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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.'"
Indeed.
The Japanese make a mockery of WTO "free trade" regulations on a daily basis, but they get away with because they're a relatively small market compared to the US. By contrast, when some of us in the US suggest that maybe we should switch to "fair trade" that imposes tariffs on goods imported from places that have zero environmental protection laws and pay out slave-labor wages (to even the playing field), we get shouted at about "protectionism."
The Japanese also have a major cultural complex about what is "true japanese." If you have one grandparent who wasn't born in Japan (or worse yet, isn't ethnically asian), it doesn't matter that your family may have been there for 75 years, as far as they are concerned you're still a gaijin. If you're there for tourism, grand, but trying to live there and get employment, or even someday fit into Japanese society as a gaijin? Might as well forget it unless you're going to be an Engrish teacher (and even then, the "natives" will get promoted above you every time).
American and European products? Well, that's gaijin stuff.
Take a look at this video of the Panasonic P905i. At first it looks like it has a similar form factor to the Android G1, until they morph it from a slider to a flip-phone and pull out the digital TV aerial. Seriously cool!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6J5EtiQ1ps
Paid Q&A/Research
We don't get these kinds of telephones in Europe or the US because the... Wait for it... They...
SUCK!
No, seriously, they absolutely suck. I've been using the phones here for a few years, and one of the main features they have is that they're an implementation of a checklist of features you'll never use more than one or twice, all crammed into the least user-friendly UI you could imagine.
They have absolutely no sense of UI design, and being so used to dealing with crappy interfaces they're not even aware of the possibility nor the advantages of a well designed one. Seriously, have you ever looked at one of their webpages?
Call it taste, or what ever. But the reality is that the iPhone and phones from e.g. Nokia just don't do it well here in Japan, and neither of the two companies should try to change or they'll lose what gives them customers in the west.
Oh, and BTW... Softbank's (particulary their iPhone's) subscription plan sucks.
- These characters were randomly selected.
While your argument does hold some merit to the "discrimination" against foreign products the most likely reason for the iPhone hate is that it does not function the way most Japanese people need it to. When I was in Tokyo last year, for every 10 people I saw using a cell phone 9 of them were texting and most of them had a flip phone. In fact I found the size of the phones to be quite funny because they looked like the early flip phones...very large.
Having seen and played around with an iPhone I can see why it would not appeal to people who just text with their phone. Especially when riding on a train so that you are holding on to the railing with one hand and texting with the other. Also, the keyboard on the iPhone takes up screen space. Why would you want to lose a lot of the screen to a touch keybpad when you can get a phone that has a separate screen and keypad?
ALso, for whatever reason, people seemed less impressed by its fancy pants touch scrolling UI, and more interested in simple lists they could click through, and being able to pull down over the air TV versus d/l videos.
Personally, I agree with my Japanese friends; I'm not a huge fan (I like a keyboard).
But, it's interesting to note that almost every expat American I saw on my last trip had an iPhone, though -- so there might be just more appeal, culturally, to Amercians and westerners for some reason. There's certainly no shortage of cult-of-Mac people in Japan, but it didn't seem to translate to the phone.
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
Get over yourself. My mother's caucasian American, my Father's Japanese. I don't get treated like a Gaijin even though I definitely don't have the pure-Japanese look. All it takes is a good understanding of the culture (and living it), and speaking Japanese like a native. I've never had anyone promoted over me simply because they were more Japanese than I was, although I have been accused of the opposite, in that my "American" background put me at an advantage. (Partially true, since both Japanese and English are a native language to me, and speaking both is a massive plus in my field, but that has nothing to do with my genetic makeup.) The "he got promoted because he was xxxx" is, 90% of the time, the sound of a loser whining.
One thing I see with "Engrish Teachers" getting passed up for promotion is that their English is good, but the Teaching part is not. (Which is to be expected... how many gaijin English teachers in Japan do you know that have had adequate training to become a teacher? A number very close to ZERO would be the answer.) That may not be the teacher's fault considering the way these teachers are recruited, but it is certainly a valid reason why the promotions may not be moving in their favor.
As far as the iPhone is concerned, I have one, and I know what the complaining is all about. I'd say that 50% of the problem is that the iPhone doesn't offer any of the proprietary "keitai" functions that everyone has come to expect from ANY phone these days in Japan. Offer a product that doesn't have the functions you want, and it's no surprise that people don't want it. However, another 50% of the problem is that it's locked into the SoftBank carrier. Piss poor customer service, terrible reception unless you're in the middle of one of the big cities, and bad pricing plans upon launch.
But when the summary quotes Nobi Hayashi (who the hell is this guy!?) as saying that carrying an iPhone is "lame", well... sounds like he's either sour because he doesn't have one, or else he only hangs around keitai geeks. Having an iPhone is a GREAT conversation starter with girls. Carrying a Panasonic P905i isn't gonna generate the same kind of enthusiasm.
Being an original iPhone adopter from the U.S. I'd say it's strength isn't in its features, but in its usability. As stated 1000 times, the iPhone interface, much like the MacOS interface, is beyond any of its competitors, at least in the U.S. Intuitive, smooth, with good feedback (though not tactile -- and I've taken to sighing when I hear the tappity-tap of a blackberry user in a theater or classroom compared to the silent keyboard of the iPhone).
Dodging the easy car analogy, the iPhone is a partner who knows what you want, instead of someone who can offer anything you want.
To each their own, I guess. I just got back from Switzerland, and had one person comment on how fancy my phone was. She had heard of iPhones but I guess had never seen one, or an iPod Touch either. This is from a family with 5 iPods.
:-( Things here are even worse.
Maybe, as others have stated, Apple designed a product which would sell well in its primary market, the US. There's a "duh" moment for you. Yes, other markets have better mobile phones and coverage, but as a Canadian I don't feel bad for you Americans
I have to say though that given what little I've seen of the Panasonic P905i, I'd take the iPhone any day. A phone with a giant antenna and TV access? No thanks. It goes back to cultural preferences once again.
www.clarke.ca
But the iphone lack of success is little (nothing?) to do with all that.
Using "protectionism" as an excuse for the iPhone's failure, is like using "protectionism" as an excuse for your car not selling well in Japan, when the real reason is you don't make right hand drive cars.
The iPhone is an inferior product compared to the competing products in Japan. The iPhone doesn't even have built-in, reliable (non-fiddly) and well-integrated QR code (a type of 2D "barcode") reader app.
There are QR codes everywhere in Japan - business cards, ads, signs, magazines, etc.
Example usage: bus stops
See: http://2d-code.co.uk/bus-stop-qr-code/
"Each bus has a GPS which continuously updates the bus company server with its position. The QR Code at the bus stop takes you to a mobilised page for that stop which shows a list of approaching buses, their location, whether they are on time or delayed (if delayed by how many minutes), estimated arrival time at the stop and if there are any alternative buses going in the same direction."
The Japanese do buy foreign stuff, it just has to meet their standards. The Chinese need specially regulated farms for their farm produce to sell in Japan, you can call that protectionism, but I call it a good idea given the dubious stuff the Chinese tend to get up to ;).
Lastly with regards to forever being a "gaijin" and never being promoted.
If a real Japanese CEO screws up big time in Japan, they're almost expected to commit suicide (it's one of the traditional and honourable options left for you).
Whereas a US CEO gets 20 million dollars to "go away and stop hurting the company, please".
So yah, that's a big cultural divide there. Think you can really be one of them?
Even many of the Japanese can't be "japanese enough", and those suffer for it, because "a nail that sticks up/out must be hammered down". You think those will get promoted as well? Of course as a gaijin, you will forever stick out. So best you work for the few companies that are fine with that.
My friends didn't seem to have any complaints about working in Japan.
I prefer most of my purchases to be with good, old fashioned cash. I can keep up with my spending better that way...it isn't abstracting money from value, say like how casino chips make you forget you're really playing for real money.
I feel exactly opposite to this - I use my credit card or debit card for absolutely everything I can (within reason) in order to keep track of my money. At the end of the month I can import my bill electronically into Quicken and see where all my money went. Even without Quicken at least there is a record. Contrast this with - crap, I just took $200 out of the ATM Monday and now I have 12 cents left in my pocket - where did it go?
I always pay my credit card off at the end of the month so there is no CC debt hell.
Now to get back on topic, sort of ...
Paying with my iPhone would likely have similar advantages.
Apple has historically been different, one of the few companies welcomed, even enthusiastically embraced by the Japanese.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TyR3fyLO_I
They love gadgets over their. The way Apple does things, and the typical build quality is what the Japanese market is all about. Cool technology packaged in an easy-to-use, stylish package. It's not like North America, where it's more or less a race to the bottom to see who can build the cheapest widget with the biggest numbers, to hell with quality. They *care* about (perceived) build quality. That's why the expensive Sony Trinitron that never had significant market share here, dominated over there during the years of tube based Televisions. It wasn't just a "buy domestic" mentality. Because much of Sony's competition was Japanese as well.
The iPod and the Mac mesh *perfectly* with what the Japanese love about technology. In fact, I'd even go so far to say the iPhone gets it nearly right, but fails with several, easily corrected critical flaws that Apple just seems unwilling to correct. MMS, Video, App Store issues - that's all software, the build quality of the hardware seems perfectly respectable to me. It feels quick and responsive most of the time, and I'd never own one because of lack of openness (my definition of "open" may differ as I'm a Windows Mobile fan) and because of those few fatal flaws mentioned in TFA.
(This is my second post today defending Sony. I need to go take a shower.)
Touch everywhere, even when inappropriate.