Since NTT DoCoMo scored the first consumer breakthrough with a wireless data service - iMode - East Asia has been the place to watch for fans of mobile tech and gadgets. Since the iMode launch, AU and J-Phone have become fierce competitors, the transition to 3G has begun in Japan, and camera features have become de rigeur for new phones. The designs for DoCoMo's third generation data phones are now dribbling out (pix) (spex)

It has been an open question when, how, and sometimes whether the data/cam phone phenomenon would spread to the North American market. US mobile carriers' first attempt to sell data serivce was a flop, with inept marketing and a half-baked standard (WAP). Users and investors were left feeling burned, with some understandable skepticism towards follow-on attempts.

But there are finally signs that data features are beginning to make an impact here. Here's a nice catalog of ways that cam phones are being used - with a number of US and Canadian examples. Another indicator is the apparent buzz/fashion success of the Treo 600. Realize you couldn't sell the Treo (maybe even give it away) in Japan - much too big and clunky. This is perhaps, perversely, a leading indicator of adoption in the US: wireless technology must be adapted to the technology/fashion/social ecology of the market before adoption spreads. The Treo is designed to exploit the existing habits and functional expectations of the PDA market, which is peculiar to the US, and cannibalize it into the cam phone category. Interesting that it was brought to market by a hardware manufacturer, rather than driven by a carrier. Signs that the North American wireless data market may finally be starting, and that it will follow its own path, not necessary run down that pioneered in East Asia.

Full disclosure: I have some bets on this pony, in the form of mobile displays and camera lenses.
1:06:50 PM