The Cell Phone Revolution in Japan

[Syk3]

[color=#30415d]My mom recently showed me an article in the Washington Post that discussed the role of cell phones in Japan today. In it, it described how cell phones have nearly taken the place of computers, whereas users seem to be doing just about anything [i]but[/i] talking. Such capabilities that this article outlined include: an alarm clock, sending email, linking with your PC, downloading music, reading newspapers, reading [i]novels[/i], looking at interactive maps with built-in GPS systems and voices giving you particular directions (i.e. turn right, turn left), watching television, surfing the web, taking and transmiting home movies, scaning bar-code information, getting coupons on food and entertainment, paying bills, quote, "play[ing] Final Fantasy," programing karaoke machines, and much much more. The full article is below.[/color]

[quote][url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52950-2004Feb18.html"]Washington Post - In Japan, a Wireless Vision of Future for U.S.[/url]

TOKYO -- In search of a chic cafe hidden in the neon alleys of a teeming Tokyo business district, Hiroki Wai activated the global positioning system on his cell phone and punched in the cafe's phone number. Instantly, a detailed map appeared and a perky female computer voice was navigating Wai toward a hot date with a $9 latte.

"Now turn left; now turn right, walk straight ahead. . . . Hurray, you're here!" the voice chirped from his receiver. A satellite in Earth orbit charted his progress on a full-color street grid displayed on the screen of his cell phone.

"The cell phone is way past being just a phone in Japan," said Wai, 32, a systems engineer who wakes up with his phone alarm at 6:30 a.m. and then uses the phone almost every waking hour to send and receive dozens of e-mails, link remotely to his home-office PC, download music and read newspapers, even novels, during his daily commutes. "For us," he said, "the cell phone is now a way of life."

The cell phone market in the United States is set for a major shake-up after the announcement this week of a $41 billion buyout of AT&T Wireless by Atlanta-based Cingular Wireless, with the merged juggernaut poised to quicken the rollout of such advanced services as access to the mobile Internet and other third-generation, or 3G, technologies. Behind the rush to boost cell phone uses in the United States lies a less flattering truth: In recent years, America has lumbered forward like a John Deere tractor on the mobile information superhighway, while Japan has zoomed ahead like a Z-car.

Technologies considered experimental or novel in the United States have already gone mainstream here, giving rise to an unparalleled cell phone culture. Today, Japan offers a fascinating glimpse into a possible future for Americans: life in a wireless world through the cell phone.

About 70 million Japanese -- 55 percent of the population -- have signed up for Internet access from their cellular phones, a threefold increase from 2000.

Cell phones, or [i]keitai[/i] in Japanese, are closing in on computers as the device of choice for surfing the Internet. While the Japanese are using their cell phones in the same way many Americans use their laptop computers or personal digital assistants, they also are pulling out their phones to watch TV, navigate labyrinthine city streets with built-in GPS systems, download music, take and transmit home movies, scan bar-coded information, get e-coupons for discounts on food and entertainment, pay bills, play Final Fantasy, even program karaoke machines.

While at least some of these uses are expected to become commonplace in the United States, Japan's penchant for the cutting edge, the cute and the compact has given rise to a particular, occasionally peculiar, keitai culture.

Many young people today even describe their cell phones as extensions of themselves. On subways and trains throughout Japan, keitai addicts, oblivious to the world around them, their hyperactive thumbs furiously typing e-mails on cell phones, have become ubiquitous, even stereotypical sights. One Tokyo TV station recently broadcast a reality show featuring a teenage girl whose cell phone was taken away for one week. She was reduced to tears when she finally got it back.

"I get separation anxiety when I am away from my cell phone. It is part of my identity now," confessed Yoshihisa Amano, 26, who works for a software company in central Tokyo. When he makes or receives a call, Amano creates an identity for himself by projecting an animated character onto the other party's phone screen. Amano controls his alter ego's emotions -- showing sadness, rage or glee -- by pressing different phone keys, and can change characters to suit his mood or caller.

"My keitai is also a video phone, so my callers can actually see me, and I can see them, if we choose," Amano said. He showed a reporter I-chan, a sexy Japanese anime girl in a tight pink sweater and cow-patterned miniskirt who he is now planning to display to friends as his alter ego. "I might not always be looking my best when they call, so I like the characters instead," he said.

On train platforms and highway billboards, cell phone ads dominate the cityscape. The ads underscore the idea that hot new laptops no longer impress the affluent young Japanese; only the latest-model cell phones are turning heads or winning status among peers.

"Cell phones have created extensions of personal space in Japan," said Yuichi Kogure, who teaches a class on keitai culture at Tokyo's Toita Women's College. "You take your world with you when you have your keitai in your hand. In the keitai world, people forget where they are, and women [with cell phones], for instance, can be seen putting on makeup or brushing their hair in the subway, something considered highly rude in Japan in the past. But now, people are walled inside their own little world with their keitai and aren't even aware of what they're doing in public."

In Kyoto, the cell phone culture has generated a new type of university class. Students in more than 52 courses ranging from math to welfare studies at the city's Bukkyo University almost never speak aloud.

Rather, they e-mail questions and comments from their cell phones to their professors while in class, and professors answer orally.

"Students can be very shy, and the anonymousness of the system helped them to overcome their shyness," said Kiyoharu Hara, assistant professor of sociology and a mastermind of the university's unusual class communication. "Keitai mail matched the Japanese culture of silently conveying meaning."

Cell phones also have dramatically improved efficiency in marketing. Restaurants advertise immediate discounts on Web sites when they have a slow night, offering price cuts of as much as 15 percent to fill seats with keitai bargain hunters.

But some people complain that so much messaging and surfing with cell phones has resulted in people communicating more, but talking less.

Mutsumi Mukaigawa, 26, an apartment concierge nursing a coffee at Starbucks with one hand, holding her cell phone, decorated with a silver-plated dangling bauble, in the other, has been sending more keitai mails and making fewer calls to her parents, who live four hours north of Tokyo.

"My mother just last weekend said my father was sad because I call less and less," she said. "But keitai mail is just so much easier."

Japanese have grown so skilled at writing e-mails on cell phones that many now find it simpler than using computer keyboards. Some have argued that the mobile Internet has taken off in Japan -- as well as nearby South Korea -- because Asian thumbs are smaller and more nimble, and thus more suited to typing on tiny cell phone keys. But the Japanese who launched the service here say size doesn't matter.

Takeshi Natsuno, considered the father of I-mode -- the landmark service of communications giant NTT DoCoMo that granted Japanese easy access to the Internet via cell phones in 1999 -- argues that U.S. cellular phone companies have simply mishandled the concept by employing different signal "standards," or cellular languages, which make it difficult for cell phones to communicate with the Internet.

At the same time, NTT DoCoMo, still the market leader here, encouraged Internet content providers to produce Web sites viewable on cell phone screens by offering them more than 90 percent of the revenue generated from user fees. DoCoMo reaped the benefits as these sites boomed, more subscribers signed up and content providers paid charges for their expanded use of DoCoMo's wireless network.

"Everyone wants to say, 'Oh, the Japanese are strange. They love tiny and miniature things and that's why cell phone services have taken off here,' " Natsuno said. "But the truth is that we are normal, and it's the other guys who are something odd. It's not about being Japanese. It's about knowing what people want and how to sell it the right way."[/quote][color=#30415d]According to this article, this seems to have changed the entire purpose of cell [i]phones[/i], originally used to [i]talk[/i]. I don't know about everyone else, but some of these capabilities that they speak of just seem so.. bizzare to me. I mean, prefferring to send emails rather than calling on a CELL PHONE? Emailing questions to college professors so that they can be answered orally? And I thought some people over in this country (America) were addicted to their cell phones, and based their life around them, heh.

So what does everyone else think about this cell phone advancement in Japan?[/color]

[Transtic Nerve]

Well the Japanese have been doing the cell phone thing for years and years now. We just got the cool new picture feature in our cell phones, they've had it for so much longer and EVERYONE had a picture phone.

You must take into the account of the culture of Japan. Very modern, very driven by technology, yet still deriving in the past. It's actually really really odd. And their people reflect this. To them this isn't anything new or shocking, they've been doing things like this for years now...

They did say that cell phones would eventually replace computers here. Small, handheld, multiple functions, online capabilities... and Japan is the first to score with modern technology and as a result it is planted into their society.

[Boba Fett]

[color=green]I don?t own a cell phone, but I must say that I find this trend extremely odd.

First of all, cell-phone games are rather poor quality. I?m not too keen on them. Am I missing something here?

Also, my mom?s cell phone has wireless capability (but we?re not signed up for it). I can understand how someone could talk on AIM with it (although with a standard cell phone keypad that?d be insanely difficult), but surf the web? Isn?t a cell phone screen a little small for that? I couldn?t imagine surfing OB with a screen that small and then posting a reply that I?d typed using a cell phone keypad.

So, is there some difference between Japanese cell-phones and ?normal? US cell phones? If not, I can only imagine how people put up with the small screen and inconvenient keypad.

I?ll stick with my laptop for now.[/color]

[Semjaza]

It's also important to note that cell phones are apparently cheaper to use in Japan than home phones, unlike the US (and I assume most other countries). I don't find a lot of this all that surprising, considering that.

[Deedlit]

[quote name='Syk3][color=#30415d']I mean, prefferring to send emails rather than calling on a CELL PHONE?[/color][/quote]

[color=#009966]Why not? :p

Yeah, some of the things seem a bit odd (playing FF? o0; ), but some are also useful. If you get lost, go to your phone, got bills, go to your phone. And, being a bookworm, it would be [B][I]VERY[/I][/B] convenient to download books without having to buy them. :toothy::D

The only downsides I can see about it are:

1.)satelite crashes
2.)people are going to become [I]too [/I] dependent
3.)they're small and easy to misplace, and
4.)the price. (For something that spiffy, it's probably going to cost ALOT of money....>>; )[/color]

[Syk3]

[quote name='Semjaza Azazel']It's also important to note that cell phones are apparently cheaper to use in Japan than home phones, unlike the US (and I assume most other countries)[/quote][color=#30415d]I hadn't really though about it before, but I guess they would have to be cheaper, lol. All of that stuff in America would cost a fortune.[/color]
[quote name='Deedlit][color=#009966']Why not? :p [/quote][/color]
[color=#009966][color=#30415d]Well, you have your cell phone.. would you rather type in the number to make a call, or navigate through those little buttons to write an entire email? ;p I dunno, I guess I've never actually tried typing anything up, but I can imagine how hard it would be; there are 3 letters on one number, right? So do you have to use a directional pad to choose each letter, or what's the deal with that? <_<[/color]

[quote]If you get lost, go to your phone, got bills, go to your phone.[/quote][color=#30415d]But if your [i]cell phone[/i] gets lost, you'd be in major trouble. o.o[/color]
[/color]

[Transtic Nerve]

[QUOTE=Boba Fett][color=green]
So, is there some difference between Japanese cell-phones and ?normal? US cell phones? If not, I can only imagine how people put up with the small screen and inconvenient keypad.
[/color][/QUOTE]

Yes, think about 5 years ahead of our time here. Concept cars there are 5 years ahead of our time, computers, video games, cell phones, cameras, whatever.... alot of the technology they use we won't see for years. Like I said, they've had those camera phones for a while now and the US just now got into that craze...

The technology they use there for their cells, if brought here, would probably cost TONS of money... ranging in the thousands of dollars. My phone was top of the line in the US as far as 2 months ago, and it cost $350, imagine something 10 times better, it's bound to cost that much more.

I imagine one day cell phones will take the place of home phones here. In japan it has and in Switzerland, almost everyone has a cell phone cause land lines are so expensive. As more and more people go to cell phones, the less expensive it will become and ultimately take the place of land lines... several of my friends and their families have already done this.

[MarkM]

[QUOTE=Syk3]
[color=#009966][color=#30415d]Well, you have your cell phone.. would you rather type in the number to make a call, or navigate through those little buttons to write an entire email? ;p I dunno, I guess I've never actually tried typing anything up, but I can imagine how hard it would be; there are 3 letters on one number, right? So do you have to use a directional pad to choose each letter, or what's the deal with that? <_<[/color]


[/color][/QUOTE]

Acually it isn;t that difficult to type with cellular phones. A sentence takes abotu 10 seconds if your used to it.

..seems cell's will be having alot more things on them seeon ::shighs:: I thought my cell was the shiz, lol. It has web, textmessaging, speakerphone, camera, and all the other goodies.

-Mark

[eleanor]

[color=firebrick] I don't see why everyone is focusing on Japan; Korea is exceeding Japan in cell phone technology. You can watching friggin' [i]live[/i] drama shows on the cell phones in Korea..it's like a mini-television. Japan isn't the [b]only[/b] country making high-tech stuff. The cell phone industry in Korea is just as huge as Japan's, it's average to see second and third graders carrying cell phones around.

I'm in a bad mood.[/color]

[MarkM]

acually, Japan is exceding Korea. Video phones can be baught in the United states...I have one. There are also phones that can record videos (video cmaeras)....So your statment is false my friend.

-Mark

[EDIT]: My perdiction is that in about 10 years from now, there will be no need for house phones. Everyone will have a cellular phone.

[eleanor]

[color=firebrick] Last I checked, Korea was exceding Japan. We get a Korean newspaper, so I don't see how closer to the source you can get...if something is in the US, then you can bet it's been in Korea or Japan before.[/color]

[Semjaza]

[quote name='MarkM][EDIT']: My perdiction is that in about 10 years from now, there will be no need for house phones. Everyone will have a cellular phone.[/quote]

Even if your prediction becomes true, I'm going to be one of the last remaining home phone users. I hate cell phones and I can't see that ever, ever changing.

[Kwai]

[color=navy][size=1]
[QUOTE]We get a Korean newspaper, so I don't see how closer to the source you can get...[/quote]

But does it say what we have in Japan? As close as the Korean newspaper might come to the Korean source, its still only about one side, Korea.

[quote]You can watching friggin' live drama shows on the cell phones in Korea..it's like a mini-television.[/quote]

My cousin in Japan also watches drama shows on her cell phone. Live.

[quote]Last I checked, Korea was exceding Japan. [/quote]

You wish. :p Korea and Japan has always been in strife of 'we are better than you' 'no we are better than you' kind of thing. The same old Japan vs. Korea (or Korea vs. Japan if you become picky on the order) rivalry.

I think the text messaging professors in class is an excellent idea. The atmosphere in the class room is usually centered around the lecture of the professor, and thus is usually a bit awkward for a student to interfere in the middle of the lecture to ask a question. Using a cell phone eliminates being held up in the spot light, so you can ask what you want to ask without any fear of being ridiculed. There is always the fear of asking a 'stupid' question no matter what teachers say about 'there are no stupid questions'.

Sadly, some people become too attached/addicted to their cell phones that they committ suicide when they lose/break it.

Other than that, most of the stuff on the article is old news. [/size][/color]

[MissWem]

This is why I envy the Japanese, they're society is sooo convenient!!

But from what I heard, a friend of mine said that cellphone over there are so cheap they practically give them away, and there are special ones which cost about 10yen or something dirt cheap but can only be used in one city.

Anyway, since everyone there uses a cellphone it's only natural for it to be very cheap to use, in other places I think it's really expensive for the main reason is that the companies can make it expensive and still have a large consumer demand for it. If more people get one therefore making more functional then they will have to start reducing the price of buying/using one or else the market for them will fall as people try to find cheaper alternatives.

well...that's just me but...I still envy them, technology, transport...anime/manga....

[wrist cutter]

[QUOTE=DerelictDestiny]
well...that's just me but...I still envy them, technology, transport...anime/manga....[/QUOTE]

Failing economy.

[color=darkred] you forgot rape ~ Drix [/color]

[James]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]The mobile phone revolution in Japan is really interesting. Japan has had third generation networks running for a long time now...since around 1997, I think.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]I can't speak for the US, but I know that Australia has the highest per-capita mobile phone useage in the world. Like Japan, Australia is a very technology-hungry society. It's almost part of the culture here to have the latest TV set, or the most advanced audio device.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]The key difference is that our networks and services are much further behind Japan. We've had 3G networks and services operating in Australia for the last year or so now (so we've had things like mobile Internet, video calls, video messages, etc etc).[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]The problem is that right now, the network coverage still isn't great. And the cost is pretty high. So although 3G is starting to take off here...it's not taking off like it would, if the networks were completely in place. Once the price comes down though, you'll see an explosion here, as a result of the obsession with mobile devices in Australia.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]From my point of view...I'm not a huge mobile phone fan. I don't even have one myself, though I am planning to buy one in a couple of weeks. But that's only for emergencies. I don't really plan to start giving my number out to everyone or anything like that.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2][color=dimgray]Part of the reason that I go [i]out [/i]is to do just that -- I don't really want to be contacted by people when I'm away from home. A mobile phone conflicts with that. I find 3G phones more attractive for their extra functions, but I doubt I'll own one for a while yet.[/color][/size][/font]

[Guest lavalamp]

The South Korea VS. Japan thing is stupid; there is no way around that. Bringing South Korea into the conversation and then mentioning you're in a bad mood is by every definition: idiotic. We're discussing an article, not cultural/technological superiority between the two countries.

Like was previously mentioned, cell phones are much cheaper in Japan than they are here. This plays a huge part in cell phones being so huge. A common misconception is that because Japanese cell phones are more advanced, Japan's "phone" technology is far beyond [insert country name here]. This is not true. Because Japan's cell phone market is so gigantic, companies are forced to do more with them to generate more sales. This is common sense on the marketing side of things. Japanese cell phone companies spend a lot on the most up-to-date phones because they know they'll make all of the money back and much much more. In a country like the US it's just not logical. The majority of cell phone users in the US are not interested in competing for the most trendy/fashionable cell phone because using a "normal phone" is not nearly as expensive as using such in Japan. With the cell phone market growing with prices dropping, however, this is not an impossibility in the near future.

Japanese cell phones are also an evolving trend. With people trading in their old for the new, there is always money to be made. As of January 26th, the amount of units sold numbers at 79 million. This is more than 60% of the population. Along with features, the actual design of the cell phone is just as important. There is an entirely different market devoted to accessorizing cell phones.

It's an interesting thing to watch; no doubt.

[eleanor]

[color=firebrick]I really think Korea is neck-and-neck with Japan in most areas, but Korea is most definately beating Japan in the cell-phone industry. Most everything that's 'cool' about the new hype for cell phones developed in, guess where? Korea. You name it: Downloading Mp3s, watching live television, navigating systems, immense internet access [which practically leads to everything else], it has all been created by Korean cell phone industries or made a whole lot better by them. [Boo-yah.]

Korea's cell phones have even changed the music industry: the revenue from mobile-phone music downloads [Koreans call download songs for 20 cents to a dollar] in 2003 was $333 million, can you imagine 2004? It surpassed all CDs and tapes tales in Korea.

Newsweek:

[i]"They're changing the music that callers hear when they're on hold. They're adding background music while they talk. . .The latest cell phones, with their blistering download speeds, promise to accelerate the trend. . . .Video streaming services were offered in Spring of 2002, which spawned music videos of cell phones. With more than 32 million cell-phone subscibers in Korea, the indestry's biggest problem so far has been divvying up the loot. . .[/i]

P.S.: Yes, and I intend to keep up the 'I'm better than you' strife against Japan.[/color]

[Guest lavalamp]

[QUOTE=maladjusted][color=firebrick]
Korea's cell phones have even changed the music industry: the revenue from mobile-phone music downloads [Koreans call download songs for 20 cents to a dollar] in 2003 was $333 million, can you imagine 2004? It surpassed all CDs and tapes tales in Korea. [/color][/QUOTE]

Laugh out loud?

Since you're on the stupid "South" Korea VS. Japan thing, I'd just like to say it's not hard to surpass all CD and tape sales in "South" Korea. The South Korean music industry is only 1/20th of the Japanese music industry.

People who idolize entire nations are pathetic. You saying South Korea is neck-and-neck with Japan in most areas is the infallible evidence that you're one of those people. Open your eyes and read a book. Two entirely different countries on two entirely different economic and global levels.

[Red]

[color=#002E55]Third-generation mobile phones (or cell phones as they're called across the pond :p) have been around in England for about a year and a half now. They've gained quite a large amount of subscribers and have never been unpopular, but until now have been relatively expensive.

Over here you can either get pay as you go, which is top-up credit on your phone without a contract; but you have to buy the handset yourself. Contracts are a minimum of 12 months with a monthly fee, but you get the phone for next to nothing - and many more people are taking advantage of this.

Picture taking/sending, video recording/sending, e-mails, GPS and mini-map navigators are all on the 'latest' phones over here now, and they're proving to be as popular as their predecessors. I actually quite like the idea, as it means there is so much more people can do than just receiving and making calls. Friends of mine have given other friends directions to where we were by taking a picture of the surrounding area, heh.[/color]

[Drix D'Zanth]

This is off topic, brusque, and necessary.

[QUOTE=lava lamp]Laugh out loud?

Since you're on the stupid "South" Korea VS. Japan thing, I'd just like to say it's not hard to surpass all CD and tape sales in "South" Korea. The South Korean music industry is only 1/20th of the Japanese music industry.

People who idolize entire nations are pathetic. You saying South Korea is neck-and-neck with Japan in most areas is the infallible evidence that you're one of those people. Open your eyes and read a book. Two entirely different countries on two entirely different economic and global levels.[/QUOTE]

Enough bickering over this topic people. I personally have no idea who's ahead of whom in the Cell Phone industry. Lava Lamp, instead of throwing a random number (1/20th) into the argument as an excuse to flame someone, try supporting your argument with evidence, like maladjusted. Avoid pointless flaming.

I assure you, he reads books...

Unsubstantiated pifle will get this thread closed.

[Guest lavalamp]

Edited.

I was originally very upset by your post because you clearly downplayed my intelligence and knowledge of this particular subject and made completely inaccurate accusations.

I'm assuming along with the "1/20th" you think the figures I presented in the post prior to that were also "random". I'll get you the articles [which are from reliable sources] as soon as possible to prove this is not the case.

I'm disappointed that I'm suddenly wrong because of one the following:

1. Join date
2. Post count

I'm afraid being a moderator and holding a position where you have to be unbiased I expected you not to judge me on something so shallow. I was not intending on flaming anyone, hence the fact I used the general term. I also went the distance of noting that maladjusted's post was evidence that they belonged in such a group, and not that they as a person were such. Whatever, though.

I guess unlike maladjusted, I have to supply sources because the former is always correct due to their longstanding membership.

Give me a break. By the way, I answered your uncertainty regarding which industry was bigger. The amount of subscribers in South Korea is less than that of Japan. There you go.

But all of that's "random" so what can I do?

[MarkM]

Lava Lamp, your post count dosn't matter to anybody. You were breaking the rules and it is Drix's job to say that to you.

G3 phones are getting to become very popular in the united states as of now. I only know of a few people that use 'Pay as you go' provided by T-Mobile and AT&T (correct me if im wrong).

-Mark

[eleanor]

[color=firebrick] Japan= 10 times bigger than Korea. Japan= Way more people than Korea.

On other topics, I also think it's nonetheless pointless if all the cell-phone industry is going to do is add in little gadgets and small 'cool' things. I seriously do not see what is so great about picture phones, and it was the top seller in the US when Christmas time came around last year ... even though I think the 'invasion of privacy' debate can get pretty stupid. Am I going to buy an expensive cell phone in the US and use it about every five months to send someone a picture? Not really. [/color]

[MarkM]

Cut the Japan vs. Korea ****! If you want to talk about that so bad then make a new thread.

Acually picture phones are not where all your money's going. The majority of the $$$ are going to the service (sprint, AT&T, verizon, cingular, nextel, ect.). It also costs money for most to get picture mail in their contract.

-Mark