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Gen Kanai, Mozilla’s (makers of the Firefox Browser) marketing manager in Japan shares with me how mobile has impacted the culture of Japanese. From communications, payment, media consumption, and internet usage, Japan’s mobile culture is unique. Gen also blogs at the Mozilla Asia blog, where you can see how they specifically serve their Asian market.

Recently, I was checking out Forrester’s Jonathan Brown’s blog he focuses on the web and user experience in Japan, a related read. The sound on the video wasn’t that great, just to let you know in advance. Ironically, during this conversation on mobile marketing my cell phone starts to ring.

I recently received into my possession a Nokia N95, one of the top phones from the Nokia line. I was intending to buy this phone, but apparently Nokia had provided Charlene with one for analysis. I’ll be reviewing the phone, it’s features, and web capabilities over the coming weeks.

Initial Attractions: Large screen and 5 megapixel camera. The last time I ran into phones of this quality, I was in Japan (live video streaming via cell phones were already available). I take a lot of pictures (over 20,000 in flickr) so this will help me reduce gear –gotta love convergence.

Setup: I went to AT&T, the only service provider (I asked my twitter network for help, responses came in fast) and signed up for a low voice plan and unlimited data plan ($20) and $5 worth of monthly text messaging (for Twitter). Picked up a jawbone headset, will test this too.

Expectations:

1) I hope to be able to fully manage my blog comments, approving comments, and alerts easily.
2) Access websites like Techmeme and my feedreader with ease, and the rest of the world wide web.
3) Use this as my ongoing camera and video capture going forward. (see this flickr pool of N95 photos)

What’s better, the iPhone or the Nokia N95? Robert says the iPhone is better, but the N95’s camera saves it.

One of Nokia’s top bloggers and social media strategist is, Karl Long who I run into quite frequently, if this topic is of interest to you, I recommend you read his blog, or connect with him.

I just created my first utter, a new mobile web service. What is it? yet another form of MicroMedia (a phrase that I coined, and it’s taking off, see Steve Rubel and Scoble).

What is Utterz? An audio version of Twitter.

Here’s how I did it (with a time breakdown):

1) I went to their site and registered (2 minutes)
2) Dialed the phone number, listened to greeting messages (1 minute)
3) Recorded it, reviewed it (and took a second cut) and confirmed (2 minutes)
4) Saved the number to my phone so I can use it again (15 seconds)
5) Refreshed website and was amazed to see it was instantly there. (30 seconds)
6) embedded on blog and wrote this post (5 minutes)

Looking at the breakdown analysis by time, blogs are long form, and perhaps a richer and older form of social media. I could easily embed a twitter and utter feed in my blog, and let it self update, saving me time from writing these longer formats.

Are you prepared to embrace the media snackers? A few days ago, I started the media snackers meme, and tagged a few people, asking them to share how they respect media snackers, it’s now taking off (see all incoming links to that post, and what the mediasnackers team is tracking).

Communication is moving faster, smaller, and hooking into mobile, are you prepared?

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Yusuf Goolamabbas shares with me from the Oublaze offices in Cyberport (see pics), in this short clip we cover a lot of ground. In the time I spent with him, I learned that he sees the web from a very strategic point of view, and shares his views on the state of the web industry in Hong Kong.

You’ll find out:

1) What’s his view on the web industry in HK?
2) How can 150% cell phone penetration be accurate?
3) Bloggers: creators vs readers
4) Social Networks in Hong Kong, why is Facebook hot, but yet a fad?

Yusaf, wishing you and the rest of the folks over there good wishes, hope all is going well.

Arrived in Hong Kong, although my fifth time here, the sheer size and energy of the city that’s always under construction always amazes me. The flight over, on Singapore’s luxurious planes was fantastic, I feel rested when fully reclining in a chair after 14 hours of flight (flickr photos). On the way over, I was able to read a ton of Forrester material, analyze a few strategies, and just relax.

Tonight is the Hong Kong Blogger dinner that I encouraged everyone to come to, there’s over 60 folks, and OutBlaze, a white label communications company has offered to be a gracious host. I’ll be hanging with them and other technologists over the next few days to understand Hong Kong’s web scene better.

I’m here as I’m speaking at the CLSA investors conference. CLSA is a brokerage, consulting, event and analyst firm. There are about 2500 investors from all over Asia here at the Grand Hyatt (flickr photos), with speakers from the largest corporations and China, and even entertainment by the band INXS, which I grew up on. I have distinct memories of them in Sixth Grade, although my kid sisters had a blank look on their face when I brought up their name “in excess what?”

When I meet people from the Finance industry, I often tell them I’m in “new Media” first, if they probe farther I’ll explain it as social media or social computing, so far, most understand.

I’m also reading, listening, and absorbing data points about Asia’s web scene. Today, one of the executives of China Mobile presented, she gave quite a few facts, trends and data points. Wireless infrastructure for one of the world’s largest cell phone market (China), will access the web via the phones.

Asia’s Growing Web and Mobile Industry

China Mobile has 21% growth last year

China Mobile has 68% market share in China

They are deploying ‘nodes’ into Rural areas, which can quickly scale

In other reports, from CLSA’s Elinor Leung, I learned that China is 2nd to Japan in Web Advertising

The Beijing Olympics will be a major web advertising opportunity and spike

Beijing is pushing the digital/broadband experience for the Olympics

Broadband in China is 14%

Advertising Spend: Online Growth is 68%, while the second highest, radio is a mere 20% growth.

It’s truly an international conferences, at the back of some rooms, there’s small glass enclosed boxes where translators sit and transmit to wireless devices so everyone in the audience can absorb the knowledge.

Hey Web Strategist! Are you paying attention to what’s happening in Asia? There’s going to be a lot of eyeballs here, what are you doing about it? Here’s some stats from the World Internet Usage.

Have a story to tell?
My schedule the rest of the week? It’s Tuesday right now, but on Wednesday, I’ll be visiting some of the offices of folks that hosted the dinner, and will meet a few other entrepreneurs. I speak on Thursday, and am free on Friday if you wanted to meet for tea or coffee here at the Grand Hyatt to discuss Asia’s web industry, I’m very curious in learning more.

A few weeks ago, I pinged my network (using Twitter) to find out what you wanted ask the management team at Twitter. Jennifer Jones took that feedback (our shows are about community) to ask take questions from Ross Olson, and David Dalka and others. She was able to sit down with co-founder Biz Stone, to get answers, thanks Jennifer.

Be sure to see the list of questions that were raised in these comments, the cat questions are the funniest. (If you’re not a Twitter user, you’ll need to watch this video to find out what that means). Twitter’s icon is a bird , so when something goes wrong with the site, the Twitter’s 404 page is a cat icon, a lol cat to be specific.

And Jennifer asks the hard question: “Why are there so many error pages, and when are they going to be fixed?”. This is very relevant considering now that some are defecting to Jaiku.

By the way, if you want to add me as a Twitter contact, my profile is jowyang.

Above: Twitter is being promoted at SXSW conference as an encouraged communication channel. You can watch this screen live, and hear the voices and thoughts of SXSW Attendees in real time. (link from Paul)

As you may know, I’ve cut out Instant Messaging completely out of my life, I found it too disruptive and distracting. I think I may have found a better tool, that’s less invasive and puts the user in control.

A lot of folks are using twitter here at SXSW, if you’re not familiar with it, it’s an online and mobile chat room, where you can add (or remove) the contacts you prefer. It’s a social network, where individuals can share their status, location, or communicate directly with others. Since this is an opt in and opt out model, there should be more difficulty for marketers to spam the site, or users will remove them.

Here’s why I like Twitter:

Puts me in charge

Mobile Hooks

Web based

not invasive, not disruptive

Synchronous and asynchronus communication

I can choose my contacts

Scalable: RSS, mashups, etc

Eddie Codel and I cruised to some of the tech gatherings last night, and we were using Twitter to check the status of our shared contacts to find out where things were happening. Other folks are using this tool as well as text messaging to find out where people are. Eddie commented that last year, Dodgeball was all the rage, and now it’s seemed to have moved to Twitter.

You can add me as a Twitter contact, my profile is live on the web as well as the chatter of my preferred network.

Attention Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, AIM, and others. It will be interesting how this early adopters of this tool will spread to mainstream, and then to the enterprise space.

Update: It’s amazing how many folks came up to me today and said they read my twitter messages about how bad the bed is at the hotel, amazing.

(Shelbinator has an interesting analysis, looking at Twitter from a different point of view, worth a read.

Check out what Ross Mayfield says about Twitter, he suggests we’re reaching a critical mass

Chris Brogan has written a helpful “ways to use Twitter” usecases for LifeHack)

(If you can’t see the player, access the file directly)

I got the opportunity to interview Shannon Clark at Doc Searl’s Mobile ID workshop. He shares with us a few of this projects that he’s working on, Never Eat Lunch Alone (NELA). Of course the topics of how to gain that identity and information is important.

I hope Shannon swings by and leaves us an update with how things are going with his projects.

Some of the footage from the unconference that Doc Searls invited me to is finally up. Check out the text and picture capture of this Mobile Identity Workshop. I’ve been hearing a lot of Doc, recently hosted a great talk with podcasts, the one with Dave Winer on this NPR podcast both of which provide some very important messages.

In the following video, Doc tells us why Mobile Identity is so important, and why the format of the event as an unconference is undesigned to help promote dialogue from the mind trust of those attending.

If you’re reading this in a feedreader, check out the media post.

I’m now on Twitter, will check it out for a while, profile page here. I don’t be doing any of the mobile updates or checking that content from my phone. I’m wondering how much is signal vs noise. I’m also wondering if this is a tool that Gen Y will use to communicate, or if they still prefer chat tools. Also, I’m wondering how this is anything new? The unremarkable Yahoo 360 had a status type bar, as well as most IM clients, is it just because it’s tied to mobile?

I’m a second generation adopter, I look for signs from the network before trying out new tools, there are certain people that I watch and listen for indicators before jumping in, a ‘network filter’ in some way.

For example, I tried out MyBlogLog a few weeks ago, I visit the reporting pages once in a while. Brian Oberkirch told me he finds the intelligence helpful to find out about his audience. I suspect that anyone who is so engaged into blogging to sign up for MyBlogLog (which assumes they are also a blogger) is also likely to interact with my blog at some point, either linking to me or leaving comments. While he’s right, one should pay close attention to their audience, I’m under the impression that my corporate audience is unlikely to sign up for MyBlogLog.

I’m live blogging right now. I’m sitting at Cnet with over 50 people discussing the future of Mobile technology, identity, security, contextual marketing, and the impacts of social networking at the first Mobile Identity Workshop hosted by Internet Uncle Doc Searls and Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

I sense a lot of annoyance with traditional telcos, there’s quite a bit of sharing, it’s really more of a think tank, that’s why I love unconferences. An unconference is sort of a workshop where the agenda is determined by the participants, and everyone gets a chance to talk and share. Yes, a bottom up conference.

Windley is taking notes and comments on Doc’s stats at the opening of the day:

There were a few interesting points such as protecting one’s personal information while giving out preferences, sharing with others, deploying traditional media over mobile devices. In one session it was agreed upon that the password will be dead in a few years, and some other type of technology will be able to determine identity.

We also talked about the next generation of mobile users, Gen Y and somewhat X. The term “digital natives” was used to describe this generation. Mobile technology is more advanced in other cultures outside of North America.

Some folks suggest that one’s online persona will be an accurate reflection of their real life persona.

One of the more interesting sessions, we were throwing out ‘dream features’ for the ideal podcasting device, Dave Winer took notes. I suggested, easy to publish, on board real time mixer, ability to create audio ‘conversations’, and ability for multiple people to contribute to the podcast.

I had lunch with two cnet employees. What a cool company to host this event, they even provided lunch.

There were some other interesting conversations about the future of mobile technology, will be become so small that it’s pervasive. eTelepathy I like to call it.

Unconference: The attendees determine the agenda by placing the topics on the board, you can attend any of the tracks you want

Healthy conversations in every track

Deep thinking

Our gracious hosts, CNET

Technorati tag = miw2007

Apple continues to put effort on it’s mobile devices, claiming focus on the ‘fouth screen’ following movies, tv, and internet. Their soon to be released mobile device is expected to have elements of mobile gaming, media player, and standard cell phone features. I’m expecting it to be part of the whole Apple experience, tying in with other Apple products. Some have concerns that Apple will build a proprietary system called a ‘walled garden’ while others expect it to have open hooks to other systems.

After my trip to Japan (and I saw quite a few mobile devices) I proclaimed that iPods soon to be irrelevant, and Apple must move to mobile phones or convergent systems quickly.

For Web Strategists (a few exist under different titles at every company) understanding how mobile will play for internal communications, partner communications, and public communications will be telling.

Today, at CES, I hope to learn more about IPTV, which I’m expecting an area to start focusing on this year.

A new friend caught me drooling over his next gen smart phone comes embedded with Wi-Fi, letting it connect to other Mobile hotspots reports cnet. I guess this is a win for Starbucks. I hear after rebates the price for this T-Mobile Dash is a equivalent to buying 50 Grande Soy Mocha Frappa Macchiatos (a total value of $200).

Below: Don’t get too excited about this picture, it’s just an example of the size difference between a Treo 650 (bottom) and the T-Mobile Dash (top).

Have you seen my mobile phone pics from Japan? Some have some fascinating stylish designs, while others have real time video conferencing.

I’m having a hard time understanding why anyone would think that the iPhone is not going to be a reality.  iPods will be irrelevant by 2008 as cell phones offer convergence.  I witnessed this in Japan with my friends phone, convergence is coming.

It’s absolutely strategic that Apple MUST play with the mobile phone industry or provide their own phone. YouTube is showing this latest Diggnation where they’ve spilled the beans on the upcoming rumored phone.

Here’s some rumored specs of what the Phone is expected to look like.  I doubt I’ll renew my warranty on my iPod, something better is always coming.

Featured I’d like to see (add comments for wish list)

• Wireless synching between laptop and iPhone
• Download media via cell phone, (mobile client)
• Share peer to peer media
• iPhone is integrated with other Apple products

Don’t be surprised if Apple enters the digital camera market soon.

Let’s get em hooked to Podcasts at an early age!

It’s interesting how Fisher Price has adopted a hardware and relevant web strategy to provide parents of users with additional content, and market accessories.

This $70 MP3 player is ‘kid tough’ and is advertised heavily this holiday season. Bios Magazine reports that:

“The Kid-Tough(TM) FP3 Player is the first digital media player that provides preschoolers with a durable and easy way to play their favorite downloadable songs and stories. Big buttons and visual icons on the LCD screen let preschoolers choose from their favorite songs & stories - all by themselves. The headphones are sized just right for little ones and play at a safe volume.

The player comes preloaded with preschool appropriate songs and stories, but Moms and Dads can also add more content by uploading any music they already own to the player, or by using the safe, user-friendly Fisher-Price(R) Song & Story Online Store to purchase songs and stories from top-selling children’s artists and authors. The Fisher-Price(R) Song & Story Online Store will be the first of its kind to specifically offer preschool appropriate content and suggestions for parents on a safe and easy-to-use website.”

You can learn more about this MP3 player (and Digital Camera) and the official Fisher Price’s Preschool Electronics website. There’s opportunities for cross marketing campaigns. As kids listen to MP3s, it can promote brands characters and additional lines of revenue (Clifford the dog seems to be highly promoted currently). It appears that this MP3 will allow parents to select other MP3s to upload, an ‘open’ model, smart.

I wonder if the kids would be interested in the Scoble show or Data Storage Best practices, wadda ya think?

Got a chance to play with our new friend Brian’s phone, he can do live video conferencing with the phones, (this means two people can carry on a video and audio conversations even on remote areas of the country) the screens easily flip around for easy viewing. 

It’s got a 3.2 megapixel camera onboard, MP3 player, and internet and email access.  The display is a very large and vibrant LCD screen, most of the phones have onboard external speakers so it’s easy to hear those speaking without ear buds.  I don’t see too many folks with bluetooth earbuds here in Japan.

While larger than my phone, he’s got the advantage of convergence while I’ve got to lug around three devices to do what he can easily do: iPod, Camera, and Cell phone. 

Japan is frequently several years ahead of the states when it comes to mobile infrastructure and devices. I’ve taken some pictures of a few phones at a mobile phone store in Okayama last night.

My cousin (he lives here) has friends with phones that have 5 megapixel onboard cameras, my puny brand new mobile phone from US has only 1.3, and that forces me to take my Canon Camera around, hopefully in a few years, convergence will let me only take one device: Phone, MP3, and Mobile Communicator

These were ‘demo’ devices, but if you bought it you would get the real authentic one. As I mentioned earlier, mobile technology is still very strong here in Japan.

I’m in Okayama Japan, (edit: a cool website that shows some of the highlights of Okayama, or see wikitravel) the sister city of San Jose! It’s more of a suburb with a population close to SF. It’s not as dense but it’s a great place to view and visit japan in easy to swallow doses.

Just about everywhere we go, I see individuals on wireless or portable media devices (PSPs seem popular). I see folks using cell phones to do a lot of texting, to use to take pictures and videos for instant publishing.

Many folks use mobile based email to communicate, more so than Instant Messaging, my cousin tells me. There are numerous wifi hotspots as there is little infrastructure for a wired network. My cousin ‘borrows’ other wifi signals in his building sometimes their a little spotty he says.

Considering we’re taking the train and public transport quite a bit, (and I see many folks are on the trains) having access to information from wherever you’re at makes sense.

This research from Ipsos indicates that Japan has the highest adoption rate (95% of all households own a mobile devices) of all countires for wireless devices, and it has a high percentage rate that use the web (40% in 2005 browse the web for news). Ipsos also indicates in this report that next to China, Japan has the longest weekly duration of users online, (13.9 hours a week).

I stumbled upon this blog and research site that focuses on the Japan Mobile Revolution, Wireless Watch Japan, if you’re into this amazing usage trend, I would check out this site/blog.

I was supposed to meet Coach Wei at the Ajax conference in San Jose (I covered the keynote only, due to time restrictions) he’s been watching the Web 2.0 space in Japan. Perhaps I’ll meet up with him at a future conference.

I’m getting ready for a two week vacation, and I won’t have much internet access while in Asia.  In fact, I won’t be able to even update my subscriptions on iTunes.

I’m constantly amazed how the web is the delivery platform for so much media.  iTunes has really become the digital marketplace for media, part of the reason why Tower Records is dying, and some folks think CDs are heading the way of the dodo.  iTunes offers movies, TV shows, Games, all at varying prices, I can see this being such a profit center for them.

I’ve downloaded ‘Bejeweled’ a puzzle game that my wife will like, a bunch of video podcasts from Rev 3, downloaded all of Brian’s Edgeworks podcasts, a few podtech, rocketboom, and made sure my usual FIR, Web 2.0 show, Buzz out loud, and Jaffe content is updated.

Content Recommendations Needed
I’m looking to you for recommendations, what other content do you suggest I download?  My focus is social media, marketing, web, geek.  On the entertainment side, I love viral type videos, short films.  Although I like a variety of music, I’ve yet to find a great ‘Chill’ podcast, any suggestions?

So who do you listen to?  Give me some suggestions.