Peter Roxburgh writes, in part:
> 1. The public may tolerate the recent losses of service, but would Western
> consumers tolerate such a loss of service? Remember, if (when) i-mode is
> exported the consumer is more likely to have a choice of service/content
> providers (especially in the US & Europe).
They might not, but, as you point out, with a (probable) greater variety
of service providers, competition could make up for it: i.e., whoever offers
the most uptime wins.
> 2. Japan is culturally unique; this may help explain the massive growth in
> i-mode. However, there are still a lot of constants across the world: if
the
> service is user friendly and affordable and the marketing makes you want
to
> buy...
Oh what a can of worms this is. EVERY country is culturally unique.
Don't get me started.
In the case of Japan, you ARE looking at high-speed growth for a
variety of reasons: late start on mobile phones, high urban population
density, relative affluence (cf. Asia generally), high land-line costs
both for service provisioning and time billing, low internet penetration
compared to much of the G-7, lots of commute time on foot and
on trains, etc., etc. And these are somewhat multiplicative effects,
so it might be asking for too much to expect any other internet-phone
market in the world to see the same rate of growth. These differences
are not specifically cultural, however - other places fit the profile (or
will soon) despite gaping cultural differences.
An almost-always-on internet connection wherever you go?
Giles' piece should really have been called "Why i-Mode Crashes
*Hardly* Matter."
> 3. Market conditions are different. In other parts of the world PC access
> and/or television access to the internet is very popular. In other words
for
> many users in Japan the phone is their only access to the Internet;
outside
> of Japan most people will use it as a second method of internet access.
Couldn't it equally go the other way in Japan: people gettting serious
about desktop internet access because of the intro they got via their
keitai? And couldn't wireless internet access in a convenient package
pull more people in the West away from their desktops? I mean, if
you can check all your e-mail (and even reply to much of it before
you get home), you might see a decline in desktop PC use. E-mail
is, after all, still the killer app for both mobile and desktop.
> With all that said we must not forget that yesterday the press was
> chastising WAP, today i-mode, and tomorrow...who knows?
Tomorrow? WAP's turn again. :-)
Michael Turner
www.idiom.com/~turner
leap@gol.com
Received on Sat Aug 12 08:49:30 2000