Finally, at long last, Mobile Suica service has been started on January 28. In short, "your mobile phone as a train ticket". Commuters can get through the ticket gate of JR (Japan Rail) station simply by swishing his mobile phone. No ticket, no prepaid card, no nothing but his beloved O-saifu K-tai.

Contactless, radio-readable card/object has been around so many years. For example, Istanbul metropolitan bus system has Akbil ("intelligent ticket" in Turkish), a plastic bottle opener. The most ridiculous-looking digital object in the world.

Istanbul Akbil. Granddaddy of all contactless tickets. Works perfectly after so many years! Don't confuse with kitchen utensil, though.

But Mobile Suica has one strong advantage. A lady may absentmindedly go out without knickers, but she never fails to carry her mobile phones in any circumstances. You will split from your girlfriend or even old lady sooner or later, but you can never separate from your mobile phone!

Mobile Suika on the table... waita minute... something wrong... Sorry, wrong picture!	Yes, this is the correct one. Mobile Suica in action at a JR station. The salaryman ojisan is still uncertain it really works or not.

Anyway, Japan Rail was really clever to hitch their fortune with the O-saifu K-tai bandwagon. A legendary golden business oppurtunity. So I thought.

But when I looked into the procedure with a magnifying glass, things turned out not to be very rosy at all.

First, not all the O-saifu K-tai phones are Mobile Suica-compatible. Ok, I'll get the expensive new model from a corner mobile stall, no problem.

Second trouble. To make my O-saifu K-tai turn into Mobile Suica terminal, I had to get a credit card membership from JR, called "View Card". Oh, come on, I've got several plastics already. My wallet is bursting with so many plastics. I don't want anymore silly cards!

But JR insists: "No credit card, no Mobile Suica!" This is ridiculous! Totally stupid idea. Because the most active and enthusiastic mobile users in Japan are high-school gals and students who are practically barred from getting any credit card membership! Also, they are most likely to ride JR train everyday, to go to schools and colleges. JR has, therefore, excluded the most lucrative and eager customers from the service. Sheer madness.

Of course, JR has its own lame excuse. "Since the season ticket for, say, three months or half a year costs rather a lot, that amount can be a large risk. Too risky to give to anonymous (and young!) customers. Therefore it must be secured somehow. The credit card membership is the easiest way to do that."

All right, after getting "View Card", you have to download Suica applications into your mobile. Then, again, lengthy procedure of initialization and registration follows. I gave up.

Anyway, this is not the first time that a bright idea, clever hardware and sitting-duck business chance are totally demolished by hopeless software. Stupid poor Japan Rail.

 

cheewee
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kaisei1
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