25 human years. We have heard of minute changes sweeping past centuries, finding the true nature of light took more than half a millennium and now we use the same light to connect two mobile phone devices.
What really made me pen down this article is the power of ’missed calls’. ”Give me a missed call when you reach the metro station”. A missed call from the vegetable vendor, signalling his advent in lieu of shouting out aloudissed call from the pool taxi – a request to you to get down and be ready to board etc. etc. etc. These are, you might say, trivial things which don’t really need a mention. What really is intriguing is ZIP DIAL, an innovation so enticing that it might be SAMSUNG’s ‘next is what’! Call 08030050055, a computerized call, automatically become a ‘missed call’ after the first ring and seconds later you have with u an SMS containing the latest cricket update. Try it, you will, if you don’t believe me. All it costs you is your phone’s particulate battery.
I am not running an advertisement campaign for ZIP DIAL. I just felt that a nation whose heart throbs for cricket deserves this piece of information. This isn’t limited to cricket. Recently, I attended Mood Indigo in IIT Bombay. A missed to xyz number made you aware about the upcoming major events at the fest. Imagine the future, a missed call to Star Movies would let you know the days movie schedule; missed call to some stock exchange would enlighten you about the current dollar-rupee rate. But missed calls show magnetism only when directed in areas of huge public interest. And reminisce; these are still missed calls, i.e. free of cost information.
And next comes the crore rupee question – how does the ‘missed call’ operating company earn from this. Well, I don’t want to go into the depth of their economics but their direct income comes from the advertisement that follows after their cricket update.
Happy missed calling!
1985 - First mobile telephone service started on non-commercial basis in Delhi. Call rates at its zenith. But 25 years down the line here we are where even a rickshaw puller owns a Nokia 6600, possibly 2nd hand! And the time frame is just 25 human years. We have heard of minute changes sweeping past centuries, finding the true nature of light took more than half a millennium and now we use the same light to connect two mobile phone devices.
What really made me pen down this article is the power of ’missed calls’. ”Give me a missed call when you reach the metro station”. A missed call from the vegetable vendor, signalling his advent in lieu of shouting out aloudissed call from the pool taxi – a request to you to get down and be ready to board etc. etc. etc. These are, you might say, trivial things which don’t really need a mention. What really is intriguing is ZIP DIAL, an innovation so enticing that it might be SAMSUNG’s ‘next is what’! Call 08030050055, a computerized call, automatically become a ‘missed call’ after the first ring and seconds later you have with u an SMS containing the latest cricket update. Try it, you will, if you don’t believe me. All it costs you is your phone’s particulate battery.
I am not running an advertisement campaign for ZIP DIAL. I just felt that a nation whose heart throbs for cricket deserves this piece of information. This isn’t limited to cricket. Recently, I attended Mood Indigo in IIT Bombay. A missed to xyz number made you aware about the upcoming major events at the fest. Imagine the future, a missed call to Star Movies would let you know the days movie schedule; missed call to some stock exchange would enlighten you about the current dollar-rupee rate. But missed calls show magnetism only when directed in areas of huge public interest. And reminisce; these are still missed calls, i.e. free of cost information.
And next comes the crore rupee question – how does the ‘missed call’ operating company earn from this. Well, I don’t want to go into the depth of their economics but their direct income comes from the advertisement that follows after their cricket update.
Happy missed calling!
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