tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8292113249787068426.post5061112992328438575..comments2022-11-20T22:46:42.312+09:00Comments on The Forum for the Mobile Consumer Lab: Japan's iPhone - A Portal to the World?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8292113249787068426.post-18167835947877018532008-06-09T14:44:00.000+09:002008-06-09T14:44:00.000+09:00From a higher level point of view, interesting ind...From a higher level point of view, interesting indeed. While we tend to look at more basic domestic requirements such as the need for Flash and GPS (the latter by both function and law), along with likely lack of now considered standard includes; such as Felica m-commerce and 1Seg digital-tv, the potential impact of this 'unique device' on global trends does deserve consideration as well.<BR/><BR/>On one hand the mature Japanese mobile market will prove a challenging task for the iphone, kanji text input and battery life expectations for example. However, little doubt that hard core web surfers here are sure to enjoy the scrolling UI on a large touch screen and easy integration with iTunes. As always it's the execution, difficult at this point to judge, which will make all the difference. It would be fairly safe to say that local users will begin to understand what they have been missing while at the same time come to realize what they have long taken for granted.<BR/><BR/>To your point about encouraging "collaborative innovation between Japan and the rest of the world", of course that would be ideal. The original iphone was notoriously locked-down and there are rumblings that rev. 2 will be even more so, particularly in respect to so-called 'jailbreaking' the sim-lock. That being said the company announced an iPhone SDK in March with app store availabilty via iTunes coming in June. It appears Apple will try to enpower 3rd party developers, using the recently touted Cocoa Touch framework and integrated database API, in an effort to create an growing value proposition of products and services for end users. The business model, path to revenue, and access to key device functions will be critical areas to consider as bytes hit the cloud.<BR/><BR/>As we have noted many times that Flash, required by all operators going back to 2004, combined with 90% penetration of 3G speed and over half of users on flat rate data plans, has resulted in a massive uptake of mobile web surfing. As dynamic browser based stratagies, with server side horsepower, become more widely adopted it would seem likely that such common platforms will drive innovations regardless of the geographic region where they are developed or deployed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com