It's like having a social life, a computer, and inexpensive e-mail and Internet access in your pocket. By last March there were sixty million mobile-phone subscriptions in Japan, accounting for nearly half the population. But this is no joke, especially for content providers, who are profiting by enabling wireless net surfers to read the news, trade stocks, and reserve air flights. The average Akihabara electronics shop sells about fifty different keitai models, with larger stores offering hundreds. Silver is the fashionable color these days.
New models come out every few months.
Keitai culture comes with its own paraphernalia in the form of accessories. Take, for example, the straps. An electronic components vendor peers out from his cramped quarters underneath the tracks in Akihabara. Games software specialty shops have large monitors out on the street with the newest games loaded. Pedestrians walk by, see the game, stop to play, and a small crowd gathers until the joy-sticker moves on.