The Smart Phone

For the last decade there has been one major center for cell phone innovation: Japan. I recently read an article on the Japanese "smart phones" on the New York Times discussing why these phones haven't made it overseas yet. The Japanese are calling it "Galápagos syndrome." Their cell phones have evolved well past the point most of us use, which makes it difficult for Japanese companies to break into foreign markets when we think we have the "latest technology" in the iPhone. Truth be told, what the iPhone can do has been done by the Japanese for awhile now, the only difference being the lack of a touch screen (they tend to enjoy flip phones instead).

A few features not typically seen on phones anywhere else:
E-money (using the cell phone instead of a debit or credit card)
Tickets for public transportation
User identification via facial recognition and fingerprints.
Bar code scanning/advertisement scanning.
Television streaming (not Hulu or YouTube style, actual television)
Movie viewing
Video calling
AM/FM Radio
GPS
Live streaming video

There, it's more common to surf the internet with a cell phone instead of a computer. In the US, we frequently hear about how great it would be to have one device for everything. In Japan, there are few things they need any other device for. Once you start reaching past entertainment value with a cell phone to things that could be considered "necessity," the cell phone loses its status as a novelty item and becomes an essential. Why buy a nice computer for $1500 when you can buy a cell phone that does everything a computer can and then some (minus graphically intensive games) for $300? For me that answer is easy, I need a bigger screen for design work. But I think the average computer user who's not in front of one for 8 hours a day or just using word processing probably doesn't need a big screen.

Think of what this would mean for advertising, even for conferencing. For YouTube ads, for Facebook, Twitter, and blog interaction, internet needs to be available. For most people, that means a computer. In Japan, 100 million people have access to the internet at all times because their phones are with them. That's 100 million people you could connect with 24/7. Maybe we should start taking the hint over here.