Kudos to Renfield Kuroda on his great article, "Wireless Predictions for 2001." His take on i-mode vs. WAP is right on. I too hope to be there when i-mode wins the wireless Web war over WAP. I second his prediction: it will happen.

Linda Zambenini
php.indiana.edu/~lzambeni/L571/imode/imode.html

I wish that the author of this article (see "Clash Course") had pointed out the fact that there is also a glass ceiling in American companies. American companies are all too happy to take in immigrants as IT workers, and to benefit from their hard work and intelligence. However, those workers don't seem to be promoted into high positions as often as they deserve. At some (most?) American companies, Asians with higher education levels and qualifications tend to get paid less than their less-qualified white coworkers. Why is this?

Excellent article -- I'm glad to see I'm not the only one working through these issues (see "Clash Course") However, I found Hitachi be a great promoter of wa!

Charles T. Stewart
invictus@mb.neweb.ne.jp

I just read the "Mom-and-Pop Ecommerce" piece. Target One reminds me somewhat of Crayfish, particularly the face-to-face 'Edo' sales style. The company has some nice ideas, but the POS terminal is still the central repository of data for these stores, and it may be just a matter of time before the POS kings like TEC and NEC incorporate the same type of services into their offering (with a chance of a buyout of Target One on the way).

B2B business exchanges like EC-Oil and AlphaBrain, on the other hand, could be the Microsofts and de Beers of the next century.

First of all, compliments to your fine magazine, which I personally read every month and find very informative. In your November issue's article "Supplying New Ideas: Wireless Lights Up," you mention that Walt Disney Internet Group launched services for i-mode from August. Your comment on this launch is that it may be "late" as the service "comes two years after i-mode first talked to Disney." Let me make a brief comment on your impression.

What follows is a back-and-forth between writer and wireless expert Renfield Kuroda and reader Tim Cipullo. Cipullo was responding to Kuroda's article, "Enough Already! Cellphones Are Not Unwiedly," posted on our site November 1, 2000.

I would like to reply to the letter by Jason Keith Radnor in which he advises getting rid of Joi's Diary. Joi's column is informative and gives real insight into not only the foreign movers and shakers in Japan, but also many of the Japanese power brokers. Don't lose Joi as a contributor, and try to get him back to writing two pages each month.

Darren McKellin
dmckellin@technovox.com
Director, Sales & Marketing
Technovox Corporation

[This letter came in response to the Oct. 22 email newsletter, which mentioned the Japanese government's plans to get 10,000 schools online. -- Editors]

In the November 26 version of the J@pan Inc newsletter, you cited the Asahi newspapers talking about NTT starting ADSL services here in Japan. This will not happen.

I work for a company called DSP Research Inc. (www.dspr.co.jp). We are a telecommunications compliance testing laboratory. This means we test for approvals from the Japanese government (MPT). Please note the following:

1. The MPT still has not changed the law for wide usage of the ADSL systems. Only on private networks.

Ditto. Great to see an article ("DoCoMo: Easy Cell") by someone who knows what he is talking about and cuts through the DoCoMo hype.

Keep up the good work.

Robert Berardy