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TOKYO--Standing
in Shibuya, in the heart of Tokyo,
I watched as women tottered by on
faux Vivienne Westwood heels, pulling
back stray bleached blond hair. Young
school girls, dressed in the ubiquitous
checkered school uniforms, wandered
in giggly groups. Salarymen walked
purposefully from fast-food ramen
restaurants to the huge train station,
presumably on their way back to the
office. The one thing they all had
in common? A cell phone.
More
than 50 percent of Japanese, or
66 million people, have cell phones,
called keitai in Japanese, and
they truly use them. J-Phone, the
second largest mobile network operator,
estimates the average revenue per
user to be $60 a month. Heavy users,
especially in the younger age groups,
typically spend a lot more.
Shinji, who is 17, has had a cell
phone since after the 1995 Kobe
earthquake. His phone bill comes
to about $120 a month, and voice
calls are just a small part of
his bill. The rest comes from using
the Internet to check his e-mail,
sending text messages to friends
and sending photographs taken by
his fancy NEC phone, which has
a built-in digital camera.
Telecommunications technology
in the US and Europe, while improving,
is nowhere near the level that
the Japanese have come to expect.
Japanese cell phones work on a
system not shared anywhere else
in the world. In the US the main
system used is Code Division Multiple
Access, usually referred to as
CDMA, while in Europe and most
of Asia and Africa the main system
is Global Services for Mobile or
GSM. In Japan the network system
is called Personal Digital Cellular,
or PDC, and phones on this system
cannot be used anywhere else in
the world.
Despite
the fact that this limits the
PDC market--for cell phones
produced for PDC and the services
offered by operators--to a maximum
of 127 million, there has been
no compromise in R&D and innovation.
Japanese cell phones have a shelf
life of about six months, according
to Tango, a salesman in a cell
phone shop here. If the phones
aren't cutting-edge and fashionable,
chances are they will just fade
off the market.
While
consumers in the US and Europe
are still struggling to
figure out how to use the mobile
Internet, users in Japan regularly
access the Internet and "text" (send
text messages using short message
service) interminably. With the
right phone, like the one Shinji
has, they can also take and send
photos, adding visuals to their
message.
Always pushing the limits, NTT
DoCoMo, the largest local mobile
operator, launched Third Generation
(3G) cell phone services last October.
While its service, called Freedom
of Mobile Multimedia Access (FOMA),
is still gathering momentum, it
has set the stage for all mobile
operators around the world. According
to Dr. Jun Nakai, Chief Technology
Officer of Japan Communications
Inc. and an expert in the field
of mobile communications, by 2004
Japan will be entirely on a 3G
network.
Searching for the perfect phone,
I headed to Akihabara, the electronics
district of Tokyo. The district
is a technophile's wildest dream
come true. Hundreds of shops sell
products ranging from the ubiquitous
cell phone to flat-screen TVs and
play stations. Digital cameras
first becoming available in the
US are last year's models here,
and American cell-phone technology
is nowhere near what is available
in Japan. Here model upon upgraded
model of mobile phones lined the
shops, shimmering pinks and blues
and silvers that sold for a mere
$100 to $300 a pop. Thinking about
my dinosaur-era 5000 series Nokia,
I happily looked at the variety
of mobile phones. Most have large
color screens since the four networks--NTT
DoCoMo, J-Phone and KDDI's Au and
Tu-Ka--provide Internet access,
elaborate games and the ability
to send and receive photos.
Somehow
the phones manage to pair large
screens with decently sized
keypads in small and light phones--something
manufacturers like Nokia, Ericsson
and Motorola have not yet accomplished
on such a large scale. I picked
up a phone and imagined it miraculously
becoming compatible with my AT&T
connection back in New York. No
such luck, however; we unlucky
souls will just have to wait till
R&D for phones in the US market
improves.
Keitai's
are more than purely functional--they
double as fashion
accessories. The "keitai strapu," a
strap that is attached to the phone,
is the favorite way to personalize
a phone. The straps come with Snoopy,
little Santas, product logos and
tiny photo-frames. Others choose
to make their own straps with beads
and mementoes. Stickers are also
popular with phones sporting tiny
stars and photo stickers taken
in automatic booths.
As
mobile communications technology
improves in the US, perhaps cell
phones will become fashion accessories
too. In the meantime, American
users are just thankful that the
phone is getting a signal and actually
works.
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