12-13-2004, 04:00 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Why Does Asia Get All the Cool Stuff First?
"Cell phones that do everything but make toast (although appropriate attachments are probably available from third-party accessory vendors). Gigapixel digital cameras. Laptops so tiny that "My dog ate my homework" is once again a valid excuse. And, of course, the most incredible toilets in the history of humankind. Some of these devices eventually plod over to U.S. shores months or even years after they've become obsolete in Japan. But many never arrive here at all. Why is it that Japanese manufacturers (and, increasingly, those in Korea and China as well) have such a death grip on consumer-electronics cool? And why are Americans deprived of the choicest fruits of this technological bounty? The answers to these questions offer an intriguing look at how culture shapes technology -- and vice versa."
This is a fascinating article - if you're ever wondered why Asian markets routinely get the cool technology first, this article answers that question. It's a mix of cultural, economic, and infrastructure issues - and after reading this article, I'm left with the distinct impression that this is an issue that won't be changing in the next 50 years.
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12-13-2004, 04:07 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 429
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It's amazing. When I was in the Navy, we'd go to Hong Kong or Singapore and find stuff that may never make it to the US. Of course, there's a lot of pirated stuff there too.
There are a lot of cultural factors, but on top of it our tax and regulatory systems don't exactly inspire innovation and often drive it away.
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12-13-2004, 04:28 PM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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I love going tech shopping in Asian countries. I recently purchased the Casio Exilim Pro EX-P700 camera in Singapore. Exchange rates and all, it translated to A$550 with two bonus camera cases, a spare battery, a tripod and a 256MB SD card. Amazon, OTOH, sell it for US$599.99 without any extras. That translates to around A$800. Not only are all the crazy gadgets there, they're cheaper too! Suits me. They're close to where I live. :P
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12-13-2004, 04:52 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 974
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Veyr interesting article... I cannot help it but to agree with the author about the US culture - we are a walmart world and we, the consumers, certainly do not drive innovation and technology changes here in the US (sigh).
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12-13-2004, 04:54 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 555
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Also notice that the Americas are far behind even Europe in tech adoption (just look at BT and cellphone tech).
Bottom line...we North Americans are a conservative bunch
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12-13-2004, 04:56 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 12
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trust me, people in asia are nuts about gadgets....
and fyi, nokia communicator's sales in indonesia *hey, its part of asia right  * makes up about 70% of the global sales, hence the global launch of the nokia 9500 was held in indonesia :lol:
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12-13-2004, 04:59 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 12
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by felixdd
Also notice that the Americas are far behind even Europe in tech adoption (just look at BT and cellphone tech).
Bottom line...we North Americans are a conservative bunch
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and americans only realized the beauty of sms *no idea why they called it text messaging here...i guess its easier for the conservative to churn out the meaning* and picture messaging less than a year ago....
go figure
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12-13-2004, 05:00 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by felixdd
Also notice that the Americas are far behind even Europe in tech adoption (just look at BT and cellphone tech). Bottom line...we North Americans are a conservative bunch
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With mobile phones though, you have to keep in mind that it's a factor of carriers and coverage and not just culture: the carriers haven't blanketed North America in coverage because there's so much land mass to cover, and thus it's too expensive...the result is that mobile phones aren't as popular over here, because there are still many places where they don't work. It's a chicken/egg scenario, and in Europe and elsewhere in the world it's been solved much faster than in North America...
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12-13-2004, 05:05 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 12
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
Quote:
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Originally Posted by felixdd
Also notice that the Americas are far behind even Europe in tech adoption (just look at BT and cellphone tech). Bottom line...we North Americans are a conservative bunch
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With mobile phones though, you have to keep in mind that it's a factor of carriers and coverage and not just culture: the carriers haven't blanketed North America in coverage because there's so much land mass to cover, and thus it's too expensive...the result is that mobile phones aren't as popular over here, because there are still many places where they don't work. It's a chicken/egg scenario, and in Europe and elsewhere in the world it's been solved much faster than in North America... |
and also, americans are so used with term of free mobile phones, which is another reason why they aren't introducing high end mobile phones here in the states, only this year onwards they're beginning to launch exotic phones here *well, seriously, its kinda rare here in the states* such as cingular offering of motorola RAZR V3 and the recently launched SIEMENS SX66, which is basically PDA2k in its unbranded state.
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12-13-2004, 05:22 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 429
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Quote:
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"We're much more Wal-Mart," says Carnegie-Mellon's David J. Farber ruefully. "We buy our electronics from big-box stores where the salespeople know nothing about what they're selling -- they know how to swipe a credit card, and that's it."
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There is so much truth to that. When my son was born, since I live far away, my mom offerred to buy us a video camera. I admit, I didn't do the research that I should have. With a newborn and the lack of sleep, I just couldn't sit down and spend hours reading about something that's not my specialty. My mom flew up here and we went to, where else? Wal-mart. I figured I could talk her into also buying me a DVD-burner so we settled on the Panasonic PV-GS9. It had a USB hookup, so I figured that it would be easy to transfer the DV movies to my computer and burn them to DVD to send to my mom. I spent weeks worth of free time trying to figure out how to do it. Windows XP would not recognize the camera no matter how many times I installed the driver from Panasonic's website.
We finally broke down and returned it. We figured that we should check the camera shop in the mall. They didn't know anything about the DV cameras, and didn't have the one we wanted in stock. We finally broke down and went to Best Buy (I avoid it because, like everything else in South Jersey, it's in a very bad location traffic wise and getting out of the parking lot is a serious pain). At Best Buy, where they actually had someone who knew what he was talking about, we ended up buying the exact same camera because it turned out that we needed firewire. Of course, you can't expect Wal-Mart or the mall camera shop to know that.
Anyway, it works. But we still institutionally gravitate to Wal-mart first.
It's also true that in America, nobody takes risks anymore. Every decision is made based on focus groups and polls, from the Presidential pets (Seriously, Clinton took a poll before he got Buddy the dog) to TV shows to candy packaging. If it won't pass a focus group, it won't happen here.
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