20th
It’s no secret that Japanese cell phone technology is considered to be world-class, but it does have it’s problems. I dig Japanese cell phone tech. What can I say? I’ve watched it develop over the last decade that I have been using it.
The real problem with Japanese cell tech is that it’s built on the original concept that it would shun global standards so as to shut out foreign competition.
Japan’s METI (formerly MITI) is fiercely protective of the archipeligo’s economy. Understandable as the country doesn’t always have the resources to take on global industries (or so it fears).
This created some mind-boggling technology that wood Japanese consumers for a while, but never caught on outside the country. Magneto-optical drives and MiniDiscs are among failed tech in the 90s. More recently, there has been a rather obscure propriatory music file formats for Sony and other brand name digital music players, flying directly in the face of the logic and popularity of the mp3 file format.
One can only shrug and wonder why Japan doesn’t wish to embrace global standards that would otherwise propel its economy, but it only takes a good look at its isolated past to understand the basis of it.
I think it’s good that the FeliCa tech is going to get the chance to see the light of day in other countries, but it needs to be changed to fit global standard, not visa versa. I think the reference to Taiwan and South Korea is grossly misguided. Yes, those countries have always been interested in Japanese tech, but that’s because they never had (until recently) technology that was even remotely similar. Moreover, they are countries that have had (for better or worse) long ties with Japan.
It’s time to take off the rose-colored spectacles Japan, and to realize that you are not the hub of the world’s technology. Furthermore, if you wait too long, someone else will come along, steal your thunder and leave you in the dust to rot.
