Survey of Japan's mobile phone consumers reveals potential product strategies for the U.S. market.
Japanese wireless subscribers demonstrate a higher level of usage of, and interest in, advanced mobile phone features than do consumers in the United States, according to the findings in a new report from The NPD Group , a leading provider of consumer and retail information.
Japanese consumers are the world’s early adopters of the latest mobile technologies and features. The market is therefore seen as a key test bed for innovation, which is why industry professionals around the world look to Japan to understand “what’s next” in wireless.
Emerging features currently available in Japan, but less ubiquitous here, also display a strong growth potential for the consumer wireless market in the US. These features include:
-Barcode reader (27%)
-GPS (26%)
-FM Radio (22%)
-Voice recorder (18%)
-Analog TV tuner (18%)
-Mobile commerce and emoney capabilities (16%)
4 comments:
27%?
Wow! I've got to believe than most cell phones in Japan don't even HAVE barcode reading capabilities, just yet, so that the number is all the more impressive.
This pretty much settles in my mind one of the most critical issues for the physical world hyperlink model: will people USE such technology? Theory is one thing, practice another. These numbers make a very convincing case for bar code reading on cell phones as a huge up-and-coming technology.
Well its already well implanted in many commerce and even on business cards... you'll find people's barcode square so that you can scan it with your mobile to get to the businesses' homepage.
So popular Japanese game center game like this one
http://www.bandainamcogames.co.jp/donderpage/
actually uses the barcode method to collect points, the moment that you access the information barcode it stores your mobile ID so that when you scan it the next time you game over then you can collect points...
and thats just the beginning of what you can do with that kind of technologie. Actually its just a pointer/link to another virtual location where the information is pooled.
Not that huge anymore... its well settled and most mobiles in japan have cameras... thats the only requirement for it to be a barcode reader!
The software interface on mobile devices to scan using cameras is many years off.
Scanning barcodes with Bluetooth barcode scanners external to mobile phones, that can scan codes in 1/10 of a second or less is required for current users patience levels (esp mobile users). Such solutions have been available for years from companies like this one http://serialio.com/
Serialio involves using 2 devices, hardly efficient.
I suggest you look at how the largest consumer packaging company in the world is incorporating 2d codes (in addition to the 1d codes already present) that can be read by virtually all camera phones today.
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