Why Japan Hates the iPhone

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.'"

Comments

Re:Different products for different markets.

[GooberToo]

The rest of us just want a phone that makes phone calls without having to click through 50 damn menus. And that looks kind of nice. That's the iPhone.

Great way to rationalize an inferior product.

Re:How come it's only in Japan

[Hal_Porter]

It's because of macfags. Japanese people have advanced technology and that has immunised them against macfaggotry. In America macfaggotry rules and technology has been retarded. Like you and your mother.

You can change though. When you see a phone, don't look at how shiny it is or how elegant the user interface, ask how many megapixels the camera has, what CPU speed, ram/flash size it has and if it has a built in wine guide, tv receiver, 3G, Wifi, Japanese to English dictionary, sandwich maker etc. Count the features and buy the phone with the most, even if it is a bit ugly, the fan is a bit noisy when it warms up and you need to learn EMACSish key sequences to send a text message. Then you will be purged of the SIN of macfaggotry and so will your country.

Re:Different products for different markets.

[GooberToo]

Wow, flaimebait for statement of an obvious observation? Pretty obvious the moderators have both an iPhone and penis envy.

Face it, the iPhone is inferior to most phones commonly available in Japan. Most phones available in the west are inferior to what is commonly available in Japan. But, the iPhone is even inferior to most phones competing against it in Western and US markets. You bought an iPhone because it was "hip", not because it was utilitarian. A touch screen for its sole input device is contrary to utilitarian. Which is exactly the point of my original post. If you want a phone "that [just] makes phone calls", you wouldn't be in the market for an iPhone in the first place.

In the end, the post is nothing but an illogical attempt to rationalize owning an iPhone when every layman can easily see the phone being discussed easily makes the iPhone out to be inferior.

Re:Using an iPhone makes you look pretty lame?

[Khyber]

"I disagree, the iPhone was the first to offer a touch screen based UI, a solid internet browser, a usable mobile calendar, and a viable iPod replacement."

Not even remotely true. Before the iPhone there was the LG Touchscreen. It also had a solid internet browser, Openwave IIRC. No calendar but it did play MP3 files.

See, where you think the iPod is something new, it's not. It's a well-marketed rip-off.

Consider this - In the USA We have Hi-Def, 1920x1080. Japan is about to release SHV, 7680 x 4320 pixels.

And we're just now catching on. Japan is killing us technology wise, in part because they aren't as encumbered by patents as we are, in part because while we're the melting pot of the world we're really quite secular, and then to top it all off our entire rate of progress is hindered by our legal system.