Tokyo and tech through the eyes of a split pea

My New Toy

…is the recently released Hitachi W51H.  My new-phone use is adopting a half-life pattern – I started with a Sony/Ericsson phone without a camera almost 5 years ago and which lasted me about 3 years, moved on to a Premini II, and now only a year later I’ve got a new phone.  The other big news is I’ve switched – not Apple style, but AU style.  1yen for this fancy new phone with a finger-print reader and full-browser capability.  The A/C adapter for this thing cost 945 times more than the phone.  Go figure.

Switching to AU – which I should have done a long time ago – has made me notice possible similarities in products and services offered by a few other companies I admire: Nintendo and Apple.  I think they each share a common passion.  Good design sense, good focus on the needs of the customer, good balance of fun and functionality.  AU’s response to the number portability (”MNP“) support that started last fall was spot on and clever.  In trying to entice customers with other service providers to switch to AU, their message was essentially “we’re so popular, just ask our customers”.  No claims of faster bandwidth.  No bribing with phone features.  No allegations of greater coverage.  Just pure confidence.