Visual Showcase Of Japanese Mobiles

A reader writes "Japanese StartUp Nooper.com shares their visual showcase of Japanese keitai (=mobile phones) culture with the rest of the world. Nice pictures of the newest java phones, I-mode devices, the crossing with the highest mobile density in the world, I-mode screengrabs and more. "

Comments

Economic Colonialism?

[Alien54]

I remember reading about US companies complaning about not being able to break into the Japanese market. You can see these in things like the auto market, as well as other areas such as food or technology.

The lack of success sometimes has to do with a product that is in appropriate to the japanes market. Imagine oversized american luxury cars in the japanese market. These do not fit well in a crowded Tokyo traffic jam.

Sometimes it is the Japanese distribution system, which favors home grown products. Japanese rice vs American rice, for example.

And sometimes the products are simply better. The mobile phone market is an obvious example.

In any case, I wonder about the other side of the coin. Why do we not see more Japanese technology here?

Well to some degree, they do dominate the entertainment electronics market. TVs, Stereos, game systems, and the like. All to often the American name is the only thing on the product.

There is a long saga to be told about the decimation of the american market by overseas imports. The result today is that many kids growing up have never known anything else. This is a fascinating story to tell in it's own right.

So now we have a market where there really are no home grown players in the market, and it is controlled by oversea players. The motivation is sort of a reverse economic colonialism.

Keep all of the good stuff at home, and send the profitable stuff to the foreign markets.

This was practiced by many big powers for a long time. Common examples include the British empire vs India, for example. The US vs Europe. etc. It is the usual practice when you have a ready easy market for your goods.

It is a little different with the US as market, but the impulse is the same.

Of course, in the US people have gotten so used to the idea of always having the best or newest technology toy that they feel weird when they find out it isn't always so.