Mobile in Japan
I just came back from a two week travel in Japan (with one entire week in Tokyo). I loved it. In several days, I will show you my photos taken there, I even bought a Nikon D90.
For now, I propose you a brief preview about how Japanese use their mobile with several relevant facts to understand that Japan is far ahead Europ, Australia and North America.
- All the network is 3G (3.5 exactly), while most of the other networks are still mainly driven on 2G. As a foreigner, you have very few chances to use your mobile there because of this big advance (or it will cost you a lot).
- The mobile devices are really amazing. Big screen, 3D games, camera (I mean good ones), e-books, GPS, mobile wallet, public transport pass, TV and many others… Maybe you would dare to say: « I got most of these features on my iPhone », I’ll answer « Cool but in Japan it’s a been time that everyone got it on his phone ».
- That’s a reason why the iPhone was not well sold in Japan, nothing was really new for the users. There were some key features missing such as the TV, mobile wallet and the public transport pass. Finally, it’s hard to introduce an « iPhone 3G » (even if you add an « s ») for a mature 3G market.
- The QR codes are very numerous, most of the offers or websites are reachable with a code.
- You can’t imagine all the time the Japanese spend on their mobile thank to all these tools, reliable network and options.
Here are two interesting presentations I found about the subject.
