justin
Australian
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Brooklyn, NY
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| reply to Derek_Wildstar
Re: DoCoMo: America Strikes Out
actually the competing japan networks also offer full internet access .. I'm not sure if they ALL do, but the popular ones do.. using a "au" flip phone, I brought up dslreports.com and was amazed to see the logo appear in color (and fill up the screen of course).. one could page through the home page, although there was a limit in size .. a yahoo page would work better ..
They can all send and receive email..
Not all japanese know how to operate all the features either, many just buy them for the style, or the color, or the size .. and don't touch much beyond voicemail and phone calls.
I don't buy that americans don't want this technology -- that was an old wives tale / excuse put out by Motorola execs (we're not making tiny phones cause americans like big heavy things -- BULL!). New phone envy spreads like wildfire in any country because people meet and dump their cell on the table .. many conversations start or finish with comparisons of my phone vs your phone. If the handsets were available for $1-$100, and it was easy to upgrade (activate the new phone at the store etc etc), people would respond. Americans are not tech luddites! -- they do after all buy up palm pilots, blackberry and motorola 2-way pagers in pretty large quantity.. hell, if those "quaint europeans" can build an exciting handset market, yanks can as well. |
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Derek_Wildstar
The Water Cube is the coolest bldg EVER
join:2001-02-24
Iscandar
| Oh, I know some other Japanese wireless companies have Internet access on their phones, but only DoCoMo has i-mode; which means there are some sites you can only access with a DoCoMo Keitai. I was trying to draw a comparison between DoCoMo and AOL, in that there are some places you can only get to with an AOL Keyword. A perfect example of an i-mode optimized site is the one for Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis, [SHAMELESSCROSSPROMOTION] reference to which can be found in the DSLR Anime Forum [/SHAMELESSCROSSPROMOTION]. There is a game on Level 3 that can be played on an i-mode phone or on a PC with the Macromedia Flash plug-in.
BTW, I also didn't mean to imply that ALL Americans wouldn't want it. I just don't think that enough Americans would want it to justify the capital expenditure needed to upgrade the network, advertise the living h311 out of it and subsidize the cost of the units themselves as incentives for people to trade them out. Sure, your 18-24 demographic would go nuts for i-mode, but beyond that the American numbers get really sketchy very quickly.
If there was some established American company who would be willing to take that kind of risk in a sluggish economy to gain a foothold, it would certainly be speculative. Because, given the what's happened to the telecom market in the past 18 months, I don't expect you'll find too many venture capitalists willing to bet on that horse anytime soon.
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I use conjecture and hearsay. Those are kinds of evidence. - Lionel Hutz |
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justin
Australian
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Brooklyn, NY
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| said by Derek_Wildstar:
If there was some established American company who would be willing to take that kind of risk in a sluggish economy to gain a foothold, it would certainly be speculative. Because, given the what's happened to the telecom market in the past 18 months, I don't expect you'll find too many venture capitalists willing to bet on that horse anytime soon.
Fools! Idiots! Nincompoops! if only they would sort out the billing issue (i-mode style split with the site operator and handle the collection by adding to your phone bill) then sites would spring up immediately. A low cost site handing out low bandwidth information for small fees to thousands of subscribers can be profitable right out the gate.
Instead I've heard that when WAP looked like it was going to be big, telcos demanded a lionshare of any revenue that customers might end up paying for premium services -- wap!! stone dead.. |
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Derek_Wildstar
The Water Cube is the coolest bldg EVER
join:2001-02-24
Iscandar
| Heh, heh....funny how it all keeps coming back to the telcos, isn't it? If only more registered voters of this great nation would actually say something....
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I use conjecture and hearsay. Those are kinds of evidence. - Lionel Hutz |
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xentar
@rr.com
| I would almost have to agree with the points Derek brought up. I have a StarTac from about 2yrs back which has no net access but I'm not loosing sleep over it. I have Net access almost anywhere I go; School (T3), Work(T1+), Home(cable w/3puters on LAN). So, unlike the Japanese society where a computer would be a luxury to have in the house (due to tight space), I have access anywhere anytime almost.
The main point is the mass transit part, it makes perfect sense.
Good analysis Derek. |
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napframe
join:2002-01-20
North Hollywood, CA | reply to Derek_Wildstar
You are starting to sound like an undercover advertiser. Please keep all that damn advertising in Japan! |
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