Today's musings

In no particular order:
• Just watched a CNN clip early this morning regarding the iPhone's appeal on the asian market. Interesting in a way that the it focused on Japan, where the mobile technology is more advanced than any other country in the world. Thanks to its broadband speed mobile data infrastructure, in Japan, the phone not only plays TV, you can use it literally for a train ride, email, IM, browse the internet, GPS your way into Tokyo, buy something from the fruitstand, remotely control your coffee machine, etc., and last but not the least, make a phone call.
• So how does the iPhone stack up to a market like this? With mobile data infrastructure a generation ahead than its GSM/Edge/Wi-fi/Bluetooth combo? The answer is simple, as one japanese in the interview puts it: "its stylish, and I'm curious." And quite frankly, that is just what the iPhone needs to make a dent in the asian market.
• On the other hand, am continously fascinated how advanced mobile technology is in Japan. The degree it becomes an extension of an individual there. From an architect carrying his digital blueprints there, teenagers watching TV, a father paying for his groceries just by placing the phone on top of conduit point of sale device, an old man using the phone's mapping application to navigate downtown tokyo, to a commuter tapping his phone to an train turns-style entrance (drastically minimizes lines), an so much more!
• What makes it so successfull in Japan? Why isn't it yet that wide spread in a flat world? Can the Philippines, the texting capital of the world, also do it? What would it take?

nox
-- Japan is a MobileIndie's wet dream come true.