I just got a pamphlet in the mail the other day from Rogers, offering all kinds of new services to buy on my Blackberry. Included:
- Rogers NewsClip. This handy application helps you save time by delivering the latest news, headlines, stock quotes and more from the Internet to your wireless device. Just $3/month.  I’m not sure what this gets me that an RSS reader doesn’t, however, and Bloglines mobile let’s you choose the news feeds you care about, and best of all… it’s free.
- AskMeNow… gives you the answers you need quickly. Type in your question, and for just 75 cents, it will answer back with a text message.  Google with a friendlier UI. Â
- bbTV… stale news clips downloaded to your device for a paltry $5 per month.
- Mindit Assist. This is a piece of software that allows you to customize responses to emails and add canned brochures, quotes and so on in response to email requests. Useful, but pricey. It’s the sort of thing I’d expect to spend $20 on once, not $20/month.Â
- Sales Anywhere. I can imagine that if you’re a sales rep dependent on SalesForce.Com this would be very useful. $25/month.
Some of these are potentially useful, but they’re priced to underwhelm. Wireless carriers need to think a little bit more like customers, and a little bit less like wannabe monopolists.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
