Well, that was fun. (but this sssllllooooowwww dial-up connection is not! so spoiled after being in Hong Kong and Korea with broadband...but not here in the L.A. Red Carpet Club) The world cup that is. Getting stuck in needless/endless meetings on a "first date" with a vendor was not fun. I'm calm now though. It was the best/most expensive private golf course in Korea. And what a course it was. (can you find waldo in the photo?) Could be that 17 hour flight that induces calmness.

Conclusion after going to 4 countries in 10 days is: i-mode, still going strong, but the freshness has worn off for many. Everybody has it, done it, and now it's pretty common. I don't know the most recent stats, but far more than 50% of the people standing and waiting (for a train, for a ticket, etc) are using some sort of data service in Japan. In Hong Kong it was far less, almost non-existent. Maybe the Grand Hyatt was not a good sample point, or Joe Bannanas, or other Lan Kwai Fong spots - but even during the day it seems slow. . As an aside, is it me...or is the color of those KAL planes HIDEOUS? What were they thinking? Anyway, I was a bit dissapointed with the Korean mobile data-on-the-street use. Sure, you could see it, but they are not quite there. The current uptake is surging and I expect by the end of the year it will be higher. More on that later. In Korea there is only 1X phones being sold. Many have color screens, and the best way to get an i-mode experience there is the BREW on KTF. They are doing VERY well.

Great to be back in the US though, even though going throuh customs and the endless bag checks in LA was quite slow. They always check my bag..must be all the electronics. Just before getting on the plane in Korea the guy next to me says - "see who that is over there?" I was clueless. "The two top players on the Mexican soccer team...heading home...ha ha" I did think they played like jerks the last couple minutes of the game against the US. Anyway, I forget their names, but got a photo of them sacked out waiting to board.