Japan’s super-advanced mobile web: Too unique to serve as a global blueprint?
1–10 of 18 posts
Re: Japan’s super-advanced mobile web: Too unique to serve as a global blueprint?
#2"Japan’s mobile web operators generate revenue by making sites and content providers pay considerable fees for prominent positions in their default menus."
Japan's mobile web is completely controlled by the carriers. This just doesn't feel right. I want my Internet to be uncontrolled, unregulated. I don't want to pay any carrier (Rogers in my case) anything above my plan fees to be able to use the services of my phone.
Japan is obviously an advanced market (the article reads like science fiction in some places!), but at what cost do these advances come?
Re: Japan’s super-advanced mobile web: Too unique to serve as a global blueprint?
#3The reason that Japanese people access the internet on their phones more than from computers is that they spend a huge amount of time on trains where there is nothing else to do. 1-2 hour train commutes each way are commonplace. They are not supposed to be looking around at other people on the train and they aren't supposed to talk on the phone. Most of the time you will be standing up because there are no seats available. What else are you going to do if you spend 2-4 hours a day standing still in one spot trying not to look at anyone?
Re: Japan’s super-advanced mobile web: Too unique to serve as a global blueprint?
#4"Japan’s mobile web operators generate revenue by making sites and content providers pay considerable fees for prominent positions in their default menus." Japan's mobile web is completely controlled by the carriers. This just doesn't feel right. I want my Internet to be uncontrolled, unregulated. I don't want to pay any carrier (Rogers in my case) anything above my plan fees to be able to use the services of my phon…
Either you have to let the carriers control things or you have to have regulation. Without regulation, the carriers are free to do what they want since they own the network. To force them to do things they don't want to do, you have to have regulation. If regulation is stifling innovation then you can abolish the regulations. But, that just means everybody is free to do what they want, and you are back to where you started.
Re: Japan’s super-advanced mobile web: Too unique to serve as a global blueprint?
#5Mobile technology advances much faster in Japan because it is so much easier to maintain and upgrade the infrastructure. In such a small country, it is considerably cheaper to upgrade to the newest mobile data technology. In a country the size of the US, not so cheap or easy just because of the geography.
Japan telecom companies were able to adopt 3G technologies much quicker than other places for this reason, and this technology became commonplace before it did in other countries. So mobile computing has had more time to develop and permeate their culture.
In any case, it's probably good that mobile internet in the US is developing more slowly and cautiously around the open internet instead of the carrier's content.
Re: Japan’s super-advanced mobile web: Too unique to serve as a global blueprint?
#6Mobile technology advances much faster in Japan because it is so much easier to maintain and upgrade the infrastructure. In such a small country, it is considerably cheaper to upgrade to the newest mobile data technology. In a country the size of the US, not so cheap or easy just because of the geography. Japan telecom companies were able to adopt 3G technologies much quicker than other places for this reason, and th…
The geographical size has its advantages but it is more about the culture and people. The society in Japan embraces technology (and the change and progress it usually entails) more readily than almost anywhere else, so such continuous early adoption creates the virtuous circles that continue to feed it.
If the markets in other small countries (especially those with similar economies) behaved in the same way, the demand (and money to be made) would fuel industry to do the same.
Re: Japan’s super-advanced mobile web: Too unique to serve as a global blueprint?
#7"Japan’s mobile web operators generate revenue by making sites and content providers pay considerable fees for prominent positions in their default menus." Japan's mobile web is completely controlled by the carriers. This just doesn't feel right. I want my Internet to be uncontrolled, unregulated. I don't want to pay any carrier (Rogers in my case) anything above my plan fees to be able to use the services of my phon…
Either you have to let the carriers control things or you have to have regulation. Without regulation, the carriers are free to do what they want since they own the network. To force them to do things they don't want to do, you have to have regulation. If regulation is stifling innovation then you can abolish the regulations. But, that just means everybody is free to do what they want, and you are back to where you s…
"Either you have to let the carriers control things or you have to have regulation"
Apple proved this wrong, and I expect Google's android to do the same (well if they deliver what they announced)
Re: Japan’s super-advanced mobile web: Too unique to serve as a global blueprint?
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Either you have to let the carriers control things or you have to have regulation. Without regulation, the carriers are free to do what they want since they own the network. To force them to do things they don't want to do, you have to have regulation. If regulation is stifling innovation then you can abolish the regulations. But, that just means everybody is free to do what they want, and you are back to where you s…
"Either you have to let the carriers control things or you have to have regulation" Apple proved this wrong, and I expect Google's android to do the same (well if they deliver what they announced)
"Apple proved this wrong"
Not really, some of the control shifted from the carriers to Apple, and the result isn't much better (or all that different overall)...
Re: Japan’s super-advanced mobile web: Too unique to serve as a global blueprint?
#9The reason that Japanese people access the internet on their phones more than from computers is that they spend a huge amount of time on trains where there is nothing else to do. 1-2 hour train commutes each way are commonplace. They are not supposed to be looking around at other people on the train and they aren't supposed to talk on the phone. Most of the time you will be standing up because there are no seats avai…
What else are you going to do if you spend 2-4 hours a day standing still in one spot trying not to look at anyone?
Read a book? And indeed, there is about an even split between people reading books and people playing with their mobiles. Remember that a lot of the trains run underground, and not every line has a cell phone signal for every provider.
I think the reason for the popularity of the mobile Internet is that there is no complexity involved to use the Internet from your phone. Everything is designed for the phone; you can buy things, you get billed for it, and it shows up at your house. On the computer, you have to type in details every time, and credit cards aren't very common, so you have to arrange some other way of paying. It's a pain.
Some other nice integration -- if you buy a JAL ticket and check-in with your mobile, you can use the phone as your boarding pass. I can check in for my flights on my US-based cell phone, but that's not going to get me through security. (Note that Japan also has realistic airport security, unlike the US.)
Re: Japan’s super-advanced mobile web: Too unique to serve as a global blueprint?
#10Mobile technology advances much faster in Japan because it is so much easier to maintain and upgrade the infrastructure. In such a small country, it is considerably cheaper to upgrade to the newest mobile data technology. In a country the size of the US, not so cheap or easy just because of the geography. Japan telecom companies were able to adopt 3G technologies much quicker than other places for this reason, and th…
The geographical size has its advantages but it is more about the culture and people. The society in Japan embraces technology (and the change and progress it usually entails) more readily than almost anywhere else, so such continuous early adoption creates the virtuous circles that continue to feed it. If the markets in other small countries (especially those with similar economies) behaved in the same way, the dema…
Japanese culture still seems to prize intelligence, whereas places like the US require you to hide it some of the time. It's almost like they're an entire nation of nerds.