We’re back from a summer in Japan, with fond memories of new friends, shopping bags full of cheap plastic Gundam action figures and several bottles of fine sake. But I would throw it all under the country’s speedy Shinkansen bullet train for just one more day with my beloved Japanese mobile phone.
For a month, I toted around Vodafone’s 905SH, manufactured by Japan’s Sharp. It sported a stainless steel frame and a striking black 2.6-inch LCD screen, which swiveled 90 degrees to display nine channels of digital television in crisp, widescreen format. It also surfed the Web, served as a debit card, downloaded and played music and took two-megapixel photos. It won my heart. Here in America’s pokey mobile-phone market, we have nothing like it.
Thanks to early investments in high-speed mobile networks, Japan’s cellular telephone industry is about a year and a half ahead of America’s. Everywhere you look, it shows. Subway riders tap messages to friends, listen to music and play games on their handsets. More than half of Japan’s cell-phone users own speedy 3G broadband phones (versus a puny 5 percent in the United States).
The Japanese have enjoyed analog TV on their mobile phones since 2003, but the quality was erratic and users would lose the signal on moving trains. Earlier this year, the carriers unveiled a new digital TV standard, devised solely for mobile devices. The quality is excellent. My phone not only played seamless television but let me record, TiVo-style, up to five hours of TV on a one-gigabyte memory card.
Why? Because the markets are different. That +50% vs. 5% should tell you how large of a market these feature have in each country, and how large the “early adopter” segment of the Asian market really is.
What I’m interested in is how much of a selection is made available in the Japanese market. In that, when I look at the list of cell phones currently available for my provider (Verizon), I see a lot of older stuff, and a lot of overlaping feature-sets.
The Koreans get great cell phones, too. I enjoy reading about them on various gadget websites. The reviewers (who tend to be American so that I can read what they are saying, although there are probably lots of foreign reviewers, also) often bemoan the fact that the phones probably won’t make it to America, or if and when they do, lots of the cool features will have been disabled.
The reason why U.S. is behind many countries is because it’s still protectionist and conservative. A way to introduce new technological features to masses is for Campuses like Microsoft and Apple to be early adopters.
Its NOT the early adopters,..
Its that the price of TECh in japan and Koria is CHEAP.
And US Imported charge PREMIUM prices, for what ends up, we pay about what is paid in japan.. SRP is $200 and you get it for $50 WITH a 3 year contract. When in Japan its $20-30 MAX..
REAl question comes to WHY, in the USA we pay for 3-5 year old tech at 10 times the PRICE? when most of the money goes to the corps in the US.
THEn we cant buy direct from the makers, EITHER.
Just give me a cell phone that always works, and that works in most places. I don’t make phone calls with my TV, and don’t need a cell phone that plays TV shows.
I have SMS on my cell phone, and have never used it. Same with the Web feature–resolution’s too coarse to be used for most websites. My iPod contain the music I want.
The carriers suck! The only method that would work really well in the US would be for the carriers to provide a high speed network and then the consumer would get a phone that they liked made by Apple or Nokia or whomever. This will probably happen but not until 3G or maybe 3G and a half. You can buy lots of world phones now but the difference between the US and Japan or Europe is the network. I will start a company and fix this whole mess.
Here, in the boonies of Indiana, our reception is terrible. While calls aren’t dropped all that often, the reception is almost always bad. And as bad as it is, the competition also has their bad points. I only use my cell when it is totally necessary.
I want good phone service before I’ll consider trinkets like video.
I know nothing about this subject – so someone help me out with a question. Does the geographic size and density of U.S. vs. Japan make a lot of difference? Or U.S. vs. Europe for that matter.
It seems easier to me to wire a country that is only the size of one of our states vs. trying to roll out new tech and infrastructure in the U.S. or even just select places in the U.S.
Just get a Treo or anyother smartphone and then you can do anything this guy can, including the streaming video. Orb.com can stream from any pc tuner card equiped desktop pc to a Windows Mobile or 3g enabled phone. You can also set MP3s as ring tones.
Shawn has a point that I wanted to bring up. Japan is about the size of California. Put 43% of the US population in California, you’ll see how fast investment would be done to put high speed wireless every where.
I think a big part of our problem is we are building out 6 identical, overlapping cell phone networks over a very large country. Every minor change to the network will get installed piecemeal or not at all and costs billions. Our Geography is much more spread out, and user density much lower in this country. Unless the FEDS step in and force the consolidation of the industry to 2 carriers, the current MESS will continue indefinatly.
Competition is usually a good thing, but unfortunatly not always perfect.
Don
Don
This begs the question: what is on TV that is so important we need access to it on our cell phones? OK Seinfeld reruns, but what else?
12 This begs the question: what is on TV that is so important we need access to it on our cell phones?
Agreed.
And why the “TIVO-like” ability to record 5-hours of it to a memory card on a portable device?
Why not just have a “TIVO-like” device at home to record any of that stuff for you?
My cell phone dispenses assorted sweets and snack food items. It also vibrates in a sensual manner. Sweeeeet!!!!! Another telemarketer calling! Let it ring baby. 😉
John
look at disposable income
This kind of thing mystifies me. I hardly use my TV to watch TV… why on earth a phone would need to take pictures, let alone do something as pointless as watch TV…
I guess if these came to the US I couldn’t tell people to get off their couches, leave the TV and go outside for a change. Because they could just watch TV out there too.
8,
Its the profit margins…
These folks make ALOt of money, and install Old tech.
They dont look to the future and to expansion.
They put up the BARE minimum, and expect it to work 10+ years.
It took then 20+ years to get Analog up and running. NOW digital is here, and it will take ANOTHER 20 years to get it out to the Boonies and hiway system.
But the way things ARE. when a type of Tech gets popular int he US, prices go up for the materials to Put it up. Which is only profit into another corps pockets. If they could be nice to each other, and SERVE each other, and work together, insted of penny pinching basterds that they ARE, maybe the TECH in the US would be behind by 5-10 years, and we would be in the TOP again…We NOW rank about 4-6th..
#13 good point, but if the TiVO could be programmed using the cell phone I could do it while I travel home on the train as I read the TV listing pages on the web or even in the evening paper.
New feature required
I lived in korea for a year in 2003,… I too miss the tech, but the reasons we don’t get cell phones like this in america are easy,… Unkle sam, and our phone service would haffta help get our country in the stream line of multi media. Those other countries use 20 strands of fiber optics where we use 3. Their governments helped them get wired up. Thats not gunna happen in this country, allso its not helpfull to have companies like verizon overcharge us for obsolite phones with disabled features that come out after 6 months for an overcharged upgrade, that by the way, is obsolite, and usually made in korea or japan, funny cause when i lived in korea the phones they were way nicer then when i came back,… i wonder if american phone companies are buying the phones 4 years in advance, or asking them to build old models,… either way, we as americans should be pissed that we let ourselves be marketed like sheep to an imbarresing extent. Other countrys litterally laff at our tech,…. and we’re a superpower?
Short term profit versus long term progess.
The majority of yanks don’t know any better and the roviders are simply cashing in on the ignorance of the masses.
The reason for little cell phone selection in the USA is cell providers hate inovation. They put all their time and money into crushing it.
When a company like Motorola goes to Verizon with a new phone with 10 great features, Verizon says to disable 8 of them or it will never get on their network.
Why? Because Americans are generally satisfied with the status quo and are willing to pay twice as much for older technology. The same thing can be said for new cars. The cars in Europe, sold by the same companies like Ford, etc provide better quality, innovative styling, and cost less to own.
Until consumers choose their products using their brains instead of the “oooh factor”, the corporations will continue to shove s*** down our throats till we choke or go broke.
As an executive in the telecom software space: The simple answer is that the handset business is centered in Europe, not the US. They get the first look at the best new stuff. But, if you want to get an early look…
>>Just give me a cell phone that always works, and that works
>>in most places.
Bingo. I get a little tired of reading about how we can live our entire lives through our cell phones, when most (all?) of the country doesn’t even have access to cell phones that always work, and that work in most places. Somehow, nobody seems to get too upset about this. In spite of the ridiculous “Can you hear me now?” advertisements implying otherwise, the answer all to often, for all too many people, is “NO!”.
I have lived in 2 major metropolitan areas, and have tried 3 different carriers and 7 different phones (expensive, cheap, medium-priced) over the past 10 years, and I’d have to rate the overall quality of service as “sucks balls”. I guess if I can watch those Seinfeld reruns until I get somewhere with better reception, that would take some of the sting out of it. But why should I assume that the TV reception would be any better than the shitty cell phone reception?
You guys are missing the point: Fault isn’t on the companies or the industry as a whole, but on the consumers. Not enough of a percentage of American consumers want these products as to force the companies to introduce them.
No company is required to take a flyer, and risk a loss, on any technology. VZW’s trend of disabling features is acceptable because the vast majority doesn’t know any better.
24 The simple answer is that the handset business is centered in Europe, not the US.
I thought that was related to #14, and this article:
http://goeurope.about.com/cs/stayingconnected/a/cell_phone_buy.htm
Europe has adapted GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) as their mobile communications standard–unlike the US, which left companies to each create their own standards, resulting in largly incompatible networks. Settling on the GSM standard makes it easy to buy a cell phone that works in every European and Asian country,…
Sounds like they get a much bigger ROI for developing for GSM, than any of our smaller markets for other [“better”?] technologies.
[Question for the editor: is the link above too long, or is anything that doesn’t line-wrap okay?]
You are ALL correct.
consumers dont want the options, because US concerns/corps, want you to pay MORE for those options…Those options cost NOTHING in the other nations.
corps in the US, decided they wanted a propritary system, one that didnt match up to the competition, they wanted THEIR phone ONLY to work on 1 network, Their OWN. THEY got it. THEY LOST. Why should WE pay for Their stupidity??
The Satilite industry Hurt itself, and PAID for it, and STILL is. By over pricing, and not competeing with cable. they paid for it, and have done some major changes.
The same cant be said for the Cellphone industry. they Dont/WONT put in the money to do something, UNTIL you have paid for it 10 times over. Which is a BAD business plan.
At this point there is a Big battle over the telco’s wanting to charge MORE money because of the internet. If the Cellphone corps had started 10 years ago, THEY could of set up a Full wireless backbone, insted of useing the telco lines AS their own hub.
NOw they are scrambling to set Their OWn backbone up. but it will take them Time and money, WHICH they dont want to spend.
Peeeeeople…
It’s a telephone. It’s a friggin’ phone. If you were paying attention, the original intent was to be able to make phone calls in an unusual situation. The intent was not to IM your pal on what movie to go see. The intent was not to play Pac-Bud in class. The intent was not to take pics on vacation or upskirts at the mall. The intent certainly wasn’t so you could watch American friggin’ who-gives-a-shit Idol at the bus stop. The intent was not to forget everything because your phone knew it all. Cell phones had a simple purpose. GREED and IGNORANCE bastardized cell phones into annoying “must-haves”…
… and they certainly shouldn’t cost a minimum price-fixed standard of $30 a month — and then, only if you sign up for the 2 year contract.
You STOOOOPID SHEEP in America have made things this way. Uneducated, ignorant, sheep. I want it now!!! I NEED it NOW!!! I want it now!!! I NEED it NOW!!! I want it now!!! I NEED it NOW!!! I want it now!!! …. modern America, so disappointing. Instant gratification. You idiots!
The reason these things aren’t in America is the size of the country, and what you’re willing to pay. That’s capitalism. Welcome to Econ 101. A couple of high-IQ geeks that post here, with nothing better to do than masterbate their cell phones, want a spiffier vibrator. Guess what? Many of us don’t want, or care about any of that crap. We want to make phone calls.
BAAAAAHHH!!
29,
AGREED…
Give me 1 DECENT Cellphone that will pick up a siganl, ANYPLACE in the USA… Just Voice. At $20 amonth, No roaming, no time limits…I would be Sooo happy.
someone posted in Yahoo answers, What would be nice in a cellphone… I suggested that it be a modular setup…ADD the features you wanted, and a Nice SD/MF card to it.
PDA option,
Cam option
Camera 3gig pixel
and so forth…
We did a Vote on WHAT options everyone wanted on a site.
After all the rag tag talking, I asked.
How about a decent signal ANYWHERE?
We all agreed, Just give us a signal.
The US is also one of the ONLY countries that the makers HAVE TO ADD, security features that arent used in other countries.
To me it would seem the obvious reason is that Americans drive everywhere.
In Europe, Korea, Japan people use public transport, so they have time to fidle with thier phones, watch TV, etc… Can’t to that on the freeway while piloting an SUV.
that in turn creates the demand, with makes for phones with cooler features.