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What can we learn from Japan?
By Christoffer Andersson, June 27, 2001
In these days where many of us are waiting for the mobile Internet to really take off,
it is tempting to take a look to our friends in Japan and see what they have done to
be successful over there. Some say that they have done everything right and we just
need some iMode over here as well to succeed. Others counter that Japan is a totally
different market and that not much at all is applicatible in the rest of the world.
Japan has a low fixed Internet, so maybe that is why Internet in the phone is so
exciting? Having been in Japan and talking to people behind the success stories there
I have found many reasons why things have gone so well and many things that I am
betting will work here as well.
IMode was launched by mobile operator NTT DoCoMo in early 1999 and quickly
became popular among consumers. DoCoMo had abandoned the thought that the
Enterprise applications would come first and focused on creating easy-to-use
consumer services. Other operators followed with similar services (J-Sky from J-
Phone and Ez-Web from KDDI), all very much resembling the WAP services used in
the rest of the world. The handsets are, however, quite different and very advanced.
This was one of the most obvious reflections when I was over there the last time,
earlier this year.
In February, I returned from a long trip to Japan and there are many things that
come to mind as important experiences. When arriving at the new offices in Tokyo I
was handed an iMode phone that was ready to go. I used the joystick-like control
and one push upward showed the ‘I’ that would let me try out the services I had
heard so much about. One click and I was on the first page. Instantly! I clicked
through a couple of the English sites and started laughing out loud. I just got that
intense feeling that this is the way the Mobile Internet was intended to be. The
phone was incredibly fast, both in menus and when accessing online content. It
mostly did not feel as if things were being fetched, but rather as if they were locally
on the device. Smart caching or not, I don’t care: I was a user that had a very
compelling experience. As opposed to what we have here in Europe and in the US,
the content now felt easy enough to access that it spurred the short and casual
sessions that will power the mobile Internet. Take the phone and get a map over the
location you are at in just a few clicks. The screen was also big enough to show
images and decent chunks of text. So what was the phone I was using? It was from
the black & white 501-series, and it is too old to be found in stores anymore…
Figure: A Panasonic iMode & iAppli phone
I also got a chance to try the J-Phone phone with built in camera. It was VERY nice
and about the size of a regular voice centric phone but with a huge color screen. It
did not take many seconds to take a picture (gif) and send it to a friend of mine as
an attachment to a mail. It was so easy and convenient, and after that I have never
doubted that Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) will be a huge hit when it arrives
late 2001/early 2002. Overall applications for the mobile Internet can be fairly simple
in the beginning, as long as they are easy to use and appealing to the users. This
experience with the J-Phone device also highlights that mobile Internet in Japan is so
much more than iMode. In several technology shifts (like the camera), the
competition has beat DoCoMo to the market.
The trip actually coincided conveniently with the launch of the 503-series phones for
the DoCoMo network. Those phones have kJava functionality which enables the use
of so called iAppli’s, i.e. something that resembles regular kJava MID-lets (applets
for the J2ME MIDP profile). It was a strange feeling to see scrolling text, moving
characters and live stockcharts on the phones. The experience was also intensified
by the large color screens that now are becoming pervasive. This development is
now fueling a huge growth in sales for clam-shell shaped phones, which can be
folded to protect the screen. The clam-shell phones also save power because the
large color screen is turned off when folded.
Apart from the standard arguments that I have heard previously on why Mobile
Internet has been a hit in Japan (developers can make money, easy to get content
out, nice handsets etc) I found one that I believe strongly in: Kaizen. Kaizen means
making small improvements and Japanese believe that improvements should be
made step by step. This philosophy of taking everything one step at a time is really
simple but highly effective. Users cannot be expected to go from a tiny voice centric
phone to a large PDA with video and Java just overnight. The phones have instead
gradually migrated into new functionality with successive models not differing too
much from the previous one. The same thing goes for the applications. Not many
know that DoCoMo failed at first when they tried to target business users and make
them mobile. Then the iMode approach was used where voice-like phones got more
and more features and small, useful applications. The same thinking will now be
used when introducing 3G and the existing applications will get a little bit of extra
spice, like video clips or Java. An example is a fishing application where people today
can get maps of lakes, directions, guides and fish dictionaries. For 3G this application
will enable some more moving images and perhaps a Java app that shows useful
tricks. Perhaps you will be able capture a short video clip of your catch and upload it
to a community site? The key is making small changes as no one will wake up on the
3G launch date and yawn: ‘Today I want some great new 3G applications’. In Europe
we should have a great way of using this technique by ensuring that many exciting
applications are available for SMS. Once people see the use, they might be
motivated to get more by getting WAP and GPRS support. I have seen these
tendencies lately with services that give personalized sports scores reports and news
updates. In the US, the widespread use of PDA’s and pagers is another way of
migrating into a full blown mobile Internet.
So, the mobile Internet wonder in Japan is not about mark-up languages or different
cultures. It is all about an attractive user experience with business models where
even application developers can become winners. If that is what is meant when
talking about bringing iMode to the US and Europe, I don’t mind at all!
About the author: Christoffer Andersson is Senior Specialist and Manager of Special
Projects for the Ericsson. In this position he works with stratetic issues and projects
in the area of Terminals & Applications 2G/3G. Christoffer is also author of the
Amazon.com bestselling book ‘GPRS and 3G Wireless Applications - The Professional
Developer’s Guide’, published by John Wiley & Sons. Christoffer can be reached at
christoffer@wirelessdevnet.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily Ericsson.
More Articles By Christoffer Andersson
Entire article (c)2001 Christoffer Andersson. Reproduction or retransmission without the consent of the author and The WDN is forbidden.
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