The New York Times has an interesting article up exploring why Japanese cellphones, which are insanely ahead of the curve, have failed to find an audience outside of the country. Believe it or not, Japan has twice the number of smartphone users as the US does.
“Japan is years ahead in any innovation. But it hasn’t been able to get business out of it,” said Gerhard Fasol, president of the Tokyo-based IT consulting firm, Eurotechnology Japan…
Yet Japan’s lack of global clout is all the more surprising because its cellphones set the pace in almost every industry innovation: e-mail capabilities in 1999, camera phones in 2000, third-generation networks in 2001, full music downloads in 2002, electronic payments in 2004 and digital TV in 2005.
A number of obvious reasons why Japanese cellphones have failed to grab a hold of the broader worldwide cellphone market have to do with hardware design and software, but when it comes to actual features, Japanese cellphones are in many ways ahead of their time.
NYT has the full scoop over here.
Mon, Jul 20, 2009
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