(keitai-l) smartphones in Japan (was: Fukuoka Kyushu 3G Vodafone coverage)

From: Gerhard Fasol <fasol_at_eurotechnology.com>
Date: 05/16/05
Message-ID: <42883576.1000503@eurotechnology.com>
 > The situation regarding smartphones in Japan is REALLY...

Depends on your definition of "smartphones"...

Don't forget: the two leading Japanese operators
KDDI/AU and DoCoMo are in the business of making
profits. And they do extremely well at that:
KDDI/AU's profits just increased 71% and they'll
invest about US$ 4 Billion in network upgrades.

They do this by carefully listening and understanding
MAINSTREAM JAPANESE CUSTOMERS, and giving these
mainstream Japanese customers what they want
and pay for. That's very down-to-earth. If you
want to know what Japanese people on the street
want you can just ask them. I do that everyday,
because we need this information for our
customers.

Those carriers who do this, gain about
1/4-1/2 Million customers per month.
Those carriers who don't do this lose customers.

The successful Japanese mobile phone operators
are NOT in the business of offering "smartphones"
vaguely defined by some foreigners in Japan.
If Japanese mobile operators would focus on
supplying the world's best smartphones for the tiny
number of Western foreigners (most foreigners
in Japan are not even Westerners), they would soon
be in very deep trouble, and Masayoshi Son would
very quickly jump into that opportunity - again
he would most certainly not do this by offering
the kind of "smartphones" Western foreigners want...

Gerhard

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Gerhard Fasol, PhD                         Eurotechnology Japan K. K.
fasol_at_eurotechnology.com               http://www.eurotechnology.com/
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Received on Mon May 16 08:54:21 2005