Have mobile, will travel; have laptop, will travel. Have ISP, but cannot surf when travelling. Do all laptop owners know that they can travel & surf?
Starting in the mid-80s, I have regularly had to make presentations on a computer when away from base. Only twice haave I been able to connect my laptop (was a luggable, years back) to the net when in another's office - even when I have given advance notice of this need. The solution is to use a card - mine is a Nokia D211 Data Card. However, when I asked a large, local phone shop for advice, neither anyone there, or in their regional office, knew *anything* about such devices.
I checked with Orange (not easy to get coherent comms with them...) and yesterday they told me that in all London, they had just 3 Nokia cards available, across 3 stores.
My product is a free GUI to Windows and the web, so needs a net connection to demonstrate. Without the card in my laptop I couildn't do this. How normal is it for laptop owners to not be able to connect to the net via their laptop?
I have a suggestion: laptop makers build this comms facility into their products. If Orange did deals with the manufacturers (ok, it may have to be done on a regional basis) they could get a built-in user base :)
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