Breaking The Japanese Mobile Myth
It looks like the editors of Wireless Watch Japan are a little fed up with gaijin dismissing the success of mobile data in Japan as a product of the lack of wired Internet connections. They’ve pointed out that since 2001, Japan’s PC and Internet penetration has met or exceeded that of several western European nations, implying that the services have succeeded on their own merits, rather than because the country’s mobile users are internet-starved. They further point out that success of phone-based music downloads there isn’t as a ringtone replacement, as some have alleged, but follows a heavy marketing push by carriers to position the service for music downloads.
