the way they present makes me want to slap the japs. no offense to japs.

U.S. providers & carriers have no reason to adopt this technology simply because they already make profit from the crap they currently dish out. There's no need to provide additional value added services which would require additional investment.

Japanese carriers always have to keep keep adding to their service portfolio because of intense competition and a customer base which has grown used to expecting these services. The carrier which is slow to adopt or innovate simply will see an exodus of subscribers to their nearest rival.

@ koralex

I have a sneaking suspicion that this video was not created by a Japanese person. While it has all the aspects that a Westerner might come to expect from Japanese videos, the nuances just aren't there.

iP

iPhone who? Superdx has a point there. For some reason I just don't think it's crazy enough to be a legit Japanese TV spot.

P.S. The commenting system seems to be a little giddy on my computer.

That's not a real japanese TV spot.
Just didn't have that certain zeitgeist that crazy japanese TV has.

Personally, I appreciate the sympathy. At least someone, besides me, is shedding a tear for my lame phone. Boo-hoo for me!!!

You guys are right, there's too much black in there and not enough of every other colour.

... and then there's the fact that boohooforyou.com is completely in English and that the music in the background is made by some guy named Simon Lambros.

But it would be nice if they could start bringing those MAOP phones to the US...

MOAP, rather.

@Kappuru: Thanks for the new Smashing Pumpkins promo. Their new album titled "Zeitgeist" will be out in July folks, and we will get that first before the Japanese! ;)

At least you will be happy to hear that they pay out the ass for these things just like you do. They also have yet to discover central heating...

Honestly, I'm not crying over anything shown not being on my phone. The interesting features, like using it for money or tickets or keys, have more to do with it being a data store than being a phone. I would be just as happy dropping $10 on a thumb drive to get that functionality. The killer, of course, is that there is no standard for how that data interchange is going to happen in the USA, regardless of whether or not it's via USB or cell phones.

Having lived in Japan for the past year I can tell you that the vast majority of ケイタイ users don't take advantage of any of these "boohoo for you!" features.

For example, though there are increasingly more places that accept IC debit/credit cards, it's still a very small majority of retailers. The basic concept of non-cash transactions hasn't ever gotten much of a foothold here, so much so that it's impossible to rely on a shop accepting your card, much less an internationally issued one.

That's not to say that Japanese phones don't absolutely dominate American models, though, because even my old au-kddi freebie is better than most anything I can get in the US. The features are there, it's just a matter of putting them to use.

This is a paid ad by Symbian. So what I can't unlock my door with my cellphone, who really cares? And someone could swipe the ticket data from my cellphone if they had a reader to get the information.

FriedBunny is right, I live in Japan too, and while all those goodies are available, most people don't use them . But i could be argued that it's the same in the States, even with the limited extras we do have on our smartphones, not many people take advantage (Honestly, until I came to Japan, I had never even texted someone >.<)

Really, it should be "boohoo for you, techies!"

I dunno, I'm not sure I want things like debit/credit cards, keys and train tickets on my phone. I mean, it makes things theoretically more convenient, but what if the battery dies? what if the phone gets stolen?

It seems to me that any useful technology should solve more problems than it causes. The smartphone technologies that have become popular do-- email, texting, calendar collaboration, etc are all accessible from a computer if your phone fails and blissfully independent from stuff that isn't functionally related.

It's a usability nightmare when technology performs multiple unrelated tasks in different ways on the same device. I'd rather have my tickets act like tickets, my keys act like keys, and my communicator act like a communicator.

@ alpacalypse
Well, if the phone gets stolen, it sux because you have to replace it. But, your account should be safe because your phone should have fingerprint activation...

Although I agree that it would suck not being able to get into your house if your phone gets stolen and can't pay for a hotel room for the same reason

You people who say "so what" are not helping things here. We Americans should want our cell carriers to compete like this. No, you guys would just rather not have to deal with any of this new fangled tech that just confuses you.

Go buy a rotary phone then please and let us tech savvy people play with all the goodies our phones are supposed to come with instead of the feature reduced firmware put on to US phones by technically inept US cell carriers.

Well, technically, it's not the smartphones saying "in ya face" in this video--nope, it's an octopus and a piece of sushi (with a lil' push from Symbian Japan, of course).

@axiomatic:
I'm not against fun gadgets at all. I've got nearly a dozen handhelds strewn about my room as we speak. However, most of the stuff we see on this site presents some sort of improvement. Even stuff that gizmodo regularly bashes like the UMPC, offers the possibility of an easier, more useful, or just plain cooler lifestyle. I see very little such utility in these phone features.

So, what's the point the video? We already know we lag behide from most country. That's why we drool on every phone what's posted in Gizmodo.

Its the reason we don't have these silly little features that irritates me. It's just big business not wanting a support headache when their customer calls in. They are the ones benefiting, not you the consumer. The consumer in this case pays THE SAME for less features.

LAME!

i just want a phone that makes calls.

i now know why there are so many phonestraps in japan. if you lose your phone, you can't call the cops, you can't get anything to eat, and you can't go home(you lost your key).

People, remember that we are in the USA, and places like Japan has one or two companies dominating the biz. We also have a lot more hardware to upgrade with every new version. So make your choice. New and fancy at high cost or behind at a not so high cost.

Since a cheapo phone strap can solve the problem you listed, I am going for high tech features with cheapo solution.

BTW, behind is never a good thing.

Hey, guys, it's supposed to be funny. It's brought to you by Symbian, the fine folks that provide the S60 mobile operating system that dominates the world's smartphones. It's a marketing campaign to brag about all the cool stuff S60 phones can do, and are doing in Japan. http://www.symbian.com/

The video and the site are part of Symbian's celebration of 20 million smartphones sold in Japan. http://www.symbian.com/j20/

The Boo Hoo For You website is at http://boohooforyou.com/

Koralex90, why use a derogatory term in these posts? From the past comments that you've posted here on Gizmodo, it's clear that you're pro-Korea and are probably Korean. If someone were to use a derogatory terms about Koreans I'm sure you'd be pissed off. Maybe you use this term in your everyday life and you might think that I'm being a little too sensitive about the matter. In any case, I like this website and I'd like to keep reading it without seeing these OR any other derogatory terms.