The Six Immutable Laws of Mobile Business

The Rise of “Homo Digitalis”

Who do Japanese car manufacturers see as their most formidable competitors? Other carmakers? Nope. They constantly look over their shoulders at their nation’s mobile phone companies – and for good reason. Most of Japan’s young men who previously spent their money on cars now spend large sums on sophisticated “voice and data services” for their handsets. Throughout the country, mobile phones are replacing automobiles as the ultimate “symbol of freedom.” Just as people once valued cars for the physical mobility they granted, they now prize mobile technology for its ability to connect them to “almost everything and everybody” wherever they go.

Of course, mobile services are popular worldwide. But in Japan and, to a lesser degree, South Korea, they dominate. Advanced third-generation (3G) mobile technology in Japan has a two-to-three year lead on cellphone technology in many other developed nations. The country’s more than 100 million subscribers are evolving from homo sapiens to homo digitalis. Though Apple, Google and other major high-tech companies are making great strides in their mobile offerings, these...