In the 1970s and '80s, Japanese carmakers flooded world markets with products fresh from factories where workers wore uniforms, sorted parts into brightly colored bins, and followed instructions written on wall placards.
Detroit responded by spending billions of dollars to computerize older plants, only later realizing that the Japanese manufacturing secret was applying simple organization techniques to build steadily better cars, not making fancy gizmos.
Two decades later, American and European telecom firms are making the same mistake in the way they outfit their mobile phones to use the Internet. Japan's NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and J-Phone have built a potentially insurmountable lead over Western competitors by offering simple phones even as rivals wait for more advanced technology to take hold.