Comments on: Entrepreneurship Hints from Overseas

By: by Tim

by Tim — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:46:36 +0000

Thanks for insightful comments. Natsuno has left Docomo,I believe, wonder what he’s doing?

By: Mr. Smith

Mr. Smith — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:46:49 +0000

If you read Natusuno’s first book there are more insights. In the 90’s the Docomo mobile part of NTT was regarded as the red headed step child of the NTT group. No respect and a place for “renegade” or non conforming NTT clones. Pay phones and landlines were “the place to be” back then.

Pre imode. Too many people were making voice calls and overloading the network. The PDC 2G system was not designed and didnt have the network capacity.Tokyo has extreme mobile phone density.

Imode is a business model designed to get people to call less and use data more on a seperate(packet) network.And it worked. But they didnt know what the reaction would be. Sort of like 7-11 first in Japan. Would anyone come?

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:29:48 +0000

Natsuno is referring to the extraordinarily advanced design and clever user interface that Apple achieved in the iPhone. So he’s referring to the hardware/interface design itself rather than to the service offer per se (in fact in the interview he goes on to acknowledge that Japanese carriers offer many services the iPhone lacks).

And Traveler is spot on in pointing out that i-mode is a business model rather than a technological advance. You need to read the entire interview to understand Natsuno’s comment; as a stand-alone sound byte, it does seem strange. And I think he is overly (and typically) deferential with respect to non-Japanese companies…

By: Traveler

Traveler — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:13:48 +0000

I too was in Japan for the birth of i-mode, and used DoCoMo until the iPhone came; I’m now an avid watcher and user of the latter in Japan. So I certainly agree with Tim’s comparison between the two, as I’d noticed the same parallel myself.

The important thing to recall about i-mode’s success is that it wasn’t based on any stunning new tech. It was a *business model* success, the first that really made it easy for businesses and users to connect with paid services, while DoCoMo (like Apple) acted as gatekeeper, and (like Apple) took an easily-understood flat cut of the revenue. That’s what paid services on mobile phone had been missing until i-mode.

But that’s why I can’t make heads or tails of Natsuno’s strange comment, “This kind of device cannot be produced by Japanese manufacturers”. The iPhone isn’t technologically earthshaking, and already manufacturers everywhere are creating similar hardware. Japanese manufacturers could certainly do so.

Again, the iPhone’s success is due to the business model – the great iPhone ecosystem – not just to the device. Natsuno may be saying that Japanese companies don’t have the creativity to create such a groundbreaking ecosystem – which is bizarre, as he himself was part of just such a creation!

So I have no idea why he makes that comment. (Which may not at all be his fault; one never knows how much the selected, out-of-context sound bites appearing in an interview reflect what the speaker actually said!)

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:08:36 +0000

I was living in Japan when Docomo introduce i-mode, and I will admit I was initially skeptical of its offering. It was slow, handsets were small, and offerings were initially limited. The sound quality of Japanese keitai sucked for a long, long time.

I haven’t followed the Japanese keitai market much lately, though I do know prices have come down, quality has gone up, and connectivity is pervasive. I also know iPhone is garnering a lot of attention there. Out of curiosity, why is iPhone so interesting in Japan if what it offers is so “old hat”? I mostly agree with your article, but I don’t understand that paradox. iPhone must be doing something different besides offering larger screen and an App Store.