What are the implications of the console race in Japan?

[Gnizmo]

I think the simple fact that HDTV adoption rates are up in Japan is not nearly thorough enough to draw any results from. The success is likely not based purely off of the fact that it is new tech. While Japan has technophile tendencies there are other factors that need to be considered. I would guess that a bigger factor in HDTV adoption rate is actually the size of the TVs themselves. Japanese apartments are notoriosly small in urban areas and flat screen TVs are ridiculously small. The rise in HDTV purchases may be completely independant of potential screen resolution and very tied to space concious consumerism.

The other big factor is HD consoles being very tech heavy but not very gadget heavy. The technophile in American (and European) cultures leads us to the bigger, faster, and prettier being the best way to show off your tech-peen. What we could be seeing is a huge difference in cultures in regards to that. Perhaps your tech-peen size in Japan is dependant on how quircky your latest purchase is rather than how shiny.

I admit to making a lot of assumptions here but none of them are entirely baseless. Given most of what I put forth is based on stereotypes and information gleamed through pop-culture so I could be entirely wrong on all fronts. Still, I feel there is truth in a lot of the points I made, and I know the most critical ones are fairly accurate. In the end I don't think Japan will be that great a predictor of the rest of the world. The vastly different cultures will very much define how this generation plays out.