Apple's iPhone has wowed most of the globe — but not Japan, where the handset is selling so poorly it's being offered for free.
What's wrong with the iPhone, from a Japanese perspective? Almost everything: the high monthly data plans that go with it, its paucity of features, the low-quality camera, the unfashionable design and the fact that it's not Japanese.
In an effort to boost business, Japanese carrier SoftBank this week launched the "iPhone for Everybody" campaign, which gives away the 8-GB model of the iPhone 3G if customers agree to a two-year contract.
"The pricing has been completely out of whack with market reality," said Global Crown Research analyst Tero Kuittinen in regard to Apple's iPhone prices internationally. "I think they [Apple and its partners overseas] are in the process of adjusting to local conditions."
Apple's iPhone is inarguably popular elsewhere: CEO Steve Jobs announced in October that the handset drove Apple to becoming the third-largest mobile supplier in the world, after selling 10 million units in 2008. However, even before the iPhone 3G's July launch in Japan, analysts were predicting the handset would fail to crack the Japanese market. Japan has been historically hostile toward western brands — including Nokia and Motorola, whose attempts to grab Japanese customers were futile.
Besides cultural opposition, Japanese citizens possess high, complex standards when it comes to cellphones. The country is famous for being ahead of its time when it comes to technology, and the iPhone just doesn't cut it. For example, Japanese handset users are extremely into video and photos — and the iPhone has neither a video camera nor multimedia text messaging. And a highlight feature many in Japan enjoy on their handset is a TV tuner, according to Kuittinen.
What else bugs the Japanese about the iPhone? The pricing plans, Kuittinen said. Japan's carrier environment is very competitive, which equates to relatively low monthly rates for handsets. The iPhone's monthly plan starts at about $60, which is too high compared to competitors, Kuittinen added.
Cellphones are also more of a fashion accessory in Japan than in the United States, according to Daiji Hirata, chief financial officer of News2u Corporation and creator of Japan's first wireless LAN. And carrying around an iPhone in Japan could make you look pretty lame.
Take for example Nobi Hayashi, a journalist and author of Steve Jobs: The Greatest Creative Director. His cellular weapon of choice when he spoke to Wired.com June 2008? A Panasonic P905i, a fancy cellphone that doubles as a 3-inch TV. It also features 3-G, GPS, a 5.1-megapixel camera and motion sensors for Wii-style games.
"When I show this to visitors from the U.S, they're amazed," Hayashi told Wired.com. "They think there's no way anybody would want an iPhone in Japan. But that's only because I'm setting it up for them so that they can see the cool features."
Kuittinen said he's predicting Apple's next iPhone will have better photo capabilities, which could increase its odds of success in Japan. However, he said the monthly rates must be lowered as well.
Otherwise, Apple might as well say sayonara to Japan.
See Also:
- iPhone Critics Vote on Handset's Most Annoying Flaws
- Pervert Alert: Japanese iPhone Shutter Sound Cannot Be Switched ...
- 91 Percent of Japanese 'Will Not Buy IPhone'
- Japanese Magazines Piggyback on iPhone's Success
- iPhone Hobbled by High Prices in Japan, Lack of 3-G in India ...
Photo: DannyChoo/Flickr
No electronic wallet/payment system, no SUICA/PASMO dowload(these are elctronic ticketing systems for public transportation ystems such as trains and subways).
Do you see the pattern here? Stuff that comes standard on other cellphones is not standard on the IPhone? No mystery as to why most people will not buy it.
The biggest reason is found by looking at the photo. You need to use two hands with the iphone, unlike any other keitai. You can input Japanese characters into any other keitai using your thumb in a universal method and feel that can be done without watching the display, like touch typing. Kids learn to do email with their keitai in their pocket, never even looking at it.
I live in the United States and still would not bye a iPhone. Apple anything is just a geeky fashion accessory for IDIOTS.
You know, It seems pretty obvious to me from the comments why no one in Japan would want an Iphone and in fact, I live in USA and I really see no point either.
The internet is so slow Yawn. And those data plans are insane. Talk about rape.
I don't even want a phone, I want a cell-network text messager/net browser. I could do without talking to people.
I meant to say not BUY AN iPhone. Looks like I'm the idiot here. Been a long day.
I wonder why this article didn;t mention South Korea as well.
"The iPhone's monthly plan starts at about $60" - that's plain wrong! The plan starts from about 2400 yen - that's only 25$. But you need to keep your 3G data network use below about 1.5 MB/month, and rely on WiFi instead.
Good ponit, but I still like the iphone.
Why do people persist in propagating the myth that there's cultural opposition to US products? Apple absolutely dominates the MP3 category with the iPod here, and the Macbooks sell like gangbusters.
US cars don't sell well because a) they don't sell well in the US either b) half of the overseas models don't even come in RHD versions. Of course they don't sell.
I won't consider an iPhone for all the reasons others have listed. Why would I intentionally saddle myself with a phone that has fewer features - ALOT fewer - than my current Softbank model? A model that's 1.5 years old now?
Why the Japanese/Chinese/Koreans and people in other Asian countries hate iPhone? Because they have BETTER phones! Period.
hmmm, maybe they don't like the iphone because it sucks? Stop drinking the kool aid people.
A TV Tuner? A electronic payment system? A decent camera?!!! The iPhone doesn't even have CUT & PASTE and TEXT MESSAGE FORWARDING people!!
Hey, maybe many of the Japs are just like the Koreans- very loyal to the home country companies. Their lost.
I've had about 5 japanese mobile phones now, and while they were definitely feature (or gimmick) rich, I never used most of them more than once. I've had one with facial-recognition security that didn't work, video & mp3 players that only played files purchased from the company's own store, and a couple with cameras of such poor quality as to be useless.
That said, the iPhone definitely needs a few local Japanese features which are considered standard, like the embedded e-cash chips, Japanese emoticons, and MMS
Who is that guy you are quoting? Has he ever been to Japan? Has he ever seen Japanese people using their cell phone? Others have pointed it out in the comments section but let me have a shot at it:
1. Monthly price? No problem. It is similar to what all heavy users of mobile internet already pay. What a strange thing to claim?! Handset price? Way too high, much above what most users pay for their handsets when starting up with a new subscription. At least they seem to be fixing that now.
2. Text messaging. In case you haven't figured it out, just stop writing inane reports. Most use of the cell phone is for writing, which most Japanse are eminently good at using one or even two hands. The iPhone sucks at this simple tasks. I have Apple lover friends who had to go out and buy a second phone, on iPhone to show off, one phone to actually use. Writing emails (free with most plans!) are what most Japanese do with their phones. So why would anyone in their right mind buy a phone that stops them from doing this at anything faster than 10 words per minute? This is the main problem with the iPhone.
3. Camera. No, most Japanese phones have even crappier cameras. This is a non-issue as far as the iPhone is concerned.
4. No video? Seriously, a phone without video capability in 2008? Shame on you Apple!
5. No GPS? See 4.
6. No electronic payment chip? See 4.
7. No free of charge built in nap navigation + GPS system? See 4.
8. No TV? See 4.
9. Size? Japanese are into small phones with big screens. iPhone will have to be half thickness to even come near the bulkier Japanese models.
The biggest problem though is how you can be uneducated enough to write such a report, or blog about it as Mr. Chen does here? There are thousands of billingual westerners living in Japan, there are millions of bilingual Japanese living in Japan and abroad. Anyone of them can confirm what I just said.
BTW, my 2006 model Sony Ericsson has all of the above features, at a 1 cent price. Sure, there is no touch screen (I'd rather see what is on the screen than have it blocked by my fingers anyway), but I can watch TV, listen to radio, surf the web, pay my bills, shoot video and stills, use a GPS, navigate, play games etc. etc. And I can write in both Japanese and English almost as fast as I type on a keyboard. Faster in Japanese, a bit slower in English.
Why don't we use the iPhone? Go figure, just don't ask Mr. Chen or Mr. Kuittinen why, because they never bothered to even ask anyone, apparently.
I just got back from vacation in the Philippines and they don't like the iPhone, either. It costs the same as any high end phone from Sony-Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and XDA; but, no takers.
My cousin who works for Globe, the carrier over there, and he said that people return it after a week. Why? The iPhone is extremely BORING.
I was gonna get one for myself when it first came out here in the US, but the WOW factor left after 10 minutes of exploring the thing.
It just plain sucks...
The iPhone has been over-priced, under-valued, and vastly over-hyped since inception. Fibe hundred bucks for something that dies on the first drop? No way. Add the hideous requirement of using AT&T, and I'll never own one. Now, the iPod Touch is a far more sensible, safter, and less expensive solution. I just got a new, inexpensive phone with a suitable, reasonably priced plan from a good provider, and when it dies (invariably before the contract is up), I'll just buy another inexpensive phone. All the while, I'll use my iPod touch when I don't need to worry about dropping it.
makes u wonder...if the japanese phones are so good..why havent they penetrated the western market?
i have some ideas as to why...but i want to see what everyone else thinks.
hmm...
# 91 Percent of Japanese 'Will Not Buy IPhone'
# Japanese Magazines Piggyback on iPhone's Success
To note : the data plan for the iphone here is the same as every softbank headset. I purchased a 'start of the art' Sharp phone here and it sucks. In fact I was amazed at how bad J-phones actually are. Features like TV (where 1/4 of the tiny screen is taken up by ads) and GPS (have to pay to use it) camera (terrible quality, nevermind what the MP rating is) the list goes on...
The Japanese don't hate the iphone, as I see many people use it on the metro and JR lines here.
The main thing holding back the iPhone in Japan has been Apple's resistance to giving commission kickbacks to cell phone dealers.
It's interesting to see the things that are written and the ideas that are propogated that have little or no basis. Perhaps, someone asked one of the old senior executives at some Japanese company. By the way, they have very little connection to the general public in Japan. I happen to live in Japan and know a lot of Japanese people. I also to have an iPhone. I also used to have a Japanese cell phone, but switched to an iPhone so I can sync info with my Mac. Every Japanese person I have met thinks the iPhone is spectacular. I have never met anyone who doesn't like a product becuase it was made in a foreign country (except if it's made in China). The people that I have talked to wouldn't buy one based on one of three reasons. Too expensive the price of the phone, not the plan), lack of emoji (smileys) compatibility with companies other than SoftBank, and bugs. Mac computers still have a bad rep from way back in the day when the American computer makers didn't really care about making computers that worked well in Asian languages. The iPod cleared that hurdle by virtue of the fact that is very popular all over the world. The Japanese love things like that! Also, many people will not switch companies. It was a little difficult for me too! The cameras on other cell phones are not all that great. There is no one cellphone that has great everything. You either get one that has a great camera, or one you can use to watch t.v., or one that is an mp3 player. Some of the cameras are horrible! I know, I had one. Where I'm at, there are no chips in the phone that you can use to get on a train. One company offers a chip called Eddy. It's use is very limited! The plans are all about the same. You use your phone a lot, it's going to be expensive. The other things don't really come into account. At least in my experience. Except of course the emoji. Those are really important to them!!
I may be going out on a limb here, but does it really matter whether Japan or S. Korea like the iPhone or not. They like what they like and who really cares. It's not like both of those countries combined make up most of the world's handset sales. S. Korea has got enough worries about the N. Koreans over-running Seoul and Japan is, well, still isolated as it has been for like a dozen centuries. They're certainly entitled to live in their own little peninsula or island. People that live in their own little worlds are bound to have a narrow view of things. Everyone is entitled to that much choice. In America, those Japanese and Korean handsets are of no use to us because our 3G infrastructure is crap, nobody has heard of eWallets and 1-Seg doesn't exist.
Those little countries could rebuild their cellphone infrastructure every year if they wanted to. They'd just line their streets, buildings and poles with thousands of repeaters. Looks like crap, but it's fast and cheap to do.
Cool. They have no interest in the iPhone and it doesn't mean a hell of a lot in the grand scheme of iPhone domination. When the iPhone is sold in the millions in China that should be good enough of a message that somebody out there in the Far East does like the iPhone. I doubt if the Japanese are averse to American goods, but if the goods aren't practical to them, why should they bother to use it.
Giving the iPhone away is not going to help one bit in Japan. If they were giving turds away for free, I darn sure wouldn't take them unless I had a use for them. Especially if I had to pay to keep them every month.
The iPhone is the best phone I've ever owned and I've owned a Nokia, a Samsung, a Motorola, and even a Sony Ericsson. They are all a P.O.S. next to the iPhone in my opinion.
The authors bias is showing through. I've lived in Japan and know: They're not "hostile" to non-Japanese things; many foreign products sell well in Japan, but they don't like second-rate products and why buy an iPhone when Japanese cellulars have been ahead for years? The author of your piece should climb down of his national socialist high horse.
The author is Brian X. Chen. Is that why this article is so anti-Japanese?
And the Iphone(not to mention the vast majority of phones in the US) doesn't have infrared ether for using your phone as a remote control. Most fun I had in Korea was turning down the volume on shitty t.v. shows in bars.
the iphone runs on bsd unix ppl! and it runs my ssh, lighttpd and many other programs. can _your_ phone do that?
Seriously, Brian, where are you in Japan? How could you neglect these points ? There are so many choices of keitai in Japan it's insane and there is such a high turn over for the models. Every two months the major manufacturers release a new set of models. There are two major releases for each season. How about the really lame, but extremely popular "necessity" for charm accessories to hang off the phone. Can't be done with iPhone. Also, it's cheaper to get a new phone than try to keep your old number and email because the carriers want "new" customers. The only thing that might excel is the games. That is a big hit for some people. But just try and take away that new DSi from the Japanese... good luck. Not gonna happen.
I think my email to call usage on my phone in Japan is 100:1. How can I answer the phone on a crowded train? And a touch key pad that change between 4 script types... I'll take a keypad over that every time. My phone plays music, games, TV, Video, GPS, Navi, internet browsing, customizable ringtones and has a better camera. Casio Gz One. Can't beat that.
Wow, the Winbots are out in force in this article. I smell the distinct, pungent aroma of Ballmer. Is this what people in Redmond do for fun?
"iPhone sucks." "It's boring." "It's for idiots."
Uh huh. Keep trying, lametards.
Troll Different.
The Japan Times reports they're too expensive. So they cut price. Duh. Cultural opposition? Sounds like Chen has a chip on his shoulder the size of Rhode Island. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20090227a3.html
I agree with the above poster, it is the size of the thing. More and more Japanese people have 2 or 3 phones; a company phone; a family phone and a friend phone.
Softbank users can call other Softbank phones for free but get charged a lot for calling a DoKoMo phone and the same for DoKoMo users. Thus people have two phones one for one network and another phone for a second network.
Some of you posters might be taken more seriously if you learned to spell
I LOLed:
http://plus4chan.org/boards/n/res/98301.html
@Ben > Some of you posters might be taken more seriously if you learned to spell
You might be taken more seriously if you learn to punctuate.
iPhone is also hugely unsuccessful here in INDIA . no wonder Japanese and Indians r way Smarter The Others .
on the 1th day of releasing iPhone3G in India . there was More Reporter the Customer waiting for the Product .
I can't agree this article. iPhone is not sold well here in Japan, because it's not a phone, it'a internet communicator which empower you. but the most of Japansese couldn't understand such idea.
Yeah Simon, it's because you are an idiot.
iPhone is not popular not because of its features, it's because of the data plan. In Asia wireless data is not cheap and they don't have the all you can eat model. Besides it costs an arm and a leg. (f*****g telcos)
Anyway most mobile phones in Asia are not smart phones.
If Apple will make an iPhone like the iPod Touch with phone capability and wifi, the rest will be history.
my 2¢....
Dave, get over yourself.
The iPhone is a crippled p.o.s. for dumbass Mactards and fashion lemmings.
My $.02, I laugh at the suckers who are taken in by Apple. I won't have Apple products in my house. Keep you proprietary software suckers. Apple has 10% of the pc market big hairy deal! Apple fanboyz are so full of themselves,Ha!
No point just listing the specs but the iPhone does have GPS, and a built in iPod Touch, and access to an online application store with 15,000 applications, and WiFi and a 3.5" screen and so on. If they are not popular in Japan (which I don't really believe as I live here and I see them frequently) it is not because of the shortcomings of the phone, more likely it is due to a myopic, follow-the-sheep mentality like that which drives all the Japanese PC manufacturers to install a bloated, defective excuse for an OS.
Gid: Why hasn't Japanese cell phones penetrated the western market? They have been using a different system since the beginning while western phones have been stuck with plain old GSM. That is why. Besides, I believe that one Japanese/Swedish phone is making good progress in the west. Also least we forget, Mitsubishi Electric had very good phones on the market that they pulled out because of poor sales on the domestic market.
Regarding Chens supposed bias: Give him a break, I don't think he would be so unproffessional as to let his bias shine through, he is just very very uninformed and relying totally on misinformed second hand sources. Bad journalism? Yes. Bias? We don't know.
I thought the Iphone was just a clunky piece of crap with low memory space! There have been better alternatives around for a while like some of the shit Nokia churns out. I was of the impression most people just got the apple products because of their trendiness in regards to just seeming generally "hip".
The iPhone is not very popular in India too. Agreed there is a lot of hype, but people have hardly bought it. Couple the lack of customer enthusiasm with one of the most out of whack pricing policies, and iPhone is a Buzz word, which buzzes in hardly anyone's hands.
Finally, Japan and I can agree on something. I keep mine but don't use because i dont wanna pay the disconnect fee.
I'm calling bullshit on this story big time. The tone is extremely negative and it's only really written, it seems, to draw attention to "A post" on the blog. Well, it worked, I'll give you that.
As for real content, you quote two people, one of which is Japanese. One Person. Well done! Have you been to Japan recently? Have you seen how desperate all the other manufacturers are to copy the iphone touch screen. And what none of them can complete with is the app store. Stories are leaking out in the Japanese press of regular salary men who are making $600,000+ from apps. This is impossible to do as an individual in Japan. They don't have a system that allows it. That kind of money is ONLY reserved for companies to make. So how many people do you think are now turning to write apps? And how many are docomo paying to keep from jumping ship? You'll see a gradual shift in the way the whole mobile market is played over the next 2 years. Just watch.
Dear Brian,
concerning that story you wrote about the iPhone in Japan, I have to say, that I have never read such a poor investigated story on wired.com.
No word about Emoji, which seem to be very important to the Japanese, which the iPhone lacked when they started selling it in Japan, until Softbank had Apple change it. "Email without emoticons can't be email in Japan. We persuaded Apple Computer (to localize iPhones for the Japanese market)." Said Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, the Japanese carrier for the iPhone, about the iPhone software and the addition of emoji.
Also, there's no place (on an iPhone) to hang a strap, which also might make people buy another handset.
I found an article about that at: http://whatjapanthinks.com/tag/iphone/
And your article is also missing the number of iPhones that has been sold in Japan, you just claim that Japanese hate the iPhone.
"Japan has been historically hostile toward western brands" is also a very dangerous generalization. The iPod sells much better than the Sony Walkman, German cars and many other products have a very good reputation in Japan.
And then you quote a guy called Tero Kuittinen, which sounds pretty much to me that he's from Finland and not from Japan, and who's working for Global Crown Research, which is based in San Fancisco, also not from Japan (I couldn't find a branch of Global Crown Research in Japan.)
Did you actually talk to a single Japanese person besides Hayashi?
Are you actually living in Japan?
If I am right with half of the stuff I wrote, and if you are not living in Japan on top of that, could you please ask if I could also write articles for wired? If it's easy like that?
Actually, the introduction is BS already: "Apple's iPhone has wowed most of the globe — but not Japan, where the handset is selling so poorly it's being offered for free." Have you ever heard that this is common business practice, to sell handsets for a very low price (or free), but making the real money by selling the plans and 2-year contracts?
There not giving it away for free, without plans and contracts, right?
You've gotta be working for tabloids usally, and your editor must be kidding publishing this article.
Well, I don't want to go on forever about that miserable piece of work.
If you happen to live in San Fran, or in the bay area, why don't you write an article about Chinatown or the golden gate bridge?
@kohai: "Do you see the pattern here? Stuff that comes standard on other cellphones is not standard on the IPhone?"
IPhone is missing such a trivial feature as forwarding an incoming SMS. I was watching my friend struggling with the good ol' pen and paper noting the phone number he got in order to type it back into a new message.
So it's not only lack of electronic cash payment and the video camera thing, it's just the beta software Apple used.
Yes, the iPhone lacks quite many feature of the high-end Japanese and European phones. As features go it was a revolution in the US but that had more to do with the terrible products it had to compete with on the US markets. A rule of thumb for mobile features is that Europe lags a year behind Japan and the US lags about three years after Europe.
Having said that the iPhone has three things that are superior to any other handset on the market:
1. User interface
2. User interface
3. User interface
No Japanese or European handset comes close to delivering the same user experience. What is more surprising even today, two years after the introduction of the iPhone it is still in the lead.
If you go by features you'll get another phone and if you go by user experience you will want an iPhone.
This article appears to fly in the face of previous, more informed ones regarding the Japanese cellphone market, and has simply fed off the new SoftBank iPhone initiative to draw pseudo-logical conclusions about Japanese preferences.
Well done to those Japanese and Japan-dwellers for speaking out and giving us a far better picture of the reality on the ground, whether or not it supports or disagrees with Brian Chen's main thrust. At least it is more factual and anecdotal at the same time.
It's pretty clear that the keitai scene is technically and culturally different to what obtains elsewhere, presenting challenges that Apple and the other foreign cellphone handset vendors would do well to embrace as a challenge, not as a blessing or a curse to wax xenophobic about.
Fuck Japan. End of story.
iPhone? I got a Blackberry, thanks! So did Obama, apparently. Good flash camera, reasonable screen and not insanely priced.
After this mindless rant against Japanese mobile phones:
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/10/29/why-japanese-cell-ph.html
it's nice to read something meaninfull about the Japanese mobile market.
a quite famous Japanese blogger few days ago said: the iPhone is a really nice conversation pieace if you show it during a meeting bu I don't use it since I use my mobile to post on my blog while travelling and I need to write fast... (if you ever watched the anime BATTLE SHIRASE you know what she means ^_^ )
The one thing stopping from getting an iPhone in Japan is it's monthly price point. Once it becomes more affordable I'll ditch my AU phone.
It's that simple!
What I don't think anyone has commented on in the blogs is that Japan has primarily another 3G wireless standard that is it's own and not used much if at all outside of Japan. The iPhone is GSM and UMTS. There may be a small UMTS service provider in Japan but it is definitely not the primary 3G wireless service technology. This would hugely impact any interest in the iPhone.
yea don't forget about these missing features:
copy & paste
background processes
only way to attach a photo to an email is open the photo then create the email, dont start an email first, also no multiple attachments
Also don't create an app the comes close to competing with an Apple app. Apple will deny your submission to the store, freemarket fail. Apple also wants to fine everyone $2500 who jailbreaks their phone
http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146046
Sorry, but this article is utter hogwash.
The Japanese don't 'hate' the iphone any more than any other tech.
The reason why the iPhone's not selling their is that the demographic is OLDER. And as others have said, these older folks [aka 'shinjinrui'] who now have the purchasing power use their keitai for other things than what Apple designed them for.
If Apple beefed up the camera, added motion and the pay/ticketing system they'd make more inroads. But is it worth it?
Apple'd be better served by adding GPS/Cam/Motion to an iPod without the special to Japan stuff and they'd make more inroads.
And yeah, I've also heard the 'why do I need two phones? Thing from my Japanese friends. Hence, Apple, make that new killer iPod.
I'm using Softbank right now but i hear DoKoMo is better. Like to hear some opinions.
Anyway, for those stating that they see iPhones in Japan all the time, I'm wondering what part of Japan you live in. I'm up north in Honshu (Aomori prefecture) and i've yet to see a single iPhone. However, this is kind of a rural area.
For those living in Tokyo or Osaka, I'd like to remind you that you are not like the rest of Japan, even if you think you represent the whole of Nippon.
Japanese people are cool and I love them but my IPhone ROCKS!
RT
http://www.be-anonymous.us.tc
whoa!! just hold up one second... you say "nor multimedia text messaging"
the iphone is extremely limited in Japan (I have one.. and live here). the iphone is gimped in so many ways..
from
not being able to attach a strap to it..
no oneseg tv
no payment system
no video or reasonable camera on board...
and so on.. but on that point you are wrong!! Japanese use email to message to one another.. email with which they can attach images, and hell newer handsets let you go crazy with decomail... Japanese don't have any need for SMS or MMS.
I love all this blind speculation from bloggers in other countries... who really have no idea... they are just copying and pasting from everybody else.
Once you have lived in Japan 5, 10, 15 years... then feel free to postulate why the iPhone aint doing so well....
(For the record - I believe the iPod Touch is doing extremely well - plenty of my friends have bought them that way they can keep their groovy Japanese phones and have the cool functionality of the iPhone ie the Apps).
the arrogance of apple to believe it has something newer or more exciting then what's on offer in Japan always amazes me.
Japan & South Korea are always 1 or 2 generations ahead of the rest of the world on mobile technology. Yes the iPhone is very shiny, but it's features are just above fair.
You do NOT need two hands to type on an iphone. I do just fine with in one hand and use my thumb to type, in Japanese and English. I guess if you have really small hands it might be a problem.
I teach English to people who work for Murata Corporation, one of the chip manufacturers for the iPhone. They say the main reason for the slow adoption of the iPhone is the fact that cell phone contracts in Japan are longer than they used to be, so people tend to be stuck with one carrier. If it ain't Softbank, they ain't gettin' an iPhone. I see the writer really did his research here.
Yeah, Apple are really missing the mark right now with the iPhone. In the states, we want a better camera, video, more storage etc, not a game box. Are there really adults - those who can afford this high priced item - who want to have a better game system in their hands. I can't imagine thast being the case. Productivity and elimination of secondary devices is key to success. I want to leave my camera and iPod at home, and just have it all on the iPhone.
The phone isn't offered for free. If you go to Softbank's website there are 3 payment options. Sign a 2 years contract and pay $13 a month, buy the phone for $290 and skip the monthly payments. Softbank makes almost $100 more if you go by the 2 year plan.
I wonder if Wired's editors really care about the truth, or is the economy so bad they'll do anything to get readers... and ad revenue.
I met folks in Osaka who wanted to get an iPhone in spite of the more advanced phones I saw everywhere. Seeing all the different models in the big electronic market areas of Osaka and Tokyo it seems there are just more models available there than here in the US. Here people usually have tens of models per carrier to choose from.
I agree! Ive had an iPhone since day one, and even though the features it has weighs out the ones it doesn't for me, it still is missing some of the basic, should be assumed features. It's great having people make fun of you for having a phone that doesnt even come with features from 10 years ago! Go Japan for demanding better.
Biggest reason is that the iPhone is not from a Japanese company. The Japanese continued to be xenophobic and this extends to their products. Foreign car brands make up only 5% of the market.
You can blame Apple all you want, but the Japanese are closed to anything not invented there.
*** I got a $12,000 check from the U.S. Gov't in grants, www.moneyfromobama.com***
The headline should have read. Why US cell phones suck so bad.
The headline should have read. Why US cell phones suck so bad.
Just for the record, I am born and raised in America and I would sooner light my own testicles on fire than ever own an iPhone.
Be weary of scammers ;)
topic:
Who in their right mind would buy a phone like that which they couldn't even modify? When will the rest of the market realize that it would only help sales to open their shit up? I see no better way of cutting costs as well, there's no need to enslave a phone. People will still buy apps for it when they change the kernel. People will still buy accessories for it. They will still be using the services.
The iPhone is the same as everything Apple makes...big on hype and fashion, low on substance. People that buy all that stuff here in North America are just falling prey to the media hype, the advertising and the peer pressure to be cool. There are tonnes of products that do as much, if not more and are a hell of a lot better but not many people buy them because they are not "In style". Idiots...all idiots.
"...the unfashionable design..."
LOL, that's funny! I thought Wired worship Apple!!
god people are such wankers. One guy in this thread said "fuck japan end of story"
classy. I agree compeltely with this article just based on the people I've spent time with in Japan. They pay way less than me for their service plans and get much more. Also phones are one of the few gadgets you can buy in Japan where you get more for less money than what you'd spend in America. Laptops, cameras, many other appliances are all costing more in Japan for the same thing.
I think the iphone sucks compared to Japanese phones. Japanese phones have tens or hundreds of colors for each phone, water proof, awesome screens, nice sizes. The iphone is black piece of expensive shit to me. So is ATT's plan costs for having one. You could say any article was poorly researched, but what ends up in the article isn't necessarily all the research that was done. Might have been edited down to prevent boredom and redundancy.
You can tell some people on here really want to justify how awesome their iPhone is by attacking the writer in different ways.
I do not own or care to own an iPhone, however the it is undisputedly the best mobile web browser on the planet.
http://professionalwatches.com
I think this is one of those "Japan is specially unique" myths that needs to come down. My wife won't use an iPhone either. Why? no 1seg TV, no radio, no video shooting..... You know what? she's never even used any of these features ! sure she played aruond with them a few times when she got her most recent cell phone but so far the only real deterrent I can see for her not to get one is that there is no place to hang her Hello Kitty strap....