A short piece in the IHT about how european and american carriers can benefit from asian's mistakes when designing cell phone features:

American and European carriers have the luxury of learning from mistakes the Japanese have made, particularly when it comes to designing attractive and reasonably priced handsets. A bigger hurdle is persuading people to use their phones to write e-mail, surf the Web and hold videoconferences. (...) To stem the decline, DoCoMo and its rivals are introducing a host of services to encourage consumers to transmit more data. The latest phones can download 40-second video clips and ring tones and store hundreds of photos. DoCoMo 3G subscribers can hold videoconferences with as many as eight people. Some 3G handsets even include infrared readers that convert phones into television remote controls. Wakabayashi also uses the removable memory disk in his handset to transfer two-megapixel pictures he snaps with his phone to his computer. Many phones now have chips that turn phones into "smart cards" that allow subscribers to pay for tickets, food and other items at 20,000 stores. DoCoMo plans to expand this service so commuters can use phones that have special chips as train passes. DoCoMo's new generation of handsets can even scan two-dimensional bar codes posted, say, at bus stops, allowing customers instantly to get a bus schedule and an estimated time of arrival. Once on the bus, they can receive coupons sent to their cellphones from stores along the bus route.

Why do I blog this? The article gives a summary of all the new services that are offered on cell phones. Interesting for people who missed such information.