As someone who works in the mobile web industry and looks on with envy at the handsets and services available elsewhere, I don't find the headline statement that shocking. According to research by Forrester, the mobile Internet in Japan is still roughly five years ahead of deployments and usage in Europe.

When it comes to mobile services, Japan is still ahead of Europe by a whopping five years, even though operators in both regions introduced mobile Internet services at roughly the same time in the late 1990s. So it's no wonder that Europe's mobile operators and content and media firms wanting to enter the mobile channel look at the Japanese market to try to predict the future success - or lack thereof - of new mobile Internet services. But different market dynamics mean that successes in Japan are poor predictors of success in Europe. European mobile operators should focus on the needs of mobile users on the go: their desire to communicate and access to timely and location-relevant content.

The full report is available from Forrester.

Via Wireless Watch Japan.