Dave wrote:
> But the bottom line here is that things should be getting simpler. The
graph
> on Ren's site should be trimmed down to only three players - I-Mode, J-Sky
> and Au. Just as Marx predicted, each shake up in the marketplace creates
> fewer companies of larger size.
Ren responds:
> I disagree. I'd love to see 100 operators all competing. The catch is they
must
> have complimentary technologies. Imagine if you could buy any phone you
wanted
> and use it with any operator. Operators would have to differentiate
themselves
> on service and price and contents. Things would be much more interesting
than
> three giants battling for market share.
It's not particularly Marxian these days to talk about how monopoly
consolidation is going to be the norm - even a healthy norm - in
IT markets. Even Lawrence Summers prattles on about this,
recently. And he's no commie. (Nor was Joseph Schumpeter, who
would probably have found postwar Japan too socialist for his taste.)
I agree with Ren that things would be more interesting (and in the
long run, more efficient) in the decoupling he proposes. I guess
we can only hope that such entrepreneurial dynamics exist (and
will continue to exist) *within* DoCoMo. Of course, that leaves
everyone else out in the cold....unless they get signed up as
DoCoMo suppliers somehow. But is this anything new? The sine
qua non of being a gaijin IT business - or, I think sometimes, *any*
IT business in Japan - has always been "Oh, we have a deal
with NTT...." The more things change....
Michael Turner
www.idiom.com/~turner
leap@gol.com
Received on Tue Jul 18 15:55:45 2000