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iPod Takes Japan by Storm
conq writes "BusinessWeek reports on the soaring popularity of the iPod in Japan. From the article: 'iPod mania is alive and well in Japan -- one of the most competitive consumer-electronics markets on the planet. Despite an array of well-entrenched Japanese rivals, such as Sony and Matsushita, the iPod had cornered 51.3% of the digital-music player market as of the end of 2005, up from about 32% in 2004, according to research firm BCN. Sony was a distant second with 16.2%, while Panasonic grabbed just 8.2% of the market.'"
Popular technology popular. Interesting....
That's payback for the whole Walkman thing back in the 80's !
Not surprising that it is very popular... If somebody comes up with a 'real' iPod killer, that will be the craze... Time to move on...!
Here, take a cookie. I promise, by the time you're done reading it...oh, well!
Oh, to be big in Japan
... and I saw a LOT of people wearing iPods in the trains, walking on the streets, and at the Narita airport. I talked with a few people about the iPod, and most were using them for Japanese pop music ripped from CDs: I did not meet anyone who had used the iTunes store.
Further, most of the models I saw were the video iPod or the Nano. Very few older photo iPods, and none of the earlier generations.
I'd say that the iPod was the dominant music player that I saw (although there were a few portable CD players)
How is that possible?
...how well a Hello Kitty version would sell... e.a.e.
If I could, I'd destroy you all.
Until I owned one.
I've owned at least 6 or 7 different non-IPOD players including RIO's, RCA's, hard drive, flash based, you name it.
My wife bought me a Video Ipod this year and I was skeptical. "Why not save the $50 and get a non-Apple one.". After less than 3 months, I like it so well, I'm ready to trade her Rio Carbon in for a Nano just because its so easy to use. I generally consider myself tech savy (using Linux since 1997) but the interface just seems so slick, so smooth, so simple to use with one hand that I can't get over it. Just the fact that you can rate songs as you play them and have that transferred back into Itunes seemed to represent a higher level of integration (seamlessness) than I saw with any other player and client-side software combination.
Want to fast forward though a song? No problem. Couple of intuitive ways to do it. Love the album art. I used to download podcasts with a non-Itunes client and download to my other players. Completely simple with Itunes and the Ipod.
I'm not suprised. Apple just got it right.
because everybody in Japan i know uses their cell as a media player, iPods where great last year but things move fast, the JP user doesnt want to carry backpacks and batman belts like the Americans
JD
This should destroy the myth that Japanese only buy japanese.
Japan is a culture that has been historically known for being very group centric, and supportive of the group which they are part of. Them choosing a foreign product over a local product is thus surprising to me. I assumed the fact that the XBox was foreign was the main reason it never took off in Japan. Then again, it was more or less a "PS2 without Japanese games" when you look at the big picture of consoles at the time, so that may be he reason for it's bad sales. I'm guessing the popularity of the iPod is due to the younger generation breaking off from the ideals of the older generation, and willing to buy an interesting product even if it is foreign. Even today Japan is going through big changes in terms of the position of women in society and external influence.
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
Great, I can't wait to see what stuff these crazy gookers come up with to do with their IPods...upskirt videos, bukkake, selling used panties from vending machines, what will they come up with next? I guarantee there will be some depraved IPod kinky fetish in the not so distant future, and for that I say: yes, you crazy Japanese, I salute you! (and please post pics)
It's all of those left-wing Fags that are on this site. Or is it Right-wing? Oh wait, it's the Muslims! No, it's the arrogant F/OSS Son-of-A-Bitches! That's it! Like jedidiah(1196)!
Just wait until Godzilla gets back from his battle with Mothra.
It'll beat back this iPod invasion.
Funny thing is: the iPod isn't anywhere near as powerful as the pda. Basically, the iPod works because the form factor is attractive and Apple streamlines the content better than anyone else. Whereas with the pda, there's no *really* easy way for the user to get content. I like to hear of Japan embracing American technology. More often than not, it's the other way around. Or at least that's my perspective.
The Japanese people just got rerry sick of the frash-based prayers. Plus they can downroad music easery from iTunes. Once iTunes raunched in Japan, it was arr just a matter of time before it's poprurarity soared .
Maybe the trend here is that Japan doesn't like big, brawny electronics. Perhaps they like simple, cute, almost frivolous electronics. Less is more!
If my Palm could pull 8-10 hours of music off a single charge I'd dump my mp3 player (one less thing to carry around). My iRiver gives me 20 hours with 1 AA. No PDA can match that.
Now we need a Naruto SE with all episodes loaded. My kids would NEVER speak out loud again.
I know, it makes the sony walkman look like a Paleolithic finger tapping...
Thanks Joss.
Apple market share slips 30% in Japan
American electronics company making good in Japan is news.
It's man bites dog, not dog bites man.
When the Apple store opened in Tokyo - the pre-opening line ran for miles!! The Japanese love gadgets; particularly those gadgets that combine style with functionality. Apple does a good job with this, but has done exceptionally well with Ipod. It's not surprising that this has really taken off in Japan. And just wait till the special Ipod Nano Hello Kitty edition is released!
[Insert pithy quote here]
War was beginning. ....
Japan: What happen?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the iPod.
Operator: We get signal.
Japan: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Japan: It's You !!
Apple: How are you gentlemen !!
Apple: All your mp3 player are belong to us.
Apple: You are on the way to destruction.
Japan: What you say !!
Apple: You have no chance to survive make your time.
Apple: HA HA HA HA
Japan: Take off every 'wma' !!
Japan: You know what you doing.
Japan: Move 'wma'.
Japan: For great justice.
[!] No, I can't see my comments. They are not worthy of +3 moderation.
nothing beats the look of a 25 lb, 2.5 foot long boombox on a sholder, remeber when the guy with the strongest upper body would bring the tunes to all!! ahh yes, I still have back problems from back then.
One problem with iPods is that their quality has led to hype, which has led to people not buying them because they refuse to buy anything that is hyped up to such an extent.
Such people really are missing out. In some circles it is cool to hate the iPod because they are so ubiquitous, but their widespread adoption did not begin with, and is not being sustained by the cool factor alone. The iPod started as an expensive little toy that a lot of people dismissed as being another Mac Cube.
Then something happened, word began to spread that they were actually pretty spiffy. Momentum built, and along with clever marketing, Apple took the industry by storm.
All I own is a 1GB Shuffle, and I have to say, it's cheap, the sound quality is excellent, and the damn thing is indestructible. I've dropped it on concrete countless times, been hit by a car while carrying (but not using) it and the thing holds up.
If you don't like the styling, features and price, that's one thing. Just don't hate the iPod and iTunes because they are so damn commonplace now. They are that way for a very good reason.
I would just like to say that iTunes for Windows sucks compared to iTunes for Mac. Although they are the same program and look pretty much the same, iTunes just feels better on a Mac. This is in response to someone saying that iTunes for Windows was a crappy program.
Physically.
Why does your average MP3 player need to be more intuitive? My Rave MP has up and down arrows instead of a virtual scroll wheel. The latter may be somewhat cooler, but it's not any more efficient. You can operate it just as fast, just as easily, with one hand. You have playlists, shuffle, etc. Fast forwarding through a song is as simple as--get this--holding down the fast forward/skip button. I use folders to organize my songs, and transfering them to the Rave is as easy as plugging it in and dragging and dropping from Windows Explorer (or more frequently, Nautilus. It auto-mounts just fine in Ubuntu.) Not having to run any extra client software at all is what I consider "integration." And not only did it cost me well over $50 less than the equivalent iPod, it had features that the iPod lacked, like a digital FM tuner, the ability to record songs off of radio, and a built-in microphone for voice memos. And finally, looks: It's a deep cherry red and roundish instead of pure white and squarish. So? It looks just fine and even if you hated the color you could easily hide it in a shirt or pants pocket.
Props to the Apple marketing department. Props to whomever put together the iTunes store. Props to whomever put together such a slick, minimalistic package and make it popular. I'm not knocking the iPod in any way, I'm just sick of people trying to convince me that all other MP3 players are ugly and nigh impossible to use. I select the folder (or the playlist), I select shuffle, I hit play--what can possibly be simpler than that? I drag and drop from the file manager I *already use* to organize my music--what proprietary client feature could make it easier than that?
What could possibly be worth an extra $50? I'm not going to pay it for the brand name just so I can impress my friends. I'm not going to pay it for an interface that's no more intuitive than scroll arrows. I'm not going to pay it for the software that cannot run natively in Linux and eats up more memory/CPU than Explorer alone in Windows. And I'm damn sure not going to pay it just for the white paint job.
I'm not trolling, I just genuinely don't get it. All the "features" that make the iPod so superior are either already present on many (most?) other MP3 players or just a matter of taste (white and square design vs. roundish and colored.)
My Rave MP has up and down arrows instead of a virtual scroll wheel. The latter may be somewhat cooler, but it's not any more efficient.
When you want to scroll down faster to get to the bottom of your list, how do you do that? Can you hold the button down harder?
The beauty of the scroll wheel is I can go faster or slower or many subtle degrees in between depending on how fast I move my thumb around.
Either BS or a total moron:
>I've owned at least 6 or 7 different non-IPOD players
>including RIO's, RCA's, hard drive, flash based,
because anyone who has already had 6-7 mp3 players already has to be one or the other.
I find it interesting that they made no mention of the biggest reason for the popularity of MiniDiscs in Japan and how that relates to the popularity of iPods. You can go to a popular chain that rents CD's for your home enjoyment, and you would record it on MD for a high-quality replica. I don't own an MP3 player, but I have owned 3 MD players and a deck. Some of the CD's in Japan now have copy protection and in fact have built-in players such that you can't easily rip them. CD's are also very pricey compared to the US. or I should say Japanese CD's are priced higher than an American artist's.
On the issue of nationalism, one cannot neglect the xenophilia that may also be in play. The main apple store is in Ginza along side with the highest end fashion boutiques, so one can surmise that ipod ownership may be related to foreign chic.
Are you an engineer by any chance? It doesn't sound like you've even tried the iPod. And yes, I had an Archos before I had an iPod. NO COMPARISON. iPod wins hands down.
I would encourage you to try the iPod and iTunes for a month and see if you could possibly go back to the world of non-integration and manual copying.
"Politicians find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the people."
In a country where nationalistic pride makes consumers choose Japanese products first, the iPod is dominating. Sony's flash MP3 player share has actually shrunk since it was winning in 2004.
Why is this significant to US competitors? Because this is a wake up call to all of those companies trying to blame their failure to enter the market on Apple's FairPlay DRM scheme. Sorry, but iTunes has nothing to do with your failure either. Your products are way less attractive compared to the iPod, even if they have lower prices. The iPod is dominating because it is exactly what consumers are looking for at the perfect price point(s).
Let's see if they figure it out now.
I have 10GB of music but only a 6GB Ipod Mini. I set the syncing playlist to copy songs "least recently played". Therefore if I listen to a song in the Ipod, the next time I sync, that song will get "swapped" with a less recently played song.
haven't heard of povpod.com hunh?
hold your video ipod at your navel, for the correct point of view.
When 1" hard drives or flash storage hold plenty of music and are cheap enough to put in lower-priced cell phones? Maybe then there will be an Apple-infused phone with a scroll wheel (virtual?)?
Metal Gear Solid series creator Hideo Kojima makes much use of iPods. In his blog, he mentioned that he uses an iPod to listen to music. And now he is making podcasts. He is supposed to be one of Sony's leading supporters, or at least one of PS3's leading supporters, but here is using Apple hardware and software whenever he likes.
I'm confused by this statement: "Still, iPod's continuing dominance in Japan isn't a sure thing. For starters, Sony isn't giving up the chase. Its new Walkman, which will be released in the U.S. this year, has been well-received in Japan."
Did someone forget to tell Sony that their six-month-old "hip, fab, stylish" Walkman Bean has already been steamrolled by the iPod?
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net
I live in Japan, and the reason the iPod is so popular is very very simple. The iPod is simply so much better and more intuitive than the players released by Sony and to a lesser extent other manufacturers. Don't think Japanese aren't also sick of Sony's crap. Years of bad experiences with crippled products (I think it started with DAT) have primed Japanese to jump on the first digital audio product that is significantly better. Forget nationalistic pride, iPod is cool, and now that the iPod has reached critical mass, I don't see Sony gaining much market share back for a very long time.
Traditionally, access to the japaneese market has been extremely hard. Cars, electronics, vacumm cleaners, you name it.
Hence, it is not given that the iPod would prove itself to be a hit there. I guess that extremely good producs always will do good, no matter where the market is
Go Apple!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
What could possibly be worth an extra $50?
That's exactly what everyone who hasn't tried one has said (at least in my experience, including myself.
It's EXACTLY the same response I get when I try to tell someone they should use gmail over hotmail/Yahoo mail--it's just better in so many barely perceptible ways that it's impossible to describe.
Same response I get when I try to explain why someone should use IM instead of email...
To post a letter like you did without trying it is only displaying ignorance. I don't mean that in a rude way, I mean you really can't know unless you used one for a few months, you are ignorant of the entire thing.
Asking questions will never ever answer your questions because you have nothing in your life experience to use as a comparison.
You are right, it does nothing more than any other player--it's all preference; just like chosing a language: Ruby, python, C++, Java they all do nothing more than Basic, right? Just user preference. Of course, once they have USED all those languages, most programmers recognize that there is more to it than simple syntax and don't choose Basic.
the iTunes application for managing your music is leaps and bounds better than the alternatives.
You're justified in saying that only if you've never used Media Center.
Da Blog
I can zip really quickly down to the approximate area, then slow down, and zero in on the right one.
With Rockbox I get to do that on several different players, and more importantly I get to specify the amount of scroll acceleration and "inertia" I like. But don't worry, the Rockbox Ipod port is progressing nicely...
Da Blog
I get the rave about the iPod. It is a cool device and the facts go for it. Lot's of other player's don't hold up and simply look like rushed to market. Even the sleek ones from Philips or Sony.
Yet I have a question to the ones using the iPod - especially those who've used another player before:
Is this a potential competitor? It's practically bloated with features most of which the iPod lacks. Controlls look a generation or two behind iPod and the video display is smaller but all the rest seems really cool. What do you say? Potential competitor to iPod (especially if one likes the features) or not?
Opinions and experiences please (que below). Thanks.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Which translated
/winces at how the iPod has already destroyed the Japanese language.
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
If you look a bit closer, the article states that 4.1 million ipods were sold during 2005, whereas in a roughly similiar period (since November 2004) almost 6 million people have mp3 capable phones on one network alone (and the network they focused on - "au" is only Japan's second largest, DoCoMo being the biggest). It would be interesting to see what happens to Apple's share of the market when you factor in devices such as mp3 phones and PSPs both of which people use as a music player. Sure Apple's performance is impressive, especially for a non-Japanese firm, but it's not quite as clear cut as people are making out.
I dunno, I guess that could work for some people, but most of the time I say to myself "I think I'm in the mood for some System of a Down today" and so I copy over some System of a Down. It takes me maybe 5 seconds of effort and I am getting EXACTLY what I desire at that very moment. Compare that to plugging in and hoping that my ratings and preferences magically produce what I want to hear... if I want a surprise, I'll listen to the radio--which, of course, is an option on my MP3 player, but not on the iPod. I'm also not really thrilled about the idea of reducing the bitrate. 128 (iTMS standard, IIRC) is as low as I'd want to go anyway.
Music is now co-owned by Apple and the RIAA, and the musicians are still getting screwed. --We had the opportunity to embrace a beautiful and fair system of music distribution; to download high-quality MP3's directly from the bands and give them donations based on the honor-system. Heck, we still have this opportunity. Instead people have voted with their actions to be unscrupulous and in need of governments and corporations to control their behavior. And the artists still get screwed.
Hooray for Humanity.
-FL
--You know? That ultra-shiny, candy-coated, plasticy soul-less condescending crap which bears zero resemblance to the real world?
Except Apple adds one more dimension; The death-star finish and the distinct feel of something alien and creepy. Like a Membari space cruiser, but one which wants to force DRM down your throat and still not pay the artists.
Ah, Apple and Japanese culture. Dumbed down for the Pod-People.
-FL
As an Apple stockholder for several years now, two words come to mind:
CHIC-CHING!
Bravo. One of the better cultural posts I've seen (yet alone on Slashdot) and a guaranteed +1 insightful if only my mod points had come today instead of Wednesday!
A lot of crazy babble is spoken about the Japanese by Americans especially, even/especially on the pro-Japanese side as though it were Narnia or something. It does everyone better to also occasionally let in some common sense and try to understand other people in the same way they do themselves.
Upon visiting the US the most recent time:
"I'm surprised at how thin everyone is."
See, European see the US reports that Americans are all fat. And they believe it. They generalize it.
In general, I've found one thing that is most common about Americans (perhaps it's true of others too). Most of them think they're smarter than average and so they say things like "Americans generally are the type to make broad generalizations" as if people from other countries weren't.
I have to go with the other poster. It is possible to make meaningful generalizations about a populace without implying it is true of every person.
How about "Chinese have black hair"? How about "Japanese are shorter than Americans"? How about "Japanese eat more beef (or whale meat) than other Pacific Asians"?
All meaningful, all generalizations, and all are useful for certain purposes (deciding what size clothes to produce or where to try to export your beef).
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Isn't the Nano built with Korean Flash?
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
most were using them for Japanese pop music ripped from CDs
When I went to Japan, I checked out many rental shops since they sold fairly recent releases (former rentals,) for pretty cheap. They pretty much all had this setup: all the new CD releases on one shelf, and blank tapes on the next shelf.
This was in the early 90s, I wouldn't be surprised if that shelf of blank tapes gave way to blank Minidiscs, and perhaps joined by CDRs. Today there's probably also a rack of iPod accessories as people switch from renting & dubbing to renting & ripping.
And as long as Japanese CDs continue to sell for $25-$30 and up, I don't expect consumers' practices to change.
But that's because only 2000 was produced.
And if Kitty isn't your thing, How about Doraemon?
*shudder*