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View Full Version : Mike Mace on European vs. American Phone Use


Janak Parekh
09-10-2006, 09:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/2006/09/european-vs-american-mobile-phone-use.html' target='_blank'>http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.c...-phone-use.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"In last week's post about Palm's phone plans, I made a passing comment about the right way to display your mobile phone at dinner in Europe. It turned out to be the most popular part of the post, and produced a couple of requests that I say more comparing European and American attitudes toward mobile phones. I don't pretend to the world's expert on the subject, but I'll summarize what I've seen. Here goes..."</i><br /><br />And so begins a detailed and excellent description by Michael Mace, former CCO of Palm, as to the differences between the mobile market in the US/North America and Europe. Based on my observations over many years, a lot of these are spot-on. For those of you who have always been wondering why certain mobile idiosyncrasies are the way they are, be sure to take a look at this article.

Brad Adrian
09-10-2006, 09:29 PM
Mike Mace does a pretty good job dissecting the differences, but I think all you really need to know to understand them is summed up in his one comment:

"If you're still having trouble picturing the difference in attitudes, look at it this way – many people in Europe feel about their mobiles the way that Californians feel about their cars."
Bingo.

On the other hand, in reference to the comments he makes to the Club of Amsterdam blog, most of that's already been said, and by brighter minds, IMO.

SteveHoward999
09-10-2006, 10:28 PM
I moved to the US from the UK 2.5 years ago. I still don't understand why people like those lumpy clamshell phones with the 1.5 inch 'antenna' sticking out the top!

Jon Westfall
09-11-2006, 12:17 AM
Mike Mace does a pretty good job dissecting the differences, but I think all you really need to know to understand them is summed up in his one comment:

"If you're still having trouble picturing the difference in attitudes, look at it this way – many people in Europe feel about their mobiles the way that Californians feel about their cars."
Bingo.


I was actually going to just post on that same quote! Eerie....

haesslich
09-11-2006, 01:00 AM
I moved to the US from the UK 2.5 years ago. I still don't understand why people like those lumpy clamshell phones with the 1.5 inch 'antenna' sticking out the top!

That's because they've no taste and less sense. ;) Remember, most of the United States is kinda stuck in the early 1990s when it comes to cell phone features - they're only now discovering stuff which Europeans and Asia had considered obsolete 3-4 years ago.

I remember the last time I went overseas to Asia, about 10 years ago... and phones which had features like built-in cameras and keyboards for messaging only started showing up here about 2-3 years ago. Part of the problem is that the cell phone providers in North America are reluctant to deploy a lot of this technology, since it's GSM (versus their own home-brew CDMA and TDMA systems, which they're still paying license fees for, IIRC, which makes it difficult to completely discard due to the amount they've invested in infrastructure)... and some of it is because, as was pointed out by others, they've got customers in a stranglehold and don't need to innovate to keep their clients.

Of course, it's this same stranglehold which keeps telecom companies wanting to charge different rates for internet service (thus making them opposed to any idea of Net Neutrality) as well as keeping cable providers profitable. :D

PetiteFlower
09-11-2006, 02:42 PM
And yet, Japan still hasn't implemented number portability??

dMores
09-11-2006, 04:12 PM
I saw a good example of this in the responses to my last post. I said all Europeans put their mobile phones on the table during a meal. I got replies from some countries agreeing with me, and others saying I was completely wrong. It turns out the table thing differs from country to country. erm, i think that's just due to the fact that most people i know and see carry their phones in their pants pocket, and so that it doesn't crack when you sit down, you take it out and put it in plain sight so that nobody can take it.

maybe americans can't understand that because they use those dorky belt-clip-thingies.

;)

Brad Adrian
09-11-2006, 04:46 PM
I was actually going to just post on that same quote! Eerie....

What scares you more? That we had the same insight, or that you are like me?

SteveHoward999
09-11-2006, 06:04 PM
maybe americans can't understand that because they use those dorky belt-clip-thingies.

;)

That just proves the difference in fashion sense - or lack of it ;-)

Ed Hansberry
09-11-2006, 09:31 PM
let me see if I have the general consensus here. American's, when it comes to cell phones, are without fashion sense, like lumpy phones with dorky holders and are generally stuck in the 90's.

Does that cover everything? :roll:

SteveHoward999
09-11-2006, 09:49 PM
let me see if I have the general consensus here. American's, when it comes to cell phones, are without fashion sense, like lumpy phones with dorky holders and are generally stuck in the 90's.

Does that cover everything? :roll:


One more thing.

Anyone else been wondering about how weird it looks to see a toothless, overalled redneck, chewing baccy and yelling to his friend Bubba using a Bluetooth headset? To me it's just wrong!

phreaker18
09-12-2006, 04:07 PM
Well being from India... i would definitely consider the kind of mobiles phones used in the US as obsolete.... and for crying out loud India is suppoed to be the "developing" country.....

wake up rednecks..... there is something called technology just to the west...
now ur the east and we r the west.... ITS TIME FOR U TO "GO WEST" coz technology is here !!!!

damn sounds like a cheesy ad jingle... but what the heck ...its true !!!

haesslich
09-13-2006, 04:54 AM
Well being from India... i would definitely consider the kind of mobiles phones used in the US as obsolete.... and for crying out loud India is suppoed to be the "developing" country.....

wake up rednecks..... there is something called technology just to the west...
now ur the east and we r the west.... ITS TIME FOR U TO "GO WEST" coz technology is here !!!!

damn sounds like a cheesy ad jingle... but what the heck ...its true !!!

As I said, quite a bit of the blame can go to the carriers, since 'upgrading' a phone often means either shelling out $500-700 dollars for a top-of-the-line model when your contract's about up, as many carriers won't let you change phones out until two or three years have passed. Part of it's on the part of a public which sees them as little more than glorified payphones, although the younger generation like their IM, and cameras, and other things... which incidentally are banned in some corporate environments, which means that the carriers (who cater to these people) either cripple those features in the phones they do sell (which also means they can sell OTHER services like data-plans for high prices) or else remove the choice from the consumer's side.

How long did it take for 1.2 megapixel camera phones to show up here again? I remember reading about these in Asia about 3+ years ago, if not longer. Plus, Nokia doesn't really make the really nice phones for the TDMA/CDMA market - those go to the European and Asian GSM markets, so they can reduce the amount of engineering costs by being able to target their work towards two of the largest geographical locales for their sales.

Janak Parekh
09-17-2006, 03:37 PM
I moved to the US from the UK 2.5 years ago. I still don't understand why people like those lumpy clamshell phones with the 1.5 inch 'antenna' sticking out the top!
The antenna doesn't bother me, although they're getting rarer by the day. As for clamshells, they're often actually quite thin. I don't understand why Europeans love those candybars whose screens get scratched in the pocket and need annoying keylocks all the time. ;)

--janak

Janak Parekh
09-17-2006, 03:40 PM
Remember, most of the United States is kinda stuck in the early 1990s when it comes to cell phone features - they're only now discovering stuff which Europeans and Asia had considered obsolete 3-4 years ago.
That's stretching it a bit. Sure, we were behind, but 3G deployment is pretty common here, and in fact we have a pretty decent data rollout in urban areas. My officemate has been getting great bandwidth on EVDO for the last 12-18 months, often better than initial wCDMA deployment at the time.

cell phone providers in North America are reluctant to deploy a lot of this technology, since it's GSM (versus their own home-brew CDMA and TDMA systems
There's no more TDMA phones available for purchase, and the systems will be switched off shortly once Cingular can boot off the last few stubborn holdouts. CDMA is hardly "home-brewed", and in fact is the basis for much of Asia's sophisticated phone technology, our high bandwidths, and heck, is the underlying technology behind wCDMA, HSDPA, etc.

and some of it is because, as was pointed out by others, they've got customers in a stranglehold and don't need to innovate to keep their clients.
This I do agree with.

--janak

Ed Hansberry
09-19-2006, 11:46 AM
Please Janak - they have a good bashing against American's going. Don't spoil the fun by posting facts. :wink: