Ludovic Copéré

Mobile Style

Just back from the Mobile Style seminar at Tekniska Museet. As the full program suggests, it was about the similarities and differences of the mobile environments, technical and business-wise, in Sweden and Japan. More than yet-another comparison between i-mode/FOMA (Japanese 2.5G and 3G) and GPRS/UMTS (Europe's 2.5G and 3G), it was refreshing to look at the how the services have overcome the inherent limitations of the devices and the network(s) they're on. As noted by Johan Hjelm, being able to design, package, brand and sell services despite the limited bandwidth, the small screen, the awkward input methods and the relatively expensive usage accounts for a lot for the success and failure in the mobile world.

In other words, i-mode succeeded where WAP miserably failed because it didn't try to bring the whole Internet on your phone from the start. It much more humhbly started by providing no-nonsense access to specific and sanctionned information. Being able to download ringtones and get trains timetables may sound a bit simplistic by today's standards, but NTT DoCoMo (a spin-off of the former state-owned telco and the initiator of mobile web services through i-mode) did this brillantly, by carefully juggling with tight control and openness (standard technical protocols, three-tier revenue sharing, as explained in further details in my report on i-mode). Which accustomed mobile subscribers to become active users of mobile services, and in turn naturally paved the way for riskier and more advanced services (Java applications, location-based services, and the brand new contactless IC card FeliCa, to name but a few).

As Giles Richter from Mobile Content Forum pointed out, the uniqueness of the Japanese mobile "ecosystem" is that that it has evolved from inexistance to full acceptance and diffusion in an extremely short period of time. It has thus set the ground for hardware manufacturers, operators and service providers to smoothly make the transition to 3G, as opposed to most parts of Europe, where it remains uncoordinated, expensive, and limited, if not completely hypothetical.

東京 comes to Stockholm

Starting tomorrow, and until the 10th, the Venice of the North (i.e.Stockholm) will actually be pointing at the (far) east as it is holding Tokyo Style. Judging by the program, there is going to be a multitude of interesting events and exhibitions all over the city, ranging from the classical Tea Ceremony (茶の湯), flower arrangements (生花) and Noh (能狂言) theatre to music (both classical - Toru Takemitsu for instance, and pop' with several performances of invited Japanese bands and DJ's), cinema (finally the Swedes will be given the chance to enjoy Zatoichi and Battle Royale 2!) and seminars, while not forgetting the obligatory Anime festival (managed by blogging comrade Kim).

All in all, a very promising program, and an ambitious project. Depicted as a celebration of Japanese contemporary culture and urban lifestyle (taken from TSiS brochure), it sure is an innovative way of showing foreign culture by making it alive, upbeat, interactive and multiform. I look forward to attending as many of the events I can cram in my schedule, and to blogging about them.