Does size matter? Thumbs, that is

Here’s an article about how encompassing cell phone use is in Japan. It’s a way of life. The phone is an extension of the self. The Japanese are way ahead of the US in third-generation phone use, so is this a foreshadowing of what’s to come in the US? I dunno. Seems to me these things are like single frames of an endless socio-technical movie.

But here’s what made me laugh:

Japanese have grown so skilled at writing e-mails on cell phones that many now find it simpler than using computer keyboards. Some have argued that the mobile Internet has taken off in Japan — as well as nearby South Korea — because Asian thumbs are smaller and more nimble, and thus more suited to typing on tiny cell phone keys. But the Japanese who launched the service here say size doesn’t matter.