Next Great Thing

Yesterday we looked at what mobile consumers in Japan want, one of which was smartphones. What Japan Thinks has some new survey results backing this up: Only 20% of respondents said they can’t see themselves using one in the future. The data also supports the notion that Japanese consumers actually dig the iPhone. Camera and touchscreen top the list of desired features, and while the iPhone “seemed expensive” to many, it was also deemed “cool,” “novel,” and “amazing technology.”

Today, we glimpse beyond that they have and want, to what they are going to get in the future. Thanks again to Lucy King in our Tokyo office for her insights…

The Japanese market will become increasingly dynamic and competitive through 2011. Local research labs are engaged in innovative research and developing cutting edge technologies.

• Audio barcode: Data embedded in sound waves are picked up by the target devices with a microphone (e.g. a mobile phone), analyzed by special software, and then extracted.
  
  Commercial application scenario:
  - automatic transmission of website URLs to a phone pointed at a TV or radio

• 3D Display: NTT DOCOMO has developed a portable 3D display system that enables viewers to view 3D images from any direction without having to wear those dorky 3D glasses.
  
  
  
  Commercial application scenarios:
  - realistic games where the characters and images are rendered in 3D
  - mobile Internet shopping that allows customers to view potential purchases from virtually any direction

  

• Touch communication: DoCoMo has developed a working prototype that actually used the body to transmit information through touch, rather than via wired, wireless or optical communications. The technology is known as ‘near-field intrabody communications, uses a tiny electronical field that exists on the surface of the body to safely and harmlessly conduct information to and from devices - such as a mobile phone - via the human body. There was a successful test demo at the DoCoMo booth at CEATEC (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) show last October.
  
  
  
  Commercial application scenarios:
  - Next generation version of e-wallet phones (just walk through the ticket gate by tapping a panel)
  - Unlock a PC or enter a secure area
  - Exchange a business card with a handshake
  - Phones with especially equipped sensors to monitor body health conditions to relay information to health care provider

Technology aside, though, the most impressive thing about the Japanese mobile scene is the scene itself. The level of cultural integration is remarkable. Sure, having a cool phone is still “cool” in America, but in Japan, the mobile phone is truly is treated almost as an extension of self, or is, at the very least, a technology so culturally immersed that it seems that way. It even has a name - “keitai culture.”

Regardless of what a phone is capable of, it’s still a struggle to adapt and evolve mobile to fit into and enhance the user’s life. While we’re all racing on the same track, Japan is just a few laps ahead in terms of making features and applications useful. This is largely thanks to the mobile carriers, Docomo and Softbank, who have been able to push mobile technology into government and business operations, really putting the technology to work. That seems to be the major hold up elsewhere. But non-Japanese take heart, at least we have the App Store and other open platforms like Android. They leave the future of our mobile progress is in our own hands–literally.