I tend to disagree with this statement.
>I personally think that the takeup of MMS in Japan IS strongly
>culturally influenced and is unlikely to be copied in other countries.
MMS is simply a way to send image and audio files as an "enhanced" form of
communication. We've done research now in Japan, Indonesia, China, the US
and are working on getting something started in Europe and Brazil, and have
found in each market a desire to use the MobileNet to communicate more
effectively with others, suggesting that the potential for enhanced
"multimedia" communications exist regardless of culture. We're finding
instead that barriers in price, network speeds and reliability, and users
lack of comfort with the handsets make a far greater impact that cultural
elements.
So instead of culture, could it be the differences in pricing, technology
and user comfort with the handsets themselves that will be driving these
differences across different markets? Fundamentally I don't feel that only
the folks in Japan want to communicate via the Mobile platform using simple
text and emoticons....
--Philip
Philip Sugai
Assistant Professor of Marketing
The International University of Japan
Graduate School of International Management
Yamato Machi, NIigata Japan 949-7277
Phone: 81-(0)25-779-1400
Fax: 81-(0)25-779-4443
Email: philip@iuj.ac.jp
Received on Thu May 13 07:46:59 2004