Featured Articles

July 2005 -- David “DC” Collier is an expert on Japanese mobile technology and founder of Pikkle, a Tokyo-based mobile content consultancy. Prior to founding Pikkle, Collier was a business creator for Namco’s International Mobile Games Division, helping solidify Namco’s position as Japan’s most successful international mobile game publisher. Earlier, in the 1990’s, Collier founded two game development companies: TripMedia and Gamelet. An accomplished content creator, Collier has authored three books, including Collier’s Rules, a required text in many college courses, and designed the hit interactive game, Burn: Cycle. Collier shared his expertise on the Japanese mobile market in a conversation over Skype, an internet telephony technology service.

JETRO: It’s commonly said that Japan’s mobile market is the most advanced in the world. Why is that? What can you do with a mobile phone in Japan that you can’t necessarily do elsewhere in the world?

Collier: The phones, of course, have advanced features, but I think the bigger thing is that average people have come to accept them and use them. So starting off with email, people just get totally addicted to email, and upgrade and start using browser services, and it’s just a thing where you see people hanging out after school in McDonald’s doing homework. Eight out of ten of them have a phone in hand at the same time, showing each other a new application or a screen saver, or a game or funny email from a friend, so it’s just that the usage is absolutely commonplace over here (Japan), which makes it a great business.

And of course it’s kind of chicken-and-egg: which came first, a platform that was friendly and fun to use or people who were really used to using it? And the two just build on top of each other for a virtuous cycle.

JETRO: Which was it, the chicken (usage) or the egg (platform)?

Collier: (laughing) I would say it was a little of both. It was like a little tiny egg, and then lots of chickens ate it. Then it kept going like that, because it wasn’t over night that everything happened: the platform evolved over lots of cycles.

JETRO: The camera phones seemed to take off over night--

Collier: That’s true. That was a huge feature jump, and everyone wanted it. It was a thing that no one had had before: a camera everywhere they went. And why wouldn’t you want it, especially when the operator was basically paying for it, you know?