The other day, I had an opportunity to give a speech to an audience of about 200 people who were well on in their years -- almost all in fact were retirees who were 65 or older. Trying to get a feel for the audience as I started out, I asked for a show of hands from those who used the Internet, and was surprised to discover that around 90 percent or most of the people in attendance were Internet users.
When I asked them why they used the Internet, I received various replies : "My children and grandchildren won't call me over the phone but will reply immediately by e-mail;" "to exchange information on my hobby;" and "because I invest in stocks." Indeed, this is a generation that, if given an incentive, has sufficient time and means to learn how to use the Internet.
Efforts to close the digital divide are on the verge of spreading across the globe. Not only the divide between ages but the one between regions is in the process of closing. The regional divide is caused when people are too poor to acquire information devices and when countries lack telecommunications infrastructure. Such lack of access to information makes people even poorer. For some time, efforts have been underway to close the regional divide by driving down the price of information devices by mass-producing devices that offer only the bare minimum functions. Such efforts have suddenly accelerated lately.
The volunteer efforts to provide people in developing countries with information devices may have been unrealistic. However, at a time when the market for information devices in industrialized countries has become saturated, comments such as "developing countries are new markets with hundreds of millions of people" lead the businesses to smell money. Information devices for developing countries have finally found serious commercial promoters.
On the other hand, a Taiwanese manufacturer test-marketed a 400-dollar small notebook computer in the U.S. that had been originally targeted at developing countries. This notebook computer has become a big hit. Until quite recently, even the cheapest notebook computers cost more than 100,000 yen. When the price was slashed by more than half, it was discovered that a market still exists even in the advanced industrialized countries that were once thought to be saturated. Such devices will bridge the digital divide between the different income strata that exist within advanced industrialized countries.
Even when priced below 50,000 yen, these notebook computers built with the latest technologies perform quite impressively and are adequate for using email and browsing the Internet. Prices have been reduced because the technology has made great strides. Of course, these notebook computers are not so effective if used as office workhorses on which many applications are installed. However, they should be considered as high-performance Internet terminals. Thus, these notebook computers have established a new genre, and spawned a new market in advanced industrialized countries.
In a previous column that appeared earlier this year, I touched on the buzz generated by ultra-cheap mobile phones for developing countries. Since the devices are sold for 20 dollars without sales incentives, the manufacturing cost is probably only several hundred yen. To reach this low price, these devices were redesigned from the battery up, and each model was produced in batches of 10 million from the very beginning. With such phones, people in developing countries are plunging into the mobile era without passing through the land-line telephone era. This is because if one constructs a nation's telecommunications infrastructure from scratch today, a mobile phone network is much easier to build than a land-line telephone network. With a means of telecommunication, farmers can learn the market price in real time and earn a profit without having the price of their produce "beaten down" by middlemen.
I hear, since even a price of 20 dollars is expensive, new businesses which lease mobile phones by the hour have emerged. Mini telecom merchants, who go into debt to buy mobile phones, have become small telecommunications service providers. This is the first step toward capitalism in developing countries. When I heard that the people of the Masai tribe in Africa communicate on their mobile phones while hunting for prey with spears, the extreme contrast sent my head spinning.
Their children receive distance learning on low-cost personal computers provided by the government, and are learning about the outside world. While opinions may vary regarding how Information Technology has changed developing countries, with some critics crying "cultural pollution," the technology helps people in developing countries by enabling them to determine their futures.
While the low price of information devices has attracted media attention, there are now mobile phones that retail for several millions of yen in Europe. Of course, offering a hundred-fold performance is impossible. These phones are simply brand items with fancy exterior finishes. They are is similar to wristwatches. Once every wristwatch offers the same functionality as a timepiece, they are sold at prices ranging from around a thousand to hundreds of millions of yen. There are people who probably think that carrying a hand bag that costs several hundred thousand yen and wearing a watch that costs several million yen on their wrist naturally require them to use better looking phones than the masses can afford. The new fancy mobile phones are reportedly slated to enter the brand-fixated Japanese market in December.
What bothers me is that Japan's information device manufacturers are weak at both the low and high ends of the market. They cannot compete with Taiwan, China, and other Asian producers with ultra-low prices. While there are some Japanese manufacturers who are planning to come out with a personal computer that costs around 50,000 yen at this late stage of the game, it is said that it could take them more than a year to do so. On the other hand, a high-quality fashion brand cannot be established in the market overnight. It does not appear that Japan's electronics manufacturers have the know-how to enter this segment either.
It is not that Japan's manufacturers are fundamentally incapable. Japan's automakers are world leaders in the auto business and at the top for creating high-quality brand strategies. To be blunt, auto makers, who faced high unit prices and could not be viable if they produced solely for the domestic market, present a stark contrast to the information industry, which has been coddled in the domestic market, and is now shrinking. Japan's Information Technology manufacturers are being buffeted by a harsh wind that is pressuring them to leave the warmth of their nest. (By Professor Ken Sakamura, the University of Tokyo)
Windows Mobile向けとしては、東芝情報システムがAdobe Flash Liteを展示している。同社はAdobeからライセンスを受け、 Windows Mobile向けのほかに、セットトップボックスなどの組込機器向けのFlashプレーヤーの開発・販売を行っている。 ちなみにケータイやゲーム機といったデバイス向けのFlashプレーヤーは、Adobeが直接開発・販売を行っているという。
Windows Mobile版のKesperskyの画面 東芝情報システムによるFlashプレーヤーの展示