> I don't think being isolated is a disadvantage at all.
Yes, I agree, not for a major tourist destination. If anything,
it works the other way.
> I thought I brought this subject up since already several friends of mines
> from Japan came to visit me and brought their Imode telephone to Hawaii.
Of
> course, they attempted to log on without any success.
As others have pointed out, the physical network isn't in place, and
it would probably mean having some physical adapter on the phone to
piggyback Japanese i-mode phones on other wireless nets. Or maybe
it means a completely different phone, which radically reduces the
acceptability for Japanese tourists. Not that this is a barrier for
Americans in Hawaii, but it's on a whole different scale of investment
to reach them.
> But I've come to the
> conclusion that if Docomo were to succeed in America, they would have had
an
> easier time if they launched in Hawaii rather than Seattle.
Easier, maybe, but there's only so much low-hanging fruit. Like I
said in an earlier posting, if they could pull it off in Hawaii
for mindshare, early, just by making i-mode available to the
Japanese visiting there, it might help them elsewhere later. But
you can't take mindshare alone to the bank.
> Call me biased
> but I have a hard time seeing it succeed in Seattle.
AT&T Wireless is, for all practical purposes, in Seattle.
Microsoft, which couldn't afford NOT to be interested
if i-mode took off, is in Seattle. Just because it might
be harder to get going there doesn't mean it isn't the
best place from which to launch into the rest of the U.S.,
once the idea is proven.
Note that NTT is already tied up with Microsoft on
some Xbox initiative, which I'm sure has Sony cringing.
I love it already - a near-monopoly (NTT), another
near-monopoly (Microsoft) and an ex-monopoly
that has scrambled quite a ways back towards its
previous market share (AT&T). Somebody
stop these people before they take over the world.
-m
leap@gol.com
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Sat Apr 7 04:55:47 2001