Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global
nytimes.com
Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global
1–10 of 22 posts
Re: Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global
#2The article misses a very important point. Carriers have very thorough certification processes. Imagine each of these companies having to certify each device. They would go bankrupt! Well maybe not, but they would not make any money to make it worth while.
ATT has the toughest certification process - so much so that others won't even look at new phones unless ATT has agreed to certify them. ATT certification is like a green light to T-mobile and Voda.
They need to standardize on chipsets and software platforms. The other crap like funky keyboards and lcds are no biggie. Keyword here is scale. Jap phones don't scale for worldwide distribution right now.
Re: Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global
#3Broadcast television is the only cool thing about Japanese phones, that I miss on my iPhone. I just wish my iPhone could get broadcast (HD?)TV. Is there a reason it couldn't?
Re: Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global
#4They make the point that Japanese handsets all typically have very (expensively) custom interfaces. If only there was a free-to-build-upon mobile operating system with a decent developer toolkit available.
Oh.. wait..
Re: Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global
#5The article speaks of excess hardware making the phones "surprisingly clunky", but really the phones don't have any hardware that you wouldn't find in a top of the line Nokia, and the software is more or less equally shitty to use. What the Japanese phones do have is software features that rely on carrier support (like iphone's visual voice mail) and widely available cheap data transfer rates, but the actual phones really aren't all that special. Japan should export the infrastructure first, then worry about the phones.
-The internet browsing thing is basically because a lot of Japanese websites have a "mobile mode", ultra simplistic layout as an option. It's not really a phone feature.
-TV receivers in mobile phones require a special signal to be sent for them (the currently available models can't deal with normal dvb-t, for example [AFAIK]), and there are different standards in use for this in different parts of the world. And well, it just isn't a terribly useful feature in the first place.
-Push email is used to replace SMS, which is pretty cool but that'd require a data plan over here.
On the other hand, Japanese phones generally lack stuff we take for granted: t-9 text input, spelling dictionaries, they use a slightly different network standard (FOMA vs 'normal' 3G),... all of which are possible to fix, of course, but then, it wouldn't be that hard for the competitors to copy their good features either.
I'd say that if Japanese phones ever become a hit in the west, it's because of the cool and different designs rather than features.
Re: Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global
#6Broadcast television is the only cool thing about Japanese phones, that I miss on my iPhone. I just wish my iPhone could get broadcast (HD?)TV. Is there a reason it couldn't?
Flash support?
Actually, I hear Slingbox has a pretty decent app for it (WiFi only though).
Re: Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global
#7I lived in Japan from 2002 to 2005. I have to say, one of the first things that struck me was how crazily advanced their cellphones were. Not only that, but _everyone_ had one.
Re: Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global
#8Broadcast television is the only cool thing about Japanese phones, that I miss on my iPhone. I just wish my iPhone could get broadcast (HD?)TV. Is there a reason it couldn't?
What would you do with HD video on a 480x320 screen?
Anyway, it'd need an extra chip to work, which would make the phone bigger, and then it'd kill your battery when you used it (receiving signal, decoding video, playing sound and keeping the screen lit), so it would be useless in all but a few scenarios, like riding the bus to work (but is there anything worthwhile on at that time...).
I used to have a TV-tuner for my Game Gear. Used it maybe three times. It's a useless gimmick 95% of the time.
Re: Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global
#9The article misses a very important point. Carriers have very thorough certification processes. Imagine each of these companies having to certify each device. They would go bankrupt! Well maybe not, but they would not make any money to make it worth while. ATT has the toughest certification process - so much so that others won't even look at new phones unless ATT has agreed to certify them. ATT certification is like…
There is no actual technical need for certification, though. Only the GSM modem needs to be certified for technical reasons, the rest is just so AT&T can get its advertising all over the phone.
But honestly, Japanese phones are not that amazing. They have pretty cases and nice incremental features, but they are not that different from US / European cell-phones. The "internet access" is not the real Internet in many cases. Japanese phones can also avoid ugly and big QWERTY keyboards because Japanese, in general, has shorter words than English (and therefore multi-press input works better).
Re: Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global
#10The article speaks of excess hardware making the phones "surprisingly clunky", but really the phones don't have any hardware that you wouldn't find in a top of the line Nokia, and the software is more or less equally shitty to use. What the Japanese phones do have is software features that rely on carrier support (like iphone's visual voice mail) and widely available cheap data transfer rates, but the actual phones r…
Yeah, the features in the Japanese market are mostly due to the ease of expanding infrastructure. I remember getting a plan with Au that only had the good features in the Tokyo metro area. That was fine, as I never left that area. Millions of other people were in the same boat. Maybe they left the Tokyo area once or twice a year, but other than that, never.
In the US, that would never fly. The people that are willing to pay for the features need them to work in all the "large metro areas", which doesn't mean "Manhattan" but rather "suburbs of Phoenix" and so on. This makes infrastructure roll-outs very expensive, and it's why they never happen.
(Incidentally, people in the US and Japan have similar commute times, but the population density in the US goes down a lot faster as you move away from the city center. In Tokyo, it's densely packed until you get to the mountains.)
Population density has its advantages; look at everything Japan has that the US doesn't (100Mbps internet for $20/month, interesting cell-phone features, amazing rail systems), and population density explains it all. But then, they don't have 5 bedroom houses for $150,000, either.