Dec 26 2023 40 mins
Ana tells Camila about the flashing success of early Japanese smartphone tech. The girls discuss how the Japanese tech giants of the '90s and early '00s created exceedingly advanced and snazzy smartphone features and how such phones warranted the creation of the "second internet”. Circling the debate around Japan’s “economic miracle”, they talk about the politics and interrelation with the US that came after WW2.
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Main research was done by Ana. Audio editing by Ana.
Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages).
Interstitial sounds from the Media Archaeology Lab.
OFtC is a sister project of the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
References -
World Top 20 Companies by Market Capitalization in 1989 and 2019: https://www.funalysis.net/economy-times-are-changing-world-top-20-companies-by-market-capitalization-in-1989-and-2019
The rise & fall of Japanese phone giants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voyuy1rySX4
The Origin and Spread of Mobile Phones: https://web-japan.org/kidsweb/hitech/mobile/mobile01.html
You can send email from payphones in Japan?!? We try the technology trick that shocked the nation: https://soranews24.com/2019/10/31/you-can-send-email-from-payphones-in-japan-we-try-the-technology-trick-that-shocked-the-nation/
NTT history: https://www.global.ntt/our-history.html
Sharp's awesome-looking Aquos 912SH TV-phone: https://www.techdigest.tv/2007/05/sharps_awesomel.html