

Japan’s super-advanced mobile web: Too unique to serve as a global blueprint? - markbao
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/09/japan’s-super-advanced-mobile-web-too-unique-to-serve-as-a-global-blueprint/

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briansmith
The 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?

~~~
jrockway
_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.)

~~~
nickb
The two are not mutually exclusive.

<http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2007/01/72329>

------
amackera
"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?

~~~
briansmith
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.

~~~
mtw
"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)

~~~
briansmith
"Apple proved this wrong"

Where is Skype for iPhone? Why isn't tethering built into the iPhone? Why did
they pull Netshare from the app store?

"I expect Google's android to do the same."

First, what can Android do that Windows Mobile and Symbian haven't already
been doing for years? Android is just Google's attempt to get its
advertisements displayed more often on mobile devices. It is the same thing
that every advertising company has been trying to do in Japan, the US, and
everywhere else ever since it's been possible to advertise on phones.

Authorized retailers for AT&T/Verizon/etc. cannot sell any devices that aren't
approved by the respective carrier. If the carrier doesn't approve the Android
devices then they can only be sold at stores that don't sell service
contracts. Those independent stores are not successful in the US, because
everybody wants a phone tied to a service contract so that the cost of the
phone is subsidized. If the carriers don't subsidize Android phones they will
be priced out of the market.

Further, any carrier can block any device. IMEI numbers are allocated in
blocks and it isn't hard to identify the model based on the IMEI number.
Without regulation ("net neutrality") they can also block any application or
any protocol from operating on their network.

~~~
mtw
The Apple "platform" is not 100% free (you can't do yet voip or tethering),
but for the first time, mobile software developers can deploy easily
applications without asking permissions from carriers.

Also, your web browsing experience on the iPhone is independent from the
carrier. For instance, on any other carrier, they cram their links and
"preferred partners" on starting page.

Again, I agree there are limitations. If you are looking for complete
"freedom", have a look at openmoko.

"everybody wants a phone tied to a service contract so that the cost of the
phone is subsidized" disagree. look at prepaid phones.

~~~
briansmith
Even with the iPhone, carriers have the final say. If AT&T doesn't like an
application, it can just ask Apple to remove it from the AppStore. Or, they
could just block the network access that the application needs to work (e.g.
blacklist websites that the application contacts).

It is true that the iPhone doesn't come with vendor customizations, which is
nice. However, none of the AT&T phones I have purchased have been extensively
customized either.

Most prepaid phones are subsidized by the carriers that distribute them (e.g.
AT&T GoPhone), and those phones are locked to that carrier and have customized
firmware. In the US, there are very few OEM phone sales. That is why you only
see Nokia stores in the very biggest cities here (Chicago, New York, LA); I
don't think there are any Sony-Ericsson shops in the US at all. OEM phones
just don't sell.

------
aofstad
Mobile 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.

~~~
babul
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.

~~~
stcredzero
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.

~~~
dats
I've noticed intelligence is respected but conformity is respected much, much
more.

From a recent article titled "Why Apple isn't Japanese"

"One notorious case in point involves Shuji Nakamura, the brilliant scientist
who invented a revolutionary energy-saving blue-diode light source only to
find himself mired in years of litigation as he struggled to extract royalty
payments from the company that had profited from his invention. Nakamura
ultimately abandoned Japan for California. Fasol recalls asking scientists at
the University of Tokyo if they considered his departure a blow. " 'No, not at
all,' they told me. 'It might be good to have someone more ordinary'." "

<http://www.newsweek.com/id/73236/output/print>

~~~
stcredzero
There's a lot of conformity in the US as well. It's often harnessed by
marketers.

