docomo japan s wireless tsunami how one mobile telecom created a new market and became a global fo phần 2 pdf

Yasuko wasgoing to control when and where she used this thing.At the time, Japan had lots of mobile phone service providers.. DoCoMo IDO Cellular Phone Digital Phone Tuka Digital Tuka 0

boyfriend, her mother, and a few personal friends who she knewwouldn’t disturb her at work or in the middle of the night She wouldalways keep it off when she was around other people Yasuko wasgoing to control when and where she used this thing.

At the time, Japan had lots of mobile phone service providers Andthere were many different phones on the market As in the UnitedStates and Europe, the phones’ features, underlying network capabili-ties, and price structure varied widely and changed all the time ButYasuko was not interested in becoming an expert on mobile phones orrate plans That seemed boring So she asked her boyfriend whichphone she should purchase and which service made the most sense Hesuggested DoCoMo’s Citiphone

Nippon Telephone and Telegraph, DoCoMo’s parent company, isthe Ma Bell of Japan Even its acronym is suggestive For a reluctantuser like Yasuko, what would be less threatening than good old NTT?The Citiphone service also had the advantage of being relatively inex-pensive for high-volume users Here, too, love entered in; Yasuko’s

boyfriend planned on talking a lot.

DoCoMo IDO Cellular

Phone

Digital Phone

Tuka Digital

Tuka 0

FIGURE 1-6 Cell phone companies in Japan: 1998 subscribers.

SOURCE: JAPAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIERS ASSOCIATION.

on a regular phone Yasukodid have a significant com-mute: She worked in Yoko-hama and was living with herfamily a full hour away Buttalking on mobile phones isprohibited on Japanese trains(see Figure 1-7) and on even-numbered cars on the Tokyuline in Tokyo, for instance, thephone is supposed to beturned off completely (see Fig-ure 1-8) And Yasuko certainly wasn’t going to use the gadget to dis-rupt work It just always seemed to her that there was no phone call

so important that she couldn’t wait a few minutes to get to a mal” phone

“nor-Then, she began to understand the wonders of mobility

Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life

“Finally, though, I began making occasional calls with my cell phone After I started using it, I found it was pretty conve- nient.”

Though she doesn’t come right out and say so, Yasuko finally began

to try this new technology, because of love (romantic andparental)…that and the construction techniques in Japanese homes.Even after a decade of recession, the Japanese are affluent by any

FIGURE 1-7 No talking.

standard But, famously, theirhouses are smaller than those

of Americans and Europeans.And the walls are literallypaper thin Of course, theJapanese norm is to provideprivacy through behavior, notspace (When he first moved

to Japan, it took John weeks

to accept that when Japaneseneighbors aren’t supposed tohear you they insist, evenbelieve, that they literally donot hear To a curious Ameri-can, this seems like an amazing act of will, right up there with fire-walking.) Still, privacy poses a challenge for any young person.Once Yasuko became a teenager, even simple chats with her girl-friends had begun to call for nuanced language or hushed whispers.Not that the dutiful Yasuko really wanted to have any shocking con-versations But, as she says, “You know, you don’t want your parents

to know everything about your life.” Back then, if she really wanted tosay something important, she’d grab her umbrella and walk down the

street, wait for a pay phone to free up, and still usually have to talk

quietly because someone else was often in line behind her waiting touse the phone, and thus could hear the entire exchange But once shebegan using her mobile phone she found she could say all of thosethings on her walk home from the train station—or at night she couldsettle in at the little neighborhood coffee shop and chat on the phone

in relative anonymity and comfort The mobility of the device let herduck outside for particularly sensitive exchanges

Sato’s sixteen-year-old dog, Jerry, also probably owes a few ofthose years to cellular technology Yasuko had always believed it wasimportant to take the dog for a short walk, but once she acceptedwireless as a real phone, the walks grew a little longer If she talkedwhile she walked, she could even discuss the most private of subjects;

FIGURE 1-8 Phones turned off.

no one was likely to hear enough of any particular conversation toreally make a difference So whenever Yasuko found herself deep in aconversation and not yet ready to go home, Jerry’s constitutionalsbecame marathons

One third of the housing in Tokyo averages only

121 square feet, while the average Japanese home is

650 square feet Even outside Tokyo, the average home for a family of three is still under 1,000 square feet

Only for the Phone-Literate

In February 1999, NTT DoCoMo came to market with an entirelynew product: the i-mode phone In addition to the voice capabilitiesthat Yasuko had grown used to, the new phone allowed for Internetconnectivity These new capabilities excited technophiles but held littleinterest for her That wasn’t because she was uninterested in the Inter-net Quite the contrary; in her first few years on the job, Yasuko hadunexpectedly grown to love the power of computers

Her company was a traditional Japanese firm “It was not at alllike the U.S style where everyone has a computer on their desk atwork.” In Yasuko’s workgroup, one computer terminal served fiveemployees (And this was in the finance/accounting section!) Theshared computer sat near a window As a member of the section, youcould get up from your workstation and go to the computer to gatherinformation But if you did, you would be away from your phone and therefore out of touch with other company members and the out-side world—a real sacrifice by Western standards, but far worse in

consensus-driven Japan There was another problem, too: At thattime, using a computer directly was thought of as pretty menial work.

So when Yasuko joined the group as a young and inexperiencedfemale, it was not surprising that her superiors decided that sheshould log the bulk of the computer time

Yasuko had graduated from Waseda University, one of the topschools in Japan, but her degree was in Asian history—not a majorthat requires a huge amount of computer expertise The first day thatshe had to deal with the computer, a young man from the informationtechnology department showed up and explained how to turn on theunfamiliar device Yasuko learned quickly, though, at least in thoseareas where the system had clear, practical value (She had heard a lotabout the Internet, for instance, but connections were not possiblefrom her work computer, and she wasn’t really sure what she’d use theInternet for anyway.)

Soon she was actually teaching others how to use the proprietaryaccounting packages on the old Hitachi workstation Before long, shecould no longer be considered a bit player in her section A year or solater, with her growing confidence in the use of computers, Yasukotook a huge leap: She got her own laptop computer With that, shebecame a part of the e-mail generation and found that it was even reallyuseful in her work Now, in retrospect, she admits that she could “never

go back to those pre-Internet days.” Yasuko has never had any

affec-tion for high-tech devices themselves, but she has always loved the

free-dom, reach, and responsiveness the devices put within her grasp

As computer use was changing Yasuko, it also changed traditionalJapanese attitudes The value of information processing became obvi-ous to more and more managers So over time, computer skills began

to be respected, computer users began to win status, and the businesscapabilities that computers made possible began to be taken forgranted Indeed, computers (and the related communications tech-nologies) moved from menial status to a favored topic of conversationamong many rising employees, “particularly the men.” According toYasuko, these guys literally love technology: “they are always talkingabout gadgets—gigabits and megabytes—that kinda stuff.”

Yasuko admits it might be good for her career to take part in suchconversations, but she just can’t bring herself to care about technol-ogy itself It doesn’t seem serious enough She’s happy to adopt tech-

nology when it clearly will help her, but only then Perhaps because of

her upbringing, she doesn’t have the genuine feelings she would need

Almost all for work

7%

Mainly for work

13%

About the same for work

and private matters

14%

Mainly for private matters

11%

Almost all for private matters

55%

FIGURE 1-9 Purpose of mobile phone usage in Japan

SOURCE: KUBOTA ET AL., INTERNET USAGE TRENDS IN JAPAN SURVEY REPORT 2000.

to join the tech lovers But, feelings aside, it’s clear that those who dochat gigabits are not only indulging a genuine passion but also build-ing strong personal relationships—and establishing credibility withone another as fellow members of the rising digital elite As they move

up through the ranks together, they’ll remember who among them isadvanced, technologically savvy, ready for innovation

An April 2001 study by Japan’s Ministry of

Public Management reported that 34.5 million

subscribers access the Internet through their cellular

service—almost matching the 37.2 million people

accessing it through fixed-line connections

Masako Loves I-mode

Yasuko insists that, when it comes to mobile technology, she is thewrong Sato “You should really be talking to my sister about this It isMasako’s generation that is really using i-mode.” Masako is attendingnursing school in Tokyo and living at home She has not achieved the career and academic success that Yasuko has But when it comes toi-mode, she is a star; she does all the things that a good i-mode gener-ation person would be expected to do

Masako Goes Mobile—Always

Masako uses her mobile phone a lot Even though she’s a student, sheracks up at least $150 a month in mobile phone charges “When shegoes over $200 in a single month, my mother really gets upset,” saysYasuko

Masako Accessorizes

Any good mobile phone user in Japan—whether they use DoCoMo, Phone, or Au—knows about carrying straps Yasuko has one, with

J-kyoro-chan on it (Kyoro is a retro anime character, an old cartoon

that “is old enough to be cute again.”) Masako, on the other hand,has a whole wardrobe of them

Masako Hacks

Japanese users also know the importance of ringtones (chakumelo) and

screensavers Yasuko uses a screensaver on her PC but never bothered

to download one for her phone She does use different ringtones for ferent functions (e.g., calls where caller ID isn’t known sound distinc-

dif-tive) For Masako, though, downloading chakumelo from a free site is

something of a hobby; she installs a new one every couple of weeks

Box 1-1 Ringtones.

If you don’t understand what a ringtone is, you are probablyAmerican It seems like everyone else in the world has embracedthe use of personalized ringtones John is too embarrassed tohave his phone go off in a meeting, so he usually keeps it onvibrate But one of the most conservative, staid academics Johnknows—a German—doesn’t seem to have any qualms at all

about the theme to Mission Impossible bursting forth from his

briefcase all day long It rang during a business meeting one day.The room erupted with laughter when they saw him going for hisbag; the contrast with Tom Cruise was just too striking

Masako Does Data

Finally, Masako does data on her phone—all the time (Yasuko doesn’t.Even her Citiphone service allowed her to send short mails, but she

never used it.) From looking up train schedules, to making reservations

at restaurants, to buying movie tickets, Masako does everything on thetrain as she commutes to and from school, or as she sits in a pub withher friends And, naturally, this is her favorite mode for e-mails Thelevel of involvement this provides—nearly constant interaction with herfriends and colleagues, the ability to be an active, visible part of discus-sions that go on with almost no regard for boundaries of the workday—is a huge competitive advantage in most careers It’s an expan-sion, really, of the bonding Yasuko sees among her gadget-loving (pri-marily male) colleagues

Torn Between Two Lovers

As she says, Yasuko is an i-mode user, too, but a very different one Itall started when she returned from a year in school in the United States.She found she really needed a phone again; in the nine short months shewas out of the country, cell phones had moved from a convenience to

an absolute requirement Once again, she consulted a technophile—thistime not her boyfriend but rather Masako, who said the cheapest place

to buy a phone was not one of the big discount stores, but a small shop

on an almost forgotten street in Yokohama—a real hole in the wall.Yasuko read a lot about phones before she made her decision (Theonly serious competitor to i-mode was J-Phone’s camera phone, whichdebuted to a lot of hype But in the end, Yasuko went with the numbers.Even in the summer of 2001, she saw competition possibly heating upfor NTT DoCoMo but would not have bet on any other company.)Even though her new phone is much more capable than her oldone, Yasuko still uses it in much the same way As before, only a fewfriends have her number; not even her boss does (though he does haveher home number) She still uses voice more heavily than she expectedbefore going mobile But she hardly uses the “i” functions of herphone at all (And she is not alone; it’s a standing joke among some ofher friends that the “i” button on the phones is there to collect dust.)Yasuko loves the mobility of i-mode, but only for voice She also lovese-mail She just can’t seem to bring those two passions together toembrace a single device the way Masako and some of the boys in the

office have Because she first met the Internet on the PC, Yasuko saysshe’ll never want to use a phone as her main way to access it “Thosewho start with the Internet on the phone get used to it, and they don’tseem to mind the small screens and the limited keypad,” she says

Box 1-2 How mobile services are changing

the “little” things.

Everyone wants to be part of history If history includes the details

of everyday life, then many of us will soon get that wish ments from hundreds of mobile users worldwide suggest thatthings we’ve taken for granted our whole lives will soon bechanging For instance:

Com-Sayonara, Seiko

The invention of a mechanical clock dates back to the thirteenth

or early fourteenth century For our entire adult lives, the watch has been an extension of our bodies Do you know a singleperson who doesn’t wear one? But to our surprise, many in Japan

wrist-no longer wear watches at all; instead, they use their mobilephones High school students are even allowed to keep wirelessdevices on their desks, just to keep track of time

Watches may continue as jewelry, but for keeping time—and for keeping us on time—wireless devices are far more power-ful They are automatically synchronized by the service provider,increasingly include schedule functions, and let communicationsreplace rigid scheduling The concept of meeting someone at anexact time is fast disappearing Instead, many users just call or

message a friend on wireless, see where they are currently, andset a meeting place on the fly

Ta Ta, Magazine

In countries where cell phones are abundant, magazines, books,newspapers, and other printed publications are being replaced Athirty-five-year-old male professional in Japan put it this way: “I

no longer need to spend money on magazines or newspapers; Ican get all of this information from the Internet.” His mobiledevice is easy to carry on a train and accessible at the airport whilehe’s waiting for a flight to take off “The time I used to spendreading books I now spend playing on my cell phone,” saidanother Japanese respondent “I don’t know if it’s good or bad.”

Farewell, Film and Faxes

Digital cameras already let you see and edit your photographsright away; fast, instant transmission via wireless is now making iteasy to share them with just about anyone In an economy wherethis is routine, film, prints, and faxes become truly obsolete—and

a whole new way of working becomes the norm “I use my mode phone] for sending important digital photo images toclients It has made my job so much more efficient The client nolonger has to come on site to view a potential problem,” said aJapanese professional working in the construction industry In the-ory, his U.S counterpart could do that today But since he can’tsend the digital file on wireless, he’s stuck with returning to theoffice and hooking up to a desktop computer first This is betterthan buying film, waiting for a print, and using FedEx—but it’s

[i-slow and inconvenient enough that in many cases he just won’tbother

Ciao, Currency

In Norway and Finland, you can buy soda from machines bypushing a button on your cell phone In some cases, that’s theonly way to buy Singapore’s government has announced plans todiscontinue printing notes and minting coins by the year 2008.And other mobile paper equivalents are headed the same way: InJapan, if you want a discount on your Wendy’s hamburger, youjust download a “coupon”—a single color screen—on your cellphone and show it at the counter After centuries of relying onprinted paper to represent value, the leaders in the wireless econ-omy seem to be ushering in a new era

Goodbye, Grammar

Language rules and sentence structure are now out the window.Senior executives in the U.K noticed a dramatic change in com-munication styles, particularly in letter writing etiquette Thesefolks complained that very few people write proper letters intoday’s electronic world People simply jot down a couple of lines

in a fax or e-mail, frequently ignoring standard salutations, tuation, and grammar Short text messages routinely ignore capi-tal letters and even spelling: “U” instead of “you” becomes quitenormal Many perceive these changes as “rude,” but they areincreasingly common And like many generational changes, theysoon become invisible