MAKUHARI — Growth in the mobile phone industry, according to Kiyoyuki Tsujimura, executive vice president of Japan’s NTT Docomo, who delivered a keynote speech Wednesday here at the CEATEC Japan consumer electronics show, will depend more and more on "quality" Internet-based services based on "open" operating systems that allow handset makers to market their devices globally.
NTT DoCoMo, previously confined to the uniquely Japanese iMode development environment, now claims compatibility for its mobile handsets with Linux OS, with Google’s Android and with Symbian OS.
Since Nokia’s recent acquisition and "opening" of Symbian, all these operating systems are now "open" to widespread use and adaptation without a requirement to pay licensing fees or royalties.
The result, said Tsujimura, is the promise of a "global software structure" with "applications common [among all] operators."
For handset makers in this brave new world, development costs will drop, as any handset can be used by any operator, "More Nokia or Samsung handsets in Japan, or more Japanese handsets in other countries."
It might also be possible, he added, to affordably customize handsets to the needs of each user, creating a package of applications the user prefers while leaving out any that he or she does not want.
Saturated Japanese mobile market
The particular need for Japanese mobile phone companies to achieve the more global reach foreseen by Tsujimura is clear.
The current global penetration of mobile phones is roughly 3.5 billion subscribers, or half the world’s population.
But in Japan, there are 100 million subscribers in a population of 125 million, with 90 percent of users on the Internet and 80 percent already using 3G technology.
This makes Japan the "most advanced" mobile-phone culture on earth, but also the "most mature" market. "Saturated" might be the more accurate characterization.
