Rupert Goodwins' Diary

Thursday 21/02/2002

It's amazing what people will pay for. Virgin has enthusiastically adopted a new Sendo mobile phone, because it supports interactive games like chess over text messaging. A quick calculation shows that a typical game could net Virgin eight quid in call revenues: at ten pence per move per person, you'll tend to think long and hard before moving Qxc3 or whatever it is these people do.

Surely nobody will pay that. Well, er.... the Sendo phone I use has a chat mode, where each text message is displayed in a tiny font and scrolls up the screen as new ones come in. It's a desperately accurate simulation of a chat room. I was showing it off to someone, and before I knew it I was a quid down and still nattering to another pal as if we were just on the Net. It's very addictive.

So: beware. Me, I'm going back to phone boxes before it all gets too silly.