Why come fly with me?

It’s coming, it’ll be here soon, any day now, it’s this year for sure….

Mobile hasn’t shown the promise in the UK it has been expected to do for some years, but a number of factors such as capped pricing for dats mean in the world of mobile internet surf’s up.

And we need to be at the crest of that wave, not behind it. So what better way to understand the opportunity than to examine it in situ in the world’s most advanced mobile marketplace, Japan. To see first hand how examples of best practice and inspiration from: brands, academics, and product innovators who have embraced and benefited from the opportunities mobile provides.

And so with the help of Katherine Whitton’s Come fly with me initiative, myself, Merran, Gareth and myself are accompanying Chris Davies on a research trip to delve deeper.

It is clearly a model we should look at, if not in some ways at least, follow.

And whilst we’re at it, many know about Japan’s leadership in mobile innovation, but it is also a hotbed for Social Networking. Whilst Facebook, and MySpace may seem to dominate they are a drop in the ocean when compared to developments in Asia.

After all QQ dates back to 1997, and Cyworld 1999, more than five years before Faceook and MySpace entered our psyche. And they are dwarfed by the 300 million active accounts of QQ.com, Facebook stands at just 60 million.