As Apple and Samsung dominate, Japan’s tech giants are in a free fall(washingtonpost.com)
washingtonpost.com
As Apple and Samsung dominate, Japan’s tech giants are in a free fall
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/as-apple-and-samsung-dominate-japans-tech-giants-are-in-a-free-fall/2012/09/28/04c6eb36-0944-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_story.html?hpid=z2
63 comments
Sony didn't just 'miss the boat', they did what they could to sink it and damage their brand.
Before they had a fantastic reputation, their audio equipment was good to excellent for a small fraction of the price of the competition.
Rootkits, lawsuits and me-too products seems to be what they specialize in nowadays.
Toshiba, Fujitsu, Matsushita and many others (also in other branches than just electronics, for instance Toyota and Honda) have done a lot better and definitely didn't aim the shotgun at their own feet.
Another thing that hit Japan was that they were no longer able to compete on price with China and Korea.
Before they had a fantastic reputation, their audio equipment was good to excellent for a small fraction of the price of the competition.
Rootkits, lawsuits and me-too products seems to be what they specialize in nowadays.
Toshiba, Fujitsu, Matsushita and many others (also in other branches than just electronics, for instance Toyota and Honda) have done a lot better and definitely didn't aim the shotgun at their own feet.
Another thing that hit Japan was that they were no longer able to compete on price with China and Korea.
> Rootkits, lawsuits and me-too products seems to be what they specialize in nowadays.
Didn't wait for that. The issue with Sony is that they're historically utterly incompetent on the software side of things. I swore off Sony products after getting a NetMD. The software for that POS was so absolutely terrible it makes iTunes look good, snappy and user-friendly.
Didn't wait for that. The issue with Sony is that they're historically utterly incompetent on the software side of things. I swore off Sony products after getting a NetMD. The software for that POS was so absolutely terrible it makes iTunes look good, snappy and user-friendly.
That 'shoot yourself in the foot' strategy is exactly what you get when you put old school hardware guys in charge of software. Sony had years and years of success with proprietary connectors, batteries and exclusive content deals. Consumers don't really like it but they quietly tolerate it if it means getting the newest features. Put those guys in charge of your software strategy and lawsuits and rootkits is exactly what you'll get.
Also keep in mind that the rootkit came out of the 50-50 joint venture Sony BMG and was the brainchild of Bertelsmann as well. The guy who went on-air to defend the decision saying effectively 'if you don't know about it, why should you care?' was in charge of that division and originally from the Bertelsmann side. The old-school publishing industry has almost the exact same relationship with software.
Also keep in mind that the rootkit came out of the 50-50 joint venture Sony BMG and was the brainchild of Bertelsmann as well. The guy who went on-air to defend the decision saying effectively 'if you don't know about it, why should you care?' was in charge of that division and originally from the Bertelsmann side. The old-school publishing industry has almost the exact same relationship with software.
By then they'd already started their slide.
I remember Sony for things like TA3650, the Walkman and their (excellent) reel-to-reel recorders. By the time they got into media (and don't forget betamax) they'd already lost their spirit, even though financially they had not yet peaked.
I remember Sony for things like TA3650, the Walkman and their (excellent) reel-to-reel recorders. By the time they got into media (and don't forget betamax) they'd already lost their spirit, even though financially they had not yet peaked.
I think we agree. You remember Sony for things which have no software component. The only software Sony was very good at was embedded software. I still have an original AIBO which sort of exemplifies that.
I just realized that from my window here in Tokyo I can see and recognize the tops of 2 large buildings: NTT (Japanese hardware) and Oracle Japan (foreign software). This is why I was so encouraged by the large acquisition of a foreign software company by Recruit this past week.
I just realized that from my window here in Tokyo I can see and recognize the tops of 2 large buildings: NTT (Japanese hardware) and Oracle Japan (foreign software). This is why I was so encouraged by the large acquisition of a foreign software company by Recruit this past week.
Part of the problem is software development just isn't seen as an integral part of company operations. A friend of mine is a developer in Japan. He makes less money relative to his peers than he would in the US. He gets about the same amount of respect from the company as the guys on the loading dock - management doesn't really understand what he does and they view him as a replaceable part.
I asked him why he doesn't move to another company, something which is becoming more accepted. He shrugged and said they were all pretty much the same. He's planning to leave software behind as soon as he can get promoted, and they'll replace my friend with a guy whose only experience is a doujinshi game that was written by himself in college.
I asked him why he doesn't move to another company, something which is becoming more accepted. He shrugged and said they were all pretty much the same. He's planning to leave software behind as soon as he can get promoted, and they'll replace my friend with a guy whose only experience is a doujinshi game that was written by himself in college.
It all boils down to a population problem. Japan is ageing and software demands huge work force. Only India and may be China in the near future can bridge the gap. It is not accident that Silicon Valley has more Indian engineers than any other foreign nationality.
I am an Indian (from Goa). Your idea that the millions of Software Engineers from India are going bridge the gap is misguided, IMO.
What Software innovation has India done? Do you know of any compiler companies from here? Or any Operating System companies? How many linux kernel engineers does Infosys or TCS have? Both companies are sitting with billions in cash. Do you think any senior directors there are thinking - let's create a microchip, even if it's way behind Intel or AMD? I remember reading an interview of Bjarne Stroustrup - he said AT&T gave away their compilers to their competitors (like HP) knowing fully well it would strengthen them. Is any company in India on the same level as AT&T, who can see the bigger picture ? Maybe Tata's come close (not TCS). Indian senior management are like glorified buniyas - who when they put down 50 paise, expect Rs 1.5 back. It took Standard Chartered to come to India and sponsor a marathon. That should tell you a lot about senior management here.
On a larger scale is any Indian company thinking we can build a commercial aircraft? Only HAL builds fighters - but that's a govt company. Soon Microsoft is going to create an opportunity for everyone to erode their Desktop OS share by walling off developers? Do you think TCS or Infosys is building a Linux Distro like Canonical/Ubuntu? Do you think they have the balls to get into that market and try and take market share?
The fundamental thinking of India seems to be flawed. Everyone wants a piece of the outsourcing pie. Synergies and bullcrap like that. No products come from here. I believe we are already suffering a much worse fate than Japan. Videocon is a collaboration with a Japanese company (since the talk was about electronic majors from Japan). Where are the real indigenous products from India, so that we can have the same fate as Japan? The only advantage the 1 million "good" engineers you claim is cost. Once the cost advantage goes, people are going to be jobless, not bridging any gaps.
I went to 2 leading BPOs with my compilers for Survey Programming and Cross Tabulation. The VPs said the thought of writing such products never crossed their minds. They were not interested.
If you want to see the difference in Indian thinking - compare with Germany. Open source is available to everyone and that means countries too. I have read many articles about Germany using Open source in govt offices and there was an article about France and Libre Office.
India cannot go down the same road as Japan, because we dont have the products in the first place to go down that road.
I don't know if your "bridging the gap", means supplying engineers to other countries. If yes, then this is the typical thinking that creates the net negative cash flow in economies like ours.
What Software innovation has India done? Do you know of any compiler companies from here? Or any Operating System companies? How many linux kernel engineers does Infosys or TCS have? Both companies are sitting with billions in cash. Do you think any senior directors there are thinking - let's create a microchip, even if it's way behind Intel or AMD? I remember reading an interview of Bjarne Stroustrup - he said AT&T gave away their compilers to their competitors (like HP) knowing fully well it would strengthen them. Is any company in India on the same level as AT&T, who can see the bigger picture ? Maybe Tata's come close (not TCS). Indian senior management are like glorified buniyas - who when they put down 50 paise, expect Rs 1.5 back. It took Standard Chartered to come to India and sponsor a marathon. That should tell you a lot about senior management here.
On a larger scale is any Indian company thinking we can build a commercial aircraft? Only HAL builds fighters - but that's a govt company. Soon Microsoft is going to create an opportunity for everyone to erode their Desktop OS share by walling off developers? Do you think TCS or Infosys is building a Linux Distro like Canonical/Ubuntu? Do you think they have the balls to get into that market and try and take market share?
The fundamental thinking of India seems to be flawed. Everyone wants a piece of the outsourcing pie. Synergies and bullcrap like that. No products come from here. I believe we are already suffering a much worse fate than Japan. Videocon is a collaboration with a Japanese company (since the talk was about electronic majors from Japan). Where are the real indigenous products from India, so that we can have the same fate as Japan? The only advantage the 1 million "good" engineers you claim is cost. Once the cost advantage goes, people are going to be jobless, not bridging any gaps.
I went to 2 leading BPOs with my compilers for Survey Programming and Cross Tabulation. The VPs said the thought of writing such products never crossed their minds. They were not interested.
If you want to see the difference in Indian thinking - compare with Germany. Open source is available to everyone and that means countries too. I have read many articles about Germany using Open source in govt offices and there was an article about France and Libre Office.
India cannot go down the same road as Japan, because we dont have the products in the first place to go down that road.
I don't know if your "bridging the gap", means supplying engineers to other countries. If yes, then this is the typical thinking that creates the net negative cash flow in economies like ours.
Software innovation and engineering go hand in hand, but not necessarily the same thing. Innovation will and have to come from innovators, some of whom would be engineers; but execution requires engineers. No India is not on the innovation train yet, but that is not an impediment for creation and supply of engineers. You seem to be trying to argue about certain lack of innovation in India and whether engineer migration is good for India. Those are separate subjects altogether.
fellow goan here, and i have to say that while you are mostly correct, things are beginning to shift. there are a sprinkling of homegrown "product" companies popping up in bangalore and pune, and a small but increasing participation in various open source communities. hopefully by the next decade indian software engineers will be motivated by seeing what they can build, rather than by where they can make a quick buck solving someone's outsourced problems.
I will believe this, when I see products which are not your typical social products coming from here, not your next twitter app clone variants, after people have done their first walk through using Rails.
What would be challenging products showing some tech know-how (note there is hardly an innovation in any of this, but demonstrates some level of tech competence)?
1. Take the g++ source code or clang, intercept it at the point it creates the parse tree and create a code navigation(cscope for c++) or lint like tool.
2. Chapter 6, PAIP has the bare bones of a flight search engine in lisp. You need to add more parameters and a different metric function. Open source the solution to disrupt current monopolies.
3. Google is solving the language translation problem.
4. Disrupt the big 5 in audits (PwC etc). Create an accounting /audit package that uses similar ideas as git. Use SHA1 entries to track accounting entries. PwC, screwed up Satyam's auditing and got away with it (because of bribing?). In the US, Arthur Anderson was destroyed as an entity for fudging Enron. Since we are used to bribing the govt to pass laws, TCS or Infosys could throw weight on the govt to pass a law to accept streams of accounting records using "git push". Audit data is now a weekly or monthly disclosure, using git push to a govt location. Much lesser chance for companies to fudge data once you have a much tighter cycle, tamper proof because of SHA1 checksums.
What would be challenging products showing some tech know-how (note there is hardly an innovation in any of this, but demonstrates some level of tech competence)?
1. Take the g++ source code or clang, intercept it at the point it creates the parse tree and create a code navigation(cscope for c++) or lint like tool.
2. Chapter 6, PAIP has the bare bones of a flight search engine in lisp. You need to add more parameters and a different metric function. Open source the solution to disrupt current monopolies.
3. Google is solving the language translation problem.
4. Disrupt the big 5 in audits (PwC etc). Create an accounting /audit package that uses similar ideas as git. Use SHA1 entries to track accounting entries. PwC, screwed up Satyam's auditing and got away with it (because of bribing?). In the US, Arthur Anderson was destroyed as an entity for fudging Enron. Since we are used to bribing the govt to pass laws, TCS or Infosys could throw weight on the govt to pass a law to accept streams of accounting records using "git push". Audit data is now a weekly or monthly disclosure, using git push to a govt location. Much lesser chance for companies to fudge data once you have a much tighter cycle, tamper proof because of SHA1 checksums.
In the US, Arthur Anderson was destroyed as an entity for fudging Enron.
Actually, it was simply killed by the initial indictment, which for an auditor is a death sentence. Several years later the Supreme Court unanimously reversed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Andersen_LLP_v._United_S...), but by then it was way too late. I.e. this was a typical abusive political Federal prosecution; Enron in general gave the usual suspects an excuse to wreck horrific damage, including most especially SarBox which was the final nail in the coffin of the VC funded hi-tech startup business model.
As for Satyam, at least in US auditors proceed from the assumption that the company it not lying to them and they do some spot checks to verify (e.g. "You say you have 150 widgets of this type in that warehouse; let's go look at them." And "You say you have 29 crores in this account at that bank; call the bank and authorize them to tell us about the account."). If the company is sufficiently fraudulent, as I recall reading Satyam was, auditor malfeasance is not assumed, you check to see if the auditor's verification procedures were reasonable and if they ignored anything they shouldn't have, but otherwise you can't assume they too were corrupt.
Auditing is expensive from both sides, the auditor and the company being audited, where a number of people are tasked with supplying the auditor the information they need and demand (e.g. those verification checks). If a company is running a sufficiently sophisticated scam, e.g. their official books are very carefully constructed fiction, I don't see how their pushing out regular records would help. I.e. the way they pull off their scam is to continuously make everything look good, as opposed to trying to put together a false set of books just before the audit, which would likely result in enough errors auditors would have a good chance of catching them.
Actually, it was simply killed by the initial indictment, which for an auditor is a death sentence. Several years later the Supreme Court unanimously reversed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Andersen_LLP_v._United_S...), but by then it was way too late. I.e. this was a typical abusive political Federal prosecution; Enron in general gave the usual suspects an excuse to wreck horrific damage, including most especially SarBox which was the final nail in the coffin of the VC funded hi-tech startup business model.
As for Satyam, at least in US auditors proceed from the assumption that the company it not lying to them and they do some spot checks to verify (e.g. "You say you have 150 widgets of this type in that warehouse; let's go look at them." And "You say you have 29 crores in this account at that bank; call the bank and authorize them to tell us about the account."). If the company is sufficiently fraudulent, as I recall reading Satyam was, auditor malfeasance is not assumed, you check to see if the auditor's verification procedures were reasonable and if they ignored anything they shouldn't have, but otherwise you can't assume they too were corrupt.
Auditing is expensive from both sides, the auditor and the company being audited, where a number of people are tasked with supplying the auditor the information they need and demand (e.g. those verification checks). If a company is running a sufficiently sophisticated scam, e.g. their official books are very carefully constructed fiction, I don't see how their pushing out regular records would help. I.e. the way they pull off their scam is to continuously make everything look good, as opposed to trying to put together a false set of books just before the audit, which would likely result in enough errors auditors would have a good chance of catching them.
The problem with India is that the market has been saturated. All the really good Indian engineers have migrated to Silicon Valley, and the rest of the good ones have been snapped up by the likes of Microsoft India and Google India.
As many companies who have tried to outsource in the last few years and have been burned in the process have learned, the engineers they've been getting have a poor grasp of computer science and an even poorer grasp of English. Until the public school system is fixed so that the Indian masses can get a good education, the situation isn't going to rectify itself very quickly.
As many companies who have tried to outsource in the last few years and have been burned in the process have learned, the engineers they've been getting have a poor grasp of computer science and an even poorer grasp of English. Until the public school system is fixed so that the Indian masses can get a good education, the situation isn't going to rectify itself very quickly.
India produces more engineers as more leave. There are decent number of good engineers. You have to understand that output of engineers have increased 10 times in the last 10 years and thus you may find quality deficit in some; but in general the number of good indian engineers have gone up roughly 10 times as well. By the way, Indian outsourcing industry is alive and kicking well - it is a $120B industry now and still growing at 15% per annum - not bad for such a large industry at all.
There are certainly a large number of engineers being produced - that doesn't mean they're employable. When you have training companies saying that "75 percent of engineering graduates are not employable,"[0] you know you have a serious problem.
And of course the outsourcing industry is doing well - you have plenty of American companies eager to outsource back-office programming in order to make their next quarterly earnings report look more impressive. This is just one symptom of the MBAification of American businesses, something that cannot continue unabated if long-term success is a goal.
One company you won't hear about much when it comes to outsourcing is Apple. They have an office in Bangalore, but they don't have the sort of branches that Microsoft or Google do. Why? Because they care about quality, even if that means paying their engineers more. If they hire Indian engineers, they'd rather that they come and work in Cupertino, rather than trying to cut costs by leaving them in India. And look where it's gotten them - more than $100 billion sitting in the bank and some of the most popular and profitable consumer electronics out there.
0: http://www.rediff.com/getahead/slide-show/slide-show-1-caree...
And of course the outsourcing industry is doing well - you have plenty of American companies eager to outsource back-office programming in order to make their next quarterly earnings report look more impressive. This is just one symptom of the MBAification of American businesses, something that cannot continue unabated if long-term success is a goal.
One company you won't hear about much when it comes to outsourcing is Apple. They have an office in Bangalore, but they don't have the sort of branches that Microsoft or Google do. Why? Because they care about quality, even if that means paying their engineers more. If they hire Indian engineers, they'd rather that they come and work in Cupertino, rather than trying to cut costs by leaving them in India. And look where it's gotten them - more than $100 billion sitting in the bank and some of the most popular and profitable consumer electronics out there.
0: http://www.rediff.com/getahead/slide-show/slide-show-1-caree...
It all boils down to a population problem. Japan is ageing and software demands huge work force.
I fail to see how it boils down to that. The demographics of Japan are changing (we hear about it constantly in the western media but holy hell spend one weekend in shibuya and you wouldn't believe it) but there's no way it could account for the effects we are talking about. Japan didn't lose their way because there weren't enough young people to fill their software industry; they hit this problem because they didn't even know they needed to be training people up to be software engineers. The best engineers went into solving hardware problems, not software. It's a quality thing, not a quantity thing.
As an aside, comparing apples and oranges is sometimes instructive to see if a theory has a kernel of truth to it. There are 1.8M total people in Silicon Valley (including food service industry and the like) and at least twice that many in just the 20-24 year old category in Japan. There are also at least 10 million more Japanese people now than there were in the 1980's when everyone was hysterical about them taking over the hardware business world. If Japan hadn't been so successful in hardware and had motivated their workforce around software instead, they certainly would be a significant force today. I don't think an aging population plays a significant factor (yet).
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=silicon+valley+populati... http://www.wolframalpha.com/share/clip?f=d41d8cd98f00b204e98... http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Japan+population
I fail to see how it boils down to that. The demographics of Japan are changing (we hear about it constantly in the western media but holy hell spend one weekend in shibuya and you wouldn't believe it) but there's no way it could account for the effects we are talking about. Japan didn't lose their way because there weren't enough young people to fill their software industry; they hit this problem because they didn't even know they needed to be training people up to be software engineers. The best engineers went into solving hardware problems, not software. It's a quality thing, not a quantity thing.
As an aside, comparing apples and oranges is sometimes instructive to see if a theory has a kernel of truth to it. There are 1.8M total people in Silicon Valley (including food service industry and the like) and at least twice that many in just the 20-24 year old category in Japan. There are also at least 10 million more Japanese people now than there were in the 1980's when everyone was hysterical about them taking over the hardware business world. If Japan hadn't been so successful in hardware and had motivated their workforce around software instead, they certainly would be a significant force today. I don't think an aging population plays a significant factor (yet).
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=silicon+valley+populati... http://www.wolframalpha.com/share/clip?f=d41d8cd98f00b204e98... http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Japan+population
I wonder if Japan suffers from a younger generation or a something being lost in translation. I'm reminded of this article:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/24/3177332/ia-oliver-reichens...
>Japanese web or app design is not comparable to Japanese art, graphic design or architecture. I could fill a page explaining why. It has to do with the way Japanese read, with the corporate fear of doing something different, and with the generally low level of design for the masses.
>One reason why Japanese web and app design feels weak is that technology requires good active and passive knowledge of English. English is the lingua franca of contemporary web and app development, both of our tools and our discourse. Even if you master English-based Objective-C or JavaScript, if you are not able to communicate with the international community of developers and designers, you miss out on what is desirable, even what is possible. Japanese developers and designers that don’t speak English are trapped within the relatively low level of tech and design that currently reigns in the Japanese corporate world.
-----
>Even the Japanese companies’ strengths matter less now, as consumers have lost the willingness to pay a premium for quality.
This is not true or Apple would not be as successful as they are today. In some areas foreign manufacturers have caught up enough where quality is less of an issue such as TVs. Consumers now value the TV less. This is not true of smartphones, tablets, or cars. The latter is an area that Japan still carries a heavy amount of influence.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/24/3177332/ia-oliver-reichens...
>Japanese web or app design is not comparable to Japanese art, graphic design or architecture. I could fill a page explaining why. It has to do with the way Japanese read, with the corporate fear of doing something different, and with the generally low level of design for the masses.
>One reason why Japanese web and app design feels weak is that technology requires good active and passive knowledge of English. English is the lingua franca of contemporary web and app development, both of our tools and our discourse. Even if you master English-based Objective-C or JavaScript, if you are not able to communicate with the international community of developers and designers, you miss out on what is desirable, even what is possible. Japanese developers and designers that don’t speak English are trapped within the relatively low level of tech and design that currently reigns in the Japanese corporate world.
-----
>Even the Japanese companies’ strengths matter less now, as consumers have lost the willingness to pay a premium for quality.
This is not true or Apple would not be as successful as they are today. In some areas foreign manufacturers have caught up enough where quality is less of an issue such as TVs. Consumers now value the TV less. This is not true of smartphones, tablets, or cars. The latter is an area that Japan still carries a heavy amount of influence.
Ah, your point about English has got to be very important, it's significant that Japan is the world's worst at teaching English as a second language, and that has to be fatal for this domain.
> Japan is the world's worst at teaching English as a second language
Actually, you're wrong. That dubious honor goes to South Korea, which spends one of the highest amounts of money per capita on English education, yet has the worst results in Asia.[0]
So the point about English actually isn't very important, given Samsung's dominance in the smartphone industry.
0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_South_Korea#Englis...
Actually, you're wrong. That dubious honor goes to South Korea, which spends one of the highest amounts of money per capita on English education, yet has the worst results in Asia.[0]
So the point about English actually isn't very important, given Samsung's dominance in the smartphone industry.
0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_South_Korea#Englis...
Errr, I should be more clear: the Japanese public schools don't actually teach English as we know it and I assume this holds for the all important test to get into a university. I.e. you can get high marks in it but you will be functionally illiterate unless you seek additional education, and if you do that while you're still stuck in the Japanese educational system you have to keep the two dialects separate in your mind.
South Korea may teach it poorly, but if they're trying to teach something recognizable as English they still ought to be doing it better. And then there's the close ties between our countries of various sorts, your Samsung example may not be apropos given all the other ways Koreans learn and practice English, in the military, I assume to some extent, which is not small in South Korea, in the flow of people to and from the US, etc.
South Korea may teach it poorly, but if they're trying to teach something recognizable as English they still ought to be doing it better. And then there's the close ties between our countries of various sorts, your Samsung example may not be apropos given all the other ways Koreans learn and practice English, in the military, I assume to some extent, which is not small in South Korea, in the flow of people to and from the US, etc.
> Errr, I should be more clear: the Japanese public schools don't actually teach English as we know it
I'm fully aware of how the Japanese teach/learn English.
> South Korea may teach it poorly, but if they're trying to teach something recognizable as English they still ought to be doing it better.
The South Korean educational system is no better when it comes to teaching English than the Japanese system. They pretty much use the same methods, many of which were taken directly from Japanese practices.
> And then there's the close ties between our countries of various sorts
There are close ties between Japan and the US as well.
> your Samsung example may not be apropos given all the other ways Koreans learn and practice English, in the military, I assume to some extent, which is not small in South Korea
It is actually quite small. The only significant group of people in the Korean military that gets regular English practice is KATUSA[0], and they are expected to have a certain TOEIC score just to get in.
The fact of the matter is South Korea visibly scores lower on tests of English proficiency than Japan, so I don't understand why you're so eager to state that their proficiency is actually higher than that of the Japanese.
0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KATUSA
I'm fully aware of how the Japanese teach/learn English.
> South Korea may teach it poorly, but if they're trying to teach something recognizable as English they still ought to be doing it better.
The South Korean educational system is no better when it comes to teaching English than the Japanese system. They pretty much use the same methods, many of which were taken directly from Japanese practices.
> And then there's the close ties between our countries of various sorts
There are close ties between Japan and the US as well.
> your Samsung example may not be apropos given all the other ways Koreans learn and practice English, in the military, I assume to some extent, which is not small in South Korea
It is actually quite small. The only significant group of people in the Korean military that gets regular English practice is KATUSA[0], and they are expected to have a certain TOEIC score just to get in.
The fact of the matter is South Korea visibly scores lower on tests of English proficiency than Japan, so I don't understand why you're so eager to state that their proficiency is actually higher than that of the Japanese.
0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KATUSA
I'm not saying their proficiency is greater (since prior to this discussion I had no knowledge of it), I was just saying it's possible. I hope there is English proficiency outside of KATUSA soldiers (only 3,400 as of 2012 according to Wikipedia), i.e. how are higher level officers going to coordinate with their American counterparts? But then again South Korea is I gather more and more confident of being able to handle threats by themselves (and perhaps less and less confident of meaningful US help ... and I'd assume proficiency is higher in the Air Force (English being the official worldwide language for air traffic control) which is what we could surge the fastest).
Anyway, to clarify my point about Samsung, if there's a greater pool of good English speakers to pull from (even if in general the pool is poorer ... especially since in either case there's little to chose from being functionally illiterate vs. even more functionally illiterate???), it could explain their being able to pull it off. They must being doing something right....
Anyway, to clarify my point about Samsung, if there's a greater pool of good English speakers to pull from (even if in general the pool is poorer ... especially since in either case there's little to chose from being functionally illiterate vs. even more functionally illiterate???), it could explain their being able to pull it off. They must being doing something right....
> how are higher level officers going to coordinate with their American counterparts?
Oh, I wouldn't doubt that higher level officers have a better command of English than your average rank-and-file soldier. But that's a relatively small number of people, right?
> They must being doing something right....
They're obviously doing something right in terms of being commercially successful. My whole point is that English fluency is not all that important for commercial success. For example, they could have the software engineering done overseas, with only the liaisons between the hardware and software teams fluent in English. This is all speculation. All I can say for sure is that South Korea's English education system is no better than that of Japan's.
Oh, I wouldn't doubt that higher level officers have a better command of English than your average rank-and-file soldier. But that's a relatively small number of people, right?
> They must being doing something right....
They're obviously doing something right in terms of being commercially successful. My whole point is that English fluency is not all that important for commercial success. For example, they could have the software engineering done overseas, with only the liaisons between the hardware and software teams fluent in English. This is all speculation. All I can say for sure is that South Korea's English education system is no better than that of Japan's.
Not just web development. Programming in general. Can't imagine what it would be like to learn programming and don't understand English.
> Can't imagine what it would be like to learn programming and not understand English.
(I read your sentence with an implied subject, which is fine for casual grammar, but the second phrase is subjunctive because the first is, so "do not" and "don't" fit poorly there, even for casual speech.)
Just imagine everything in a different language. Hydro Quebec had an application in French.
This is more evidence that community is key for programming. Community even trumps native language!
(I read your sentence with an implied subject, which is fine for casual grammar, but the second phrase is subjunctive because the first is, so "do not" and "don't" fit poorly there, even for casual speech.)
Just imagine everything in a different language. Hydro Quebec had an application in French.
This is more evidence that community is key for programming. Community even trumps native language!
>English degree put to good use there
That sentence did felt a bit awkward.
All mainstream programming languages are based on English and so are the majority of resources. Even APIs for the operating systems we use and the protocols for communication.
Everything is pretty much exclusively English. It'd be such a huge disadvantage.
That sentence did felt a bit awkward.
All mainstream programming languages are based on English and so are the majority of resources. Even APIs for the operating systems we use and the protocols for communication.
Everything is pretty much exclusively English. It'd be such a huge disadvantage.
> Everything is pretty much exclusively English. It'd be such a huge disadvantage.
So, you're saying it's inconceivable that someone could be competitive in the field without English skills, not that programming in another language period is inconceivable. I'm totally down with that.
So, you're saying it's inconceivable that someone could be competitive in the field without English skills, not that programming in another language period is inconceivable. I'm totally down with that.
Well i learned to program before i learned English. But i agree without understanding English i would never have gotten to the level i am now on.
I don't consider you being normal. Most that do speak English don't understand programming. You're more likely to be the exception to the rule.
I'm not so sure if lack of English skills is one of the reasons. Koreans and Chinese have the same issue (koreans more than chinese) and they seem to do okay.
I wonder why Samsung and LG are doing so much better. They are just the kind of giant do-everything conglomerates that are failing in Japan. South Korean culture is rather similar to Japan, especially in business and education.
Some things I can think of: 1) Korea got started later, and has not had the chance yet to get stale like Japan did in the 90's.
2) The population pyramid is not as inverted.
3) Korea has more PC focus, while Japan is about more gadgets. See how Starcraft, a PC game, is enormous in South Korea but unknown in Japan. That means more software and programming focus early on.
4) Lower labor costs. Not as low as China, but low enough to compete.
Some things I can think of: 1) Korea got started later, and has not had the chance yet to get stale like Japan did in the 90's.
2) The population pyramid is not as inverted.
3) Korea has more PC focus, while Japan is about more gadgets. See how Starcraft, a PC game, is enormous in South Korea but unknown in Japan. That means more software and programming focus early on.
4) Lower labor costs. Not as low as China, but low enough to compete.
Because Korean is hungry, just like China.
Japan thinks nothing will change, everything continue smoothly, nothing bad will happen.
... and yes I live and work here(Tokyo) for many years.
Japan thinks nothing will change, everything continue smoothly, nothing bad will happen.
... and yes I live and work here(Tokyo) for many years.
Yup. I blame the bubble.
I think many of Japan's woes are really a direct result of its earlier success. Post-WWII Japan was extremely poor, and succeeded incredibly because they had a crazy-good work ethic, a relatively well-educated population and tradition of industrial development, and were willing to make sacrifices; as you state, "they were hungry." However the success that followed resulted in changing the very attitudes that engendered that success, and the bubble with its excesses accelerated this change greatly. Japanese confidence, lifestyle, etc, are all now firmly that of a rich, "we've succeeded! time to kick back!" country ... just in time to get the rug yanked out from underneath it.
The instincts and mechanisms that got them so far aren't well prepared to accommodate the changing world, but having tasted wealth, the country isn't really all that eager to toss out what made it wealthy, even when that clearly isn't working so well anymore... "better the devil you know..." etc.
This is the fate of all successful countries to some degree, but what I wonder is: without the extremes of the bubble, could Japan have achieved a more nuanced transition, becoming a rich country, but maybe remaining a bit more flexible and wary?
I don't think it's really true that everybody thinks "nothing will change, everything continue smoothly, nothing bad will happen." Japanese people very much see the country's malaise and feel worried about the future... but merely recognizing the problem intellectually isn't enough. There has to be a change in "gut instinct" too, and that is much harder. I suppose one way to do it is to increase the pain level to the point where continuing as-is becomes intolerable, and something has to change; unfortunately that seems to be route Japan is taking... :(
I think many of Japan's woes are really a direct result of its earlier success. Post-WWII Japan was extremely poor, and succeeded incredibly because they had a crazy-good work ethic, a relatively well-educated population and tradition of industrial development, and were willing to make sacrifices; as you state, "they were hungry." However the success that followed resulted in changing the very attitudes that engendered that success, and the bubble with its excesses accelerated this change greatly. Japanese confidence, lifestyle, etc, are all now firmly that of a rich, "we've succeeded! time to kick back!" country ... just in time to get the rug yanked out from underneath it.
The instincts and mechanisms that got them so far aren't well prepared to accommodate the changing world, but having tasted wealth, the country isn't really all that eager to toss out what made it wealthy, even when that clearly isn't working so well anymore... "better the devil you know..." etc.
This is the fate of all successful countries to some degree, but what I wonder is: without the extremes of the bubble, could Japan have achieved a more nuanced transition, becoming a rich country, but maybe remaining a bit more flexible and wary?
I don't think it's really true that everybody thinks "nothing will change, everything continue smoothly, nothing bad will happen." Japanese people very much see the country's malaise and feel worried about the future... but merely recognizing the problem intellectually isn't enough. There has to be a change in "gut instinct" too, and that is much harder. I suppose one way to do it is to increase the pain level to the point where continuing as-is becomes intolerable, and something has to change; unfortunately that seems to be route Japan is taking... :(
The major problem I have with this thesis is that Japan's birthrate started falling off a cliff in 1974 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bdrates_of_Japan_since_195...), when things were getting quite a bit better, but still a dozen years before the formal bubble started.
I suppose Japan is suffering from the island effect, at least in their mobile sector. Like Finland, they got a preview into the smartphone world (Japan with i-mode, Finland with WAP). Companies were built, investments were made, and they flopped, burning out a lot of entrepreneurs and killing investor confidence. And then the real smartphone boom happened, and we moved into it too cautiously.
I don't know enough of the French software business, but it would be reasonable to assume that they had something similar when Minitel was replaced by the web. How did the companies react and recover?
I don't know enough of the French software business, but it would be reasonable to assume that they had something similar when Minitel was replaced by the web. How did the companies react and recover?
I think you are forgetting an important part of the equation: the interior market. In France it was much easier for entrepreneurs to move from the Minitel to internet, than for people to trust a new medium over a trusted one that worked seemlessly for decades.
So while your average American was emptying his wallet buying stuff on the web, French were still checking their bank accounts on the Minitel. That makes for a slow start, but eventually we moved on and there has been a lot of successful web startup in France (that usually end up either moving to SV, and/or being bought by American giant, but that's another story).
So while your average American was emptying his wallet buying stuff on the web, French were still checking their bank accounts on the Minitel. That makes for a slow start, but eventually we moved on and there has been a lot of successful web startup in France (that usually end up either moving to SV, and/or being bought by American giant, but that's another story).
I almost feel bad for Sony. I've bought Sony TV's all my life, but when it came time to buy a large flat panel TV, and I did all the comparisons, I bought a .... Samsung. No comparison - Sony just doesn't hold up anymore, and a lot of it is the internal firmware. I did buy a Sony BluRay player, and the UI is absolutely the worst piece of junk I've ever seen. Shoulda bought a Samsung!
Nintendo is also at risk of free fall. If the WiiU doesn't perform well this may be the last home console unit we see them release. Not to mention their mobile gaming market has been decimated by Apple (IMO the 3DS should have been cancelled and redeveloped as a 3DTablet to compete head on with iPad)
Wouldn't say Nintendo is remotely at risk of free-fall. I think they are slightly at risk of losing the viability of running their own games platform, a self reliant strategy which suits their conservative, long-term philosophy (Nintendo is a much older company than almost everything in the tech sector).
But if they have to pack-in their hardware business, they still have their IP, their human capital, their connections, their marketing abilities. Mario on the AppStore would be a licence to print money. They just wouldn't be in control of their own destiny as much as before.
I can imagine them signing an exclusivity deal with Apple, who unlike the other players in the game space don't have an internal development division.
But if they have to pack-in their hardware business, they still have their IP, their human capital, their connections, their marketing abilities. Mario on the AppStore would be a licence to print money. They just wouldn't be in control of their own destiny as much as before.
I can imagine them signing an exclusivity deal with Apple, who unlike the other players in the game space don't have an internal development division.
Good points and yeah, heck you're right Nintendo is over a century old. But I think more likely than a Nintendo/Apple partnership - is a Sony/Nintendo partnership. A deal that would leverage both companies' strengths to more effectively compete against Apple.
Apple is now Nintendo's biggest competitor, a deal with them is a last resort and would certainly be a white flag end of their hardware division.
Apple is now Nintendo's biggest competitor, a deal with them is a last resort and would certainly be a white flag end of their hardware division.
Losing control of the platform would also mean many of their publishing deals would disappear, however. I believe that's quite a large source of revenue, the Nintendo royalty on every single Wii and DS game sold.
Thanks for bringing up Nintento. The Wii truly was an innovative product, but I can't think of any other must-have product coming from Japan in the last 10-15 years.
The Wii was innovative, but the only reason it sold well was because there were a lot of casual/first-time gamers who purchased the console. The vast majority of these people didn't buy any games other than Wii Sports (which was included with the Wii), and many probably don't even know that you can play other games on the Wii.
And these people are not going to rush out and buy the Wii U - most of them haven't touched their Wiis in years.
And these people are not going to rush out and buy the Wii U - most of them haven't touched their Wiis in years.
From the software support Nintendo has lined up in Japan they've pretty much assured the Wii U to be a massive success in that region.
Also their mobile gaming market hasn't been decimated by Apple at all. The 3DS is tracking ahead of the (spectacularly successful) NDS.
Also their mobile gaming market hasn't been decimated by Apple at all. The 3DS is tracking ahead of the (spectacularly successful) NDS.
I think it's primarily because
1). these companies push their employees so hard and
2). a majority of them don't know English
3). software programming is seen as something for nerds too lame to do electrical engineering
1 is important because as we all know, if you are a good programmer, it's not because you are _good_ it's because you spend your spare time catching up on other facets and honing your skills. When there isn't time for that, what do you expect to happen?
2 is equally important simply because Japan is stuck in their own land of tech help. I think things are much better now because of Google Translate and such, but most Japanese programmers have basically been isolated from us.
3 is the biggest one. Despite Ruby got invented there, most programmers there do not know it. There are no Japanese Operating Systems. There is no Japanese business software market. Most Japanese companies have absolutely _terrible_ sites from last decade. [as a source http://www.economist.com/node/18958643]
So, what's to be done about it? Well, luckily Japan has insanely high internet speeds, and everything is moving to virtualization everywhere else. So, at the end of the day, there is a big chance that everything could shift in Japan at a much, much higher rate than in America. However, this will take a number of consulting companies pushing pretty pro American attitudes towards business culture as well as programming, which simply isn't going to fly all that well there.
Personally, I think Japan needs a much higher number of startups, and they need to basically do a startup chile thing for web startups. They need them badly, they need a majority of the existing work force radically retrained, and the people coming into the work force need to be pushed in very different directions compared to the usual.
Japan has the might, they have the know how. The main problems are simply that they can't keep up with the rate of development and change that other companies can handle, and the only way that's going to change is if these companies start isolating portions of themselves like startups.
My personal idea, which I would be very happy to see go into use, would be to start holding out of work 'bounties'. Coolest Erlang program developed this month gets $2000! Best new language gets $5000! That pushes people to become better, share knowledge, and find other smart people to get ahead and get the money, which would hopefully lead to those groups of people doing startups together after finding a possible 'founder'.
Also: there is no FSF/EFF in Japan. And because of the max 1% of the budge the military gets they don't even have the intelligence companies or the drive for them as we do.
p.s. I can't read Japanese, so everything I know is hearsay.
1 is important because as we all know, if you are a good programmer, it's not because you are _good_ it's because you spend your spare time catching up on other facets and honing your skills. When there isn't time for that, what do you expect to happen?
2 is equally important simply because Japan is stuck in their own land of tech help. I think things are much better now because of Google Translate and such, but most Japanese programmers have basically been isolated from us.
3 is the biggest one. Despite Ruby got invented there, most programmers there do not know it. There are no Japanese Operating Systems. There is no Japanese business software market. Most Japanese companies have absolutely _terrible_ sites from last decade. [as a source http://www.economist.com/node/18958643]
So, what's to be done about it? Well, luckily Japan has insanely high internet speeds, and everything is moving to virtualization everywhere else. So, at the end of the day, there is a big chance that everything could shift in Japan at a much, much higher rate than in America. However, this will take a number of consulting companies pushing pretty pro American attitudes towards business culture as well as programming, which simply isn't going to fly all that well there.
Personally, I think Japan needs a much higher number of startups, and they need to basically do a startup chile thing for web startups. They need them badly, they need a majority of the existing work force radically retrained, and the people coming into the work force need to be pushed in very different directions compared to the usual.
Japan has the might, they have the know how. The main problems are simply that they can't keep up with the rate of development and change that other companies can handle, and the only way that's going to change is if these companies start isolating portions of themselves like startups.
My personal idea, which I would be very happy to see go into use, would be to start holding out of work 'bounties'. Coolest Erlang program developed this month gets $2000! Best new language gets $5000! That pushes people to become better, share knowledge, and find other smart people to get ahead and get the money, which would hopefully lead to those groups of people doing startups together after finding a possible 'founder'.
Also: there is no FSF/EFF in Japan. And because of the max 1% of the budge the military gets they don't even have the intelligence companies or the drive for them as we do.
p.s. I can't read Japanese, so everything I know is hearsay.
I work in a Japanese company which began strongly in the mobile market (on imode) but which is now pretty much pandering to the lowest common denominator with fortune telling, social games etc... My workstation is a win xp box from a few years ago with 2 gig ram. So is everyone else's. We still invest a lot of time & effort making flash/terrible HTML inline styled tag soup for the Gala-kei market (Galapagos keitai / mobile). Being native English speaking, I'm often tasked with obscure bug squashing or creating demo apps to show other debs how to use something, since most documentation is in English. I will bide my time for now, but i do feel a need to move to a more forward looking position.
Oh, and I'm usually one of the first to go home.. We work in a massive open desk environment so i'm pretty sure of that!
Oh, and I'm usually one of the first to go home.. We work in a massive open desk environment so i'm pretty sure of that!
Haha, it's Gree, isn't it? I'm guessing things aren't going so well since kompu gacha was banned.
The title on HN is innacurate. The original title is about Japanese tech giants i.e. Sony, Panasonic, Sharp and the like.
Note that these aren't primarily software companies. So although some of your points about software in Japan are true, they aren't very relevant for the trend in question.
> The main problems are simply that they can't keep up with the rate of development and change that other companies can handle
Having worked in Japan for several years, I heartily (or sadly?) agree with this. In some ways, Japanese megacorps still work like American corporations used to 50 years ago: life employment, seniority system, women have little chance of career development, etc.
That said, web companies are arguably on the rise in Japan. Cf. Rakuten, Gree, Cookpad.
Note that these aren't primarily software companies. So although some of your points about software in Japan are true, they aren't very relevant for the trend in question.
> The main problems are simply that they can't keep up with the rate of development and change that other companies can handle
Having worked in Japan for several years, I heartily (or sadly?) agree with this. In some ways, Japanese megacorps still work like American corporations used to 50 years ago: life employment, seniority system, women have little chance of career development, etc.
That said, web companies are arguably on the rise in Japan. Cf. Rakuten, Gree, Cookpad.
The Japanese tech giants are exactly the companies that should to be doing well now, if they had healthy levels of innovation hormones. Sony, for example, still have a great name and most of the over 40s I know would definitely give it weight when buying a new TV or sound system.
There is a real opportunity now and for the next few years to incorporate great software into electronic products. iOS & Android are doing it with smart phones and tablets. But, it's a good time now to go back and rethink a lot of other electronics and see how software interfaces can make them better. What would an iMicrowave look like? Android Intercom? Refrigerator RT? Car Stereo. Washing Machine. etc. etc. What better way to differentiate your televisions in 2013 then giving them the best software?
Japanese companies were once at the forefront here - great products at great prices with an eye for new paradigms (eg walkman). They still have the brand names.
There is a real opportunity now and for the next few years to incorporate great software into electronic products. iOS & Android are doing it with smart phones and tablets. But, it's a good time now to go back and rethink a lot of other electronics and see how software interfaces can make them better. What would an iMicrowave look like? Android Intercom? Refrigerator RT? Car Stereo. Washing Machine. etc. etc. What better way to differentiate your televisions in 2013 then giving them the best software?
Japanese companies were once at the forefront here - great products at great prices with an eye for new paradigms (eg walkman). They still have the brand names.
> a majority of them don't know English
There's been a push by Hiroshi Mikitani, co-founder and CEO of Rakuten, a Japanese Amazon equivalent, for "Englishnization" (No, there's no mistake in the spelling. Mikitani came up with it, which itself seems to be a sign of impending failure)[0] - having all business within the company, even between Japanese people, conducted in English.
I don't have any inside info, but it seems that things have not been going well. Most employees still speak in Japanese on a day-to-day basis (except for in meetings), and they're studying just enough to get the score on the TOEIC that they need for their position at Rakuten.
0: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/ek20120730a1.html
There's been a push by Hiroshi Mikitani, co-founder and CEO of Rakuten, a Japanese Amazon equivalent, for "Englishnization" (No, there's no mistake in the spelling. Mikitani came up with it, which itself seems to be a sign of impending failure)[0] - having all business within the company, even between Japanese people, conducted in English.
I don't have any inside info, but it seems that things have not been going well. Most employees still speak in Japanese on a day-to-day basis (except for in meetings), and they're studying just enough to get the score on the TOEIC that they need for their position at Rakuten.
0: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/ek20120730a1.html
I'm not as pessimistic as you are. It seems to me that making up a word with an illogical spelling is, from a linguistic perspective, the most quintessentially English thing you could do.
It's not the spelling that's the problem, it's the spoken word. I just said there's no mistake in the spelling so that people wouldn't think it's a typo that I made.
There's a difference between, say, spelling "tumbler" as "Tumblr" and coming up with a new word that sounds weird to native English-speaking ears. Apparently one of Mikitani's longtime native speaking employees, Kyle Yee, told him that it sounded weird, but Mikitani went ahead with it anyway[0]:
> "That word 'Englishnization' -- Mickey invented it," Yee says with a smile. "At first I wanted to say that the letter 'n' was a mistake. But Mickey said it was the word he chose as he wants everyone to always remember it. One day he'd like Oxford to put it into the dictionary.
This sort of insistence that they're right when it comes to English even though they're clearly not, seems to be a pattern, as it's also something I came across in a book about working in a Japan conglomerate[1]. The author, a native English speaker working at Mitsubishi, told his superiors that they had made some mistakes in an English-language document. Their response was to suggest that he had lived in Japan so long that he'd forgotten English!
0: http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/09/features/man...
1: http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Eyed-Salaryman-World-Traveller-Mi...
There's a difference between, say, spelling "tumbler" as "Tumblr" and coming up with a new word that sounds weird to native English-speaking ears. Apparently one of Mikitani's longtime native speaking employees, Kyle Yee, told him that it sounded weird, but Mikitani went ahead with it anyway[0]:
> "That word 'Englishnization' -- Mickey invented it," Yee says with a smile. "At first I wanted to say that the letter 'n' was a mistake. But Mickey said it was the word he chose as he wants everyone to always remember it. One day he'd like Oxford to put it into the dictionary.
This sort of insistence that they're right when it comes to English even though they're clearly not, seems to be a pattern, as it's also something I came across in a book about working in a Japan conglomerate[1]. The author, a native English speaker working at Mitsubishi, told his superiors that they had made some mistakes in an English-language document. Their response was to suggest that he had lived in Japan so long that he'd forgotten English!
0: http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/09/features/man...
1: http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Eyed-Salaryman-World-Traveller-Mi...
There isn't much of a programming community in Japan for Japanese people, too. Most employees work "in-house" and don't have the type of open culture for discussing work and doing things related to their job outside of work that America and other nations have. This is in addition to Japan just catching up(I think) to the whole startup business model.
I was in Japan for 2 years, btw.
I was in Japan for 2 years, btw.
WRT to 1), hasn't our own patio11 told us the normal pattern in big companies is that their young whippersnappers aren't allowed to cut production code for a decade or more? The whole inculcate new employees in the company way thing.
It's also worth remembering the social model of low risk, high gain and high risk, low gain companies (i.e. the big ones you've heard of vs. lots of small fry you haven't unless you have some focus on the country). With Japan now coming onto a "lost quarter century" the first model has been smashed and that perhaps has something to do with these giants losing their mojo.
The other issue which you bring up about startups is related to why small fry almost never make it big; I don't know too much about that, but it's a general issue that goes beyond high tech or this sort of high tech. Perhaps surprising given how leveraged writing software and running Internet services is....
It's also worth remembering the social model of low risk, high gain and high risk, low gain companies (i.e. the big ones you've heard of vs. lots of small fry you haven't unless you have some focus on the country). With Japan now coming onto a "lost quarter century" the first model has been smashed and that perhaps has something to do with these giants losing their mojo.
The other issue which you bring up about startups is related to why small fry almost never make it big; I don't know too much about that, but it's a general issue that goes beyond high tech or this sort of high tech. Perhaps surprising given how leveraged writing software and running Internet services is....
Much of this was predicted pretty well in Alex Kerr's 2002 book "Dogs And Demons: Tales From the Dark Side of Modern Japan". Some of his criticisms seemed a little overwrought but I think his general thesis has been proven out.
http://us.macmillan.com/dogsanddemons/AlexKerr
http://us.macmillan.com/dogsanddemons/AlexKerr
not true. Japan tech control digital photography and videography
Canon and Nikon have had their consumer market eaten away by the likes of Apple and Samsung. Sure, they still dominate in professional photography, but I can't imagine how much money they've lost and will continue to lose as smartphones get closer to reaching parity with point and shoots.
Right, they make nice glass, nice sensors, and nice processing chips. But once you've taken the shot, you use Abode Photoshop to do the editing, and share it using a PC or Mac.
That is, assuming you didn't shoot with your iPhone.
That is, assuming you didn't shoot with your iPhone.
IIRC, a lot of the components in the iPhone are made by Japanese companies.
Isn't this to some degree a matter of fixating on consumer brands? To my understanding Japan still runs a massive trade surplus in high tech equipment and parts and has many super profitable firms making that stuff. The parts that go into or make your phone or TV comes from Japan. This is just what I hear.
For many years Japan dominated and succeeded with well-built consumer hardware. The best and brightest minds became hardware engineers at Sony, Toshiba, Fujitsu, etc… When the industry shifted to software and hardware blended together in a seamless fashion - an ecosystem bigger than the device itself - those minds were particularly ill-prepared for the fast paced, just-ship-it style development cycles that software demands. The product looked good on paper but the lifespan of the consumer relationship was inferior because it didn't include the user's newly found software lifecycle.
We all know how Microsoft missed the boat when the internet came along and disrupted their office/windows strategy. Now, imagine a whole country filled with Microsofts. Japan has floundered in denial for a while.
The good news for Japan is that the in the last few years I have seen a huge growth of people diving into it. There are a ton of coworking spaces and incubators popping up, and people seem to be focusing on software now. I actually think the big earthquake was a bit of an awakening for people here. More people want to work at a company doing something cool. The younger generation seems to understand that hardware is no longer king, even if they don't have the mentorship and guidance they would have in the US. It may take a bit of time but I think it is already under way. They have amazing work ethic and drive and I am hopeful that Japan turns the ship back towards innovation.