As someone that lived in a culture that has highly developed mobile networks (South Korea) I can tell you the real reason why mobile communication technologies are so important. The reason is because of practical public transportation. In the USA (where I currently live) public transportation constitutes a small percentage of how people get around, however in the rest of the world such as Japan and South Korea (and other numerous other countries that don't consider the personal car their primary means of transportation) public transportation such as subways and bus systems give users many hours a day the time to play with moblie devices. Therefore their mobile devices have a much higher importance and value on their daily lives and thus have a much greater importance. In the USA the majority of people drive to work, so nobody really values kick ass mobile devices and innovations. The value of innovative mobile devices is proportionate to the number of hours people spend using mobile devices (duhhhhh.....). In the rest of the world where people need to use social transportation services, mobile devices have a much higher value than in the USA. It basically comes down this: the number of hours you use public transport is proportionate to the importance and value of mobile communication devices. Therefore the USA does not value leet mobile devices that much. So... you might as well segregate the mobile markets and not even bother with the US market. Got it?
Slashdot Mirror
As someone that lived in a culture that has highly developed mobile networks (South Korea) I can tell you the real reason why mobile communication technologies are so important. The reason is because of practical public transportation. In the USA (where I currently live) public transportation constitutes a small percentage of how people get around, however in the rest of the world such as Japan and South Korea (and other numerous other countries that don't consider the personal car their primary means of transportation) public transportation such as subways and bus systems give users many hours a day the time to play with moblie devices. Therefore their mobile devices have a much higher importance and value on their daily lives and thus have a much greater importance. In the USA the majority of people drive to work, so nobody really values kick ass mobile devices and innovations. The value of innovative mobile devices is proportionate to the number of hours people spend using mobile devices (duhhhhh.....). In the rest of the world where people need to use social transportation services, mobile devices have a much higher value than in the USA. It basically comes down this: the number of hours you use public transport is proportionate to the importance and value of mobile communication devices. Therefore the USA does not value leet mobile devices that much. So... you might as well segregate the mobile markets and not even bother with the US market. Got it?