Like with the Internet, the US is falling behind with cell phones, too

[Le Jacquelope]

http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/26/1420211

knapper_tech writes "After seeing the iPhone introduction, I was totally confused by how much excitement it generated in the US. It offered no features I could see beyond my Casio W41CA's capabilities. I had a lot of apprehension towards the idea of a virtual keypad and the bare screen looked like a scratch magnet. Looks aren't enough. Finally, the price is ridiculous. The device is an order of magnitude more expensive than my now year-old Keitai even with a two-year contract. After returning to the US from Japan, I've come to realize the horrible truth behind iPhone's buzz. Over the year I was gone, US phones haven't really done anything. Providers push a minuscule lineup of uninspiring designs and then charge unbelievable prices for even basic things like text messages. I was greeted at every kiosk by more tired clamshells built to last until obsolescence, and money can't buy a replacement for my W41CA." Read on as this reader proposes and dismissed a number of possible explanations for the difference in cell-phone markets between the US and Japan. He concludes with, "It seems to me more like competition is non-existent and US providers are ramming yesteryear's designs down our throats while charging us an arm and a leg! Someone please give me some insight."

I finally broke down and got a $20 Virgin phone to at least get me connected until I get over my initial shock. In short, American phones suck, and iPhone is hopefully a wakeup call to US providers and customers. Why is the American phone situation so depressing?

Before I left for Japan about a year ago, I was using a Nokia 3160. It cost me $40 US and I had to sign a one year contract that Cingular later decided was a two-year contract. I was paying about $40 a month for service and had extra fees for SMS messages.

After I got to Kyoto, I quickly ended up at an AU shop and landed a Casio W41CA. It does email, music, pc web browsing, gps, fm radio, tv, phone-wallet, pictures (2megapixel), videos, calculator etc. I walked out of the store for less than ¥5000 (about $41) including activation fees, and I was only paying slightly over ¥4000 (about $33) per month. That included ¥3000 for a voice plan I rarely used and ¥1000 for effectively unlimited data (emails and internet).

Perhaps someone with more knowledge of the costs facing American mobile providers can explain the huge technology and cost gap between the US and Japan. Why are we paying so much for such basic features?

At first, I thought maybe it was something to do with network infrastructure. The US is a huge land area and Japan is very tiny. However, Japan would have lots of towers because of the terrain. Imagine something like Colorado covered in metropolitan area. Also, even though places like rural New Mexico exist, nobody has an obligation to cover them, and from the look of coverage maps, no providers do. Operating a US network that reaches 40% of the nation's population requires nowhere near reaching 40% of the land area. The coverage explanation alone isn't enough.

Another possibility was the notion that because Americans keep their phones until they break, phone companies don't focus much on selling cutting edge phones and won't dare ship a spin-chassis to Oklahoma. However, with the contract life longer, the cost of the phone could be spread out over a longer period. If Americans like phones that are built to last and then let them last, the phones should be really cheap. From my perspective, they are ridiculously priced, so this argument also fails.

The next explanation I turned to is that people in the US tend to want winners. We like one ring to rule them all and one phone to establish all of what is good in phone fashion for the next three years. However, Motorola's sales are sagging as the population got tired of dime-a-dozen RAZR's and subsequent knockoffs. Apparently, we have more fashion sense or at least desire for individuality than to keep buying hundreds of millions of the same design. Arguing that the US market tends to gravitate to one phone and then champion it is not making Motorola money.

At last I started to wonder if it was because Americans buy less phones as a whole, making the cost of marketing as many different models as the Japanese prohibitive. However, with something like three times the population, the US should be more than enough market for all the glittery treasures of Akiba. What is the problem?

I'm out of leads at this point. It's not like the FCC is charging Cingular and Verizon billions of dollars per year and the costs are getting passed on to the consumer. Japanese don't have genetically superior cellphone taste. I remember that there was talk of how fierce mobile competition was and how it was hurting mobile providers' earnings. However, if Japanese companies can make money at those prices while selling those phones, what's the problem in the US? It seems to me more like competition is non-existent and US providers are ramming yesteryear's designs down our throats while charging us an arm and a leg! Someone please give me some insight.

Oh and holy shit...

 

[Le Jacquelope]

Ouch. Only available in Europe & Asia.

http://www.handcellphone.com/archiv...-is-powered-by-nvidia-graphics-card-announced

 

[Lovelynice]

In Japan, people were quite amused by the hype around the iPhone too. Internet connectivity for websurfing, video downloads, TV, video-camera built-in, all that is old hat in Japan. I think the infrastructure for the network is better, it didn't use to be, but it's all 3G the past few years.

South Korea is about equal, roughly, with probably superior solidstate HDs in the upmarket cellphones since late last year.



.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

In Japan, people were quite amused by the hype around the iPhone too. Internet connectivity for websurfing, video downloads, TV, video-camera built-in, all that is old hat in Japan. I think the infrastructure for the network is better, it didn't use to be, but it's all 3G the past few years.

South Korea is about equal, roughly, with probably superior solidstate HDs in the upmarket cellphones since late last year.

Shit, they can make purchases at friggin vending machines with their cell phone.

 

[LadyFunkenstein]

I said the iphone was shit from the day I read about it. Youtube at 2.5G max? Jeepers! Sign me up.

 

[Pyro Paul]

Why Japan is a head in cellphones...
because the country is Fucking small.

an 1/8th the size of the US while having over 3 times the amount of people. hell, you could probably still get wireless interent in the must rural parts of japan. out in rural america, your lucky to find people that know what in the hell the 'interwebs' is.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

Why Japan is a head in cellphones...
because the country is Fucking small.

an 1/8th the size of the US while having over 3 times the amount of people. hell, you could probably still get wireless interent in the must rural parts of japan. out in rural america, your lucky to find people that know what in the hell the 'interwebs' is.

That's internet access. The size of the country has nothing to do with the evolution of technology.

 

[StuffItIn]

I have a good friend that lives in the UK. He's *constantly* showing me the phones that they have over there, and seriously a lot of these phones would cost me $300-$400 to buy the damn thing from one of the regular wireless providers here in the US, and he often gets them as the freebies with a new phone plan.

 

[ronpaulitician]

I have yet to send my first text message. I guess I'm one of the ones responsible for the US falling behind in the cell phone department.

 

[Sagittarian]

Japan is a super power correct? They always been advanced from animations to technologies so this is no surprise. With the price and hype from the iphone picture the price of that phone that can get you items from a vending machine or take pictures through someones shirt.

 

[MechaBlade]

We'll always be behind Japan in small electronics, because everyone there has a hard-on for consumer electronics, and people here would rather change phones on a yearly basis. I like tech stuff too, but I change my phone every two years when my contract is up and I pay about $80 on average to get a shiny new one.

The iPhone generated so much buzz not because it had so many cool features that are currently available on pretty much every PDA and many high-end cells both overseas and here in America, but because 1. it has the most beautiful interface I've seen anywhere (still haven't seen anything european or asian match it) 2. it's apple (branding) 3. brilliant commercials.

I would like to see cooler mid-range phones though. I cannot believe I only know of one phone and one service offering wifi-cell connection.

 

[landslider2000]

It's fine to carry a cell phone for emergency purposes.

But you can't be one of those people who talk on a cell while walking, shopping, etc.

 

[ronpaulitician]

It's fine to carry a cell phone for emergency purposes.

That's the only reason I have my cell. Free phone, $15 a month subscription.

 

[Sagittarian]

I don't use my phone as much as I used to when my parents were paying for it. Lesson well taught Dad.

 

[MechaBlade]

It's fine to carry a cell phone for emergency purposes.

But you can't be one of those people who talk on a cell while walking, shopping, etc.

Why not? Potential shopping cart accidents?

 

[Lovelynice]

Japan is a super power correct? They always been advanced from animations to technologies so this is no surprise. With the price and hype from the iphone picture the price of that phone that can get you items from a vending machine or take pictures through someones shirt.

Japan could be called an "economic" superpower, it's far from being a military one - but it could easily shift gears into becoming one in mere months; which is a thought that has long terrified their neighbours.

 

[PoastMonkey]

I don't have a land line phone. Just the Razr I bought a few years ago when they first came out. It does everything I want it to do... i.e. it makes calls.

I've really no interest in surphing the interwebs from a phone, or buying crap from a vending machine.

In fact, the fucking shit is getting so complicated that you'll buy a phone and not be able to figure out how to make a call!

Aahhaha Dialing the phone and a case of Cracka-Cola comes bouncing out of the fatty machine as you walk by!

Luddites Unite!



btw... does Japan really have 900,000,000 people?

 

[MechaBlade]

btw... does Japan really have 900,000,000 people?

No.
.
.

 

[Worm]

I hate cellphones if my work didn't require me to carry one I wouldn't. I must admit the iphone does look sexy tho. What else do you want your cellphone to do? We have cellphones that you can watch TV surf the internet etc...? I guess it is just price that is an issue but when your serving a less dense population while also requiring a larger infrastructure to support that population it is bound to happen.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

Shit, how about just being able to import a Japanese cell phone and use it here? I'll take that.

 

[MechaBlade]

Shit, how about just being able to import a Japanese cell phone and use it here? I'll take that.

Get an unlocked one.