Japanese companies are betting that mobile phones, rather than computers, will connect people here to E-commerce on the Internet. Indeed, Japanese researchers are collaborating with American companies, like Sun Microsystems, so that they may also become a major link in controlling home appliances. Their goal, ultimately, is to transform mobile phones into the crucial digital device of the future. They see a vast market not just in the industrialized world but also in nations like China, where many consumers' first phone is cellular. Japan's gamble, though, is by no means a sure bet.
Japan is good at size, power and bringing the cost down.
There's no better country to do it than Japan. One big problem, though, is that few Japanese are plugged into the computing world. Even now, on average, only one person in four here uses a personal computer. And so far, only about 14 percent of Japan's population is plugged into the Internet, compared with 40 percent in the United States. Personal computers have not been a bigger hit in Japan for several reasons.