Martin O'Donnell pointed out this San Francisco Chronicle article from late last week that says there's a gadget gap between Asia and the United States and if there's any day-to-day change, the gadget gap is widening rather than closing. Of course Jeff Yang (the author of the piece) is right. He points to a number of practical reasons why the gap has developed as well:

• intensity of focus by Japanese manufacturers on the consumer market after years of declining technology purchases by industry,
• lack of space in the homes of many Asians,
• degree of focus by many Asians on acquiring status-oriented products, including luxury goods and technology

... not to mention differences in our retail culture. Do you equate Best Buy and Wal-Mart with the latest and greatest gear or the cheapest and most mass-market of all possible offerings?

These macro trends can also be correlated with use of mobile data services, which were discussed on Operation Gadget earlier today: people who commute via mass transit tend to consume more mobile data services. Japan, Greater Asia, and Europe all have much greater adoption and use rates than the U.S. and Canada.

I consider most of the data reported in this article to be indicative of cultural differences between North America and the rest of the industrialized countries. I am not worried about that there are dark implications for our competitiveness. And if Kathleen (or Doctor Aiello as she's sometimes called) thinks we need a $3,000 Smart Toilet that measures our weight, body fat, blood pressure and urine sugar in the morning, I'm sure we'll be able to find one.