Japan's legions of small northwest coastal towns are famed for their patchworks of rice paddies and garlands of snow-capped mountains that offer some of the region’s best skiing.

But only one town is home to a cutting-edge research lab that's devoted to understanding how we interact with our mobile phones.

The Mobile Consumer Lab at the International University of Japan (IUJ) in Uonuma, Niigata, was created by director Dr Philip Sugai in 2007.

It has a very clear purpose: don't worry about the actual technology in modern mobile phones, but be more concerned with how people use them. Such research should lead to the creation of better, more useful services in the future.

Diversity is the key

The 30 graduate students research usable mobile browsers; providing real-time travel information to mobile phones, understanding the insidious nature of marketing the mobile lifestyle to children and even ways to protect sometimes-vulnerable female tourists through phone handsets..

Looking ahead

Mongolian student Mendbayar Ichinkhorloo explains his research on mobile financial services: “With the improvements in mobile technology," he suggests, "mobile stock trading and real-time portfolio-checking will be the next killer application by 2010."

As if to underline the practical nature of the Lab, Ichinkhorloo goes on to reveal his plans to implement just such a financial service in Mongolia after graduating from IUJ.

Beside Ichinkhorloo, fellow student Daniel Bukenya from Uganda specialises in the use of phones as electronic cash. While this technology is widely established in Japan, he knows that there’s still a long way to go as far as the rest of the world is concerned.

"The biggest challenge [for providers of mobile micropayments, as they’re known]," Bukenya says, "is providing the conditions needed for the service to thrive. These include legal requirements, infrastructure and technology and ease of use for the customer."

Putting his finger on a point many technology providers would do well to remember, Bukenya adds, “They really need to look beyond the hype and look at the value proposition for the customers too.”

Colleague Atri Singgih, who hails from Indonesia, cautions that the nature of the institution offering mobile e-cash is critical.