August 5, 2010, 11:04 pm
Although Apple’s iPhone has thus far been sold exclusively in Japan by Softbank, Japan Communications intends to launch a service that will allow the iPhone 4 to tun on DoCoMo’s wireless network, according to various sources.
This is good news, until one looks at the price tag. While a new iPhone is supplied for free under multiyear contracts with Softbank, consumers will have to pay about 60,000 yen to buy an iPhone that runs on Japan Communications’ new DoCoMo link.
As with all technologies, prices will eventually fall. Unlocked smart phones and user-controlled SIM cards are the way of the future, and its good to see DoCoMo (reluctantly?) leading the charge toward normalcy.
February 11, 2010, 12:23 am
Both China and Japan are likely to end the year with a gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, of just over $5 trillion. To put that in context, that’s only a little more than a third of the size of the U.S. economy.
But with its huge population edge on the United States, many economists believe it is inevitable that China will eventually overtake the United States — even if it takes another 20 or 30 years.
“It’s kind of like the U.S. and Great Britain 125 years ago. Given how much larger we were, it was only a matter of time before we caught them,” said Jay Bryson, global economist for Wells Fargo Securities. “And it’s only a matter of time before they catch us.”
0:00 /2:19Chinese graduates cram village
But there are still many limitations on China’s growth prospects. For those who are scared that the U.S. will fall behind its Chinese rivals sooner rather than later, it’s useful to think back a bit more than 20 years, when Japan was considered a similar threat to U.S.
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