Re: News on HST2

Roland Perry wrote:
The replacement trains, which could come into service in time for the London
Olympics in 2012, will have a more upmarket feel, with scope for
airline-style seat-back entertainment systems and broadband internet access.

The former would be a bit of a waste of money, given that affordable
high-capacity handheld video players will undoubtedly have made fixed
airline and railway entertainment systems obsolete by 2010.

Nah, will never happen in that timescale. Just as the last five years of
3G hype hasn't, in fact, delivered something I can watch movies on, on
the way home on the train (one of the applications the then SoS for DTI,
Patricia Hewitt, said was the reason for giving 3G such a glowing
future). I wonder if 3G actually works on most modern trains?

Not very well, on Voyagers and Pendolinos at least. But...

But you were talking more about "Video iPODs", perhaps. Still somewhat
optimistic, after all the Thermos flask was invented in the 1890's and
people still buy cups of tea off the trolley.

....indeed I was. Even at the moment, I'd recommend walking through any
off-peak VWC train and looking at entertainment choices: in every
carriage, there'll be several people watching DVDs on laptops. Everyone
else will be working on a laptop (suits), avoiding electronic
entertainment (~unsuited over-30s) or listening to an MP3 player
(~unsuited under-30s). Nobody will be listening to the onboard
entertainment, even if it's working.

Within 2 years, every mid-market-or-above MP3 player sold new will also
have video capabilities. Within 4 years, every mid-market-or-above MP3
player in use will also have video capabilities (at some point within
the next five-to-ten years, these devices will converge with mobile
phones - the timeline is less predictable because the mobile phone
market is driven by corporate machinations as much as by new
technology).

At this point, the huge majority of the movie-on-a-little screen target
audience will have their own movies and their own little screen. This
will provide a better quality and more convenient offering than using
onboard systems, unlike the tea/thermos example.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org

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