crackberry

Blackberries are finally coming to Japan. I had one for a couple of days for testing. It's pretty cool. Got used to the full but tiny keyboard pretty quickly. The Japanese support is weak -- they just slapped a crappy interface into an English device, but it displays okay so for reading Japanese mails it's fine.
I guess it'll be good for overseas travellers -- your Blackberry will finally work in Japan (as long as it's 3G) and Japanese berries will work overseas as well. Roaming charges will kill you though, and the damn thing is expensive enough to start, as it will only be offered to corporates.
Personally I'm more interested in having push mail and a more robust browser on my cellphone. Much better input prediction for Japanese on cells these days, and with a little more tweaking (slightly bigger screen, more powerful browser that supports more scripting) I'll be set.
The issue is that the market in Japan is entirely driven by consumers, not corporates, so the needs of the business user (data and more PC functionality) are beaten by the needs of the high schooler (MP3 player, digital TV, full-color decorated email.)
I had to go to Yokohama and was on the berry the whole time in the train. Managed to get through alot of mail and I can see how it can be productive, especially for folks with a long commute to work. Then again I can also imagine being a slave to it as mails from NY and London come in all through the night and weekends. No thanks, I'll stick with my laptop and cell for now!