Overseas Smartphones Putting North American Smart Phones to Shame?

I've heard that in parts of Asia (specifically Japan and the Philippines were referenced in this conversation) their smart phones make the North American Blackberrys, iPhones, and Palms look antiquated; that their smart phones have video conferencing chat so that you can see who you're speaking with (in real time, no stuttering/flickering, etc).

I have yet to spend much time in either of these countries, but I know they have been widely using cell phone technology longer than we have. So my question is, to those of you who have visited these parts of the world, is it true - do the devices we spend so much time exploring and fawning over pale in comparison to more advanced devices that much of the world uses? If so, is the only reason why companies don't sell these types of devices in our country due to our networks being unable to support them?

I don't know about the Philippines but I know in Japan phones are FAR more complex.

The BlackBerry is not a leading phone, and when the iphone arrives in Japan next year, it will NOT be a major seller.

8.1 MP Camera's are not uncommon, people can get Mobile phones that can go underwater up to 1.5m

Just research NTT Docomo you'll see features on the phones they offer that we can only dream of over here

What holds N. American phones back from embracing this better technology - is it that our networks can't support the file size of the data the Japanese phones push through their networks?

Originally Posted by deRusett

I don't know about the Philippines but I know in Japan phones are FAR more complex.

The BlackBerry is not a leading phone, and when the iphone arrives in Japan next year, it will NOT be a major seller.

8.1 MP Camera's are not uncommon, people can get Mobile phones that can go underwater up to 1.5m

Just research NTT Docomo you'll see features on the phones they offer that we can only dream of over here

Check out this phone
Softbank Sharp 931SH FullTouch Slider Phone | iTech News Net - Gadget News and Reviews



There is a lot of reasons we don't have the same technology, 1 part is Geography, we are years behind other markets because our population density makes it more costly to upgrade networks,


Also as a relatively undeveloped area when the advent of the Landline came, we had an extensive and cheap landline service, that did not exist in older countries as they didn't dig up 500 year old roads to lay down wires, nor string them through tempels and such, we didn't have to worry about that, in Canada you could call locally for as cheap as 20 dollars a month for unlimited usage at the same time in England you'd pay the equivalent of 25 cents for the call + costs per minute as we see on mobile phones, so when your land line cost as much as your mobile it only made sense to switch to mobiles, then with less towers required to cover the population it was cheaper to develop the towers,

also we in North America started off with a different standard then the rest of the world, so we again fell behind the R&D that the rest of the world was doing, we'll see a shift, but it will take time, my grandkids might see parity with Japan on the technology front

got it - thanks. from reading this it sounds like the networks are to blame for the technology lag. the below then explains why our networks are lagging, which is definitely elucidating.

Originally Posted by deRusett

Check out this phone
Softbank Sharp 931SH FullTouch Slider Phone | iTech News Net - Gadget News and Reviews



There is a lot of reasons we don't have the same technology, 1 part is Geography, we are years behind other markets because our population density makes it more costly to upgrade networks,


Also as a relatively undeveloped area when the advent of the Landline came, we had an extensive and cheap landline service, that did not exist in older countries as they didn't dig up 500 year old roads to lay down wires, nor string them through tempels and such, we didn't have to worry about that, in Canada you could call locally for as cheap as 20 dollars a month for unlimited usage at the same time in England you'd pay the equivalent of 25 cents for the call + costs per minute as we see on mobile phones, so when your land line cost as much as your mobile it only made sense to switch to mobiles, then with less towers required to cover the population it was cheaper to develop the towers,

also we in North America started off with a different standard then the rest of the world, so we again fell behind the R&D that the rest of the world was doing, we'll see a shift, but it will take time, my grandkids might see parity with Japan on the technology front