What’s Good For the iPhone Is Good For the USA ?

I’m just playing with the old saw …

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"What’s good for General Motors is good for the USA"

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… which has often over the years been held out as recognition of the importance of the car industry to the economy … and the social cohesion … of the nation.

Here’s perhaps an early signal of a major shift, one that I think many of us now is coming whether we like it or not.  And in many ways we (by which I mean North Americans, not just USians) are so ill-prepared compared to major European, Japanese and Chinese cities, where people use public transport, scooters, bicycles and walk much more than they do in North America.

The question I have … can making iPhone apps and accessories (or at least the ideas for them … much physical production is done overseas) become a sustainable sunrise industry for the USA ?

I am also reminded on a phrase by Charles Handy, the business and management thinker I most admire … he once noted that what was "in fashion", or not, was responsible for much more change than we realised.

Via the Toronto Globe and Mail:

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Cars no longer cool in Japan

YURI KAGEYAMA

TOKYO — To get around the city, Yutaka Makino hops on his skateboard or rides commuter trains.

Does he dream of the day when he has his own car? Not a chance.

Like many Japanese of his generation, the 28-year-old musician and part-time maintenance worker says owning a car is more trouble than it’s worth, especially in a congested city where monthly parking runs as much as 30,000 yen ($330 U.S.), and gas costs $3.50 a gallon (about 100 yen a litre).

That kind of thinking — which automakers here have dubbed “kuruma banare,” or “demotorization” — is a U-turn from earlier generations of Japanese who viewed car ownership as a status symbol. The trend is worrying Japan’s auto executives, who fear the nation’s love affair with the auto may be coming to an end.

“Young people’s interest is shifting from cars to communication tools like personal computers, mobile phones and services,” said Yoichiro Ichimaru, who oversees domestic sales at Toyota.

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association predicts auto sales in Japan will fall to 4.86 million in 2009 — the first time below 5 million in more than three decades. This year, sales are projected at 5.11 million, the worst since 1980.

Vehicle sales peaked at 7.78 million vehicles in 1990 during the nation’s heyday “bubble” economy. After that burst, Japan was mired in a decade-long slowdown, which squelched consumer spending and sent car sales on a decline. A surge in gas prices, which has subsided in recent weeks, also eroded sales.

“The changes in individuals’ values on cars came cumulatively over time,” said Nissan chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga. “The change in young people’s attitude toward cars didn’t happen overnight. So we have to keep convincing them cars are great.”

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Still, this nation’s disenchantment with cars is cause for concern. Americans, after all, are expected to start buying cars again — eventually — partly because of the inadequacy of mass transit there.

It’s a different story in Japan’s cities where streets are clogged but trains are efficient. The domestic market also is shrinking due to a drop in population.

Mr. Makino, the young man who plays what he calls “organic folk music,” is typical of the new breed who scoffs at the sports car-idolizing culture of the older generation.

He and his friends see cars as nothing more than a tool, much like a vacuum cleaner, not a reflection of their identity, tastes or income level. Mr. Makino’s father owns a car, but he has never owned one. And he doesn’t know a Honda Fit from a Toyota Vitz.

“I don’t believe that having more things enriches you,” Mr. Makino said in a recent interview at his apartment, sitting among shelves of wooden crates. “If you stay happy in your soul then you can be happy without money.”

Companies like Toyota and Honda Motor Co., along with the electronics giants like Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp., are the mainstays of the world’s second-largest economy, and a hollowing out of manufacturing would be lethal.

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