Nicholas’ Travel Abroad

            Japanese are famous for their mobile phone technology and their vastly advanced networks, but few people look at the practicality of their features.  I was the same way at first, easily amazed by video conferencing, television receivers or LED flashlights but are these features the average Japanese user utilizes daily.  The students at Keio answered this question as they stated they often don’t use the majority of the features of their phone.  When asked during the presentation how many had the live television service One-Seg, around ten students raised their hands.  Although these ten students had the service they all lowered their hands when asked if they use it frequently.  Other features such as video conferencing may serve as cool parlor tricks, but their everyday viability is lacking.  With the silent nature of Japanese culture it appears video conferencing would be too loud and obtrusive, especially when huddled between train cars.  At FutureScope we were introduced to another interesting mobile phone feature, motion sensors, this is yet another feature that doesn’t seem to agree with Japanese culture.  In such a reserved culture, I find it very hard to believe that people would be willing to pretend to bowl on the train.  The 3G network does allow for features that are extremely useful, rich content webpage viewing is something that is not possible on 2G networks.  With the advancement to 2.5G EDGE in the United State rich webpage viewing is possible but there is still much to build upon.  The speeds available with 3G allow for theoretical broadband download speeds under ideal conditions, this allows all sorts of content to be delivered to the phone, such as maps.  Another great feature is the subway map capabilities with a large subway system like that in Tokyo, having a mapping assistant on your mobile phone makes navigating a breeze.  With GPS included these maps not only provide directions, but directions based on your current location.  Localization based services have viability for a wide variety of applications beyond mapping, including social networking, gaming, and matchmaking.  With all of the talk about the new 3G iPhone and its localization to other countries one begins to wonder will the Japanese even be interested in such a simple phone.  While we have yet to see if Apple will add special Japanese only features such as mobile wallet to compete with Japanese mobile phones, a recent article in Wired spoke about the state of mobile telephone in Japan and its increasing complexity.  Those interviewed in the article said that the complex button combinations, which yield different results was “good for killing time during a long commute, but it’s definitely not elegant.”  Many of the features hidden beneath these combinations are rarely used and merely found by accident.  Another user pointed to the enormity of the problem by saying “some people care about quality, but first and foremost it’s about the features.”  Japanese mobile phone providers give the users what they want in new features, but neglect to focus on the usability of the phone’s interface.  While the features of Japanese phones amaze us in the United States we must realize that the usability of phones such as the iPhone is their true draw.  Hayashi put it best “When I show this to visitors from the U.S. they’re amazed.  They think there’s no way anybody would want an iPhone in Japan. But that’s only because I’m setting it up for them so they can see the cool features.”

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/news/2008/06/japan_phones