I've been reading about keitai, the Japanese mobile phone culture. Japanese of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds rely on their keitai for not only voice calls, but email, GPS services, current events, monetary transactions and multimedia.
Members of the EU use their "tellies" much like their Asian neighbors. Most European subscribers (80% to be exact) use text messaging and mobile email for communication over traditional voice calls. But they all use their handsets to keep them in touch with news, sports scores and miscellaneous information.
Americans on the other hand are completely phone handicapped. I believe that if todays handsets didn't set their own time, most Americans would be walking around with a blinking 12:00 in their pocket. And it's not that American wireless carriers aren't trying. Sprint and Verizon offer many similar services that are being offered in Asia and the EU, but Americans are naive or ignorant or both when it comes to how useful modern mobile phones are. Sometimes people act as though it were a badge of honor that they are completely unwilling to succumb to any new advances in technology.
Remember Star Trek? Remember when Captain Kirk and Spock and Dr. McCoy would beam down to a sound stage in Burbank that was made up to look like a 70s version of a sci fi, alien landscape? What was the first thing that happened? Somebody, I think it was Spock most of the time, would pull out their tricorder and get a reading on what was going on with the atmosphere and biological data. That's actually not that far off from what phones can do now. When you land at Phoenix Sky Harbor or Chicago Midway you can pull out your GPS enabled handset and have it give you voice instructions and real time mapping to find your hotel or the nearest coffee shop. With the wireless web, I'm never at a loss for the most mundane musings. So what exactly is Floam? Is Burgess Meredith still alive? If Borders is selling the new Paul Auster book for $24.00 at the store, how much is it online? I can't believe people would take this informaiton for granted.
Whether Americans like it or not they are living in the BlackBerry age. Soon it will be expected that you proclaim your proficiency with Palm's Versamail on your resume in order to be considered for a decent job. As geography begins to sink into a pool of culture splicing and the world shrinks under the weight of global connectivity, America will be left behind because of their proud neo-Luddism.
Everytime somebody sticks out their chest and booms out, "I just need a phone to make and receive calls" or "I'll take the
posted by Joseph @ 9:50 PM
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