Founded in 2004, 3Tera was in many ways the first commercial utility computing platform.

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No matter what the platform, function and utility, more than pretty and slick, is what works for consumers.

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Safaricom also pioneered a service which offers subscribers airtime on credit, introduced the payment of utility bills through the M-Pesa platform and also runs a robust customer loyalty award programe.

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Critics have often cited exactly these threats when calling into question the utility and survivability of the Navy's most effective power projection platform, its aircraft carriers.

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This goes one step further, when consumers are on mobile devices, such as a smartphone, where using Facebook is more like a utility (think e-mail or BBM), than a media platform to interact with brands.

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