(New York Times 全文在此)
Comment:
Japan’s cellphones –
an endemic species fantastically evolved and divergent from the world outside.
No one would doubt that Japan is one of the most innovative countries in the world. A product made in Japan, usually stands for high quality and advanced technology. Meanwhile, Japanese have also brought the world many interesting products such as Nintendo's Wii. The Japanese seems to have strong obsession with mechanical technology for some unexplainable reason. We can tell this from their craze for robots and all those clever devices, like cell phones.
Why do Japan’s multifunctional cellphones have little presence beyond its shores? Japanese describe this situation as a Galapagos syndrome.
Japan's cellphone was years ahead of the world, so they set a standard for the second-generation network first through which people can access a fenced-in Web via their cellphone. This mobile Web quickly became a huge success that fostered huge e-commerce and contain market within Japan and changed the way Japanese use their cellphone from that time. However, the rest of the world did not adapt Japan’s standard for the second-generation. Instead, they developed a new standard which made the Japan's system isolated from the global market. The situation of Japan is like the species in Galapagos island in that both of them evolved in their own way isolated from the outside world.
Cellphones in Japan were well developed and Japanese makers added their wildest imaginations of what cellphones can do onto the little handsets which make up the cellphones on the market today. For examples, cellphone today are equipped with the function of 3G, camera, music downloading, and even electronic payment following the lead of the Japanese.
Everything was so perfect until a global financial crisis woke them up. The Japanese makers realized the fully developed domestic market is not big enough to support their growth and the global market is so difficult to prise open. They also contribute to their own problems by an overwhelmingly emphasis on hardware function rather than software. Therefore, Japan's cellphones can not synchronize data with PCs as the iPhone and other smart phones do.
I find it interesting that in Darwin's original concept evolution dose not develop toward a specific direction but depend on the specific environment. The Japanese give life to their cellphones in their own way and formed their own culture which is why neither the iPhone and other smart phones outside Japan can easily get in, nor the Japan's get out. In other words, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the fact that Japan develops cellphone in one way while the world do it in another way.
However, following the growth and interdependency of the global market and everchanging financial environment, Japan's cellphone makers can not stick only to domestic market anymore. I think a smart way to improve the situation is to take from the long to add to the short, which is combining their advanced mechanical technology with software integration. It is time for another evolution.
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