An article in the LA Times today confirmed an observation I had while in Tokyo last month: Japanese are increasingly keen on the small screen (mobile phone) and the big screen (TV) but decreasingly into the conventional PC. “In Japan,’ the article in the Times said, “kids now grow up using mobile phones, not PCs. The future of PCs isn’t bright.”
However … within minutes of my arrival at the hotel I gave up and packed away my mobile; Japan is on the UMTS 2100mhz band and my GSM iPhone wouldn’t work (neither did my Treo). But I figured, hey, this place is off-the-hook gaga over tech, I’ll just lug my laptop and hitch onto some free wi-fi. Only, there’s very little wi-fi to be found. Turns out, yes, they’re mostly using mobile phones for web searches, and you don’t find a bunch of people hunched over laptops at a coffee shop (though you will find plenty of Starbucks).
So there I was, half a world away with no phone, no email, no web browsing, no instant messaging. Sadly, I had to resort to communicating face-to-face with real live people … what’s this world coming to?
Posted by: Colin Mangham