My motivation for the Japan.Inc post was an attempt to discover the larger
importance of the i-mode phenomenon. Specifically does the business
ecosystem DoCoMo created work beyond the shores of the island of Japan. I
do not believe it does, and thus i-mode will remain a purely Japanese
phenomenon. Why, recall this passage from the Danial Scuka piece:
<japan.inc>
...
To start, the carriers control the complete service envelope, from
the handsets and the billing plans to the service providers and the
content on the tiny screen. Those of us who work in Japan and who use
the wireless Net every day via NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, J-Phone, or DDI
Pocket tend to forget how weird this really is.
Consider what it would be like if a single corporate entity
controlled the wireline surfing experience. It would be as if a
single corporate brand name (Microsoft? AOL? Intel?) would:
** Sell you your PC
** Set the technical and commercial standards for the monitor, video
card, hard disk, sound card, and all other hardware, with only some
of these standards being made public
** Create and sell the operating system, applications, browser, mail,
and entertainment software (like Winamp or RealPlayer)
** Provide your ISP account, your mail account, and all of the Web
services that you use
** Control a large number of the Web sites that you regularly visit
** Serve as gatekeeper for the kind of content and services that the
sites offer
** Send you a single, unified bill each month for your usage of the
service and your access to some of the Web sites
** Know precisely which Web sites you visit, how long you spend
online, and how much and to whom you send mail
Wow!
While the Internet may as yet be an emerging phenomenon, we think
it's safe to conclude that if any single corporate entity ever tried
to wield this degree of control over netizens' wireline surfing
experience, there'd be shooting in the streets (at least in countries
that have Second Amendments).
</japan.inc>
Indeed. The thought of Vodaphone flying up to Tampere and arm twisting
Nokia into making handsets to their liking is ludicrous. Further, European
mobile operators (I'll ignore the hapless American operators) appear to be
greedy SOBs who have no intention of (and no supporting billing
infrastructure for) sharing revenue with content providers.
Cheers,
Douglass Turner
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Received on Fri Sep 7 17:33:36 2001