Online dating goes mobile with Dateberry
Rasool Verjee is the founder of Dateberry.com, an online dating service for the Blackberry brigade. The concept is intended to bring like-minded people together. You can join by being invited by others, who have to provide some information and a recommendation about you. Men can only invite women; women can invite men and women to join.
Since it's a new service -- official launch date is April 2007 -- it looks like you can probably wangle an invitation just by requesting one from the site.
I guess this was an inevitable evolution. And given the cost of maintaining Blackberry devices, perhaps this approach will limit the network to those with a certain level of economic means. I think Mr. Verjee is right when he says that "Technology is the new intimacy."
Or if you can't get intimacy... try cell-phone porn
Telus is loved for the warm and friendly advertising that makes use of crisp, intensely colorful images of flowers, insects and animals, often in a whimsical way. No doubt this corporate capability with graphics will stand them in good stead as they dish up web-based porn.
Apparently we've been lagging behind here in North America, and cell-phone porn is well established in Europe. Nevertheless, I wonder to what extent this will diminish their brand, since they have had fairly negative response.
References:
"But only the Berry crowd need apply: mini-keyboard Casanovas have a new dating service to find the perfect match" by Dierdre Kelly, Globe and Mail, Feb 10, 2007. [subscription required 7 days after publication]
"Telus defends cellphone porn offerings", CBC, Feb 2, 2007.
