Everyone is aware of Vodafone’s cataclysmic Japanese blunder of selling handsets that were high-end in other markets but sub-par in Japan, and this in a market where people are less likely to go for lower quality because it’s cheaper. Vodafone seems to have taken the hint (somewhat belatedly), but I’d like to point out this comment from Shinko Osada, communications manager for Nokia Japan, who “said the company was aware of user confusion but in at least one situation wanted Japanese consumers, rather than the company, to adjust. Nokia uses boomerang-like symbols – common in other markets – for its “dial” and “hang up” buttons. Japanese handsets typically use telephone symbols. Osada said she would like to see customers make that adjustment rather than have Nokia alter its icons.”
Now this article is about hardware rather than content, but I sometimes see the same thinking creeping into our focus of the mobile industry (and everywhere else, really). Sometimes a really simple change to adapt to the way customers use mobile content isn’t taken because the company thinks the customer needs to change… (via i-mode business strategy)
Related stories:
–The Mobile IP Battle
–iPhone Launches รข
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