Free Mobile Phone Access - At A Price

Holy annoying home pages, Batman!

The idea is fantastic, despite the use of Flash and auto-start music is beyond annoying. Xero has the potential to genuinely reach a whole new level of marketing if they would simply loose the silly self-starting Flash demo. Actually, you can turn the audio off, but I have to say that my first reaction was to make a B Line for another page rather than sitting through another rendition of “midi music gone mild”.

Once you get past that audio annoyance, one has to admit, the idea of presenting free phone service in exchange for serving up well targeted ads is quite clever. I think the real key will be if these guys are able to walk the fine line between relevant and annoying.

My take? Based on the front page, I think there may still be some work to do. But I would say again, if Xero can back up the idea, it might just have a chance to really fly.