PDAs in Japan - a store front perspective

I was in the BIC camera in Yurakucho (one stop from Tokyo) last night which is probably one of the biggest electronic stores in Japan (??? if not the world at least in terms of range of goods stocked ???). It was good to see PDAs taking a prime position right at the main entrance along with mobile phones. Also on the 3rd or 4th floor they had significantly increased the space devoted to PDAs with Pocket PCs taking the largest and most prominent space. The Palm section next was more like a Clie section and there was increased space for a wider range of PDA software and peripherals. There still seem to be a far wider range of peripherals for Palms compared to Pocket PCs probably because of the standardized docking system. Zaurus' had a reasonably sized section beyond the Palms.

Still no folding keyboards on the shelves for Pocket PCs but there was a small USB keyboard. Unfortunately not much use unless you are prepared to carry a cradle around or by the adapter cable and use it without a stand. Another interesting product was a CF card adapter for SD/MMC, memory stick AND Smart Media for 4,000 yen.

It's amazing but every time I go into one of these stores I see a Japanese businessman grilling one of the store attendents about the PDAs - usually the Genio. I think that's a sign people in this category are hearing about PDA s and interested in them but are uneducated about what exactly they can do and how to use them. Or more likely whether they can actually do everything the publicity claims they can. At current prices they are still a significant investment which is the main barrier to puchase and more widespread adoption. It will be interesting to see if the PDA manufacturers can make a real business case for widespread adoption by corporations as this would be another factor which would lead to both wider adoption and decreased prices.