WW-109 -- The Finnish-Japanese Information Society Conference in Tokyo -- Views from two advanced mobile cultures

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J@pan Inc presents the Wireless Watch Newsletter:

W I R E L E S S W A T C H

Commentary on Japan's Wireless World
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Wireless Watch Newsletter
Issue No. 109
Wednesday, October 8, 2003
TOKYO

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CONTENTS

++ Viewpoint: The Finnish-Japanese Information Society Conference
in Tokyo -- Views from two advanced mobile cultures

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++ Viewpoint: The Finnish-Japanese Information Society Conference
in Tokyo -- Views from two advanced mobile cultures

This week, we at Wireless Watch participated in a panel discussion
titled, "New Everyday Life and Mobile Communication Cultures,"
held at the Finnish褒apanese Information Society Conference in Tokyo.
Both countries are highly receptive to new Internet Technologies
and are therefore used as launching platforms for new mobile
technologies (e.g. DoCoMo in Japan and Nokia in Finland).

Sachiko Nakano from Japanese national broadcaster NHK presented
some fascinating research results:

Youngsters below the age of 25 are interested in mobile TV and are
willing to pay for it. They don稚 want to be bound to their rooms
at home anymore just to watch the tube, but prefer access to short
programs wherever they happen to be.

The most popular mobile TV contents are thought to be sports and
five-minute drama programs broadcast on a daily basis.

During TV commercials, homebound television watchers tend to turn
away from their TVs. But traffic on mobile networks actually
increases during TV commercials.

Panel interviews conducted by NHK reveal that children are often
watching in their own rooms the very same TV programs their parents
are watching elsewhere.

"During TV commercials, they come out of their rooms to talk to
their parents about the TV program they are both watching,"
according to Nakano.

Teppo Turki from Finnish telecommunication service provider, Elisa,
highlighted his comparative research between the use of mobile
services among young Finnish and Japanese.

According to Teppo, mobile communications fulfill the desires of
the young to belong to a community. They are often afraid to be left
alone, and the Use of mobile messaging is addictive --
like cigarettes.

Students cannot refrain from using their messaging devices for more
than 15 minutes, and usage patterns show that mobile mail is sent and
received throughout the day under all circumstances.

Research in Finland showed that kids see the mobile Internet as a
walled space with special zones where they can spend their time. On
the other hand, the fixed-line Internet is seen as a free world.

This might explain why the mobile and fixed-line Internet channels
are considered two completely different domains by young people.

The Japanese Ministry of Home Affairs unveiled its July 2003
statistics for broadband. The number of broadband contracts
totalled more than 11 million for broadband: 8.5 million for DSL,
2.3 million for CATV and 530,000 for FTTH.

The Ministry also claimed that Japanese broadband services are the
world痴 fastest and cheapest, superior even to current Korean
offerings in terms of price and speed.

The main conclusion of the panel session was that there are more
similarities than differences between the mobile cultures of Finland
and Japan. What's crucial is the enabling technology and the devices
themselves, for these are the elements that have a real impact on
customer usage of services and applications -- in whichever corner
of the world you happen to call home.

-- Arjen van Blokland

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STAFF
Written by Arjen van Blokland; Edited by Roland Kelts
(editors@japaninc.com)

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