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Having waded thru non-stop coverage of the iPhone 3G on the blogosphere and twittersphere the past several days (speculation, anticipation, purchase, review, musings), I wonder if one needs to follow an entirely different set of people to understand what the mobile world is really like, and where it’s headed.

Lop-sided coverage

Coverage of Mobile [1] from my traditional list of (US-based) tech maven bloggers has been mostly about iPhone, the Blackberry or telcos [2]  and policy. This, I fear, is leading to an echo chamber where iPhone is held up as a shining example of what the future of mobile is, without considering what is happening around the world. I have spoken about this before. Coverage of mass usage of mobile phones, innovation in hardware  (not just with top-end phones) and the effect Mobile is having on lifestyles is almost non-existent, either in the blogosphere or in mainstream media.

Growth markets

Perhaps this is because of the peculiar state the U.S. finds itself in when it comes to Mobile. One, Telco interference and the problem of walled gardens also appears to be more severe in the US than elsewhere. Two, more importantly, the U.S. seems to lack a mobile “middle class”. Phones are either low-end (used only for voice), or very high-end (iPhone and its class, used primarily for data). This is why one section of the population uses cellphones in much the same manner as early this decade, and another section uses them as mobile computers. Either way, cellphones do not appear to engender a distinct “mobile lifestyle”, the way they do in growth markets in Europe and Asia.

While the U.S. continues to be at the cuting edge of PC-based Internet, it seems to lag behind (in a lop-sided manner) when it comes to innovation in Mobile. The Japanese and South Koreans, I hear, have built a completely mobile-centric lifestyle, having adopted the mobile-based Internet years ago. A vibrant community of mobile-based communications companies, I hear, is building up in Europe and Israel. In China and India, I see, mobile phones have been put to innumerable innovative uses, not necessarily using smartphones with Internet connections. Finally, Asia and Europe are also where the dominant mobile manufacturers are headquartered (Nokia, LG, Samsung, SonyEricsson, HTC).

So, are there any mobile-focused bloggers in Europe and Asia whom you follow? Do let me know in the comments and at rahul@rahulgaitonde.org.

[1] Mobile = the phenomenon of mass adoption and usage of mobile phones by a population.

[2] Telcos = telecom companies or mobile phone operators