Apparently that is the future according to many and not very suprising Google thinks so too. Here is an article by Eric Auchard at Reuters, with an interview with Googles CEO Eric Schmidt –
INTERVIEW – Google CEO sees free mobile phones, funded by ads.
Amazingly this exist in a new startup, Blyk, with an impressive team. Marko Ahtisaari, the former Director of Design Strategy at Nokia, is their head of Brand and Design. Several similar attempts have been made all with more or less success The free PC project some eight years ago in France for instance.
Lets watch and see. It is a fun approach, but I am sceptical, yet optimistic that it could work. The question is more whether the market is ready or not. It wasn’t nearly ten years ago, but might now.
