The future of mobile phone-based Intranet applications: A view from Japan

This paper looks at the future of mobile phone-based Intranet applications using data from the Japanese market and models of industry evolution. Owing to the faster and greater agreement on protocols for defining the way in which content and information is presented on phones and the faster introduction and promotion of push-based Internet mail and methods of accessing content via the input of a URL, Japanese firms have moved faster to introduce mobile phone-based mobile applications than the rest of the world. Based on analysis of published material in Japanese newspapers and magazines and interviews with more than 30 firms (users, suppliers, and service providers), this paper discusses the status and future of these applications; the latter focuses on both technological change and models of industry evolution.