Cellphones are leading the charge, incorporating functions from the camera, walkman, game machine, PDA, remote control, and e-wallet, among other things. But the cellphone is merely one example of Japan's convergence emergence. Washers and dryers, watches and PCs, game machines and DVD players, cameras and music machines are all blending together in ever more fascinating, complex, and compact ways. One factor behind converged appliances' popularity in Japan is the outlook of product designers, says Jun Tanaka, general manager in the Product Planning Development division at Seiko Instruments. In the West, multifunctionality is often implemented in overly complex ways, resulting in devices suitable only for hard-core gadget lovers.
Japanese engineers listen to the customer first and foremost.
From the start of the design process for the Wrist Companion, we were asking groups of consumers what kind of design and functionality they wanted. Prominent in these groups were young females, a driving force behind Japan's wireless Web industry. It's understood in Japan that a product like the Wrist Companion must be fun, simple, and hip. One way to make tech fashionable is to make it wearable. Having cellphones lying around cafe tables, dangling from necks, and clipped to trouser belts is not only inconvenient, but seems sloppy by Japanese standards.