In a country where quiet efficiency and a frenetic pace manage to coexist, Japanese consumers are discovering the convenience of mobile phones that know where they are and can help you get where you want to go.
Lost in an unfamiliar part of town? Ask your phone how to get home and it will provide step-by-step walking or train directions.
Arranging a dinner party in a restaurant? Send your friends a message with the time and street address, and their phones will direct them to the right place.
They will even tell them whether it`s faster to take a train or a taxi, and calculate approximate fares.
Mobile operators, for some time, have had the technology to discern a customer`s location within a few hundred feet by identifying the closest antenna the phone used to transmit calls.
But new advances in global positioning system (GPS) satellite, the location-finding technology which allows operators to pinpoint users, are opening the door to the possibility of compelling new features and services.
KDDI, Japan`s second-largest mobile operator, last autumn became the first in the world to offer an instantaneous navigation service, based on GPS. A third of its phones are now equipped with the technology.
"Among KDDI`s phones, the models with the navigation system are the hottest selling items," said a salesman at electronics retailer Bic Camera`s flagship store in Tokyo.
NTT DoCoMo, the biggest operator in Japan, does not offer a comparable service, but it sells two models with slightly slower GPS technology, and customers can use navigational maps via the Internet on its i-mode service.
Slow start around globe
Early location-finding services in other parts of the world have failed to lure phone users with the vision of getting a coupon for French fries as they walk past a McDonald`s fast-food restaurant. Many consumers were, in fact, unnerved.
US operators are still experimenting with technology to provide emergency personnel with the location of mobile callers.
In Europe, market leader Vodafone Group, believing that GPS-ready handsets are too expensive, has offered location-based services only to corporate customers.
Nevertheless, in Japan, where GPS phones can be purchased for less than $200, some media companies and retailers believe the time is ripe to introduce a different kind of service such as entertainment and other kinds of information consumers might find useful.
Cybird of Japan is trying out services that allow users to download information onto their phones directly from digital television programmes by aiming the phone at the television screen and pressing the appropriate button.
The company believes phones with GPS technology could allow users to receive information specific to their location, such as weather forecasts or ads for promotions in local stores.
"A housewife could receive information about her local supermarket`s daily discounts over the television instead of waiting for the afternoon newspaper," said Shinji Terada, VP of strategic planning at Cybird, in an interview.
"We hope to use push mediums like television to lure users to pull information onto their cellphones," Terada said using industry jargon to describe the broadcasting and reception of airwave signals.
Closely held Navitime Japan, which provides the software behind KDDI`s "NaviWalk" GPS navigational service, said it is hoping to partner with other companies to offer callers relevant information that could be combined with Navitime maps.
In Sweden, a Stockholm-based company called It`s Alive has launched a game called BotFighters that lets people hunt each other using their phones.
Houston, Texas-based Findtheone.com offers phone owners a dating service that will alert them to the proximity of potential partners.
While the actual number of consumers with GPS-capable handsets remains low, mobile services companies in Japan expect that to change over the next few years.
Still, doubts linger. Some people might try to abuse location data, which in turn, could frighten off potential users.
"There is a thin line between services that are fun, services that are useful and services that are dangerous to society. Location information could very quickly become sensitive customer information," said Terada.
(Additional reporting by Kirstin Ridley in London and Sinead Carew in New York.)
($1=109.04 Yen)
Share