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

Japan hates the iPhone

[Bromskloss]

Oh no, it has become self-aware!

This is because Japanese people are smart

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you ever noticed that they speak some strange version of the Mexican language and look unlike us? Also their food is expensive because we eat cows which are large, plentiful and docile animals, while Japanise people only eat fearsome and rare SHARKS to boast of their manliness. In conclusion, Japan is a far away place somewhere in Mexico where smart people do not eat cows. Thank you will you marry me.

Re:maybe the reviews just don't translate well.

[abigsmurf]

*in your best schoolgirl voice*

Kawaii~~~

or alternatively
*breathing heavily and drooling*

Moe~~~

Re:maybe the reviews just don't translate well.

[Anonymous Coward]

Depending on whether it's set to vibrate?

A better title would have been

[Exitar]

"Japan is immune to Reality Distortion Field"

I agree

[2names]

'Carrying around an iPhone in Japan would make you look pretty lame.'

It doesn't do much for your reputation in the U.S. either...

I like to use the old Bluetooth headset analogy.

Old Techie: "You know how lumberjacks will sometimes put a big red X on trees?"
Young Techie (who is wearing a bluetooth headset): "Like, yeah."
O.T.: "That big red X is a sign to other lumberjacks that the tree bearing it needs to be culled from the population."
Y.T.: "Culled. That's not really a word, is it?"
O.T.: "The bluetooth headset is the human equivalent."

/s/bluetooth\ headset/iPhone/g

Re:I agree

[adolf]

Could be.

Off-topic, young techie story: I was on IRC once, a decade or so ago, and a friend there was opining that it'd be so much more fun to write code if he could just do it on a real VT100, or at least on a monitor that had a VT100 logo on it. A year or so later, I found a DEC VT100 in good condition at the Dayton Hamvention fleemarket for $1.

He said it worked fine. I said I didn't care if it worked, and that I was only interested in the logo. I offered him $5, if he'd just let me pry off the logo. He refused, and was insistent that I take the entire terminal for $1 or nothing at all. So I gave him a dollar, and took the whole thing.

But it was heavy, and I wasn't about to carry it around all day. So I walked over to the nearest trash can, pried the logo off with my knife, and announced to the crowd my intention: Take this genuine DEC VT100, for free, or it goes into the trash. People looked. They listened. But here's the thing: Nobody wanted the free gear. I pleaded with folks to PLEASE take this free historic artifact, but they wouldn't do it.

So, I tossed it into the trash barrel. It landed with a dull thud on top of a mountain of discarded plastic bottles and small electronics. And then, everything changed: In mere seconds, Old Techies swarmed upon it like flies on shit to rescue it from its grave.

As long as it was merely free, the item had no value. But once it was trash, it was worth having.

Totally bizarre.

Poor kamikazes

[sunking2]

They gave their lives only to become a nation of dudes with man purses. If they only knew before. Or maybe they saw it coming and decided death was better.

only foreigners, perhaps

[Trepidity]

There are a lot of American things that seem to be chic in Japan, but technology has never really been one of them. It's like trying to impress a German with your precision-engineered American luxury car or something.

Re:only foreigners, perhaps

[lordtoran]

Or like impressing a Frenchman with your tasty British cuisine.

Re:Makes me wonder

[Eil]

I have no mod points for this excellent comment so instead I'll pay you in Cheetos.

Re:Want to know what Linux can do?

[SoupGuru]

I heard iPhones get angry if you anthropomorphize them.

Re:Using an iPhone makes you look pretty lame?

[jbezorg]

Does anybody else but me think that if we bust on the iPhone some more, this guy's head will explode?

Re:Using an iPhone makes you look pretty lame?

[Gilmoure]

...every douche already owns one.

I don't.

Re:Using an iPhone makes you look pretty lame?

[Oktober Sunset]

Yoe're not a douche, you're an asshole.

Re:Using an iPhone makes you look pretty lame?

[interkin3tic]

No, the fact is that the iphone is a piece of crap that doesn't do anything special.

Wrong: there's that one app that displays a zippo lighter, and you can open up the zippo and light it, and then if you tilt the phone the flame ACTUALLY MOVES!

Yeah. Put THAT in your pipe and then use that app to smoke it.

Re:Using an iPhone makes you look pretty lame?

[Gilmoure]

Ah, that explains the spherical white helmet.

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