> One other simple economic explanation: it is most profitable to sell the
> cheapest
> product you can for the highest price the market will bear. In a very advanced
> competitive market like Japan, the only way to distinguish between handsets is
> price and handset features; service/coverage/etc. are all basically equal. In
> the
> US, because of the state of network coverage, you must first find the operator
> that covers your area, and because of the differences in service/coverage,
> there
> isn't much need to differentiate offerings with advanced handsets. Also US
> cellphone use derives from car phones, so the market is willing to bear larger
> handsets.
> Fundamentally, cellphones are selling very well in the US, so why spend money
> to
> make more expensive advanced handsets? Of course this will have to change
> when,
> eventually, you can by a more advanced phone from a Japanes manufacturer that
> works in the US.
This can be very true for the US but doesn't explain the poor performance of
Japanese GSM manufacturers in Europe.
Car phones in Europe are typically derived from mobile handsets with an
adapter to the car audio and power systems, the GSM network coverage and
services between operators are identical enough and the environment is even
more competitive than in Japan as there are multiple equally good GSM
operators to choose from (compared to NTT DoCoMo's dominance).
Petri
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Received on Thu Mar 15 16:24:33 2001