(keitai-l) Re: M-Services: Learning from Japan

From: Josh White <josh_at_blackbrick.com>
Date: 06/18/01
Message-ID: <NCBBKJAPCBCPOELPJJKBOEFDDHAA.josh@blackbrick.com>
> After reading the M-Services press release more carefully, it occurred to me
> that European operators and handset manufacturing might have actually
> learned something from the Japanese situation: They are attempting to copy a
> valuable part of what made mobile internet services such as i-mode a runaway
> success in Japan -- industrial organization and alignment.

I'm not sure that model works well other places.  In the US, Sprint controls
their handsets more than other carriers, and I think it hurts them more than
it helps.  I don't know how much design control Sprint exerts over their
partners, but I do know Sprint rebrands many of their handsets (e.g. The
Sprint "NP1000" handset is the NeoPoint handset) and doesn't offer Nokia
products - perhaps the only US carrier not to do so.  This is remarkable
because Nokia phones are very popular here.  I wonder: Does Sprint refuse to
carry Nokia handsets because Nokia won't make them Sprint-like?

I wonder: in the US do the best handset designs come from carriers (DoCoMo) or
handset manufacturers (Nokia)?

-Josh



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Received on Mon Jun 18 19:16:21 2001