scotsboyuk
Joined: Jun 02, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: UK
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I have decided to post my opinion on a different aspect of mobile technology each day, please feel free to comment.
I have a great deal of interest in the state of mobile technology between the three big markets, Europe, Japan and the United States and it is this topic that I shall be discussing today.
The reasons why the U.S. has been so far behind the rest of the world in terms of mobile technology have been discussed many times before and I think that we are probably all familiar with them by now, however, it is interesting to look at why Americans don't have the same mobile culture as found in Japan or Europe, despite the fact that the technology is starting to catch up with our own.
It is important to note that both Europe and Japan had vibrant mobile cultures even when the most advanced feature of a mobile phone was SMS, the U.S. has that and a lot more at the current time, and yet they don't seem to have embraced mobile phones in the same way as Europeans or Japanese have. One, very clichéd, reason given to account for this, which I have stated before, is the difference in commuting. Both Europeans and Japanese spend large amounts of time commuting to and from work, whilst the same could be said for many Americans, Europeans and Japanese tend to utilise public transport more than cars, which is the main mode of transport for Americans. Commuters on trains, buses, subway systems or other modes of public transport have a lot more time for texting, sending and receiving e-mails, playing games, listening to music, watching video clips (or in some cases full episodes or films), all from their mobile phones. Americans have comparatively less time for such activities owing to the fact that they drive a lot more and it is obviously not very practical to be doing nay of the above mentioned activities whilst driving. The commuter example doesn't explain why Americans haven't adopted a similar pattern of mobile usage to Europe or Japan when not driving, and it I have found that this is actually rather difficult to explain. Some people would claim that Americans use internet messenger applications to communicate more so than Europeans or Japanese, but both Europe and Japan have high levels of internet usage and, certainly in Europe at least, internet messaging applications are very popular.
We also have the reasoning that American networks haven't implemented the technology necessary to create a mobile culture as found in Europe or Japan, again I find this reasoning flawed. As I have stated above, both Europe and Japan embraced mobile technology even in its infancy, to say that this level of technology limits interest is obviously untrue. We shouldn't imagine that Americans are not interested in acquiring new technology or that they are not interested in mobile phones with colour screens, or camera phones or other improvements over the mainstay of mobile technology available in the U.S. over the last few years; Americans are just as interested in mobile technology as Europeans or Japanese are, probably more so because of the lack of it.
Network coverage has also been blamed for inhibiting mobile phone usage and advancement in the U.S. and whilst it is true that the U.S. is much larger than Japan, it is, however, comparable in size to Europe, seemingly indicating that it is perfectly possible to extend network coverage over an area of this size. Yet we must remember that Europe's geography and population dispersal is very different to that of the U.S., Europe has no deserts or vast areas containing relatively few people. Europe has a larger population than the U.S. and a higher population density; the U.S. networks have no real motivation to extend coverage to vast areas of the U.S. containing a few thousand people. Although we can see that certain areas of America may have poor network coverage, this still doesn't answer the question of why there isn't a comparative mobile culture in America when one considers that the big cities in America have perfectly good network coverage.
The United States is perhaps the most insular country in the world, few Americans have ever actually travelled abroad and many have never set foot outside their own state, knowledge of world events is brought to them by their media. Having been to America on a few occasions I have had first hand experience of seeing their media in action and I can assure you that foreign news is not featured very highly at all, foreign news is only really mentioned in any detail where it concerns America or Americans. America as a whole is a country that likes American ways, they have their own systems for doing things and they tend to stick to them. One only has to look to American military installations abroad that set up 'mini-Americas' within their walls to see this. This insular nature doesn’t mean that the U.S. is a backwards country, but it does take a lot of effort for foreign ideas to catch on there and be accepted. America will eventually catch up with the rest of the world in terms of mobile technology, to be honest they really aren't all that far behind Europe at the moment, but the real question is whether they will choose to do anything with that technology or remain content to use their laptops and PDAs for mobile communication rather than mobile phones, as yet they have chosen the latter option.
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"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC
[ This Message was edited by: scotsboyuk on 2004-06-18 14:41 ]
[ This Message was edited by: scotsboyuk on 2004-06-19 14:34 ]
[ This Message was edited by: scotsboyuk on 2004-06-19 14:34 ] |
Posted: 2004-06-18 15:33
