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Kentaro Tohyama is proud of his new iPhone. He stood overnight in line to get it when the device became available in Japan for the first time. But the 29-year-old computer engineer isn't about to part with his made-in-Japan cell phone either.
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Sometimes inanimate objects are...You have to be careful about tainted rice Jordan....
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After reading this, I think it'll be as successful in Japan as the X-Box, i.e. a big flop.
I think you are right Nick. It doesn't seem to have the right set of features for the Japanese market. I would have thought that a company like apple would have seen that a one-size-fits-all approach to sales in foreign markets isn't always going to work. I'm guessing they will stick around adjust their product for the Japanese market, but it seems they have a bit to learn about making phones.
Please be more specific and define flop in Japan in terms of units over a specific timeframe. Less than a million iPhones in an year? Less than 10% of the current Japanese keitai market in 3 months? Less than 100,000 in the first month? Without a reference, anyone can make up any number and timeframe and say it is a flop because it failed to achieve those numbers.
Nonetheless, I say you folks are WRONG just like how the naysayers in the following thread were so very wrong.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=500
That by the way was for the original iPod. Remember, it wasn't even near close to being the first portable media player on the market. All the naysayers basically said it would fail because it had less features than the competition. It had less storage space, the screen had no color, it couldn't display photos, it didn't play video, and so on. Sound familiar? Look at what happened over the years. Something similar happened with the iPhone 2G where people were bemoaning the lack of GPS, no 3rd party applications, no enterprise support, and so on.
This is the one thing I notice with all the iPhone will flop in Japan prognasticators now. They don't really have any clue about what they are talking about. They only see the iPhone as a phone and compare it as such. Clue #1: the iPhone (and Touch) are platforms that go beyond anything out there in that size form factor. Clue #2: its going to be all about the applications and games and the way they work in conjunction with the hardware inside the device. And I know someone is going to retort back about other smartphones having apps and how these are not really important in Japan. Again, literally comparing apples and oranges. The iPhone bridges the gap between computer and mobile handset in terms of functionality so it does some things better and some things worse (the following comparison offers a breakdown).
http://narabe.com/table/1028/1204-1203-1205/1158-1150-1165-1148-1163-1184-1160-1164-1186-1185-1170-1154-1169-1152-1151-1153-1162-1167-1190-1156-1166-1159-1157-1155-1183-1187-1188-1161-1189-1149-1168
Apple may have missed the boat on key features in Japan but just like the iPod, you know they are eventually going to add it either via software or a future hardware refresh. So why did they not put them in place to begin with? Apple has their way of doing things which means tradeoffs in product development. Thus Japan and any other country is not the center of the universe since it comes down to a matter of priorities in both hardware and software engineering when trying to simultaneously release a product in so many different countries in this manner.
Haha, and out come the fanboys! I'm not necessarily a nay-sayer and I don't dislike apple, I simply think that this article brings up good points in regards to what Japanese consumers want and what apple has so far provided them. The iPhone to Japanese consumers.. is... just a phone and also a status symbol. Sorry to say, but what most people in Japan are interested is the functionality of phones and in Japan that functionality is much different than the functionality in say the US. Phones in Japan are used for convenience when paying at the local konbini, they are used for taking photos on the fly, they are used for taking movies as well, they are also used for watching tv and checking out QR codes. These are all features that Japanese phones are light years ahead of their American counterparts in and they do matter. Besides, as your list illustrates, the only two features that aren't available for Japanese models are the itunes store and the safari browser. I doubt that is really going to be enough to convince a large segment of the Japanese population to run out and pay 80000 yen for an iPhone and god knows how much for softbank's 24 month plan. It just doesn't make sense.
So that brings us back to the question: why didn't apple think about these things before launch. I really don't buy your "apple has their way of doing things" argument. If they were really thinking of a in your face storming of the Japanese mobile market they would have put their vast wealth into tailoring their phone to that market's desires. That is how smart companies go about business. I'm sure they can add things later via software and hardware updates, but why not put the money into your investment by tailoring the product to the market? It just doesn't make sense.
In the Japanese market, unfortunately for your argument, Japan is the center of the world. So consumers there decide what is more important to them. If you are trying to tell me that its better for the company to decide what Japanese consumers want without actually knowing what they want, I will direct you to the nearest game store to see if they have ran out of x-box 360s. I assure you they haven't.
"They don't really have any clue about what they are talking about. They only see the iPhone as a phone and compare it as such"
Yes, and that is why I think it will flop in Japan. What I'm most surprised by is the passion of people like you, who put such effort into convincing us how great the iPhone is. Why do you do it? I love my dishwasher, but I'm not going to promote it to everyone on the internet. Oh, okay. If you insist...
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/living/dishwashers/dws_600b/index_j.htm
I NEED THAT FREAKIN' DISH WASHER! DOES THAT COME IN PSIONIC PLATINUM?! It will go really good with my all silver BAPEs!
I'm forced to agree with my associates here regarding the success of the iPhone but, at the same time, it will not be a prolonged thing.
The iPhone will eventually catch on. Like all things Apple, a "generation" with very limited capabilities is introduced first to whet the appetite of the fanatics who, despite Apple's massive marketing budget, can provide more bang for the buck than any other organization on Earth. As people become swayed with hype rather than features, they begin to purchase the devices. Shortly after the main group of people have sunk a small amount of money into the initial "generation", a new generation with technology available several years prior will be introduced and hailed as the greatest thing since Moses met the Lord on Mount Sainai.
Rinse and lather, then repeat as often as the market tolerates it.
I agree that the iPhone will be a great little unit for the Japanese consumer, but not for another five generations. The Steve has to make his money, after all.