(keitai-l) Re: Product cycles in Japan

From: Jani PATOKALLIO <jpatokal_at_iki.fi>
Date: 11/09/00
Message-ID: <3A0A2153.C3FE37FD@iki.fi>
paul.c.eijkemans@ac.com wrote:
> So, even if Nokia, Ericsson, Philips, Siemens, etc, want to create such
> phones: they can't. Want an example? Look at the Nokia phone recently
> introduced in Japan. The only people buying them seem to be the expats who
> like the English menu's. It is certainly not a high-end phone and is not
> contributing to the portfolio of phones that DoCoMo carries: DoCoMo is
> 'allowing' Nokia a market share.

"The" Nokia phone?  Nokia has been in the Japanese market for quite some
time, and back in the good old days its phones whupped the butt of the
Japanese competition.  Even today, its phones are *technically* up to
Japanese standards (small batteries, low weight, flimsy plastic cases,
etc), but Nokia cooks up its own software -- and it shows.  Nokia Japan
is a tiny operation compared to the muscle of a Sony or Matsushita.
I found it cute that at Yokosuka, Nokia has the 7th floor of one
building, looking out on a 6-story monster 100m long emblazoned
"Panasonic"...

Also, a large part of the difference between Japanese and European
phones is that PDC is technically much less demanding, allowing
manufacturers to get away with smaller antennas and batteries.
This also explains why PDC sounds much worse and drops easily
compared to GSM.

Cheers,
-- 
Jani PATOKALLIO / jpatokal@iki.fi / +81 90 7722 3557
Sanpo Laboratory, Mechano-Informatics Dept., University of Tokyo
ヤニ・パトカリオ / jani@sanpo.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp / 090 7722 3557
東京大学、工学系研究科、機械情報工学科、算法設計研究室

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Received on Thu Nov 9 05:41:54 2000