Asians have a love-love relationship with mobile phones. On the other hand, Asians love the devices themselves. A phone is not just for making calls anymore. It is for making a statement about yourself. With an ever-increasing emphasis on style, and new features that allow you to surf the Web, play games, record appointments and listen to music, phones have become personalized electronic accessories.
Manufacturers break the market into different segments.
At one end of the spectrum are the no-frills users. In places like China, where many people are happy just to have a phone for the first time basic handsets sell best. At the other end of the market spectrum are gadget-heads. If you live in Japan, Hong Kong or Singapore, you inevitably know one of them. They are the same folks who bought the first MP3 players and are always bragging about their phone's data synch capability, even if they never use it.