Japan: Keitai Krazy, From the Web to the Wallet

Abstract

Japan is a world leader in the development and deployment of mobile communications and m-commerce. The country maintains this position by both staying on the cutting edge of technologies and catering to a user base eager to embrace new mobile technologies. Mobile commerce has developed beyond just data transmissions between the handset and the Web. The handsets can now serve as an “e-wallet” for conducting physical, real world transactions. In the course of this chapter, we will explain briefly the historical advances in mobile technologies which have enabled and engendered m-commerce applications of increasing complexity. Concurrently, we will present a series of micro-cases about m-commerce and give analysis of these cases from the CLIP framework. Finally, we will draw conclusions and lessons learned that might be applicable in other m-commerce markets.