2-way pager services

2-way pagers and PDA/Phones are also well suited to information delivery. However, there is a very important feature that allows a whole new class of applications. Those applications allow the user to receive information and then allow the user to send some sort of feedback back to the system. For instance, there are many situations where it would take an artificial intelligence program a lot of effort to make a decision based on some information. With 2-way pagers, the information can be presented to the user as well as a request for the user to make the decision to send back to the system. Furthermore, all of the information services provided in the 1-way applications can now be provided on demand instead of being scheduled, which makes the services more useful.
  • E-mail receiving and replying
    With 2-way, this service won't change much. However, the user will be able to reply and immediately send another message back.
  • Stock quote delivery and decision making
    Now with 2-way, the user can ask for his stock quotes whenever he wants. Once the quotes are given, the user has the ability, through the PDA/phone to send a message to somebody or make some kind of transaction (such as buy, or sell).
  • Delivery of Traffic Information
    This information can now be asked on demand. The user can be sitting in his car about to go on the highway having the PDA/phone in the seat next to him. He then presses an option on the screen and the traffic information can now be given, perhaps even with a graphical display
  • Delivery of Weather Information
    Again, the user can request weather information. A radar picture and such can be displayed on the screen.
  • Car alarm notification and decision making
    Here, you car alarm could notify you before the police. For instance, if you knew that it was hailing outside and that's why your car alarm went off, you can tell the car alarm not to call the police.
  • Tech Support Manager
    If you were the manager of a tech support center for some computer company, where many calls would come in each day and the calls for on-site tech support were forwarded to individuals to handle, you could have an update of how many unserviced calls are in the queue sent to your pager (I know that is a long sentence). If the waiting customers list got too large, the manager could receive the page of how many people there are and can decide if there is something wrong (maybe someone is not doing there job, or the system is down) or it is just a busy day. The manager can take the information and decide if certain people need to have their pagers re-ringed based on this information. --This is an application that a friend of mine could have used while he was at Compaq.
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