timecop@japan.co.jp wrote:
> Yes, a phone you use for talking, without extra "services",
Well, a few million people are using their phones for email, as are European users
with SMS...
> the actual
> handset doesnt support extra "services", and is only designed for talking.
Not true. Lastest handsets are specifically designed for more than talking; they
have larger screens and bigger buttons. As you note below, data-enabled handsets are
larger and have bigger buttons to fascilitate thumbing.
> How many 70 years old grandmothers do you know that absolutely need imode,
> short mail, call waiting, and call forwarding? Out of those, how many do
> you think actually know what any of those services are for? I don't know,
> maybe it's just my location in south japan or something, but quite often I
> see japanese people look at any material involving a
> higher-than-one-percent mix of katakana into the stream, and I start to
> wonder, do they really understand any of it? (answer: they dont)
I'll refrain from generalizing on an entire demographic of users as I haven't done
the market research. Historically, katakana as an information delivery mechanism has
been quite successful in Japan for decades.
> Well, none of the units that I've seen that were returned and
> exchanged for 503i ever had any evidence whatsoever that any of the
> "browsing" features were ever used. Sure, there is lots of talk time, and
> usually a flood of junk mail in the mailbox, but nothing that I would call
> serious or even casual use. Even broken 503i models dont show any use.
> Most still have the preloaded (as in F-series) or no applis at all... No
> bookmarks, etc. What's up with that? If everyone was "using" I-mode as
> much as docomo claims...
>
Interesting anecdotal evidence, but I've also anecdotally seen overwhelming evidence
of actual use. Perhaps it is your local demographic?
> Have you actually customized a ring tone on any model > 502 lately? Unless
> you are a musician you probably should stay out of it. Why is so much
> money being made out of ringtone machines where you pay anywhere from $1
> to $2 to download a tune to your phone? Oh yeah, and you can't edit it
> after that.
>
Since you asked, yes I have downloaded and customized my ringtone. And no I'm not a
musician. The answer to why so much money is being made on ringtones is simple: it's
meeting a demand. Many, many people are willing to pay for ringtones, and so they
do, even if they can't edit it.
>
> And I don't know about you, but if I have to send more than 10 words by
> email, it does not matter what I am doing or where I am, it can wait until
> I can access a normal computer, or it isn't important enough to bother
> with.
>
Most i-mode users in Japan don't have an alternate email device; their phone is
their one and only email device.
>
> And finally, why does docomo only have 2 class C's allocated to their
> ENTIRE multibillion i-mode subscriber "service"?
> Last I checked, that was only ~500 IP's, can't be that less than 500
> people are using i-mode all over the entire japan at the same time, no?
? They don't assign an IP to every handset, just to the gateways.
Regards,
r e n
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Received on Tue Nov 20 03:35:53 2001