This month marks the 10th anniversary of the Personal Digital Assistant and a decade of Enfour developing software for mobile platforms. That’s right, Enfour was the first company to develop commerical software for PDAs (back then the Newton) but now for all platforms. In fact, Enfour, Inc. was spun-off from Enfour Media Laboratory specifically to pursue development of software for handheld computers.
Ten years ago, the cell phone was a luxury item used by businessmen. Now just about everybody in Japan has a ‘keitai,’ and the ubiquitous little devices have transformed interpersonal communications. This essay by the inventor of the Personal Handyphone offers a look back over the brief history of the cell phone.
The wide maturity gap between the wireless markets in the U.S. and Japan was highlighted Friday during NTT DoCoMo USA CEO Nobuharu Ono’s keynote address at CeBIT America, during which he spotlighted an array of popular Japanese DoCoMo products that won’t be arriving in the U.S. any time soon.
The phone is still not an “IT sale” in Japan, but we talk to one mobile application developer that is trying to effect change — and is having some success.
Hear why KDDI 3G is a better bet than DoCoMo’s FOMA for enterprise apps.
