IMAGE_080, originally uploaded by morikenstyle.
It is about neutrality. As long as it connects to the Internet via windows mobile 5.0 (this particular X01HT case), we get access to whatever the content we want to get access. Japan’s Softbank* mobile as a mobile carrier and a mobile terminal device provider ensures the Internet connection that includes Yahoo mail and Gmail. Even promotes Yahoo mail as well as Gmail in the softbank mobile in-store brochure. That’s quite fine. Then I was reminded of the CNET Japan article which published about a year and a half ago where softbank exec was preaching the open solution needed in mobile carrier/ content provider/ solution provider /distributor that collectively form the entire mobile (non-)ecosystem of Japan. (link)
note: *Softbank in effect operates Yahoo Japan, too.
THE SITUATION IS QUITE DIFFERENT WHEN YOU TAKE A LOOK AT “MOBILE” instead of THE INTERNET via win mobile 5.0:
But if you’d take a look at MOBILE (mobile-carrier’s net), Docomo, AU, and SOFTBANK all have their own sites, they are all silo and operate uniquely, unlike THE INTERNET. There seems little common ground. Yet, at one level, Google seems to try to make the mobile content searchable in one search box (BETA, the pic google box below in my daughter’s docomo).
But I heard Gmail now can be used only at AU’s under partnership agreement, but not at Docomo or Softbank, which I don’t think ideal so far. And I simply worry about the future of entire “MOBILE” (non-)ecosystem of Japan that could possibly collectively fall behind the global standards.
technorati tags: x01ht, softbank, yahoo, au, docomo, neutrality, ソフトãƒãƒ³ã‚¯ãƒ¢ãƒã‚¤ãƒ«, ドコモ, ä¸ç«‹æ€§, smart+phone, スマートフォン
