
Mobile web usage nearly equal PC web in Japan - danw
http://cameronmoll.com/archives/2007/09/mobile_web_usage_nearly_equal_pc_web_in_japan/
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danw
Japan is an interesting case. From what I understand mobile email has largly
replaced SMS usage in Japan

 _Using e-mail rather than SMS as the messaging medium for mobile phones has
made mobile Internet services in Japan more successful than in the West, says
an industry expert -- a claim supported by recently discovered mathematical
properties of networks._

[http://www.thefeaturearchives.com/topic/Networks/Email__Scal...](http://www.thefeaturearchives.com/topic/Networks/Email__Scale-
Free_Networks__and_the_Mobile_Internet.html)

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jsjenkins168
It makes perfect sense if you think about it. Being charged for sending text
messages is ridiculous. Look at the iPhone plan, it costs $20 more a month
just to have unlimited text messages. Its just TEXT (and only 140 bytes per
message maximum).

I dont think users will tolerate that kind of rape much longer when they can
send emails (of basically unlimited length) for free. SMS either needs to die
or the carriers need to be realistic with how much they charge for what is
essentially 15+ yr old technology.

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staunch
I think most service plans in Japan charge for emails as well as SMS. I'm
pretty sure email _is_ way more popular, but SMS is far from dying.

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jsjenkins168
The Comscore report goes on to say hours used per month for mobile is much
less than PC however. 8 vs. 19 hrs per month avg. I guess thats to be expected
though given that people are on the go when using their mobile phone.

Additional data: _"The most popular mobile internet usage was for e-mail (75
percent) followed by News/Information (52 percent), Search/Navigation (51
percent), Games (39 percent) and Blogs (38 percent)."_

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henning
Japan is kind of quirky. When other academics adopted Lisp, they adopted
Prolog. When the rest of the world adopted Perl or Python, they embraced Ruby.
Just because Japan does something doesn't mean the rest of the world will
follow.

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Neoryder
i think for the case of ruby, being invented by a jap influenced its adoption

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kingnothing
You're probably right, but "jap" is a racial slur these days.

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Neoryder
sorry, didn't know

