Aiming to attract alphanumeric paging subscribers wary of dictating messages to a dispatch operator, GoComm Wireless Corp. created a device called the MessageSender, currently being shipped to distributors.
The MessageSender is a portable Qwerty keyboard about the size of a checkbook on which users can compose alphanumeric messages of up to 450 characters. The messages can be viewed and edited on the device’s 16-character scrolling LCD. Once the message is created, users dial the pager number of the intended recipient, hold the device to the mouthpiece of any phone-wireline or wireless-and push the “send” button.
The MessageSender converts the message into an acoustic series of tones the alphanumeric pager translates into words, thereby bypassing the operator-assisted dispatch.
The unit, weighing in at about 5.5 ounces, also can save messages and display instructions on the LCD.
“It can send a message to any pager in the world,” said Andrew Andros, GoComm founder and MessageSender designer. “People hate to send messages to their girlfriend through an operator … or stock information to a broker. Privacy is very important.”
Andros also said the device costs less than sending messages through an operator or via e-mail. “It’s pretty doggone convenient,” he said.
“I think when it was originally conceived, the main target audience was the business user,” said Andros. “But we’ve been seeing a lot of personal and family users for pagers and alphanumeric services, and we we’re seeing the demand for (the MessageSender) among personal users as well.”
However, Iain Gillot, manager of wireless research at IDC/Link Resources, remains skeptical of the device’s potential.
“I don’t follow where the market is. It makes no sense,” he said. “Who’s going to buy an extra device to send a page when they can do so already without it?” He said sending a page via an operator is only more expensive for the paging carrier, not the paging customer.
Andros cited a focus group study the company conducted, which he said revealed the need for such a device. Further, Andros said the MessageSender has already received “unbelievable” response.
The MessageSender recently completed a six-month testing period and now is in mass production, Andros said. GoComm will distribute the product through paging service providers, resellers and various paging-oriented retail outlets.
Andros said he expects sales to be particularly brisk in Latin America, given the much higher use of alphanumeric paging there. The suggested retail price is $100. The company is developing a second-generation model that will allow the device to send e-mails and faxes.
Motorola Inc. recently introduced a similar product called the QuickWord, a word-entry device made only for analog wireline phones. Motorola is marketing the QuickWord as a family messaging device, complete with big, easy-to-read buttons for children, QuickNames buttons to store the names and pager information for up to 10 people, QuickNotes buttons that can send four commonly used messages, and a QuickSend button that sends a preprogrammed message to a preprogrammed pager with one touch. The device retails for $80.
