Lately, Symbian has published a list of top 20 Japanese smartphone features (http://www.symbian.com/j20/).

Here is the list:

1. mobile wallet
2. MANGA on mobile
3. mobile check-in at airports
4. mobile keys for door
5. mobile employee badges
6. mobile cinema tickets
7. mobile transport passes
8. fingerprint authentication
9. face recognition/authentication
10. mobile discount/promotion coupons
11. scented phones
12. mobile fashion consultant
13. mobile live TV
14. wii-like mobile phones (motion-sensor)
15. physical bookmarks for mobiles (shops)
16. privacy screens
17. 1D and 2D codes for marketing and even on fruit and veg labels
18. mobile GPS navigation for pedestrians
19. electric wave posters (uses RFiD)
20. waterproof phones

As you can see the list is very impressive. I'm beginning to wonder why we don't have some of such advanced services in Europe (OK, I don't mean specific one like MANGA). Some of them are starting to appear, but this process is very slow! Where is the problem? Maybe Europeans aren't 'early adopters' or they are afraid that they will become dependent on smartphone too much or maybe there're some problems with standardization. IMHO, technology isn't the main problem, but rather 'the way of everyday life' and how we currrently use our devices. Personally, I'd have some concerns about using my smartphone as door's keys (although it sounds promising), but I'm more open to use it as mobile wallet (the latter is even natural for me). My conclusion is simple - there's no other way that taking small steps to achieve these targets ;-)