Christian Molstrom wrote:
> Feb. 25 is the date of the Time issue in which the DoCoMo story appears.
Oh, is that how that works. ;-)
> Well, one good thing that may come of the saturation issue for DoCoMo
> and others is that I would expect it to force them and their
> official partners to develop useful content & services if they want to
> keep up their profit margin from sinking.
[snip]
I wonder.
If the staggering investment in 3G didn't force DoCoMo and everybody
else to make that happen a year ago, I wonder if it's going to make much
difference now. Their main hope at the moment is 'build it and they will
come -- and discover something lucrative for us that we didn't expect.'
It could happen. I don't know if I'd hold my breath, though.
The Time article makes a good point about the double-edge nature of
digital mobile networking -- people with more time on their hands than
money will use the labor-intensive and money-saving e-mail and
SMS services, rather than make a call. It happened in the Phillipines,
it happened in China, and now it seems the ARPU crunch hits here, too.
This would seem to portend cheaper phones, not more expensive
ones. Less need for infrastructure, not more.
> ... The comment by Arai (member of the Diet) that "DoCoMo is our
> flag bearer" smacks of a jurassic view towards the net and technology
> development. I wonder how common this sentiment really is. Or was
> this comment used by the journalist because it fits nicely with Time
> readers' preconception of Japan as as proud nationalistic country?
Your average reader of Time probably has an image of the country
drawn almost entirely from repeat viewings of 'Rising Sun' and
'Black Rain.'
-michael turner
leap@gol.com
Received on Wed Feb 20 11:16:52 2002