News Archive

Ericsson sales manager Lars Sandström says technologies such as HSDPA, which Vodafone K.K. is currently trialing in Tokyo with Ericsson, will take mobile marketing to a whole new level. "With HSDPA, which allows for increased network capacity as well as faster data transmission, mobile marketers will be able to provide higher quality advertisements to an even wider audience," he says. "Instead of just sending customers a text-message promotion for a certain item, they will now be able to provide pictures of it or even short video clips. This type of marketing is incredibly cost-effective compared with traditional channels."

The Kaizen approach
Why is it that mobile data services take off more easily in Japan than in other advanced markets? The answer lies in the way operators there have introduced them. First, they have adopted the Japanese approach of making step-by-step improvements to services. Second, in their marketing they have focused on the services themselves and not on the technologies behind them. And finally, they have launched operator-specified handsets and offered flat-rate pricing in order to achieve market penetration.

Sandström says the Kaizen – or step-by-step – approach to introducing data services is fundamental to understanding the market. "In Japan, new products are always positioned to take account of the natural evolution of consumers' existing behavior," he says. "In every industry in Japan, the underlying understanding is that consumption should primarily bring pleasure and convenience. This is why new products are introduced by reinforcing existing consumer behavior rather than changing it. The focus is always on evolution, not revolution."

This attention to the needs of the consumer feeds into the way Japanese operators have focused on marketing mobile services and not the technology behind them. The approach is contrary to other advanced mobile markets, where product launches have traditionally focused on the technology, be it WAP, GPRS or WCDMA. Japanese operators also have a history of offering specified terminals and flat-rate pricing in conjunction with service launches. So-called "hot buttons" on keypads and preprogrammed software allow consumers to start using a service literally at the click of a button.

Staying in front
With consumers in Japan having grown so used to mobile data, operators there are now moving ahead with a new wave of services. NTT DoCoMo, for instance, is starting to introduce a technology that allows mobiles to be used to make cashless payments and unlock doors, simply by waving the phone in front of a compatible sensor. A number of such services are already starting to take off in Japan, which looks set to remain the world’s leading market for mobile data.

Read more about HSDPA (PDF).