David Kucera wrote:
> Does anybody know the current penetration rate of earphone mics among keitai
> users? ......I'm surprised how relatively few people are buying these.
You're right---I am surprised too by how few people are buying these. A
PDA with a wireless earphone mike and KEITAI functionality seems to be
patently obvious solution to the funky little screens and numeric
keypads of KEITAI phones.
> Is this considered uncouth in Japan culture?
It's not just uncouth, just KICHIGAI/crazy.
As mentioned before by Eric Hildum <Eric_Hildum@itochu.net>:
>It did look strange to others seeing me walk down the street talking to myself,
Japanese users think that talking to themselves using an earphone mike
looks crazy. Even worse would be using a Bluetooth wireless earphone
mike that would be nearly-invisible, bone-conduction mike. It would
appear to others as though the KEITAI user was talking wildly into blank
space.
The other major concern is the appearance problem of earphone mikes and
headsets. I have heard both female and male Japanese users say in
product interviews that wearing a headset seems "feminine." The most
striking comment was from a female engineer that said headsets were as
KIMOCHIWARUII/creepy as men who buy ONNAPOI/effeminate PocketBoards for
KEITAI text input. Just as any kind of keyboard use was avoided by
salarymen until few years ago, headsets are seen as tools of telephone
operators and DJs and aren't viewed as "proper" for business attire.
Eric Hildum also mentioned:
>One thing to consider, it may not be allowed to use headphones while driving
Japan has a law banning _hand-held_ cell phone use while driving.
Compliance to the new law is good: "The month after Japan banned cell
phones in cars it saw a 75% drop in related
accidents."<http://www.ai-online.com/articles/may00/0500f0.htm>
However, enforcement of this new law seems to be toothless because
police aren't able to fine violators--just issue warnings. So I will
just go ahead and pop a CD out of its case, slip it into the in-dash
player, fiddle with the CD remote, at the same time sipping a tall
latte, dialing the cell phone, trying to read Kanji on my car navigation
system while keeping my hands on the wheel and attention on the road.
:-o
Received on Tue Sep 26 10:32:47 2000