Hi Paul,
You ask somebody living in Japan to comment: I live in Japan
( http://www.eurotechnology.com/info/fasol.html ) -
I'll try to comment a little.
paul.c.eijkemans@ac.com wrote:
>
> Hello Declan,
>
> Since I am Dutch I maybe could comment on this.
>
> As far as I know KPN is absolutely not planning this. It would be a clear
> mistake since (1) I-Mode browsers have to be build into current GSM phones
> which is unlikely to happen because the strong market base for non-Asian
> phone manufacturers in Asia, (2) there will be hardly any I-Mode content
> while WAP sites are popping up like mushrooms in dark cellar. From a
> network point of view, however, is does not matter whether your content is
> cHTML or WML. And then there is, of course, the discussion on which is the
> better standard which we have seen in the keitai-i: I-Mode is marketed
> better, WAP is technologically more advanced and has more support
> worldwide.
There is also always the possibility of "leap frogging" - this happens
frequently in high-tech markets: e.g. technology/company A seems to be
far behind, however, they learn from the mistakes of technology/company
B and when the next generation comes A is in advance... This type of
leap frogging happened in the area of magnetic memories, semiconductor
memories etc. There is no guarantee that the apparent advance of some
particular company/country/business model in the mobile area keeps such
an advance forever.
> Please, don't make the error of confusing packet-switched with I-Mode or
> WAP: the cHTML part of I-Mode could as well work on a circuit switched
> network, WAP will also work on a packet-switched network, and the
> similarities between WAP and I-Mode as from a network layer perspective are
> striking. KPN will introduce GPRS at the end of this year or early next
> year, but don't expect any miracles. Yes, WAP will be faster and yes, the
> dial-in time will decrease from 20 seconds to almost zero. However, the
> same will happen as with the WAP handsets: it will takes some time before
> they are available in large quantities and in the models the customers will
> like.
>
> There are basically three main reasons, besides the money, that KPN wants
> DoCoMo in:
> DoCoMo has 1.5 years of experience with mobile commerce business models.
> KPN could profit from the lessons learned.
> DoCoMo has already experience with packet switched data. Packet switched
> data has a huge impact on your billing model.
> DoCoMo will introduce W-CDMA next year, KPN only in 2003. Knowledge
> could be leveraged.
>
> I am, however, not sure why DoCoMo wanted the 15% of KPN Mobile. Probably
> they want to be sure that the W-CDMA system, of which most patents are in
> the hands of Qualcom, is also introduced in some European countries. The
> KPN Mobile's stake in E-Plus (that 'won' a UMTS license yesterday) and the
> combination with Hutchinson is maybe a stronghold for W-CDMA. Is there any
> of the readers living in Japan to comment on this?
The reasons driving Japanese business decisions may sometimes be different
than western people may think.
DoCoMo's Head Tachikawa commented publicly, that he wanted to partner
with KPN, because it was the 400th anniversary of Dutch-Japanese relations.
This cannot be the only reason for a big investment, but it's not a joke
-
Tachikawa & DoCoMo are too serious for telling jokes in business.
Of course anybody can observe that DoCoMo and NTT are working on globalization,
and KPN is one step. Note also the relationship between DoCoMo and Hutchison-
Whampoa.
Hope this helps a little - you need to understand something about Japan's
mentality, psychology, thinking in addition to purely commercial and technical
factors. The real business decisions are always affected by risk and therefore
there is always a human component in business decisions.
Hope this helps, - Always happy to assist Andersen Consulting!
Gerhard Fasol
Eurotechnology Japan K. K.
http://www.eurotechnology.com/
fasol@eurotechnology.com
> Best regards,
> Paul
>
> >Only yesterday, the FT reported that "...KPN Mobile plans to introduce a
> >similar service (i-mode)in Europe, possibly this year"
>
> >How will they do it?
>
> >I-mode on GSM? where i-mode content can be viewed but the benefits of
> >packaged data cannot be implemented. This would be a very costly service
> -
> >to the consumer, of course.
>
> >Wait for GPRS?
>
> >I have heard rumors that the Japanese handset manufacturers have GSM
> i-mode
> >enabled phones in production - any truth to the rumor?
>
> >Declan Collins
Received on Sat Aug 19 06:38:10 2000