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One argument is that maybe SpinVox just hasn't had the manpower, foresight, or doggedness to grow fast enough to accommodate moving quickly into such a massive segment as the mobile phone industry. But, while I don't doubt there's some truth in this, three years is surely long enough, even for a fledgling company?

On the flip side maybe demand just isn't there and the service is growing as fast as it can. Again, there's probably some truth in this but I would argue that people aren't going to demand a service they don't know about. The service operators need to be proactive in taking on these sorts of services and promoting them to the general public. It surely can't be that hard for the carriers to negotiate a decent deal with SpinVox that gives them access to the service without a massive up-front investment?

Maybe, just maybe, these two reasons combined have led to the slow uptake of this service, but I rather think there's something a bit more sinister going on.

The mobile phone industry is notorious for being slow on the uptake and being very willing to charge ridiculous amounts for fledgling (or in some cases established) technologies - just think how much it costs to use data services on your mobile (T-Mobile's flat rate Web n Walk package excluded - Gordon). So it wouldn't surprise me if the SpinVox service is just being held back because the mobile networks are happy charging a healthy premium for it. While some people may find this acceptable I, for one, am getting a little fed up of it.

Think about it, while the Web 2.0 "revolution" is providing more and more useful and free services (ok, it's actually funded by advertisements) day by day, the mobile phone industry is still charging ridiculous amounts for all but its most rudimentary services. Now you might argue that all this extra cost is subsidising the cost of your hand set but just look at the iPhone - $499 with a minimum $59.99 per month contract. You're trying to tell me it costs $1938.76 to make an iPhone? That's crazy money!

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think everything should just be free but there's got to be some more friendly usage models than either one massive contract (that you never use all of) or rip-off-as-you-go. That's not to mention the woefully inadequate data quotas that come with 90 percent of contracts. How about we have all these services available for anyone anytime, you just pay for everything you use, whether it be a text, call or data packet. And, rather than charge extortionate prices make it sensible - a penny for a text, 25p for a megabyte of data, etc. After all, what would the carriers prefer, that I never use these extras services and never pay them for it, or, use them when I need to and they make a little bit of money each time?

Either way, I long for the day I can sit down on a park bench and browse the Internet while upspeaking (a term I just invented for speaking to my phone to upload my blog) to my blog, and downloading the latest episode of diggnation but, until I can do all that without having to sell a kidney to pay for it, I'm in no rush.

Note: For a look at Sandra's early impressions of SpinVox click here.

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