Why Japan Hates the iPhone

[Bob Hubbard]

Why Japan Hates the iPhone on Friday February 27, @09:22AM

Posted by kdawson on Friday February 27, @09:22AM
from the one-man's-cool-is-another-man's-lame dept.

Ponca City, We love you writes "With a high level of technical sophistication, critical customers, and high innovation rate, Japan is the toughest cell phone market in the world. So it's not surprising that although Apple is the third-largest mobile supplier in the world, selling 10 million units in 2008, in Japan the iPhone is selling so poorly it's being offered for free. 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 into video and photos — and the iPhone has neither a video camera, multimedia text messaging, nor a TV tuner. Pricing plans in Japan are also very competitive, and the iPhone's $60-and-up monthly plan is too high compared to competitors; a survey lat year showed that among Japanese consumers, 91% didn't want to buy an iPhone. The cellular weapon of choice in Japan would be the Panasonic P905i, a fancy cellphone that doubles as a 3-inch TV and features 3-G, GPS, a 5.1-megapixel camera, and motion sensors for Wii-style games. 'When I show this to visitors from the US, they're amazed,' according to journalist Nobi Hayashi, who adds, 'Carrying around an iPhone in Japan would make you look pretty lame.'"
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[JadecloudAlchemist]

Psst Iphone in Japan. My mother inlaw and Sister inlaw both watch tv on their phones who wants an Iphone when you got alot more with Japanese phones. I hear however that the Ipods are somewhat popular.

 

[Rich Parsons]

Nokia the Finnish Cell phone manufacturer has poor sales in the US and great sales in the rest of the world.

It is about markets and knowing what they want or require.

Hmmm, so building a single cellphone that sells great in all markets is tough to do. I wonder what other products that are like this?

 

[Empty Hands]

Ha, I'm not surprised. What I want more than the Japanese phones is the Japanese broadband infrastructure. Broadband in the US sucks, I want the speeds and reliability you can get in Japan.

 

[ArmorOfGod]

I wonder what they would think of my Net10 prepaid.
ha!

AoG

 

[Carol]

Ha, I'm not surprised. What I want more than the Japanese phones is the Japanese broadband infrastructure. Broadband in the US sucks, I want the speeds and reliability you can get in Japan.

Workin' on it

 

[Shicomm]

First of all it's a different product since the mobile network in Japan is neither CDMA or regular gsm.
Apple might score quite good with the music players in Japan but to get a big seller in the mobile phone range you need to have a very solid product that people really want to have.

Maybe the Japanese are smart enough to see that itunes really is a #censored!# piece of #censored !#