A Great Leap Forward

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Friday, Feb. 8, 2002
The wireless Internet could use a bit of a bounce. And Britain's Pogo Technology (www.pogo-tech.com) thinks it can deliver one. WAP phones, because of a lack of bandwidth and long download times, have left consumers underwhelmed. And most users are instead waiting for the third generation of mobile devices, which promises to bring faster connections. But that technology is still about 18 months away. Pogo Technology's Pogo device, however, allows near-3G Internet access today.

What's a Pogo? Well, it's a hand-sized, curvy-and-rectangular gadget with a 78-mm wide touchscreen in the middle. It can be used as a mobile phone. It provides full-color access to the Net. It can send and receive e-mail. It can download and play MP3 music, as well as play games. And it has diary functions. But Tim Critchley, co-founder and marketing director, says Pogo's raison d'être is Web delivery over current GSM networks. Pogo manages this because its technology compresses Web content into a ultra-thin format that's readily accessible at GSM's slower speeds and provides a nice visual image on the screen.

When WAP (wireless application protocol) phones debuted, Critchley and some of his colleagues in the London office at Razorfish, the Internet consultancy, soon determined that "it was not fulfilling expectations for accessing the wireless Internet." So they began exploring ways of making web content easier to reach. Six months later, they settled on compression technology and left Razorfish to launch Pogo in July 2000. But once they had the technology, they next had to design a device to incorporate it. They opted for a funky-looking, colorful gadget that would appeal to young, urban adults. It retails for about $420, a price set to keep it within reach of the target audience.

Pogo was launched in late January, and for now it's being sold only by the British chain, Carphone Warehouse. The Fresh network it uses is Carphone Warehouse's, which piggybacks on the One-2-One wireless network. Eventually, however, Pogo Technology expects to make the device available from other outlets for use on other networks. It has taken a very conservative approach, Critchley admits. Initially, only 5,000 units have been manufactured. "We said, 'Let's not burden ourselves with massive amounts of stock,'" he explains. But first reactions from buyers have been positive, and Critchley happily notes that no one has yet returned a Pogo.

Pogo Technology, which has received about $7 million in startup funds, earns some money on each unit sold. But its main stream of revenue will come from a monthly $11 fee for providing Internet access. Critchley says once it has established itself in Britain, it wants to quickly hop into the rest of Europe, where GSM is the standard network. Of course, 3G technology will eventually become widespread, so he says that future generations of Pogo will be 3G-ready. But by gaining an 18- to 24-month head start on high-speed connections, Pogo Technology is hoping its device will jump ahead of the competition.