[13152] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: Appropriate Discussion?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ray Duncan)
Tue Mar 14 20:08:52 2000
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 22:45:07 +1300
From: Ray Duncan <rayd@VOYAGER.CO.NZ>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
Message-Id: <200003140945.WAA05439@callisto.net.voyager.co.nz>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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At 11:30 AM 3/11/00 -0500, Mary wrote:
>........We in libraries will need to think about how we will design our
>services, our web pages, our web-based catalogs and other information
>resources, and our facilities to meet the needs of wireless users...........
I thought that you may like to ponder on this story I received from Global
Reach. I'm sorry it is long but I didn't want to edit it in case useful
information was eliminated. It may be timely to check with Librarians in
Japan and see how they are coping with wireless users.
Ray.
Net-shy Japan takes to Web through cell phones
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From Time to Time: Nando's in-depth look at the 20th century
Yuya Kato uses the Net to go surfing - in the ocean. With his new
mobile phone, Kato can quickly view simple Web information on
weather, wind speed and wave heights at his favorite beach.
"I rarely use this phone for talking," said Kato, who works for a
Tokyo film distributor and hits the beach on the weekends. "I just
get on, get the information I want and get off."
So much for conventional Web surfing.
Despite its love for just about everything high-tech, Japan has
been surprisingly slow to go online, lagging behind Europe and the
United States in Internet use. But the nation has been one of the
fastest to get hooked on cell phones - and a new generation of
mobile devices with Internet capabilities is setting off a
revolution that could put Japan on the fore of cyberspace.
Japan's passion for the portable phone is legendary. There are over
53 million of them in use - meaning about two for every five
Japanese.
But only about 11 percent of Japanese homes are connected to the
Internet, compared to 37 percent in the United States.
The main reason is cost.
Fees for local calls in Japan make it expensive to go online via
conventional telephones, unlike the U.S. where the call is
generally free. And Japanese consumers have been slow to buy
personal computers, the main route to the Internet.
Net phones, introduced here for the first time in February, solve
these problems.
They cost little more than regular mobile phones, and users are
charged only for the information they download. For the price of a
new handset and an extra few hundred yen (a few dollars) a month,
the average user gains access to everything from movie listings to
news headlines to video games.
"The mobile Internet has very substantial potential in Japan,"
Merrill Lynch senior analyst Mahendra Negi wrote in a recent
report. He said that the trend could help Japan catch up to U.S.
Internet usage.
Japan also could open up an important technological front.
To make Web phones, software developers need to refit Web pages to
a business-card size screen. The challenge is easier for Japanese
developers, who already have crammed multiple functions and
crystal-clear LCD screens into some of the world's tiniest digital
handsets.
The United States, meanwhile, is struggling with the transition,
and is just starting to test Web phones for consumers. Part of the
problem is the plethora of U.S. mobile phone standards.
Japan, on the other hand, will become in 2001 the first country to
launch an advanced "third generation" Web phone, which will offer
faster Internet access and video display, as well as allow callers
to use the same number and handset worldwide.
Japan won't control the industry, since the international community
is moving toward a global standard for mobile service designed to
prevent any one country's dominance.
But the nation's knack for miniaturizing mobile phones may one day
be in high demand all over the world.
Leading the movement is Japan's top telecommunications firm, NTT
DoCoMo.
The company in February introduced its "i-mode" service, which
allows users to log onto the Internet for about $2.90, plus a
charge based on the volume of information that is downloaded.
So far, the service has nearly 3 million subscribers, and industry
forecasts predict the number could reach 4.5 million over the next
three months.
"From here on out, the number of people on the Internet via cell
phones is only going to go up," said Mitsuhiro Kurano, a spokesman
for rival Japan Telecom, which on Dec. 10 launched its own
Internet-capable phone.
But the Internet development will be different from that in the
United States, where online services are tailored to
large-screen browsing on personal computers.
"Because the screen is so small, the focus will be on text and
information rather than graphics," he said.
-Nando Media (Associated Press)
(http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500148403-500179762-5007252
93-0,00.html)
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
l Ray Duncan, Managing Director, rayd@voyager.co.nz l
l Network Systems Ltd, PO Box 331203 Tel: +64 9 441 6524 l
l Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand Fax: +64 9 441 6589 l
l Assisting commercial software vendors become global l
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
