Against a "Sea of Laptops"

Jeff Taylor | May 27, 2005

And so begins the great climb-down from wi-fi mania. One Seattle coffee shop (no, really) opts to shut down its wi-fi access on weekends and sees revenue jump.

The owner says she thought the place was turning into a haven for laptop leeches who never talked to each other. Notice the insight that coffee seems to go better with conversation than with communication along with the fact that various demand and timing issues are always part of good marketing.

There will be more fine tuning of the 24-7, all-you-can-eat wi-fi model in the future, perhaps with the first hour free and nominal charges after, that kind of thing.