"Cattell, Jamie - RI Japan" wrote:
> I do not know enough about the technical issues surrounding GSM vs Japanese
> homegrown digital standard to comment. However I suspect a similar situation
> existed when the imode platform was developed. Docomo`s impatience with the
> WAP standards committee and consequent going it alone to develop the imode
> platform was partially due to the need to develop a more usable system but
> also motivated by the fact that if they could set their own standards they
> would also reap great benefits.
>
I disagree. Natsuno from DoCoMo and many others spell out quite clearly their
desire to follow global standards, not make them, for the obvious benefits to
all. The decision to go with cHTML over WAP/WML was for that reason, not the
desire to do something proprietary. The benefits of a proprietary system pale in
comparison to the benefits of using open internet standards like HTML and HTTP.
DoCoMo knew this and explicitly acted on such knowledge.
>
> From a user perspective and a previous GSM user I found the service in
> Japan terrible in terms of voice quality and coverage so I actually wondered
> whether the Japanese standard was inferior? But of course I loved the
> handsets!
>
PDC sound quality is terrible, especially compared to GSM. Coverage is excellent
in Japan (something like 98% of population is covered) but bandwidth is heavily
used because of the explosive growth of the user base, and therefore call drops
and disconnects happen.
>
> I beg to differ on comment about lack of interest in other markets, the
> trade surplus that Japan has with the rest of the world should speak for
> itself. (While I agree that it is so large because foreign companies find
> it difficult to get in) Given the size of the domestic market any small
> company can make good living by never looking outside the shores of Japan,
> but electronics manufacturers, steel, automobiles etc could hardly be
> accused of caring only about the domestic market. Speaking as someone who
> has lived and worked for 5 years in SE Asia, I found the Japanese very
> dominant and aggressive in that region. I don't think that it can be
> claimed that Fujitsu, Panasonic, NEC are not global players with an acute
> interest in the outside world. Given the economic downturn in Japan they'd
> be crazy no to!
However keep in mind that for the major handset makers in Japan (Fujitsu,
Panasonic, NEC), cellphone handsets are a VERY small fraction of their business
and therefore it's economically unfeasable for them to attempt to break into
foreign markets for a business that is such a small percentage of revenue. Then
again with 3G the barriers to entry for foreign markets will be greatly reduced
(one phone vs a PDC and a GSM version) and therefore we can expect Japanese
handset makers to pursue those markets more agressively.
r e n
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Received on Wed Jan 31 17:29:21 2001